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the territories sacred to their divinities, in order to render theminviolable. Thus the Campi Palentini were consecrated to Pales;the Salviano to Angitia, and the territory of Avezzano to Janus.

At the foot of the first mountain seen on the left, thereis the village of St Pelino, built on the site of a Roman villa,some vestiges of which are still visible, and which, according toPliny belonged to L. Vitellius father of the emperor of the samename, Further on, continuing the journey round the lake, thevillage of Paterno marks the Northern entrance into the countryof the Marsi . The Via Valeria passed at the foot of these twovillages in its course along the shores of the lake from Alba toMarruvium , the capital of the Marsi .

Beyond Paterno, the plain grows wider towards the North,and is commanded by the town of Celano, situated on one ofthe buttresses of the Cupoli and Vettorino mountains. The nameof the fortified place or oppidum, which in ancient times crownedthe summit next to the one occupied by the modern town, isnow lost. It was upon this mountain, which has retained thename of Old Celano, that up to the XIII th century, the townand castle stood. But the counts of Celano were at the head ofthe enemies of the emperor Frederic II , who besieged them, andtook their stronghold. His vengeance was terrible, he razed OldCelano to the ground, transported its inhabitants, some to Sicily ,some to Malta , and others to Calabria ; he even proscribed thename of Celano, and gave the name of Cesarea to the townwhich he caused to be built upon the spot occupied by thepresent Celano. But the will of the despot was ineffectual againstthe force of habit and perhaps also of patriotism, and the nameof Cesarea was soon forgotten for the ancient appellation ofCelano, which it still bears.

After the fall of Alba and of Marruvium , Celano was, duringthe whole of the middle-ages, the most important town of thecountry of the Marsi ; it even gave its name to lake Fucino which lay just under it, and which was often called the lake ofCelano. The present population of the town amounts to about7000 souls.

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