Gerunium

GERU´NIUM (Γερούνιον), a small town or fortress of Apulia, not far from Larinum, in which Hannibal established his winter-quarters after the campaign against Fabius, B.C. 217. The Roman general encamped at Calela in the territory of Larinum, and it was between these two places that the action took place in which Minucius was defeated by the Carthaginian general, and saved only by the timely assistance of Fabius. (Plb. 3.100--102, 105, 107; Liv. 22.18, 24--28.) No subsequent mention of Gerunium is found in ancient writers; it is termed by Livy a castellum inops Apuliae( 22.39), and was probably always a small place. But its name (written Geronum) is found in the Tab. Peut., which places it 8 M. P. from Larinum, on a road leading from thence to Bovianum; and this distance accords with the statement of Polybius (Plb. 3.100), that it was 200 stadia (25 M.P.) from Luceria. Its site is fixed by local antiquarians at a place still called Gerione or Girone, between Casa Calenda and Montorio, where a town or village still existed down to a late period, and where some ancient remains have been found. This position would appear to be rather too, near Larinum (from which it is only 4 miles); but the evidence of the name is certainly strong in its favour. Cluverius is undoubtedly wrong in transferring it to Dragonara on the right bank of the Fortore, which is above 16 Roman miles from Larinum, and about the same distance from Luceria. (Cluver. Ital. p. 1213; Romanelli, vol. iii. pp. 12--15; Tria, Mem. di Larino, pp. 18--23; Biondo, Ital. Illustr. p. 421.)