PRIVERNUM
(Priverno) Italy.
This is a
Volscian town, originally probably set either between
the rivers Oufens and Amasenus on the height occupied
by Priverno, or on Monte Macchione nearby to the NW;
both sites lie just E of the first elevations of the Volscian
hills above the S end of the Pontine Marshes. The town
fought Rome bitterly in the Volscian wars, and after its
conquest by Rome in 330-329 B.C., its walls were dismantled, its senate was deported to Rome, and the senators' lands were given to Roman citizens, who were enrolled in 318 B.C. in the newly formed tribus Oufentina
(
Livy 8.20.6-9, and cf. 8.1.3). Sometime later the town
was moved to lower ground in the area known as Piperno
Vecchio, where it remained throughout antiquity. It has
been argued persuasively that this cannot have been before Julius Caesar settled a veteran colony there in the
middle of the 1st c. B.C., and there is no clearly Republican material to be seen on the site. The site was probably
abandoned only in the 11th c. It is not known when the
town received citizenship, but probably it was in 188 B.C.,
when its neighbor Fundi did.
The existing remains are few and unimpressive: shapeless remains of an arch in large blocks of limestone that
spanned a street (conjectured to have been the decumanus, but there is no proof), a few bits of pavement
and short stretches of masonry, the thick litter of tile
fragments and potsherds that shows an ancient occupation, and two funerary inscriptions, clearly not in place.
But from an area known as Piazza della Regina, plausibly
identified as the forum of the ancient city, a number of
sculptures were removed in the 18th and early 19th c.,
most notably the seated Tiberius now in the Vatican
(Museo Chiaramonti no. 494) and a colossal head of
Claudius (Vatican, Braccio Nuovo no. 18). The site has
also yielded inscriptions in some number.
The neighborhood of Privernum is good land, and its
wine was prized (Plin.
HN 14.65). Many Romans owned
property here, and there are remains of a number of
villas.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
H. H. Armstrong,
AJA 15 (1911) 44-59, 170-94, 386-402
M; G. Saeflund,
OpusArch 1 (1935)
83-84.
L. RICHARDSON, JR.
