Grumentum
Grumentum is the name of an ancient city in Lucania , southern Italy . Its location in the center of today's Basilicata region roughly corresponds to today's Grumento Nova . About 50 km to the north is the ancient Potentia and nearby is today's district town of Potenza .
Grumentum was on the right bank of the Agri River (Latin Aciris ) at an altitude of about 600 meters, while the new town is one kilometer away at almost 800 m above sea level. The city is probably not a Greek colony , but a Lukan and hardly younger than Rome. The fertile surrounding area was often fought over and is sometimes affected by earthquakes .
In 215 BC Chr. Were here Carthaginians under Hanno the Great defeated, and 207 it chose Hannibal as his headquarters. In the same year it came back into Roman hands at the Battle of Grumentum . In the Roman civil war, Grumentum was strongly fortified and temporarily in the hands of both parties. At the time of Sulla it became a Roman Colonia and had a certain importance and a large amphitheater , the arena of which measures an impressive 60 × 63 m. Besides Paestum, it is the only such building in Lucania.
The current ruined city also shows the remains of a theater and thermal baths (approx. 57 - 51 BC ), a similarly old portico and a right-angled, north-facing road network .
literature
- Liliana Giardino, Rosanna Restaino (Ed.): Grumentum. La ricerca archeologica in un centro antico. Mostra documentaria . Congedo, Galatina 1981 (not evaluated)
Web links
Coordinates: 40 ° 17 ' N , 15 ° 54' E