NURSIA, an ancient city of the Sabines, situated at
the foot of that lofty group of the Apennine range now known as the Monti della Sibilla. From the nature of its position, in the immediate vicinity of high mountains, the climate of Nursia was somewhat cold. Virgil alludes to it as Nursia frigida (Æn. vii. 716), and Silius Italicus (viii. 417) does the same. It is mentioned by Livy (xxviii. 45) as furnishing volunteers for the armies of Scipio during the second Punic war, about two centuries before the Christian era. At this period it must have been one of the most important towns of the Sabines, as it is mentioned in the same connection as Reate and Amiternum. Under the Romans it held the rank of a municipal town, and seems to have been somewhat republican in its sympathies; for we find its inhabitants chastised by Octavian for their adherence to the cause of the democratic party. Columella (x. 421) and Pliny (xviii. 13, § 34) allude to the rapa Nursina, or Nursian turnips, as having been celebrated in their day; and Martial (xiii. 20) refers to the same circumstance when he speaks of the pila Nursina. From its secluded position, this town is not mentioned in the Roman Itineraries. It gave birth, however, to Vespasia Polla, the mother of the Emperor Vespasian; and at a place called Vespasie, not many miles from Nursia, the monuments of this distinguished family were to be seen during the time of Suetonius. It is perhaps more celebrated still as the birth-place of the famous Benedict of Nursia, the founder of the first great monastic order in the Christian church. The place had been made an episcopal see at a very early period, and is said to have had St Eutychius for its first bishop. Massive walls are said to be seen still at Norcia, resembling those of the Sabine towns of Reate and Amiternum. These ruins form the only traces of this old Etruscan town.