Orberg is fairly casual about giving one the correct gender of place names. For example here is a list of the Roman hills and I cannot find any dictionary or source to give me the correct gender of a number of them. It’s my view that good dictionaries ought to provide gender for all common place names found in Latin authors. Can anyone tell me the gender of the Quirinalis, -i (?) and Viminalis, -i (?) and, perhaps, more to the point the whereabouts of any source for such information?
Palatium and Capitolium are nouns; the rest are nouns, too, but specifically substantives, i.e., adjectives as nouns. [Mons] Capitolinus = substantive for Capitolium; Palatinus for Palatium. Nomina sunt vocabula Palatium Capitoliumque. Nomina substantiva sunt alia, id est, adjectiva pro nominibus. Et Capitolinus nomen substantivum pro Capitolio monte stat; et Palatinus pro Palatio.
The Esquiliae has several peaks, so perhaps, a feminine word such as “rupes” is understood, i.e., the oak rocks/cliffs. There are two islands near me called the Maidens. Who knows, maybe the heights suggested islands (insulae) to someone; or is there a story of girls changed into oaks? Plura summa habet hic mons, Esquiliae. Sunt insulae prope me Virginum nomine. Forsit “insulae” est nomen subauditum vel “rupes” vel “arbores”; forsit est fabula virginum in arboribus mutatarum.