CAPENA
(Civitùcola) Italy.
An ancient city
between the Via Flaminia and the Tiber, S of Soracte
on the NE rim of Lago Vecchio, an extinct crater, between two tributaries of Fosso di San Martino, the river
Capenas of Silius (13.85), which flows S of Capena to
Lucus Feroniae (Sacrofano) and the Tiber. The discovery in 1952 of a number of honorary inscriptions of
Imperial date set up by the Capenates foederati has
identified the site. Cato (ap.
Serv. Aen. 7.697) says that
Capena was a colony of Veii and that the Capenates considered themselves Etruscans but spoke a Latin dialect,
like the Faliscans. Capena sided with Veii in her war
with Rome but was forced to make peace in 395 B.C.
(
Livy 5.24.3); the Capenates who had deserted to Rome
were given full citizenship (
Livy 6.4). Subsequently
Capena became a municipium foederatum, governed by
a single praetor even in Imperial times.
Some traces of the city walls remain, presumably
built during the Veientine war. The site is surrounded by
necropoleis; the earliest burials are of the 8th c.; the
richest, of the 7th and 6th c., have produced a wealth of
fantastic impasto vases with incised decoration in an
exuberant local style. The tomb goods have connections
with Italic material rather than Etruscan; the Tiber
highway and the Lucus Feroniae in Capena's territory
may explain this.
Feronia is an Italic goddess (Varro
Ling. 5.74 calls her
Sabine), and her grove by the Tiber, honored by Latins
and Sabines alike (
Livy 1.30; Dion. Hal. 3.32) was the
site of a great annual fair. The sanctuary was sacked
by Hannibal in 211 B.C. (
Livy 26.11.8). In 47-46 B.C.
a colony of Caesar's veterans, Colonia Iulia Felix Lucoferoniensis, was settled here (Cic.
Fam. 9.17.2).
The site was identified in 1952; the long Italic forum
with its adjacent buildings and a small amphitheater have
been excavated, and excavations are in progress. Almost
everything is of Augustan date except the foundations of
a large Republican temple found in 1961.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
R. Paribeni,
MonAnt 16 (1906) 277-490; L. R. Taylor,
Local Cults in Etruria (
PAAR 2, 1923) 40-59; G. Foti,
NSc (1953) 13-17; G. Mancini,
NSc (1953) 18-28; G.D.B. Jones,
BSR 30 (1962) 116-207, 194-95; 31 (1963) 100-58
MPI.
E. RICHARDSON
