TERNI (anc. Interamna Nahars), a town, episcopal see, and capital of a province of Umbria, Italy, situated among the Apen nines, 426 ft. above sea-level, in the valley of the Nera (anc. Nar), from which the town took its distinguishing epithet, 5 m. below its junction with the Velino, and 7o m. N. by E. of Rome by rail. Pop. (1931) 43,036 (town), 62,741 (commune). It has important iron and steel works and iron foundries, at which armour-plates, guns and projectiles are made for the Italian navy, also steel cast ings, machinery and rails, a royal arms factory, a large jute fac tory, a carbide factory, a wool spinnery, etc., and lignite mining. Terni lies on the main railway line from Rome to Foligno and Ancona, and is the junction for Rieti and Sulmona. Its most inter esting buildings are the cathedral (restored in 1653 with remains of the earlier 13th century façade and an early crypt), and the Romanesque churches of S. Pietro and S. Francesco. Its antiqui ties include traces of the city walls of rectangular blocks of traver tine incorporated in the well-preserved mediaeval walls, remains of an amphitheatre, a temple, now the round church of S. Salvatore, theatre and baths (?), and numerous inscriptions. Five miles to the east are the falls of the Velino (Caseate delle Marmore), which took a very high place among European waterfalls; the cataract has a total descent of about 65o ft., in three leaps of 65,
33o and 190 ft., respectively. They owe their origin to M'. Curius Dentatus, who in 272 B.C. first opened an artificial channel by which the greater part of the Lacus Velinus in the valley below Reate was drained. They supply the motive power for the fac tories of the town and have lost much of their former beauty.
Terni is the ancient Interamna (inter amnes, "between the rivers," i.e. the Nar and one of its branches), originally belonging to Umbria, and founded, according to tradition in the year 672 B.C. The recent discovery of a neolithic village, and of cemeteries of the Villanovan period, with numerous inhumation graves of Picenes of 1200-1000 B.C. (see Randall Maclver, Iron Age in Italy, 1927, 140-144) shows that the site was occupied much earlier. It is first mentioned in history as being, along with Spoletium, Praeneste and Florentia, portioned out among his soldiers by Sulla. During most of the middle ages and up till 1860 Terni was subject to the popes. It was the scene of the defeat of the Neapolitans by the French on November 27, 1798.