ARDEA
Latium, Italy.
A city of the Rutuli
ca. 4.5 km from the coast on the last slopes of the mountain chain that culminates in the Alban Hills. Connected
with the legend of Aeneas in Latium (
Verg. Aen. 7.409-411), Ardea is recorded in the first Roman-Carthaginian
treaty (Polyb. 3.22.24) and was one of the thirty cities of
the Latin League (Dion. Hal. 5.61.3). A Latin colony
from 442 B.C. (
Livy 4.9-11;
Diod. 12.34.3), Ardea is
mentioned by ancient sources (Ptol. 3.1.61), which refer
particularly to the principal temples (Plin.
HN 35.115,
Iuno Regina;
Serv. Aen. 1.44, Castor et Pollux). Like
other centers in S Latium, Ardea was important in archaic
times, but in steady decline after the middle Republican
period. It was already reduced to a small hamlet in the
first Imperial age, and Virgil could say of it: nunc magnum Ardea nomen, sed fortuna fuit (
Aen. 7.412).
The terrain, level but crossed by frequent and deep
fissures, probably accounts for the articulation of the
Latin city that, like nearby Lavinium, had its acropolis
almost completely isolated from the remaining urban
zone. Recent excavations in the part of the acropolis
occupied by the modern town have brought to light remains of protohistoric huts with material that dates to
the Early Iron Age. Earlier occupation is attested by the
discovery of ceramics from the Late Bronze Age. A considerable number of axes, hatchets, and fibulae in bronze
have been found in a cache from the 9th-8th c. B.C. The
archaic city expanded on the hill of Civitavecchia to the
E of the acropolis, which has natural defenses on three
sides and on the NE flank an interesting fortification
with an agger and fore-ditch. The agger, constructed
with the earth extracted from the ditch, was consolidated
by a rampart of large blocks of tufa in squared work,
placed on its exterior to contain it. The acropolis had its
own autonomous fortification at the point of contact
with Civitavecchia, but the handsome wall in blocks of
yellow tufa visible today seems to date between the
second half of the 3d c. and the beginning of the 1st c.
B.C. The remains of a three-celled temple, identified by
some as that of Juno Regina, are visible in the W zone.
It is famous for the paintings executed there by M. Plautius, and its architectural terracottas are preserved in
the Museum of the Villa Giulia in Rome. Nearby, next to
a storage place for water and for foodstuffs and a drainage tunnel, the remains of a private house with two
construction phases have been found. The second is in
opus incertum and the mosaic pavement has the name
P. Cervisius inserted in it.
In the Casalinaccio section of the city is a temple
from which there remain parts of the podium with the
characteristic profiles of projecting moldings and fictile
decorations analogous to those found on the acropolis.
Beside it is one of the oldest basilicas known, probably
built at the beginning of the 1st c. B.C. There remain
structural parts in opus incertum and the bases of the
colonnade. Also inside the city there have been sporadic
finds of villas and a monetary treasure from the Imperial
period. Outside the city, several tombs have been found
at Casalazzaro. A necropolis with painted chambered
tombs and a small dromos from the 4th-3d c. B.C. has
been discovered to the SW of the city at the place called
Valle Guarniera. Recently a Roman hypogeum has
been found, which was probably used for cult purposes
and reused in mediaeval times. A large villa with massive
foundations in squared work, which occupies a level
area along the road to the sea, has been discovered.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
For bibliography to 1954 see C. Caprino
in
EAA 1 (1958) 600; A. Andrén, “Scavi e scoperte
sull'cropoli di Ardea,”
Acta Inst. Rom. R. Sueciae 21
(1961) 1-68; P. C. Sestieri, “Il Museo della Preistoria
e Protostoria del Lazio,”
Itiner. Mus. Gall. 58 (1964) 23;
P. G. Gierow, “The Iron Age Culture of Latium,”
Acta
Inst. Rom. R. Sueciae 26.1 (1966) 440ff; R. Peroni,
“Considerazioni ed ipotesi sul ripostglio di Ardea,”
BPI
75 (1966) 176-96; id., “Inventaria Archaeologica,”
Italia
4.19 (1967).
City plan and fortifications: G. Lugli,
La tecnica edilizia romana, I (1957) 269f; A. Boëthius, “Le fortificazioni di Ardea,”
Acta Inst. Rom. R. Sueciae 22 (1962)
29-43; L. Quilici, “A proposito del secondo aggere di
Ardea,”
ArchCl 20.1 (1968) 137-40; G. Schmiedt,
Atlante aereofotografico della sedi umane in Italia, II
(1970) plan 20.
The Temple on Casalinaccio: L. T. Shoe, “Etruscan
and Republican Mouldings,”
MemAmAcRome 28 (1965)
84ff.
Roads and Monuments outside the City: A. Ferrua,
“Oratorio cristiano ipogeo in quel di Ardea,”
AttiPontAcc
3.37 (1964-65) 283-306; P. Sommella, “La via Ardentina,”
Quad. Ist. Topog. Ant. Univ. Roma, I (1964) 17ff; G. M. De Rossi,
Tellenae, Forma Italiae, IV (1967) 128ff.
P. SOMMELLA
