Lucus Feroniae
Lucus Feroniae or Feronia for short was a Roman city with a sanctuary that was dedicated to the goddess Feronia . Today there is an excavation site at the site .
Location and name
Lucus Feroniae was located in the ancient Regio VII ( Etruria ) on the Roman road Via Tiberina , which led from Rome in the Tiber Valley via the present-day villages of Nazzano , Ponzano Romano and Magliano to the ancient Via Flaminia . The excavation site is now in the area of the municipality of Capena in Latium on the border with the neighboring municipality of Fiano Romano directly on the Autostrada del Sole , junction Rome North. The nearby ancient Capena was a few kilometers north of today's small town.
The word lucus in Latin denotes the forest or grove sanctified by a deity , more precisely the clearing in such a forest. Feroniae is the genitive of Feronia and refers to the goddess of the same name, guardian of health and protective deity of cattle breeding and the grain harvest. Feronia seems to have originally been a deity of the Sabines, but was worshiped as a deity by several tribes. Their sanctuary lay between the settlement areas of Etruscans , Latins , Sabines and Faliskers .
Strabon calls the place Feronia (Greek Φερωνία ) and describes it as a place of worship near the Mons Soracte , which is actually 16 km to the north. Livy names the place Lucus Feroniae or Feroniae fanum (Sanctuary of Feronia) and indicates its location near Capena. Pliny mentions Lucus Feroniae in his Naturalis historia and counts the place to the Roman colonies in southern Etruria. Claudius Ptolemy describes the place in his atlas Geographike Hyphegesis as Louchos Feronias (Greek Λουχος Φηρονιας ), but wrongly places it in Northern Etruria.
history
The cult of Feronia is very old and was cultivated at various shrines. Here on this grove they were worshiped as early as the 7th century BC. At the time of Tullus Hostilius , the legendary king of Rome . Their sanctuary seems to have been particularly visited by the Sabines, although the site was in the Etruscan region and was dependent on the neighboring town of Capena. A market also appears to have been held at the sanctuary every year. This connection between cult and economy was not uncommon in antiquity. In addition, the place was favored by its location near the Tiber as a navigable trade route.
Over the centuries the sanctuary of Feronia evidently gained great prosperity and importance. Occasional miracles are also reported. In 211 BC During his retreat from Rome , Hannibal plundered the rich sanctuary and stole the temple treasure, which contained a large amount of gold. This was apparently the first time the temple had been robbed.
An urban settlement at the site of the sanctuary did not emerge until the 1st century BC. At the time of Sulla . Under Emperor Augustus , as in many other places, veterans who had completed their service period of mostly 20 years were settled, and the colony was named Iulia Felix Lucus Feroniae , Felix perhaps alluding to the nickname Sulla he gave himself would have. The city flourished in the early Roman Empire and existed until the 4th century AD.
Excavation site
The largest contiguous complex of the excavations includes the forum with the adjacent buildings. The actual urban area extends from here essentially to the west, so that the forum has an unusual peripheral location. The elongated forum square (1) borders the sanctuary (2) in the east, which is separated from it by a wall. On the western long side, a few steps lead into a portico (3), behind which there are houses with a uniform floor plan. The rooms opening to the front are delimited by counters and were apparently sales outlets ( tabernae ).
A building complex adjoins the northern end of the forum and occupies the space up to the fork in the north. Towards the forum there is a basilica (4) with a podium in front of it. Investigations have shown that the basilica was built on the remains of an earlier substructure. The basilica was not accessed from the front, i.e. not via a centrally located staircase, but from the narrow western side. With some probability, the predecessor building of the basilica can be identified as the Temple of Feronia. This is supported by two inscription pillars walled up in the pedestal to the right and left of the podium. At the southeast corner of the basilica is a small room (5), which probably served as a treasure chamber for the temple of the city goddess.
From the inside of the basilica one got into several rooms behind it. One of them appears to have been a small temple (6) with a rear apse . Statue bases in the apse and along the side walls suggest that this room served the imperial cult . The statues of the deified emperors and their family members, unfortunately not preserved, stood on the bases . To the east is a room (7), which was probably used as a cult hall. The more recent construction phase of the forum and the adjoining buildings can be dated to the Augustan period.
Behind the building complex there is a fork in the road with a public latrine (8). The south-eastern road leads past the wall of the sanctuary to the forum square. The southwest street leads to the left over a few steps into a porticoed hall that leads to the portico of the forum. On this street, parts of a large building (9) have been uncovered, which can be identified by an inscription as the Schola of the Iuvenes Feronenses , i.e. as the club building of the local youth association. From the fork in the road, other roads run north and west. The road to the west leads to the thermal baths , of which the facilities for underfloor heating ( hypocaust ) and mosaic-decorated floors have been preserved.
The amphitheater owes its discovery to aerial archeology . Since its masonry parts are quite low, the characteristic elevation of the ground could only be seen from a great height. Only a flight over the site was it possible to discover the amphitheater, which had previously been sought in vain, and to carry out targeted excavations. What is striking is the unusual shape of the small amphitheater. With diameters of 34.1 m and 32.2 m, it is almost round. It had two opposing spectator entrances and two other smaller entrances for management. The walls are clad with opus reticulatum made of pyramidal cut tuff blocks that have not been moved as regularly as in later wall facings . The door walls were made of tuff . The spaces between the radial walls were filled with earth. No remains of the seating steps have survived, they were probably made of wood. An inscription names Manius Silius Epaphroditus as the builder of the amphitheater , who had it built with his own funds. From another inscription it can be concluded that this man was a priest of the imperial cult and patron of the Iuvenes Feronenses.
A small museum has been set up on the excavation site. There are found statues from Lucus Feroniae and the nearby Villa dei Volusii . The museum also houses numerous inscriptions that were found during these excavations.
literature
- Anita Rieche : Ancient Italy from the air. 2nd edition, Lübbe Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach 1987, ISBN 378570223X , pp. 232-238.
Web links
- Museo Nazionale e area archeologica di Lucus Feroniae on the Provincia Roma side
- Area archeologica e antiquarium di Lucus Feroniae on the Soprintendenza Archeologia del Lazio e dell'Etruria meridionale page
- Lucus Feroniae on the Romano Imperio page
Individual evidence
- ^ Karl Ernst Georges : Comprehensive Latin-German concise dictionary. 8th edition. Hannover 1918, pp. 717-718: lucus .
- ^ Varro , De lingua latina V, 74.
- ^ Strabo, Geographika V, 2, 9, 137.
- ^ Livy, Ab urbe condita 1, 30 and 27, 4.
- ^ Pliny, Naturalis historia III, 51.
- ^ Claudius Ptolemy, Geographike Hyphegesis III, 1, 47.
- ^ Livy, Ab urbe condita 1, 30.
- ↑ Livy, Ab urbe condita 27, 4; 33, 26; 27, 11; Silius Italicus , Punica 13, 83-91.
Coordinates: 42 ° 8 ' N , 12 ° 36' E