River
Fluvius Victium
Cervo [4] · Elvo [1]
Listen to the story
A river line rises in the Alps, passes Vercelli and runs into the Po near Cozzo Lomellina, and beside it stands the Fluvius Victium, a stream known from no other ancient source. Its course lies just where one would expect the Sesia, which the Roman writer Pliny knew, so the map may show the Sesia and one of its tributaries as a single river. It was once taken for the Terdoppio; today scholars are divided between the Cervo and the Elvo. The name recalls the Roman town of Victimulae, famous for gold mines mentioned by Pliny, and linked by the historian Livy to the first clash between the vanguards of Scipio and Hannibal.