HISPELLUM
(Spello) Umbria, Italy.
A hill
town on the Via Flaminia, made colonia Julia (
CIL
XI, 5278) probably under the triumvirate; it belonged to
the tribus Lemonia. Augustus was fond of it and gave it
the baths of the Clitumnus (Plin.
Ep. 8.8.6). It throve
under the Empire and probably received a further draft
of colonists under Constantine, when it became colonia
Flavia Constans with the privileges of a temple to the
Gens Flavia and regional festivals (
CIL XI, 5265).
Spello's glory is its walls, probably of a single build
and early Augustan, despite differences in style and
technique; they may be compared with the walls of
Fanum Fortunae and Mevania. The core is concrete
faced with small blocks of the local limestone with gates
in larger ashlar. Three gates are well preserved, Porta
Consolare and Porta Venere (triple archways, the latter
flanked by dodecagonal towers) and Porta S. Ventura,
a decorative single arch, simplified and set flush in the
wall. The poorly preserved Arco di Augusto seems also
to have been of this type.
Within the city are traces of the ancient terracing of
the site, and in the plain below are remains of a large
amphitheater (108 x 82 m). Antiquities from the site
are kept in the Palazzo Comunale.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. L. Frothingham,
Roman Cities in
Northern Italy and Dalmatia (1910) 188-96;
JRS 23
(1933) 163-64 (I. A. Richmond)
I;
JdI 57 (1942) 100-101
(H. Kähler)
P;
EAA 7 (1966) 438-39 (U. Ciotti);
AA
85 (1970) 326 (H. Blanck).
L. RICHARDSON, JR.
