ALBA FUCENS
(Albe) Italy.
The remains of
this ancient Roman colonia stand on a hill that rises
almost 300 m above the basin formerly occupied by the
Fucine Lake. A memory of the ancient glory lingers on
in the name of the modern village (commune of Massa
d'Albe), 8 km to the W of Avezzano. Alba Fucens was
situated on a crossroads, of which the most important
route, the Via Valeria Tiburtina, linked Rome to the
Adriatic. Another road gave passage from S Etruria to
the Campania by way of the valley of the Liri. This
geographical position determined the history of Alba,
whose development is due entirely to the military events
which took place in central Italy.
Rome founded this colony in 303 B.C., a year after the
submission of the Aequi, by transferring there 6000 colonists. During the 3d c. wars, at first against the Samnites,
then against the Carthaginians, Alba remained a faithful
ally. In the 2d c. the town served as a fortress to which
dethroned kings such as Syphax, Perseus V, and Bituitus
were relegated. During the social wars, Alba, which remained faithful, was besieged, but in 89 it was relieved
by Rome. From this point begins a period of great prosperity for the town. Whole districts of the town were
rebuilt, and the center of the city was entirely remodeled
according to Hellenistic ideas of urban planning. From
the 3d c. A.D. decline is marked, accelerating in the following century. The last reference to the city is made by
Procopius, who mentions that in 537 Justinian's troops
took up their winter quarters there.
The first systematic exploration of the city was begun
in 1949 and has continued without interruption. The center of the city has been excavated and a detailed study
of most of the public and private edifices has been made.
The town was on an oblong hill, its greatest length
running N-S. On the acropolis, a rocky spur, the mediaeval village formerly stood and perhaps also the pre-Roman settlement. To the S is the hill of San Pietro,
with a Romanesque church and Italic temple. To the E
is the Pettorino, on which are the remains of another
temple. Between these two heights stretches a valley some
100 m wide, where the principal buildings of the town
were situated. The town's perimeter included the summits of all three hills and took the form of an elongated
lozenge (1150 x 675 m), the whole surrounded by a wall
2925 m long. The original wall, which was between 2.8
m and 3.4 m thick, was constructed of massive rubble
work. It dates, for the most part, to the mid 3d c.; some
modifications were made in the 2d c. and at the beginning of the 1st c. B.C. The wall is pierced by four gates
identical in plan: rubble work construction with a tower
or bastion advanced to the right.
The streets are laid out on a grid pattern, the outside
of the grid measuring 336 m by 246 m. It is subdivided
into regular sectors by the two axes of the city: the decumanus or Via Valeria, which runs along the bottom of the
valley, and the transverse cardo. A second street, the Via
dei Pilastri, is parallel to the decumanus. Between the
two stood all the official buildings and monuments of the
city, which stretch from the N to the S as follows:
the comitium (2d c. B.C.); the forum (142 x 43.5 m),
which is terminated at the S by a portico and a rectangular basilica (53.1 x 23.3 m), which has three doors
opening onto the forum; then the market, the baths, and
the Sanctuary of Hercules, the last being a vast complex
consisting of a small cella and a very large esplanade
surrounded by a double portico. Along the principal
streets are shops of standardized ground plan. In the outlying districts are some opulent houses with mosaic floors
and frescoed walls, the theater and the amphitheater,
and the remarkable remains of the Temple of Apollo,
which are incorporated in a beautiful Romanesque
church. The temple probably dates from the 2d c. B.C.
On the N flank of the town stretches a large terrace
surrounded by a portico terminating in an exedra. In the
center stands a square monumental pillar. The whole
dates from the 1st c. A.D.
The immense rubble work wall attests the essentially
military character of Alba. The monumental center of
the city is an example of city planning dating in its principal elements from the end of the Republican period
(1st c. B.C.) the amphitheater and some private dwellings date from the 1st c. A.D.
The principal objects discovered in the course of the
excavations—the Venus of Alba, a statue of Herakles
Epitrapezios, marble portrait busts, bronze statuettes, inscriptions, etc—are preserved at the National Museum
of the Abruzzi at Chieti.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
F. De Visscher et al.,
Les fouilles d'Alba
Fucens de 1951 a 1953 (1955) =
AntCl 23 (1954) &
24 (1955); De Visscher, “Epitrapezios,”
AntCl 30 (1961)
67-120; id. et al., “Le sanctuaire d'Hercule et ses portiques
à Alba Fucens,”
Monum. Ant. Lincei 46 (1963) 333-96;
J. Mertens, “Ii foro di Alba Fucens,”
NSc 22 (1968) 205-17; id., Etude topographique d'Alba Fucens dans
Alba
Fucens (Etudes de philologie, darcheologie et d'histoire
anciennes publiées par l'Institut historique belge de Rome
XII, 1969) 37-118
MPI; dans le même volume, bibl. complète, pp. 33-36, et historique des fouilles;
Alba Fucens II
(Etudes XIII, 1969) contient des études sur les temples
italiques d'Albe (J. Mertens), l'église romane de San
Pietro (R. Delogu) et le sanctuaire d'Hercule (J. C. Balty).
J. MERTENS
