Arpinum
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Arpino (
Southern Latian dialect {{short description, Dialect of Neapolitan The Southern Latian dialect ( Italian: ''laziale meridionale'') is a Southern Italian Romance vernacular widespread in the southernmost areas of Lazio, in particular south of the city of Frosinone and st ...
: ) is a ''
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 ...
'' (municipality) in the province of Frosinone, in the Latin Valley, region of
Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...
in central
Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
, about 100 km SE of Rome. Its Roman name was Arpinum. The town produced two
consuls A consul is an official representative of a government who resides in a foreign country to assist and protect citizens of the consul's country, and to promote and facilitate commercial and diplomatic relations between the two countries. A consu ...
of 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 ...
: Gaius Marius and Marcus Tullius Cicero.


History

The ancient city of Arpinum dates back to at least the 7th century BC. Connected with the Pelasgi, the Volsci and Samnite people, it was captured by the Romans and granted '' civitas sine suffragio'' in 305 BC. The city received voting rights in Roman elections in 188 BC and the status of a ''municipium'' in 90 BC after the Social War. The town produced both Gaius Marius and Marcus Tullius Cicero, who were '' homines novi'' (people without ancestors who had held the
consulship The consuls were the highest elected public officials of the Roman Republic ( to 27 BC). Romans considered the consulship the second-highest level of the ''cursus honorum''an ascending sequence of public offices to which politicians aspire ...
). Cicero, in speeches before the courts in Rome, would later praise his hometown's contributions to the republic when attacked as a "foreigner", for Arpinum had twice borne men to save the Republic: Marius against the Cimbric invaders of 101 BC and Cicero himself against the Second Catilinarian conspiracy. Cicero in letters to his friend Atticus referred often to the peace and quiet of his beloved Arpinum. There is an oral tradition that persists to this day that Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa was also a native of Arpinum. Historians however have not been able to confirm his place of birth. Agrippa may have come from Pisae (Pisa) in Etruria. Beside the ancient town of Arpinum there are the fortified remains of a much earlier Samnite town. The high defensive walls are of the polygonal type associated historically with these people. There is an example of an arch of this type which can still be seen today. Dates are generally from the early Roman period to about 400 BC. The Stone is some times referred to as '' pudding-stone'' but in this case it seem to be of a more sedimentary dark gray type. Arpinum, Atina, and Cominium were known Samnite strongholds. The Valle di Comino nearby is considered to be strong Samnite and subsections of the tribes home lands and the language generally spoken up to the Roman assimilations was Oscan part of the "Co" group of
Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...
. In the early Middle Ages, the Roman duchy and the Duchy of Benevento contended for its strategic position. After the 11th century it was ruled by the
Normans The Normans (Norman language, Norman: ''Normaunds''; ; ) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norsemen, Norse Viking settlers and locals of West Francia. The Norse settlements in West Franc ...
, the
Hohenstaufen The Hohenstaufen dynasty (, , ), also known as the Staufer, was a noble family of unclear origin that rose to rule the Duchy of Swabia from 1079, and to royal rule in the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages from 1138 until 1254. The dynast ...
and by the
Papal States The Papal States ( ; ; ), officially the State of the Church, were a conglomeration of territories on the Italian peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope from 756 to 1870. They were among the major states of Italy from the 8th c ...
. It was destroyed twice; in 1229 by Frederick II and in 1242 by Conrad IV. The castrato sopranist Gioacchino Conti, known as ''Il Gizziello'' or ''heb ceilliau'', was born in Arpino in 1714.


Main sights

Attractions include the circuit walls in
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 ...
. These walls include an example of an ogive arch. The walls stand up to 11 feet in height and up to seven feet in width. Below Arpino, in the Liri valley, a little north of the Isola del Liri, lies the church of S. Domenico, which marks the site of the villa in which
Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...
was born and frequently resided. Near it is an ancient bridge, of a road which crossed the Liris to Cereatae (modern Casamari), birthplace of Gaius Marius.


References


Sources

*


External links



{{authority control Cities and towns in Lazio 7th-century BC establishments in Italy