ALBINTIMILIUM
(Ventimiglia) Liguria, Italy.
A contracted form of the name of the Ligurian
center Albium Intemelium, of which nothing is known,
was used by the Roman city founded (2d-1st c. B.C.) on
the same site between the Roia and Nervia rivers in
the narrow coastal plain. The city prospered until the
5th c. A.D. Surrounded by walls with round towers whereever the wall changed direction, the city had straight,
paved streets, and dry-block buildings.
Stratigraphic excavations have revealed the different
phases of the development of the city through evidence
gained from pottery. In the 1st c. A.D., the old Republican walls of the city were destroyed and the city was
enlarged with new insulae and a new monumental paved
road. To the S, the necropolis was extended and included
numerous monumental tombs, enclosed and rich in
funerary furnishings. Of the houses only a few of the
mosaic pavements surrounding them have been uncovered. The major remaining monument is the theater,
constructed during the first half of the 2d c. A.D. It was
built over an angle of the Republican walls and some
other buildings that had been destroyed earlier.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
P. Barocelli, “Albintimilium,”
Monumenti Antichi di Liguria 29 (1923); N. Lamboglia,
Liguria romana 1 (1938) 90; id.,
Gli scavi di A. e la cronologia della ceramica romana (1950); id., “Primi risultati cronologici e storico-topografici degli scavi di
A.,”
Riv. St. Lig. 22 (1956) 91ff; id.,
Ventimiglia romana
(1964).
A. FROVA