Forum Novum (later also called ''Vescovìo'') was a new

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

foundation which developed as a forum or market center during the

Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( ) was the era of Ancient Rome, classical Roman civilisation beginning with Overthrow of the Roman monarchy, the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom (traditionally dated to 509 BC) and ending in 27 BC with the establis ...

period. By the early 1st century AD Forum Novum had been elevated to the status of

municipium In ancient Rome, the Latin term (: ) referred to a town or city. Etymologically, the was a social contract among ('duty holders'), or citizens of the town. The duties () were a communal obligation assumed by the in exchange for the privileges ...

, appearing as such in Pliny's list of towns. It is located within today’s commune of

Torri in Sabina Torri in Sabina is a (municipality) in the Province of Rieti in the Italian region of Latium, located about north of Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also t ...

in the

province of Rieti The province of Rieti () is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Lazio region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Rieti. Established in 1927, it has an area of with a total population of 157,887 people as of 2017. There are 73 ''comuni'' (: '' ...

.http://www.sabina.it/luoghi/itinrom/vescovio.htm Knowledge of the history of the centre comes largely from literary sources and the rich

epigraphic Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...

evidence. Forum Novum seems to have functioned throughout the imperial period and a market was still being held at the center in the fourth century. Although urban life probably underwent a decline around this period, Forum Novum, later Vescovio, continued to act as a local and regional focus with the establishment of a bishopric in the fifth century, a role it maintained throughout the early medieval and medieval periods; it remains a

titular see A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbi ...

in the Catholic Church today. Little systematic archaeological work has been carried out on the centre or its valley. Excavations carried out by the Soprintendenza Archeologica per il Lazio in the late 1970s and early 80s revealed the

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...

, a

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

complex, part of the forum and various associated buildings of uncertain function. The results have never been fully published.

Recent work at Forum Novum

The current

British School at Rome The British School at Rome (BSR) is a British interdisciplinary research centre supporting the arts, humanities and architecture established in Rome. Historical and archaeological study are at the core of its activities. History The British Sc ...

's project at Forum Novum began in 1997. The aim is to apply a series of approaches to the center in order to provide a detailed and systematic study. As such it provides a complement to the other urban studies being carried out as part of the Tiber Valley Project, in particular to the study of the larger scales of urban form currently being carried out by Simon Keay and Martin Millett. The survey results from

geophysical survey Geophysical survey is the systematic collection of geophysical data for spatial studies. Detection and analysis of the geophysical signals forms the core of Geophysical signal processing. The magnetic and gravitational fields emanating from the ...

techniques have shown that the site does not seem to have had a dense settlement or population, and in fact the only buildings which seem to have been domestic were associated with the small tabernae. An urban villa was also found close to the centre and cannot be ignored in discussion of the site. As well as these buildings, the survey located the forum, baths complex and

Amphitheatre An amphitheatre (American English, U.S. English: amphitheater) is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ('), from ('), meaning "on both sides" or "around" and ('), meani ...

. Some areas could not be surveyed with geophysics and so

ground-penetrating radar Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is a geophysical method that uses radar pulses to image the subsurface. It is a non-intrusive method of surveying the sub-surface to investigate underground utilities such as concrete, asphalt, metals, pipes, cables ...

was used to fill in the gaps. Excavation was also carried out alongside the survey to give a fuller picture of the site.V. Gaffney, H. Patterson and P. Roberts, "Forum Novum - Vescovio: Studying urbanism in the Tiber Valley JRA 14, 2001, 59-80. The site does not seem to have been heavily populated, therefore, and can be interpreted as a focus for the rural population, which was monumentalized by some local elites, perhaps just the one family from the urban villa, trying to create a Roman settlement, but in order to understand the site more fully, a survey of the hinterland of Forum Novum would be appropriate. Whether Forum Novum was the "norm" or an exception is only something which will be discovered with further surveying of the Tiber Valley.

References

{{Authority control Roman towns and cities in Italy Archaeological sites in Lazio