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Archeology Itinerary: Towns of Roman origin
Roman settlements in Umbria
Carsulae
The development of the site of Carsulae, which appears not to show
traces of a settlement previous to the Roman colonization, should be seen in
relation to the opening of the Via Flaminia in 220 B.C., although only
the geographer Strabo records the location of the town along this road. It is
not improbable that the corresponding settlement of Umbrian origin should be
identified as the nearby town of Sant'Erasmo di Cesi.
In the Augustan age there
were two magistrates (duoviri) at the head of Carsulae’s
political structure. Subsequently they increased in number to four (quattuorviri).
Recorded by the sources as being without a boundary wall, in all likelihood the
town fell into a state of neglect during the period of the Barbarian invasions,
which undoubtedly overcame this small urban center.
A theory deriving from
archaeological excavation surveys suggests that the cause of the destruction and
the consequent abandonment of the site may have been a violent earthquake.
Nowadays Carsulae can be considered as a privileged sightseeing spot,
where it is possible to observe the context of an ancient town without any of
those historical overlays that in cases of continuity at the urban level often
make it difficult to wholly understand and interpret a site.
The
archaeological area:
- Thermal baths, theatre, amphitheatre, church of San
Damiano, arch of San Damiano, basilica, forum,
monumental tombs
Environs:
- Fortified site of Sant'Erasmo and sanctuary of Monte
Torremaggiore di Cesi
- Avigliano umbro: Grotta Bella
- Avigliano umbro: Dunarobba fossil forest
- Acquasparta: Roman bridge near the church of San
Giovanni de Butris
Forum Flaminii
Near the area occupied by the small Romanesque church of
San Giovanni Profiamma, built in 1231 with material
recycled from Roman and early mediaeval constructions,
in an area that underwent an early Romanisation process,
we should mention the presence of a commercial center
(forum) that developed along the Via
Flaminia, at the precise junction of the two
branches into which the road divided when it reached
Narni.
The Forum was founded by the consul C.
Flaminius along the road that took its name from this
same magistrate. A funeral stele records that the
Forum was ascribed to the Ufentina tribe,
and its territory bordered those of Spello, Foligno,
Plestia and Nocera. –Church of San Giovanni
Profiamma
Fossato
di Vico - Vicus Helvillum
This place, which is immersed in greenery on the slopes
of the Apennine chain, before becoming a fundamental
junction of the Via Flaminia in the Roman age,
was already a busy town in the Umbrian period. It is to
this archaeological phase that the bronze sheet relates
which bears an inscription testifying to a cult
dedicated to the goddess Cupra in the area. The Roman
town appears to have developed in the hilly strip above
the great thoroughfare, in the place now known as Borgo,
as far as the hillock of Aja della Croce, where drums of
columns are still clearly visibly in a private house.
Town:
- Civic collection
Environs:
- Flaminia drain at Palazzole
- Bridge of San Giovanni
Scheggia
- Statio ad Hensem
The present-day site of Scheggia corresponds to the
Statio ad Hensem recorded in the ancient
itineraries. Various finds in the areas near the
Flaminia before the entrance to the town, support
this identification. In the vicinity of the Scheggia
pass, sources have located the sanctuary of the Apennine
Jove, which was considered to be a “national” place of
worship for the Umbrians. It is recorded by the sources
and represented in the Tabula Peutingeriana.
Town:
- Civic collection
Environs:
- Barrel bridge
- Costacciaro funeral monument
- Furlo tunnel
Massa
Martana - Statio ad Martis
In the vicinity of Massa Martana, the church of Santa
Maria in Pantano, dating back to the 7th-8th century
A.D. and whose orientation follows the route of the
western branch of the Via Flaminia, is laid out
on the pre-existing structures of a Roman building of
uncertain work.
These remains provide us with
information about the existence in the same place of a
small settlement, which various Latin inscriptions
originating from the area and preserved in the church
confirm was called vicus Martis Tudertium,
built around the site of the important statio or
mansio ad Martis along the Via Flaminia,
recorded by the ancient itineraries and 18 miles away
from Narni.
This was a very important road
junction because, not only did it play a central role in
the public postal service and the transport of materials
and personnel of the Cursus publicus romanus
along the great consular thoroughfare, but it also
guaranteed a series of cross links in relation to the
principal road network, which were no less important at
local level, heading towards: on one side Todi (Tuder),
on the other side Spoleto (Spoletium)
. Environs:
- Church of Santa Maria in Pantano
- Catacombs of San Faustino
- Fonnaia bridge
Tuoro
sul Trasimeno
The Lake Trasimeno area was the natural setting for a
very serious defeat inflicted on the Roman consul Caius
Flaminius and his army by the Carthaginians in 217 B.C.,
in the context of the 2nd Punic War, also known as the
Hannibalic war from the name of the famous soldier of
fortune who led the expedition of Rome’s bitter enemies.
According to the most credible theory the site of this
battle was actually the Tuoro valley, surrounded by the
hills of Monte Gualandro and Montigeto.
The battle is
recorded as one of the bloodiest defeats in Roman
history, the echo of whose atrocity still persists in
the blood and bone elements of place-names such as "Sanguineto"
and "Ossaia".
Numerous archaeological tokens have been
found in the area, many of which belong to the
Republican age or to the first Imperial age; particular
mention should be made of the so-called “strina”,
in other words the pits with a truncated cone section,
which, in the opinion of various experts were used by
Hannibal to incinerate the bodies of the dead after the
battle, with the aim of avoiding plagues and epidemics,
and the bronze Etruscan-Roman statue of the Haranguer,
now kept in the Archaeological Museum in Florence, which
according to recent theories comes from the area of the
aforementioned Sanguineto: the statue represents a
person of high rank, probably a magistrate, dressed in
the toga praetexta, in the act of declaiming
before the crowd.
The archaeological area:
- Archaological Park and Permanent Documentation center
on the Battle of Trasimeno
- Il Sodo Park, Associazione Pro-Loco Tuoro sul
Trasimeno
Environs:
- Fishing Museum in San Feliciano, which contains
various ancient objects related to fishing activity
– Roman villa at Quarantaia, near Passignano.
Courtesy of
Umbria 2000
(c) 1997-2008 E. Massetti
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