River
Fluvius Frigidus
Vipava · Wippach
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In AD 394 the emperor Theodosius defeated the usurper Eugenius on the banks of the Fluvius Frigidus, the river now called the Vipava in Slovenia. Its name means the cold river, after the chill of its water. The copyist of around 1200 left out a letter and wrote Frgidus, and the Greek church historian Socrates also dropped a letter when he named it. On the map the river rises from a black scribble, probably a mountain sign, and flows into a lake by the Adriatic, although in reality it joins the Isonzo. Its first course was scraped away and redrawn in wider loops, to make room for a road station of the same name.