Saepinum (modern Altilia, near

Sepino Sepino is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Campobasso in the Italian region Molise, located about south of Campobasso. The archaeological site of Saepinum is located nearby. Sepino borders the following municipalities: Cercemaggi ...

) was a Samnite town located c. south of the modern

Campobasso Campobasso (, ; nap, label= Campobassan, Cambuàsce ) is a city and ''comune'' in southern Italy, the capital of the region of Molise and of the province of Campobasso. It is located in the high basin of the Biferno river, surrounded by Sann ...

in south 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 ...

. Saepinum was on the ancient road from Beneventum to

Corfinium Corfinium (Greek: ) was a city in ancient Italy, on the eastern side of the Apennines, due east of Rome, near modern Corfinio, in the province of L'Aquila (Abruzzo region). History Corfinium was the chief city of the Paeligni, situated in the v ...

History

The position of the original town is on the mountain far above the Roman town, and remains of its walls in Cyclopean masonry still exist. It was captured by the Romans in 293 BC. The city walls (in ''opus reticulatum'') of the Roman town were erected by

Tiberius Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus (; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was the second Roman emperor. He reigned from AD 14 until 37, succeeding his stepfather, the first Roman emperor Augustus. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC. His father ...

before he became emperor, and are dated to between 2 BC and 4 AD by an inscription. Within the city walls are remains of a

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perfor ...

and other buildings, including temples of

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandt ...

and

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

. There still exists, by the gate leading to Bovianum, an important inscription of about 168 AD, relating to the ''tratture'' (see Apulia) in Roman days, forbidding the natives to harm the shepherds who passed along them. The presence of tombs from the 4th century within the city walls suggests that the city had been largely abandoned by that time. Following the collapse of the

Western Roman Empire The Western Roman Empire comprised the western provinces of the Roman Empire at any time during which they were administered by a separate independent Imperial court; in particular, this term is used in historiography to describe the period fr ...

, Saepinum was taken in 882 by

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 Pe ...

.Jeff Matthews
Saepinum

References

External links

*Jeff Matthews

*Michael Frank, "A Rarity Among Roman Towns," ''New York Times'', December 23, 1990, web

* Roman towns and cities in Italy Archaeological sites in Molise Former populated places in Italy National museums of Italy Basilicas in Italy {{Molise-geo-stub