CAE´LIA
CAE´LIA,
CAE´LIUM, or CE´LIA (
Καιλία or
Κελία).
1.
A town in the south of Apulia, mentioned both by Strabo and Ptolemy; of whom the former places it between Egnatia and Canusium, on the direct road from Brundusium to Rome; the latter enumerates it among the inland cities of the Peucetian Apulians. (
Strab. vi. p.282;
Ptol. 3.1.73.) The Tab. Peut. confirms the account of Strabo, and places Celia 9 miles from Butuntum, on the road to Egnatia; a distance which coincides with the position of a village still called
Ceglie, 5 miles S. of
Bari. Here numerous ancient remains, tombs, vases, &c. have been discovered. (Romanelli, vol. ii. p. 177; Mommsen,
Unter Ital. Dialekte, p. 62.)
[p. 1.465]
2.
Another town of the same name existed in Calabria, about 27 miles W. of Brundusium, and 20 miles NE. of Tarentum; this also still retains the name of
Ceglie, and is now a considerable town of about 6,000 inhabitants, situated on a hill about
12 miles from the Adriatic. Extensive portions of its ancient walls still remain, and excavations there have brought to light numerous vases, coins, and inscriptions in the Messapian dialect. (Mommsen,
l.c.; Tomasi, in
Bull. dell. Inst. 1834, pp. 54, 55.)
It is evidently this Caelia that is enumerated by Pliny, together with Lupiae and Brundusium, among the cities of Calabria (3.11. s. 16), as well as the “Caelinus ager” mentioned by Frontinus among the “civitates provinciae Calabriae” (
Lib. Colon. p. 262), though, from the confusion made by both writers in regard to the frontiers of Apulia and Calabria, these passages might have been readily referred to the Caelia in Peucetia.
The evidence is, however, conclusive that there were two places of the same name, as above described. Numismatic writers are not agreed to which of the two belong the coins with the inscription
ΚΑΙΛΙΝΩΝ, of which there are several varieties.
These have been generally ascribed to the Calabrian city; but Mommsen (
l.c.) is of opinion that they belong rather to the Caelia near
Bari, being frequently found in that neighbourhood. (See also Millingen,
Num. de l'Italie, p. 149.)
The attempt to establish a distinction between the two places, founded on the orthography of the names, and to call the one Caelia or Caelium, the other Celia, is certainly untenable.
 |
| COIN OF CAELIA. |
[
E.H.B]
