Via Amerina

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Course of the Via Amerina from Rome to Rimini (Ariminum)

The Via Amerina is a Roman road that was an important route in the Byzantine Corridor between Rome and the Exarchate of Ravenna after the Lombards invaded Italy in 568 AD .

Emergence

The beginnings of the Via Amerina are already around 241 BC. Assumed that the Romans put down the uprising of the Falisker and with this road created a connection to their newly built settlement Falerii Novi . It is therefore likely to have originated even before the Via Flaminia and the Via Cassia , at first only with local determination, before it then also served as a connection between these two diverging highways. A continuous basalt paving is only detectable when its route to Amelia (then: Ameria) was continued, from which it then also took its name. In his defense speech by a citizen of Ameria in 80 BC Cicero mentions BC that the distance between the city and Rome was 56 Roman miles, which corresponds to about 90.1 km.

At first it was of little importance, because those who wanted to move from Rome across the Apennines to the Adriatic and from there further north usually used the 283 km long Via Flaminia. However, this lost its function as a thoroughfare, as its crossing over the Apennines came under the control of the Duchy of Spoleto after the Lombard conquests in 568 AD and could not be used during times of war. Its straight course, which is typical for Roman roads, without taking into account the relief of the terrain, had numerous bridges and underpinnings that required extensive maintenance. Rome, which remained in the focus of the Lombards, had to find another secure connection to the Exarchate of Ravenna as a replacement for the Via Flaminia, on whose support it was existentially dependent for its defense and supply. So it turned to the previously rather insignificant Via Amerina, which remained the western parallel of the Via Flaminia with smaller and larger distances up to the Apennines under the protection of the Byzantine Corridor controlled by Estrom .

Southern section to Perugia

The Via Amerina leads past the necropolis dei Tre Ponti near Nepi .

Starting from Rome, the Via Amerina first used the route of the Via Cassia , but after 30 km branched off to the east and continued via Formello and Campagnano di Roma (near Veji ) - Nepi (Nepete) - Corchiano - Vasanello - Orte (Horta) Amelia. This first section of the Via Amerina in Lazio can be traced very precisely thanks to the exposed basalt stones and is now often used as a hiking route. However, its nature changed fundamentally north of Amelia when the enemy border line required that the new route had to switch to the local mountain ranges via Castel dell 'Aquila - Avigliano Umbro - and Vasciano Vecchio in order to get to Todi (Tuder). From there it went on through the Tiber Valley to the places Pantalla - Collepepe - and Deruta , until you reached Perugia (Perusia), the military base of the Byzantines so important for Rome. Here the Via Amerina forked, whereby its western route turned off to Chiusi , only to merge again into the Via Cassia.

Northern section from Perugia to Rimini

Course of the Via Amerina in the Byzantine Corridor from the 6th to the 8th century.

Over the Furlo Pass

The part relevant to the Byzantine Corridor, however, continued to the northeast. In times of peace, however, the Byzantines turned sharply to the east at Perugia in order to use the comfortable Via Flaminia to cross the Apennines. At its narrowest point, the Furlo Pass , a 38 m long tunnel was built under Vespasian as early as 76 AD , which facilitated the passage to the Adriatic Sea.

Even from Gubbio (Iguvium), the Byzantines could still use the Via Flaminia safely for a long time after the Lombard conquests. They gladly took this opportunity. Along this stretch from Cantiano via Cagli (Cales) to Smirra , there was a period of diffuse ownership due to the controversial and therefore fluid border. The makeshift road layout of the Amerina often had to cross the well-developed Flaminia because it had to give up its parallel course in the west and inevitably switch to its Byzantine territory in the east with its impassable mule tracks. Their routes are difficult to understand today. However, the authors of a more recent treatise managed to specify the former border lines more precisely using the Byzantine or Lombard names of towns, castles and church patronages . In peacetime, with this overlapping route, travelers were able to switch to the more comfortable Flaminia. During the war, however, the crossings were closely monitored by the numerous fortifications.

However, in the 7th and 8th centuries, the Lombards gradually ran out of funds to maintain the Via Flaminia due to their more aggressive policies, so that the Furlo Pass was ultimately no longer passable due to landslides, debris and road robbers. In any case, neither the tunnel, which was once strategically important, nor its fortifications are mentioned in the towns and castles listed in the Pippin donation . Therefore, the Byzantines had to switch to alternative routes at an early stage.

Cross connection to Apecchio

Route of the Via Amerina from Perugia to Rimini with alternative routes

Those who preferred to avoid this risky route to Smirra had the opportunity at Cantiano to turn onto an old side street of the Flaminia and use it as a cross connection to Apecchio . There he came across an alternative Amerina route from the upper Tiber valley, which led from Città di Castello (Tifernum Tiberinum) via Sant'Angelo in Vado and Urbania to Urbino (Urbinum). Like the mountain towns of Cagli and Gubbio, this belonged to the Byzantine Pentapolis annonaria and offered itself to travelers heading northeast as the most favorable starting point for crossing the Apennines without the Furlo Pass.

Around the Furlo Pass to Fano

However, those who wanted to head east to Fano (Fanum) and found the Furlo Pass closed at Smirra had to go around it in Byzantine territory via Acqualagna (Pitinium Mergens) - Fermignano (Firmidianus) - Canavaccio and Calmazzo and only reached Fossombrone (Forum Sempronii) on the now accessible route of the Via Flaminia to get to your destination.

Via Urbino to Rimini

For travelers with the destination Rimini, however, a circumnavigation of the Furlo Pass was too cumbersome. Therefore, at the junction at Fermignano, they chose the northern route to Urbino. Here they followed another stretch of the Amerina, which led through the mountains via Schieti - Tavoleto - Montefiore and Conca to Coriano on the Adriatic Sea, from where they reached Rimini on the last stretch of the Via Flaminia.

If you wanted to continue to Ravenna, you used the Via Popilia, which runs along the coast, for your last stretch .

literature

  • Gabriele Presciutti, Maurizio Presciutti, Giuseppe Dromedari: Il corridoio bizantino al confine tra Marche e Umbria. Pesaro 2014, ISBN 978-88-911414-9-1 .
  • Arnold Esch: Between Antiquity and the Middle Ages. The decline of the Roman road system in central Italy and the Via Amerina. CH Beck, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-62143-7 .
  • Giorgio Ravegnani: I Bizantini in Italia. Il Mulino, Bologna 2004, ISBN 88-15-09690-6 .
  • Enrico Menestò (Ed.): Il corridoio bizantino e la via Amerina in Umbria nell'alto medioevo. Spoleto 1999, ISBN 88-7988-490-5 .
  • Gerhard Binder: From Rome to Rimini, a journey on the Via Flaminia. Phillipp von Zabern, Mainz am Rhein 2008, ISBN 978-3-8053-3823-3 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ward Perkins: The Ancient Road System of the Central and Northern Ager Faliscus (Notes on Southern Etruria, 2) . In: Papers of the British School at Rome 25 . 1957, pp. 73-128.
  2. ^ Arnold Esch: Between antiquity and the Middle Ages. The decline of the Roman road system in central Italy and the Via Amerina. CH Beck, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-62143-7 , pp. 73 and 75.
  3. ↑ Marcus Tullius Cicero: Orationes. Per sexto Roscio Amerino .
  4. ^ Arnold Esch: Between antiquity and the Middle Ages. The decline of the Roman road system in central Italy and the Via Amerina . CH Beck, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-62143-7 , pp. 12 and 75.
  5. ^ Daniela Cavallo: La Via Amerina. Roma, Istituto Poligrafico dello Stato, 2004.
  6. ↑ Gabriele Presciutti, Maurizio Presciutti, Giuseppe Dromedari: Il corridoio bizantino al confine tra Marche e Umbria. Pesaro 2014, ISBN 978-88-911414-9-1 , pp. 115-135.
  7. ↑ Gabriele Presciutti, Maurizio Presciutti, Giuseppe Dromedari: Il corridoio bizantino al confine tra Marche e Umbria. Pesaro 2014, ISBN 978-88-911414-9-1 , p. 98.
  8. ↑ Giorgio Ravegnani: I Bizantini in Italia. Il Mulino, Bologna 2004, ISBN 88-15-09690-6 , p. 82.
  9. ↑ Gabriele Presciutti, Maurizio Presciutti, Giuseppe Dromedari: Il corridoio bizantino al confine tra Marche e Umbria. Pesaro 2014, ISBN 978-88-911414-9-1 , p. 98.
  10. ↑ Gerhard Binder: From Rome to Rimini, a journey on the Via Flaminia. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz am Rhein 2008, ISBN 978-3-8053-3823-3 , Fig. 4.
  11. ↑ VIA POPILIA - ANNIA DEL NORD | romanoimpero.com. Retrieved June 6, 2021 .