Geography

​The Sabines inhabit a narrow country, but one extending in length even to a thousand stadia from the Tiber and the small town of Nomentum as far as the Vestini. They have few cities, and those ruined by continuous wars, Amiternum and Reate, near which is the village of Interocrea and the cold waters at Cutiliae, from which people both drink and, by bathing in them, cure diseases. Among the Sabines is also Foruli, rocks well suited for rebellion rather than habitation. Cures is now indeed a small village, but it was once an illustrious city, from which came Titus Tatius and Numa Pompilius, who ruled as kings of Rome; and from this place also those who address the public call the Romans Quirites. Trebula and Eretum and other such settlements would be classed as villages rather than cities. All their land is remarkably well-planted with olives and vines, and produces many acorns; it is also excellent for cattle and other livestock, and indeed the breed of Reatine mules is wonderfully famous. So to speak, all Italy is an excellent nourisher of both herds and crops, though different kinds of products obtain the first place in different parts. The Sabines are also a very ancient race and indigenous; the Picentines and the Samnites are colonists from them, the Lucanians from the Samnites, and the Bruttians from the Lucanians. One might make their antiquity a proof of their courage and other virtues, by which they held out down to the present time. The historian Fabius says that the Romans first became aware of wealth at that time when they became masters of this nation. Through their territory is laid the Salarian Way, which is not very long, and into it the Nomentan Way also falls at Eretum, a village of the Sabines situated above the Tiber, starting from the same Colline Gate.