Sabina (

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

: ''Sabinum''), also called the Sabine Hills, is a region in central

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. It is named after Sabina, the territory of the ancient

Sabines The Sabines (; lat, Sabini; it, Sabini, all exonyms) were an Italic people who lived in the central Apennine Mountains of the ancient Italian Peninsula, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome. The Sabines di ...

, which was once bordered by

Latium Latium ( , ; ) is the region of central western Italy in which the city of Rome was founded and grew to be the capital city of the Roman Empire. Definition Latium was originally a small triangle of fertile, volcanic soil ( Old Latium) on w ...

to the south, Picenum to the east, ancient

Umbria it, Umbro (man) it, Umbra (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , ...

to the north and Etruria to the west. It was separated from Umbria by the River Nar, today's Nera, and from Etruria by the River

Tiber The Tiber ( ; it, Tevere ; la, Tiberis) is the third-longest river in Italy and the longest in Central Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio, where it is joined by th ...

. Today, Sabina is mainly northeast of

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

in the regions

Lazio it, Laziale , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

and

Abruzzo , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1 ...

. ''Upper Sabina'' is in the province of Rieti (

Poggio Mirteto Poggio Mirteto is a '' comune'' (municipality) and former Catholic bishopric in Sabina in the Central Italian region Lazio (Latium). Administratively Poggio Mirteto is in the province of Rieti (formerly part of the province of Perugia) and geog ...

, Magliano Sabina,

Casperia Casperia is a '' comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Rieti in the Italian region Latium, located about northeast of Rome and about southwest of Rieti. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 1,164 and an area of .All demographics ...

, Montopoli di Sabina, Torri in Sabina, Cantalupo in Sabina, Montebuono, Forano, Poggio Catino, Montasola, Stimigliano, Castelnuovo di Farfa, Fara in Sabina,

Roccantica Roccantica is a '' comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Rieti in the Italian region Latium, located about northeast of Rome and about southwest of Rieti. The Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Goth ...

, Mompeo, Salisano,

Cottanello Cottanello is a '' comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Rieti in the Italian region Latium, located about north of Rome and about west of Rieti. An elaborate ancient Roman villa was discovered here in 1968 in the hamlet of Collesecco ( ...

, Configni, Vacone, Tarano, Collevecchio, Toffia, Poggio Nativo, Scandriglia ecc.). ''Sabina Romana'' is in the province of

(Mentana, Monteflavio, Montelibretti, Monterotondo, Montorio Romano, Moricone, Nerola, Palombara Sabina). Part of Sabina is in the regions of

(territories of Narni, Amelia, Cascia, Norcia, partially Upper Valnerina, etc.) and

Abruzzo , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1 ...

(from Valle dell'Aterno to

L'Aquila L'Aquila ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in central Italy. It is the capital city of both the Abruzzo region and of the Province of L'Aquila. , it has a population of 70,967 inhabitants. Laid out within medieval walls on a hill in the wide valle ...

History

The Sabines who lived in two of the Seven Hills of Rome (the

Quirinal The Quirinal Hill (; la, Collis Quirinalis; it, Quirinale ) is one of the Seven Hills of Rome, at the north-east of the city center. It is the location of the official residence of the Italian head of state, who resides in the Quirinal Pala ...

and

Viminal The Viminal Hill ( ; la, Collis Vīminālis ; it, Viminale ) is the smallest of the famous Seven Hills of Rome. A finger-shape cusp pointing toward central Rome between the Quirinal Hill to the northwest and the Esquiline Hill to the southeast ...

) formed part of the population of Rome (together with the Latins who lived on the other hills) at the time of its foundation. The second king of Rome,

Numa Pompilius Numa Pompilius (; 753–672 BC; reigned 715–672 BC) was the legendary second king of Rome, succeeding Romulus after a one-year interregnum. He was of Sabine origin, and many of Rome's most important religious and political institutions ar ...

, was from Cures, the capital of Sabina. During the reigns of the Roman kings

Ancus Marcius Ancus Marcius was the legendary fourth king of Rome, who traditionally reigned 24 years. Upon the death of the previous king, Tullus Hostilius, the Roman Senate appointed an interrex, who in turn called a session of the assembly of the people wh ...

and Tarquinius Priscus the Sabines attacked Roman territory several times. This also occurred during the early period of the

Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Ki ...

. After the Third Samnite War (298-290 BC), the Romans moved to crush the Sabines. The

Roman consul A consul held the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic ( to 27 BC), and ancient Romans considered the consulship the second-highest level of the ''cursus honorum'' (an ascending sequence of public offices to which politic ...

Manius Curius Dentatus Manius Curius Dentatus (died 270 BC) was a Roman general and statesman noted for ending the Samnite War and for his military exploits during the Pyrrhic War. According to Pliny, he was born with teeth, thus earning the surname Dentatus, "toothed. ...

pushed deep into Sabina in the area between the rivers Nar (today’s Nera, the main tributary of the River Tiber) and Anio (Aniene, another tributary of the Tiber) and the source of the River Avens (Velino). Spurius Carvilius confiscated large tracts of land in the plain around Reate (today’s Rieti) and Amiternum (11 km from

), which he distributed to Roman settlers. Florus did not give the reasons for this campaign. The modem historian Salmon speculates that "it might have been because of the part they he Sabineshad played or failed to play in the events of 296/295 C" That is, they let the Samnites cross their territory to go to Etruria and join forces with the

Etruscans The Etruscan civilization () was developed by a people of Etruria in ancient Italy with a common language and culture who formed a federation of city-states. After conquering adjacent lands, its territory covered, at its greatest extent, roug ...

Umbrians The Umbri were an Italic people of ancient Italy. A region called Umbria still exists and is now occupied by Italian speakers. It is somewhat smaller than the ancient Umbria. Most ancient Umbrian cities were settled in the 9th-4th centuries BC ...

and Senone Gauls. Forsythe also speculates that it may have been a punishment for this.

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding in ...

mentioned that Dentatus subdued the rebellious Sabines. The Sabines were given citizenship without the right to vote (''civitas sine suffragio''), which meant that their territory was effectively annexed to the Roman Republic. Reate and Amiternum were given full Roman citizenship (civitas optimo iure) in 268 BC. In the Augustan division of Italy, Sabina was included in the region IV ''

Samnium Samnium ( it, Sannio) is a Latin exonym for a region of Southern Italy anciently inhabited by the Samnites. Their own endonyms were ''Safinim'' for the country (attested in one inscription and one coin legend) and ''Safineis'' for the Th ...

''. With

Diocletian Diocletian (; la, Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, grc, Διοκλητιανός, Diokletianós; c. 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed ''Iovius'', was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Gaius Valerius Diocles ...

's late 3rd-century administrative reforms, Italy became a

Roman diocese In the Late Roman Empire, usually dated 284 AD to 602 AD, the regional governance district known as the Roman or civil diocese was made up of a grouping of provinces each headed by a '' Vicarius'', who were the representatives of pra ...

and was subdivided into Roman provinces. Sabina became part of the province of Samnium.

Constantine the Great Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to convert to Christianity. Born in Naissus, Dacia Mediterran ...

turned Italy into a praetorian prefecture and subdivided it into two dioceses. Sabina fell under the diocese of ''Italia suburbicaria'' as the province of ''Valeria''. With the Lombard invasion of Italy in the

Early Middle Ages The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Mi ...

, the territory of Sabina became part of the Lombard

Duchy of Spoleto The Duchy of Spoleto (, ) was a Lombard territory founded about 570 in central Italy by the Lombard '' dux'' Faroald. Its capital was the city of Spoleto. Lombards The Lombards had invaded Italy in 568 AD and conquered much of it, establishi ...

. With the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

reconquest of central Italy, it came under the

Duchy of Rome The Duchy of Rome ( la, Ducatus Romanus) was a state within the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna. Like other Byzantine states in Italy, it was ruled by an imperial functionary with the title ''dux''. The duchy often came into conflict with the Pap ...

of the Byzantine

Exarchate of Ravenna The Exarchate of Ravenna ( la, Exarchatus Ravennatis; el, Εξαρχάτο της Ραβέννας) or of Italy was a lordship of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire) in Italy, from 584 to 751, when the last exarch was put to death by the ...

. With the rise of the

Papal States The Papal States ( ; it, Stato Pontificio, ), officially the State of the Church ( it, Stato della Chiesa, ; la, Status Ecclesiasticus;), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope fro ...

, Sabina was governed directly by the

pontificate The pontificate is the form of government used in Vatican City. The word came to English from French and simply means ''papacy'', or "to perform the functions of the Pope or other high official in the Church". Since there is only one bishop of R ...

or indirectly, by the ''counts of Sabina'', a title of the noble Crescentii family in the 10th and 11th centuries. During the late 9th to early 10th century, the region was, along with much of central Italy, a stronghold of, or threatened by the Saracens.

PDO Sabina extra virgin olive oil

The extra virgin

olive oil Olive oil is a liquid fat obtained from olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea''; family Oleaceae), a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin, produced by pressing whole olives and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking: ...

Sabina is, chronologically speaking, the first Italian

Protected Designation of Origin The protected designation of origin (PDO) is a type of geographical indication of the European Union and the United Kingdom aimed at preserving the designations of origin of food-related products. The designation was created in 1992 and its main ...

(PDO) oil to gain the certification from the

European Community The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lis ...

, the production of olives and oil is a millennial tradition in Sabine.

Colli della Sabina DOC

In 1996, the

Italian government The government of Italy is in the form of a democratic republic, and was established by a constitution in 1948. It consists of legislative, executive, and judicial subdivisions, as well as a Head of State, or President. The Italian Consti ...

designated the vineyards around the Sabine Hills as a DOC wine region eligible to produce red, white and ''

rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...

'' wine as well as some sweet sparkling wine from white

grape varieties This list of grape varieties includes cultivated grapes, whether used for wine, or eating as a table grape, fresh or dried (raisin, currant, sultana). For a complete list of all grape species including those unimportant to agriculture, see V ...

. The grapes are limited to a harvest yields of 12 tonnes/ha. Red and ''rose'' wines are a blend of mostly 40–70%

Sangiovese Sangiovese (, also , , ) is a red Italian wine grape variety that derives its name from the Latin ''sanguis Jovis'', "the blood of Jupiter". Though it is the grape of most of central Italy from Romagna down to Lazio (the most widespread grap ...

, 15–40% Montepulciano with other local varieties permitted up to 30%. The white wines are a blend of at least 40% Trebbiano and at least 40% Malvasia with other local grape varieties permitted to make up to 20% of the remaining blend. Red and ''rose'' wines must have a minimum alcohol level of 11% with whites having a minimum of 10.5%.

Suburbicarian bishopric

:''See also

suburbicarian diocese The seven suburbicarian dioceses are Roman Catholic dioceses located in the vicinity of Rome, whose (titular) bishops are the (now six) ordinary members of the highest-ranking order of cardinals, the cardinal bishops (to which the cardinal-patriar ...

.'' Sabina has been the seat of a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

bishopric since the 6th century, though the earliest names in the list of bishops may be apocryphal. The official papal province of Sabina was established under Pope Paul V in 1605. The Cardinal Bishop of Sabina is one of the six ''suburbican

tituli :''See also Titulus (Roman Catholic) for Roman churches called tituli, or titulus (disambiguation) for more meanings.'' ''Titulus'' (Latin "inscription" or "label", the plural ''tituli'' is also used in English) is a term used for the labels or ...

'' (not counting Ostia) of the College of Cardinals which carry the rank of Cardinal Bishop. Since 1925 the Cardinal Titular Church of Sabina has been joined to that of

, a municipality of the region, and officially named ''Sabina e Poggio Mirteto'', since 1986 ''Sabina–Poggio Mirteto''. The current (since 2000) Cardinal Bishop of Sabina-Poggio Mirteto is Giovanni Battista Re.

Notable visitors

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

, American author, visited on horseback at the end of January 1872. The area was bright and alive. It was charged "to the supersensuous ear, with the murmur of an extinguished life". He also noted to his family that "I can stick on a horse better than I supposed".Biography of Henry James Vol II, Book III, Roman Rides. Leon Edel

References

External links

Sabina on-line
* ttp://www.gcatholic.org/churches/data/ctitle-c006.htm GCatholicbr>Travel Information for the SabinaPhotos and images of Sabina
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sabina (Region) Geography of Lazio Geography of Umbria Geographical, historical and cultural regions of Italy