Interamna Lirenas

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Interamna Lirenas (also Interamna Sucasina ) was an ancient Roman city ​​in southern Lazio .

Location and name

The place was about 80 kilometers south of Rome in the valley of the Liri , one of the headwaters of the Garigliano (in antiquity: Liris), on the left bank of the river at its confluence with the Rio Spalla Bassa , near the Via Latina at the modern Pignataro Interamna . The Latin name Interamna means "between the rivers". The surnames Lirenas (after the river Liris) or Sucasina were given to the city to distinguish between Interamna Nahars ( Terni ) and Interamna Praetuttiorum ( Teramo ).

history

The place was since the 7th century BC. Settled at first by Aurunkern , Volskern and Samnites . 312 BC The Romans founded a Colonia under Latin law there to secure the Liris Valley against the Samnites. 294 BC Their territory was devastated by the Samnites. This was repeated in 212 BC. When Hannibal pulled along the Via Latina towards Rome. Apparently Interamna was so badly affected that Rome could not provide any help against Hannibal later and was therefore punished together with eleven other colonies towards the end of the war. In the Social War Interamna 90 was v. A Roman Municipium that belonged to the Teretina tribe .

Interamna remained a municipality during the Roman Empire, but little is known about the city from historical sources at that time. Its importance probably declined in late antiquity at the latest, after which it is no longer mentioned; it was probably abandoned around the year 500. Houses and streets were used as building material by the following generations and were largely destroyed in the process. Today, at the place where several thousand people once lived, you can only see flat land next to a barely preserved medieval Terame castle .

research

The remains of buildings and inscriptions found in the 19th century indicated that Interamna could not have been insignificant during the imperial era. Recent ground radar measurements have confirmed that the settlement was not a small village at the time, but a rich, bustling city. The large dimensions of the theater and the market square, as well as other public buildings, identified by the geophysical measurements gave clear indications .

The new findings about the settlement are the result of a project started in 2010 by Italian researchers and the University of Cambridge, which aims to research what happened in the ancient Roman foundations during the Roman conquest of the Italian peninsula. Interamna Lirenas was chosen because of its size. It hadn't grown significantly during the wedding of Rome. For the researchers, this means that the original shape and dimensions of the colony may still be preserved. The aim of research over the next few years is to examine the city's topography.

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Titus Livius 9:28, 8 . Velleius Paterculus 1, 14, 4 . Diodorus 19, 105, 5 ( English translation ).
  2. ↑ Titus Livius 10:36, 16 .
  3. ↑ Titus Livius 26: 9, 3 .
  4. ↑ Titus Livius 27: 9, 7 .
  5. ↑ Titus Livius 29:15 .
  6. ↑ Cicero , Philippische Reden 2, 105; CIL 10, 4860
  7. ^ Edward Herbert Bunbury:  Interamna 1 . In: William Smith : Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London 1854 ..

Coordinates: 41 ° 26 '  N , 13 ° 47'  E