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The name of Vesuvius, then, though strictly applicable only to the volcanic and modern portion of the Mountain, is not a recent appellation; on the contrary, it is probably of far more ancient origin than Mons Summanus by which the whole was known to the Romans.
More than half the rim of the ancient crater that had enclosed Spartacus and his men less than two hundred years before had been torn away and destroyed, its remaining portion on the landward side retaining the old name of Mons Summanus.
About a century and a half before the first recorded eruption in 79, Mons Summanus figures prominently in Roman history as the scene of a curious incident during the Servile War, so that in the pages of the old chronicler Florus we obtain an interesting description—especially interesting because it was not given for scientific purposes—of the condition of the mountain top at that period.
But the secret locked up in Mons Summanus was not altogether unsuspected by the Roman scientists.
Agathemer paid the whole amount, for all four of us, adjured the waiter- boy to be good to Clitellus and Summanus, gave him an extra coin, and signalled me to rise. I lurched to my feet, swaying, almost as drunk as our victims and beholding Agathemer swaying before me, not only because of my blurred eyesight, but also because of his unsteadiness on his feet. We almost fell, but not quite.
We had planned to dine at an inn near the harbor- front, on the west side of the town, not far from the Sea Gate: there we had barely sat down and begun tasting the relishes, when in came Clitellus and Summanus.
I was, in fact, just about to give up any attempt to resist my impulse to collapse when Summanus collapsed, slid to the floor, rolled over, spread out and snored. Clitellus thickly objurgated his comrade and all weak-heads, worthless fellows who could not drink a few goblets without getting drunk.
Two additional lieutenant-generals were sent to the army in Macedonia, Publius Sulpicius and Publius Villius, who had been consuls in that province. It was thought necessary, that before the consuls and praetors went abroad, some prodigies should be expiated. For the temples of Vulcan and Summanus, at Rome, and a wall and a gate at Fregellae, had been struck by lightning.
To prove his vast superiority and his prowess, he poured more wine down his throat, spilling some down into his tunic. Agathemer winked at me and fingered the strap of his wallet. I groped for mine and fumbled at it. Clitellus, with a hiccough, slid to the floor beside Summanus. I was for trying to rise.
We find in Plautus the verb summanare, from the god Summanus, the nocturnal sky.
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