LIBARNA
Piemonte, Italy.
An important
way station in the valley of the river Scrivia, at the
confluence of the mountain stream Borbera between the
present Serravalle and Arquata Scrivia. Today it is in
Piemonte, but in Roman antiquity in Regio IX, Liguria,
about halfway between Genua and Dertona, on the Via
Postumia. It is mentioned by Pliny (
HN 3.7.3), by
Ptolemy (
Geog. 3.1.45), in the
Antonine Itinerary (ed.
Wesseling, p. 294; ed. Cuntz, I, p. 44), in the
Peutinger
Table (ed. Miller, segm. 3, n. 5), by Sotiomenos (
Hist.
Eccl. 9.12), by Anonymous of Ravenna (
De Geographia 4.33) and by many mediaeval documents. The
site is perhaps pre-Roman, at least according to its trading habits (tombs of the first period of the Iron Age in
nearby Arquata; Gallic materials from Libarna itself, as
well as fragments of bucchero ware from Chiusi). Beginning in the 2d c. B.C., Libarna gained great commercial and military importance (even before the Via Postumia had been built in 148 B.C.) as a crossroad. This
topographic importance, owing essentially to its natural
position on the only clear road between the mountains,
in a gorge of the river Scrivia, has remained fixed from
mediaeval times to the present. Definite traces of a Republican settlement are available from coins of the 2d c.
and 1st c. B.C. Following the struggles of the Romans
against the Ligurians, Libarna was taken over by the
Romans.
It became a municipium according to the Lex de Gallia Cisalpina of 45 B.C. and subsequently was enrolled
as part of the Mecia tribe in two enrollments beginning
at the end of the 1st c. B.C. (
CIL v, 7425, 7430). It became a colony in the 1st c. A.D., between 75 and 96-98.
It gained great importance between the 1st c. and 4th c.
A.D. as a center with ample territorial limits. Libarna
fell and was abandoned between the 5th c. and the 7th
c. Intermittent excavations between 1820 and 1921, undertaken because of work on the highways and railroads, brought to light significant segments of the settlement. Systematic excavations in 1937, and from 1950-52
on, have identified the decumanus maximus (at whose
S end was certainly a city gate if not a triumphal arch),
along with the decumanus minor and the forum and some
cardines minores, if not the cardo maximus. The theater
and the amphitheater were uncovered along with remains of bath buildings. Notable remains of private
dwellings have been discovered with mosaics (2d c.) and
fresco decorations, as well as the remains of aqueducts,
even on the outskirts of the city, and of necropoleis,
probably of the late Imperial period.
The best-preserved monument is the theater. The
theater cavea has been identified as well as the parodoi
(there are three instead of two, one in the center and
the other two on the sides), the orchestra, and the postscenium. Beyond the inner ring of the amphitheater, a
notable section of the arena foundations and of the
cavea has been preserved. In the city, inscriptions, coins
dating from the Republican era to the reign of Valentinian III (425-455), small bronzes, and marble sculptures, and amber figurines have been found. The greater
part of the movable finds are kept in the National Museum of Antiquities in Turin and in the Civic Museum
in Genova Pegli, as well as in Pavia, Noviligure, Stazzano, and Alessandria.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CIL V, 6425, 7424-41; A. Bottazzi,
Osserv. storico-critiche sui ruderi di Libarna (1815);
G. Moretti,
NSc (1914) 113-32; P. Barocelli,
NSc
(1922) 362-68;
RE XXV (1926) 13; G. Monaco,
Forma
Italiae, Libarna (1936); C. Carducci,
NSc (1938) 317ff;
(1941) 29ff; (1950) 221ff; id., Dioniso (1938) 302ff; M.
Guasco,
NSc (1952) 211-13; A. Neppi Modona,
Il teatro
greco-romano (1960) 116-17; G. Forni,
Encic. dello
Spettacolo, I (1960) 589, and 9 (1962) 748; G. Schmiedt,
Atlante aereo-fotografico delle sedi umane in Italia, II
(1971).
G. MONACO
