AEQUUM
(Čitluk) Croatia, Yugoslavia.
The
Roman Colonia Claudia Aequum was situated 6 km N
of Sinj. It was founded by the emperor Claudius sometime after A.D. 45 and settled with the veterans of Legio
VII when they left the neighboring camp at Tilurium
for Moesia. Even before its foundation, a commun ityof
Roman citizens, traders, and settlers, probably from
Salona, was already established there as conventus.
Aequum was the only Roman colony in the interior of
the province of Dalmatia, the others (Salona, Iader,
Narona, Epidaurum) being on the Adriatic coast. It was
enrolled in the tribus Tromentina.
Situated in a rich, fertile plain, formerly territory of
the Delmatae, it was a planned city of 32 ha enclosed
by walls (400 x 330 m). The site has been only partly
explored. The walls followed as regular a plan as the
site permitted: the W part of the town was on the plain
and the E on a low hill. The forum, in the center of the
city plan, was built a little off the main city street. It
measured 90 by 60 m and had a paved courtyard with
colonnades and shops on three sides. The remains of
the curia were found also, with other rooms on either
side of it. In one room were found fragments of imperial
statues. Outside the city walls to the NW was a necropolis with sarcophagi and other tombs. In the W wall the
traces of a gate were found with a relief in the keystone
arch representing Victoria with a captured Delmata
kneeling before her. Citizens of Aequum appear at Salona, both in the legions and as traders and functionaries
in Dacia. One of the greatest families in the province
of Dalmatia were the Iulii from Aequum. Sextus Iulius
Severus was Hadrian's best general and consul with a
splendid military career. He suppressed the Jewish rebellion in Judaea A.D. 135 and served as a governor of Dacia,
Britannia, and Syria. His son (or nephew) Cn. Iulius
Verus was also consul 151 and controller of the state
treasury in Rome, the governor of Germania Inferior and
Britain.
Abbe Fortis, the 17th c. traveler, noted the remains
of the amphitheater W of the town, but nothing of it
can be seen today. The town was destroyed by Goths or
Slavs and Avars. Its ruins served as a quarry for neighboring villages and for the town of Sinj, which replaced
it as the center of the area.
A head of Hercules, a statue of Hecate, and many
other finds and inscriptions are preserved in the archaeological collection of the Franciscan Monastery at Sinj.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
E. Reisch, “Colonia Claudia Aequum,”
JOAI 16 (1911) 137-40; A. P. Mišura,
Colonia Romana
Aequum Claudium (
Čitluk) (1921); M. Abramič,
Zbornik Kazarov (1951) 238-40.
M. ZANINOVIĆ
