paper presents the the final phase of the long term investigation conducted in the ancient colony of Venusia, and in the Melfi district between the Ofanto valley and the slopes of Mount Vulture. The colony of Venusia is located in a border area involing Lucania, Sannio and the Daunia area. Its border position is found in verses by Horace, who calls himself an ... “Lucanus Apulus anceps ...” Sources tell us that the city was besieged and captured from the Samnites in 291 BC by the Roman consul Postumius Megello. According to Dionysius, a colony of twenty thousand settlers was established there by Megello. The creation of this new colony and the planning of its urban centre, entailed the reorganisation of a vast territory. The urban plan proposed for ancient Venusia is based on the module of 52 x 105 m. The city walls included the whole hill. The wall was building in opus quadratum . But We known only a short stroke of the wall in the West part of the city We don’t know cult places but in the museum we can see several anatomic votive (Hands, feet, female statues ecc) Belonging to a now lost votive stipe. We don't know the monuments (the building Curia, Basilica ecc) of the forum, but I think the ancient forum located in Piazza Orazio Venusia was involved in the war against Hannibal providing assistance to the Romans during all phases of the conflict, with very strong repercussions on the territory due especially to the transit of military troops. It was the site of repeated clashes between the years 216 and 206 BC, and was repeatedly ravaged by Hannibal’s soldiers. Information in the Liber Coloniarum suggests that there was an increase in the population in the late second century following the allotments made by Graccus. Involved in the social war on the side of the Italic insurgents, Venusia became a municipium of the tribus Horatia. An event that brought about a further change in the area, one which is well documented by archaeological findings, was the transfer to Venusia of veterans of Augustus’s wars in 43 BC. Interventions in both public and private construction in the Imperial period document the prosperity of the city – a prosperity that seems to have withstood even the construction of the Trajan Apian Way, which isolated the town from the main arteries. The rise of large villas marks the transition in the region from small to large, Imperial estates.
Riflessioni sulla forma urbana di Venusia e sull'Ager Venusinus. Tra vecchi e nuovi dati
Maria Luisa Marchi
2019-01-01
Abstract
paper presents the the final phase of the long term investigation conducted in the ancient colony of Venusia, and in the Melfi district between the Ofanto valley and the slopes of Mount Vulture. The colony of Venusia is located in a border area involing Lucania, Sannio and the Daunia area. Its border position is found in verses by Horace, who calls himself an ... “Lucanus Apulus anceps ...” Sources tell us that the city was besieged and captured from the Samnites in 291 BC by the Roman consul Postumius Megello. According to Dionysius, a colony of twenty thousand settlers was established there by Megello. The creation of this new colony and the planning of its urban centre, entailed the reorganisation of a vast territory. The urban plan proposed for ancient Venusia is based on the module of 52 x 105 m. The city walls included the whole hill. The wall was building in opus quadratum . But We known only a short stroke of the wall in the West part of the city We don’t know cult places but in the museum we can see several anatomic votive (Hands, feet, female statues ecc) Belonging to a now lost votive stipe. We don't know the monuments (the building Curia, Basilica ecc) of the forum, but I think the ancient forum located in Piazza Orazio Venusia was involved in the war against Hannibal providing assistance to the Romans during all phases of the conflict, with very strong repercussions on the territory due especially to the transit of military troops. It was the site of repeated clashes between the years 216 and 206 BC, and was repeatedly ravaged by Hannibal’s soldiers. Information in the Liber Coloniarum suggests that there was an increase in the population in the late second century following the allotments made by Graccus. Involved in the social war on the side of the Italic insurgents, Venusia became a municipium of the tribus Horatia. An event that brought about a further change in the area, one which is well documented by archaeological findings, was the transfer to Venusia of veterans of Augustus’s wars in 43 BC. Interventions in both public and private construction in the Imperial period document the prosperity of the city – a prosperity that seems to have withstood even the construction of the Trajan Apian Way, which isolated the town from the main arteries. The rise of large villas marks the transition in the region from small to large, Imperial estates.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
