River
Fl. Helvinus?
Aso (Barrington)
Listen to the story
The Helvinus, as scholars tentatively call this river, runs across the map without any name of its own. It rises in the Apennines, winds in loops across an inland road, then crosses the coastal road between Castello Firmani and Cupra Maritima before reaching the Adriatic. Its position points most probably to the Aso in the Italian Marche, which springs from the Sibillini mountains. The Roman writer Pliny named the Helvinus as the boundary of Picenum, but which stream he meant is disputed. The poet Silius Italicus tells of a Pelasgian king called Asus who left his name to the Aso.