Three Taverns ( la, Tres Tabernae; , ''Treis Tabernai'') was a place on the ancient

Appian Way The Appian Way ( Latin and Italian: ''Via Appia'') is one of the earliest and strategically most important Roman roads of the ancient republic. It connected Rome to Brindisi, in southeast Italy. Its importance is indicated by its common name ...

, about 50 km (31 miles) from

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 ...

, designed for the reception of travellers, as the name indicates.

History

Tres Tabernae originated as a post station on the

( la, Via Appia), around the 3rd century BC. Here, the Christian saint

Paul of Tarsus Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...

, on his way to Rome, was reportedly met by a band of Roman Christians (''

Acts The Acts of the Apostles ( grc-koi, Πράξεις Ἀποστόλων, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; la, Actūs Apostolōrum) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of its message ...

'' 28:15). The "Tres Tabernae was the first ''

mansio In the Roman Empire, a ''mansio'' (from the Latin word ''mansus,'' the perfect passive participle of ''manere'' "to remain" or "to stay") was an official stopping place on a Roman road, or ''via'', maintained by the central government for the use ...

'' or ''mutatio'', that is, halting-place for relays, from Rome, or the last on the way to the city. At this point three roads run into the Via Appia, that from

Tusculum Tusculum is a ruined Classical Rome, Roman city in the Alban Hills, in the Latium region of Italy. Tusculum was most famous in Roman times for the many great and luxurious patrician country villas sited close to the city, yet a comfortable dist ...

, that from

Alba Longa Alba Longa (occasionally written Albalonga in Italian sources) was an ancient Latin city in Central Italy, 12 miles (19 km) southeast of Rome, in the vicinity of Lake Albano in the Alban Hills. Founder and head of the Latin League, it wa ...

, and that from

Antium Antium was an ancient coastal town in Latium, south of Rome. An oppidum was founded by people of Latial culture (11th century BC or the beginning of the 1st millennium BC), then it was the main stronghold of the Volsci people until it was conqu ...

; so necessarily here would be a halting-place, which took its name from the three shops there, the general store, the blacksmith's, and the refreshment-house...Tres Tabernae is translated as Three Taverns, but it more correctly means three shops". The ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Eleventh Edition identifies it as "an ancient village of

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 ...

, Italy, a post station on the Via Appia, at the point where the main road was crossed by a branch from Antium. It is by some fixed some 3 m. S.E. of the modern village of

Cisterna A cisterna (plural cisternae) is a flattened membrane vesicle found in the endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi apparatus. Cisternae are an integral part of the packaging and modification processes of proteins occurring in the Golgi. Function Protei ...

just before the Via Appia enters the

Pontine Marshes 250px, Lake Fogliano, a coastal lagoon in the Pontine Plain The Pontine Marshes (, also ; it, Agro Pontino , formerly also ''Paludi Pontine''; la, Pomptinus Ager by Titus Livius, ''Pomptina Palus'' (singular) and ''Pomptinae Paludes'' (plu ...

, at a point where the modern road to Ninfa and

Norba Norba, an ancient town of Latium (''Adjectum''), Italy. It is situated 1 mile northwest of the modern town of Norma, on the western edge of the Volscian Mountains or Monti Lepini. The town is perched above a precipitous cliff with a splendid v ...

diverges to the north-east, where a few ruins still exist (''Grotte di Nottola''), 33 m. from Rome. Others believe that it stood at Cisterna itself, where a branch road running from Antium by way of

Satricum Satricum (modern Le Ferriere), an ancient town of Latium vetus, lay on the right bank of the Astura river some SE of Rome in a low-lying region south of the Alban Hills, at the NW border of the Pontine Marshes. It was directly accessible from Ro ...

actually joins the Via Appia. However, excavations that took place at km 58.1 of the Via Appia Nuova between 1993 and 2001 revealed a bath plant and some further buildings. Around the 3rd century AD, the area was invaded by marshes, and the inhabitants of the nearby '' Ulubrae'' likely moved to ''Tres Tabernae'', which grew of importance and became a Christian

episcopal see An episcopal see is, in a practical use of the phrase, the area of a bishop's ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Phrases concerning actions occurring within or outside an episcopal see are indicative of the geographical significance of the term, mak ...

with a

Palaeo-Christian The history of Christianity concerns the Christian religion, Christian countries, and the Christians with their various denominations, from the 1st century to the present. Christianity originated with the ministry of Jesus, a Jewish tea ...

cathedral dedicated to St. Paul. In 307, emperor

Flavius Severus Flavius Valerius Severus (died September 307), also called Severus II, was a Roman emperor from 306 to 307. After failing to besiege Rome, he fled to Ravenna. It is thought that he was killed there or executed near Rome. Background and early ...

was assassinated (or forced to commit suicide) here by Heraclius, by order of other emperors

Maximian Maximian ( la, Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maximianus; c. 250 – c. July 310), nicknamed ''Herculius'', was Roman emperor from 286 to 305. He was '' Caesar'' from 285 to 286, then ''Augustus'' from 286 to 305. He shared the latter title with his ...

and

Maxentius Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maxentius (c. 283 – 28 October 312) was a Roman emperor, who reigned from 306 until his death in 312. Despite ruling in Italy and North Africa, and having the recognition of the Senate in Rome, he was not recognized ...

. The barbaric invasions in Italy caused a further expansions of the marshes, and Tres Tabernae declined so that, in 592, Pope

Gregory I Gregory I may refer to: * Gregory the Illuminator (250s–330s), Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church in 288–325 * Gregory of Nazianzus (329–390), Patriarch Gregory I of Constantinople, in office 379–381 * Pope Gregory I (540–604), ...

united its diocese to that of

Velletri Velletri (; la, Velitrae; xvo, Velester) is an Italian ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Rome, approximately 40 km to the southeast of the city centre, located in the Alban Hills, in the region of Lazio, central Italy. Neighbouring comm ...

. Later in the high Middle Ages, Tres Tabernae was ravaged several times by the

Saracens upright 1.5, Late 15th-century German woodcut depicting Saracens Saracen ( ) was a term used in the early centuries, both in Greek and Latin writings, to refer to the people who lived in and near what was designated by the Romans as Arabia ...

, until it was completely destroyed in 868. The position of the Tres Tabernae is also shown in the

Tabula Peutingeriana ' (Latin for "The Peutinger Map"), also referred to as Peutinger's Tabula or Peutinger Table, is an illustrated ' (ancient Roman road map) showing the layout of the '' cursus publicus'', the road network of the Roman Empire. The map is a 13th-ce ...

in a location south of Rome.''Chronology''
hs-augsburg.de online;

Notes

References

* * {{coord, 41, 33, 43, N, 12, 52, 26, E, region:IT-LT_type:city_source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title Roman towns and cities in Italy New Testament words and phrases Populated places established in the 3rd century BC Populated places disestablished in the 9th century Roman waystations in Italy