Alba Fucens was an ancient Italic town located at elevation at the base of Monte Velino, approximately north of

Avezzano Avezzano ( ; ) is a city and comune in the Abruzzo region, province of L'Aquila, Italy. It is the second most populous municipality in the province and the sixth in the region. It is the main commercial, industrial and agricultural centre of the ...

Abruzzo Abruzzo (, ; ; , ''Abbrìzze'' or ''Abbrèzze'' ; ), historically also known as Abruzzi, is a Regions of Italy, region of Southern Italy with an area of 10,763 square km (4,156 sq mi) and a population of 1.3 million. It is divided into four ...

, central Italy. Its ruins can be found in the ''

comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

'' of

Massa d'Albe Massa d'Albe is a ''comune'' and town in the province of L'Aquila in the Abruzzo region of central Italy. It is part of the Marsica. The town was founded in the 14th century by the inhabitants of the ancient Alba Fucens, whose remains are in the a ...

. The city is largely visible after excavation and is probably the most important ancient site in Abruzzo.

History

It was originally a town of the

Aequi 300px, Location of the Aequi (Equi) in central Italy, 5th century BC. The Aequi were an Italic tribe on a stretch of the Apennine Mountains to the east of Latium in central Italy who appear in the early history of ancient Rome. After a long stru ...

, though on the frontier of the

Marsi The Marsi were an Italic people of ancient Italy, whose chief centre was Marruvium, on the eastern shore of Lake Fucinus (which was drained in the time of Claudius). The area in which they lived is now called Marsica. They originally spoke a l ...

, but was occupied by a Latin colony (303-4 BC) owing to its strategic importance. Initially it was populated by 6,000 settlers who built a wall in the years immediately following their settlement. The following year they had to defend themselves from the attacks of the Aequi who, unable to tolerate the presence of a fortified Latin citadel on their territory, tried to conquer it without success. It lay on a hill just to the north of the

Via Valeria The Via Valeria was an ancient Roman roads, Roman road of Italy, the continuation north-eastwards of the Via Tiburtina from Tivoli, Lazio, Tibur. It probably owed its origin to Marcus Valerius Messalla, Roman censor, censor in 154 BC. A second V ...

, which was prolonged beyond Tibur probably at this very period. In the

Second Punic War The Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC) was the second of Punic Wars, three wars fought between Ancient Carthage, Carthage and Roman Republic, Rome, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean Basin, Mediterranean in the 3rd century BC. For ...

Alba at first remained faithful and in 211 BC sent a contingent of 2,000 men to help Rome, but afterwards refused to send contingents and was punished. Endnote: A very good description of the site, with plans, is given by C. Promis, ''L'Antichità di Alba Fucense'' (Rome, 1836). After this it became a regular place of detention for important state prisoners such as

Syphax of Numidia Syphax (, ''Sýphax''; , ) was a king of the Masaesyli tribe of western Numidia (present-day Algeria) during the last quarter of the 3rd century BC. His story is told in Livy's ''Ab Urbe Condita'' (written c. 27–25 BC).

, Perseus of Macedonia,

Bituitus Bituitus (''fl.'' 2nd century BCE) was a king of the Arverni, a Gaulish tribe living in what is now the Auvergne region of France. The Arverni were a powerful opponent of the Roman Republic during the 3rd and 2nd centuries under the leadership of ...

, king of the

Arverni The Arverni (Gaulish: *''Aruernoi'') were a Gallic people dwelling in the modern Auvergne region during the Iron Age and the Roman period. They were one of the most powerful tribes of ancient Gaul, contesting primacy over the region with the n ...

. It was attacked by the allies in the Social War, but remained faithful to Rome; and its strong position rendered it a place of some importance in the civil wars. In the struggle between Sulla and Marius, the city sided with the latter and at the end of the conflict Sulla, to punish it and at the same time satisfy the requests of one of his lieutenants, Metellus Pius, distributed part of the territory of Alba Fucens to the latter's veterans. In the conflict between Caesar and Pompey, it hosted a garrison of six cohorts of

Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus (consul 54 BC) Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, consul in 54 BC, was an enemy of Julius Caesar and a strong supporter of the aristocratic () party in the late Roman Republic. He was Nero's great-great-grandfather. Biography Ahenobarbus was born as the son of con ...

then surrendered to the legions of Caesar. In 44 BC, the legion Martia (enrolled from the Marsi) mutinied against the consul

Mark Antony Marcus Antonius (14 January 1 August 30 BC), commonly known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman people, Roman politician and general who played a critical role in the Crisis of the Roman Republic, transformation of the Roman Republic ...

and went over to the side of

Octavian Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in ...

. The Martia, leaving the coast road at Aternum, took the Via Valeria and went to Alba Fucens, which due to its strategic position made it possible to maintain contact with Octavian and, if necessary, prevent Antony from passing through towards the Adriatic. Cicero said of the incident:

Now this legion he Martiais quartered in Alba Fucens. What other city could one choose, well fortified and nearby, or more suitable for its natural position for military operations, or more faithful, or inhabited by braver or more attached citizens to our Republic?

Its prosperity, in the imperial period, is testified by the inscriptions found. One of particular importance relates to the fate of the nearby Fucino river which dried up following the building of the

Tunnels of Claudius The Tunnels of Claudius () consist principally of a 6 km-long tunnel (or ''emissary'') together with several monumental service tunnels which Ancient Rome, Roman Emperor Claudius had built by 52 AD to partially drain the Fucine Lake in Abruzzo, p ...

to drain the lake in the 1st century by the emperor

Claudius Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; ; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54), or Claudius, was a Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Nero Claudius Drusus, Drusus and Ant ...

. In 537 it was occupied by the Byzantines during the Gothic war, its last mention in history by

Procopius of Caesarea Procopius of Caesarea (; ''Prokópios ho Kaisareús''; ; – 565) was a prominent late antique Greek scholar and historian from Caesarea Maritima. Accompanying the Roman general Belisarius in Emperor Justinian's wars, Procopius became the pr ...

. The town was completely destroyed by the

Saracens file:Erhard Reuwich Sarazenen 1486.png, upright 1.5, Late 15th-century History of Germany, German woodcut depicting Saracens ''Saracen'' ( ) was a term used both in Greek language, Greek and Latin writings between the 5th and 15th centuries to ...

in the 10th century.

Buildings

The city streets and many buildings built on a Hippodamian orthogonal plan are clearly exposed. On the northern side is a large terrace surrounded by a portico attached to an

exedra An exedra (: exedras or exedrae) is a semicircular architecture, architectural recess or platform, sometimes crowned by a semi-dome, and either set into a building's façade or free-standing. The original Greek word ''ἐξέδρα'' ('a seat ou ...

. The city walls of about 3 km circumference are well preserved and constructed of

polygonal masonry In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure made up of line segments connected to form a closed polygonal chain. The segments of a closed polygonal chain are called its '' edges'' or ''sides''. The points where two edges meet are the polygon ...

of uncertain date; the blocks are carefully jointed, and the faces smoothed. The arrangement of the gates is clearly traceable; as a rule they come at the end of a long, straight stretch of wall, and are placed so as to leave the right side of any attacking force exposed. On the north is, for a length of about 150 m, a triple line of defences of later date (possibly added by the Roman colonists), as both the city wall proper, and the double wall thrown out in front of it are partly constructed of concrete, and faced with finer polygonal masonry. The forum (142 x 44 m) was overlooked by 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 ...

built (end of the 2nd century BC to first decades of the following century), the

macellum A ''macellum'' (: ''macella''; , ''makellon'') is an ancient Roman indoor market building that sold mostly provisions (especially meat and fish). The building normally sat alongside the forum and basilica, providing a place in which a market cou ...

(market) from the same era and the baths of the late Republican age, but enlarged in the imperial era. The baths were decorated with precious mosaics depicting marine scenes and subjects. The well-preserved

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 ...

(96 x 79 m) from the reign of

Tiberius Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus ( ; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was Roman emperor from AD 14 until 37. He succeeded his stepfather Augustus, the first Roman emperor. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC to Roman politician Tiberius Cl ...

was built by the Prefect of the Praetorium Nevius Sutorius Macro, born in Alba. There are numerous houses belonging to the local patricians including a ''domus''. On the side of the Pettorino hill are the remains of the Roman theatre's cavea. Remains of the 10 km long Roman aqueduct, built as early as the 1st century BC, are visible especially of the siphon-bridge in the locality of Arci, 1.5 km NE of the town. Its source was the Sant'Eugenia spring beyond the pass of Fonte Capo la Maina near the hamlet of Santa Jona.Acquedotto Romano di Alba Fucens https://web.archive.org/web/20160310105232/http://www.comune.massadalbe.aq.it/jsps/5/MenuSinistro/382/Il_paese/499/Acquedotto_Romano_di_Alba_Fucens.jsp The last 3 km was unusually built using a pressured pipeline as an inverted siphon across a valley. At Arci is the venter of the inverted siphon, an embankment 12 m wide and over 130 m long increasing in height with the valley depth and at the deepest point was a bridge with arches carrying the pipes to reduce the depth of the siphon and hence the water pressure and associated leakage. In the urban centre were the temple of Isis and the sanctuary of Hercules. The hill at the western end of the town was occupied by the Temple of Apollo of the Tuscan order from the 2nd c. BC, the remarkable remains of which are incorporated in a beautiful Romanesque church of San Pietro which contains some

Cosmatesque Cosmatesque, or Cosmati, is a style of geometric decorative inlay stonework typical of the architecture of Medieval Italy, and especially of Rome and its surroundings. It was used most extensively for the decoration of church floors, but was also ...

mosaics. It is the only monastic church in Abruzzo in which the central nave is separated from the lateral ones by ancient columns. The collegiate church of S. Nicola contains a remarkable staurotheca of the 11th century, and a wooden

triptych A triptych ( ) is a work of art (usually a panel painting) that is divided into three sections, or three carved panels that are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open. It is therefore a type of polyptych, the term for all m ...

in imitation of the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

style with enamels, of the 13th century.

Excavations

Discovered in 1949 after excavations carried out by the Belgian University of Louvain, the project led to a series of publications of the site. The statue of Venus and other finds are at the National Museum of the Abruzzi at Chieti. Since 2007 new excavations have been led by Brussels University, and amongst the most spectacular finds were a painted calendar and

fasti In ancient Rome, the ''fasti'' (Latin plural) were chronological or calendar-based lists, or other diachronic records or plans of official and religiously sanctioned events. After Rome's decline, the word ''fasti'' continued to be used for simi ...

People

Naevius Sutorius Macro Quintus Naevius Cordus Sutorius Macro (21 BC – AD 38) was a prefect of the Praetorian Guard, from 31 until 38, serving under the Roman Emperors Tiberius and Caligula. Upon falling out of favour, he killed himself. Biography Macro w ...

Bibliography

* J. Mertens. 1969. ''Alba Fucens 2 Rapports et études''. Bruxelles: Rome Institut Historique Belge.

References

External links

Academia Belgica, Archivio Mertens (Alba Fucens)
{{Authority control Roman sites of Abruzzo Roman amphitheatres in Italy Former populated places in Italy 303 BC 300s BC establishments Polygonal masonry Coloniae (Roman) Roman Republic Roman towns and cities in Abruzzo Massa d'Albe National museums of Italy