Rubi

RUBI(Eth. Ῥυβαστεινός, Rubastinus: Ruvo), a city of Apulia, situated on the branch of the Appian Way between Canusia and Butuntum, and about 10 miles distant from the sea-coast. It is mentioned by Horace, as one of the places where Maecenas and his companions slept on the journey from Rome to Brundusium. (Hor. Sat. 1.5. 94.) The distance from Canusium is given as 23 miles in the Antonine Itinerary, and 30 in the Jerusalem Itinerary, which is the more correct, the direct distance on the map being above 28 miles. (Itin. Ant. p. 116; Itin. Hier. p. 610.) Neither Strabo nor Ptolemy notices the existence of Rubi, but the inhabitants are mentioned under the name of Rubustini by Pliny, among the municipal towns of Apulia, and the Rubustinus Ageris enumerated in the Liber Coloniarum among the Civitates Apuliae. (Plin. Nat. 3.11. s. 16; Lib. Colon. p. 262.) An inscription also attests the municipal rank of Rubi in the reign of the younger Gordian. (Mommsen, Inscr. R. N. 624.) The singular ethnic form given by Pliny is confirmed by the evidence of coins which have the name ΡΥΒΑΣΤΕΙΝΩΝat full. These coins show also that Rubi must have received a considerable amount of Greek influence and cultivation; and this is still more strongly confirmed by the discoveries which have been recently made by excavations there of numerous works of Greek art in bronze and terra cotta, as well as of vast numbers of painted vases, of great variety and beauty. These, however, like all the others found in Apulia and Lucania, are of inferior execution, and show a declining state of art as compared with those of Nola or Volci. All these objects have been discovered in tombs, and in some instances the walls of the tombs themselves have been found covered with paintings. (Romanelli, vol. 2. p. 172; Bullett. dell' Inst. Arch. 1829, p. 173, 1834, pp. 36, 164, 228, &c.) The modern town of Ruvois still a considerable place, with an episcopal see. COIN OF RUBI.
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