INTERAMNA LIRENAS  , an

ancient town of Italy in the Volscian territory near the modern Pignataro Interamna, 5 M . S.E. of Aquinum; the additional name distinguishes it from Interamna Praetuttianorum (mod . Teramo) and Interamna Nahartium (mod . Terni) . It was founded by the Romans as a Latin colony in 312 B.C. as a military base in the war against Samnium, no fewer than 4000 colonists being sent thither . It was among the Latin colonies which in 209 B.C. refused to supply further contingents or money for the Hannibalic war . It became a municipium with the other Latin colonies, but we hear no more of it—mainly, no doubt, because it lay off the Via Latina . Livy's description of it as on the Via Latina is not strictly accurate, and cannot be used as an indication that the former course of the Via Latina was through Interamna . The city lay on a hill on the N. bank of the Liris, between two of its tributaries, thus lacking natural defences on the N. side alone . Many inscriptions have been found, and there are considerable remains of antiquity . One inscription bears the date A.D . 408, and the site was occupied in the middle ages by a castle called Terame or Termine .

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