VERULAE
(Veroli) Latium, Italy.
A city in
the foothills S of the Ernici Mountains in the chain of
ancient centers that dominated the valleys of the Sacco
and the Liri rivers, an important military and commercial access route since the pre-Roman age. When in 307-306 B.C. the Hernici declared war on Rome (
Livy 9.42.11), Veroli, like Alatri and Ferentino, did not
participate in the revolt. To that time dates the construction of the walls in polygonal work of the second type. A long stretch is preserved near the N side of the upper city. The wall, in which opens a beautiful architraved postern was modified at various times in the Roman period (in
Lib. Colon. 239L: Verulae oppidum muro ductum). Among the finds are fragments of the
Fasti (called Verulani) which refer to the months January to March. No particularly representative monument
has been noted in the interior of the city. The walled
center was placed on the slopes of a hill for strategic
reasons and several terrace walls in polygonal work are
preserved on which urban buildings must have been
erected. They are found under the municipal building,
in Vicolo Paolini, and in other locations. A passage more
than .30 m long has been discovered under the Cathedral
and the Piazza Duomo. It has a vaulted covering and
walls in coarse opus incertum, and was perhaps a cistern.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
C. Scaccia Scarafoni in
NSc (1923)
194ff; id.,
Una inedita costruzione a volta . . . in Veroli
(1961); G. Radke, “Verulae,”
RE VIIIA,2 (1935) 1688ff;
G. Lugli, “Un'antica costruzione sotto la Piazza del
Duomo a Veroli,”
Studi Romani 10 (1962) 1, p. 50ff.
P. SOMMELLA
