MINTURNAE
(Minturno) Italy.
On the
right (and left) bank of the Liris river separating Latium
from Campania, 2 km from the sea. Minturnae was
originally an Ausonian town (7 c. B.C.) of which no
archaeological traces have been found, but it was presumably on or near the Roman site. Roman sources first mention it in 340 B.C. (
Livy 8.10). In 313 it was captured by Rome with great slaughter. Two years later the
Via Appia was laid through the (unoccupied?) present
site, and in 295 a Roman colony was settled on the right
bank astride the Appia in a rectangular castrum (ca. 3
ha) with a polygonal limestone wall of which some bedding remains. The castrum itself is essentially unexplored, but the area seems too small to accommodate an intramural forum; possibly its earliest forum (63 x 50
m) lay slightly W of the castrum and opened S onto the Appia.
Before 207 B.C., perhaps in connection with the Hannibalic wars, the city had been greatly extended W and
S by a new ashlar tufa wall with square and pentagonal
towers 14.7 m apart, and a W gate.
Meanwhile, after the presumed fire of 191 the forum
was rebuilt with a double colonnade on E, N and W.
In the W half a freestanding three-cella temple, presumably the Capitolium, now faced S onto the Appia. This forum and a considerable additional area were again destroyed by fire later than 65 B.C. but before ca. 45; an
important expiatory bidental was consecrated in the
forum; the Capitolium, now in limestone, and the colonnade were rebuilt by a presumed colonization of Julius
Caesar's veterans, perhaps as early as the First Triumvirate though possibly not for some years; and a new
single-cella Temple B in tufa, with a large colonnaded
temenos, was built E of the forum astride the foundations of the old castrum wall. Later a small temple was
placed E of Temple B and another was installed at the
S end of the W temenos colonnade with consequent suppression of the pomerial streets.
Augustus again colonized veterans, and he or Tiberius
added the most conspicuous present monuments of Minturnae, the aqueduct which entered the city at the W gate
bringing water from the Monti Aurunci 11 km away,
and a theater for about 4600 persons. The theater was
located in an open area immediately N of the forum, of
which the outside of the N wall now served as the scaena,
and the cavea extended out across the Hannibalic (?)
ashlar N city wall, of which traces are found under the
theater arches.
At the same time or perhaps as late as A.D. 30 Temple A, perhaps dedicated to Rome and Augustus and
embellished with a statue of Tiberius or Augustus, was
placed in the E half of the forum, likewise fronting S
onto the Appia; the revetment of its podium included a
unique series of 29 reused dedicatory inscriptions
(altars?), mostly datable between 90 and 64 B.C., listing
freed and slave magistri and magistrae of several local
cults.
At some point the Republican forum was outgrown
and a larger imperial forum was installed opposite it
across the Via Appia. This area is unexcavated except
for a long E colonnade and the so-called L Street leading to the vaulted substructures of an otherwise unidentified Temple L of the late 1st c. A.D., and except for a small area in the center which yielded a deposit of wasters of a Campanian potter of ca. 200 B.C., and except
for extensive baths and shops near the NW corner, fronting on the Via Appia, and some shops on the rear (S)
side across L Street from Temple L. These last groups
and some other details result from post-WW II excavations. During Hadrian's reign alterations modernized and
embellished the scaena of the theater and well-houses
were installed at the S ends of the E and W colonnades
of the Republican forum, which was now wholly closed
to traffic by walls and a propylon.
In 1966-67 and 1971 underwater excavations and land
explorations showed wooden pilings and concrete rubble
remains of Cicero's pons Tirenus (or Teretinus?) carrying the Appia over the Liris directly from the castrum,
and another road (to Arpinum?) turning N from the
castrum by a long causeway on the right bank toward
another Roman bridge and cemetery. A variety of concrete blocks, amphorae, etc. was found upstream from
the modern bridge; downstream an area 250 m long off
the right bank was characterized by a ledge of concretion
containing some marble sculpture of no outstanding interest, terracottas including votive offerings, common
pottery and sigillata, sufficient keys and bolts to suggest
a locksmith's shop nearby, an astounding amount of lead,
hooks, and weights connected with fishing, and 2229
coins (270 B.C-ca. A.D. 450, with heaviest representation
between 27 B.C. and A.D. 192). All this is evidence of a
busy quay during several centuries.
About 1 km downstream the sanctuary of den Marica
dates back to Ausonian times. A tufa temple in Italic,
not Greek, tradition was built ca. 500 B.C.; ex votos,
however, become common only ca. 350 B.C., with a hiatus
between ca. 200 and 100 B.C—fluctuations attributed to
varying prosperity. Toward the end of the 1st c. A.D. the
temple was rebuilt and perhaps dedicated to Isis; it was
apparently abandoned after Marcus Aurelius.
Marius escaped to, and from, Minturnae. Cicero often
passed through it. It is mentioned frequently in ancient
sources, though rarely after Tacitus, with final mentions
by Procopius regarding A.D. 548 and by Gregory I regarding the Langobard destruction in 590. From the 8th
c. on it served as a quarry for Traetto nearby, and later
for Cassino.
Major unexcavated and/or unpublished monuments
include the imperial forum, walls, and gates (see Richmond's discussion), the amphitheater, Temple B, ca. 200
m of reticulate docks and shipways on the Liris, the
theater (except for Aurigemma's description and plans),
the aqueduct (except for Butler's description and photographs), and the left-bank dependencies of the city.
Sculptures are now at Zagreb, Philadelphia, and a
small museum on the site; other objects are in the Naples
Museum.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
H. C. Butler,
AJA 5 (1901) 187-92
(aqueduct); J. Brunsmid,
Vjesnik Hrvatskoga Arheoloskoga Drustva 7-9 (1903-7) and 11-12 (1910-12)
(sculptures)
I; G.-Q. Giglioli,
Ausonia 6 (1911) 60-71
(sanctuary of Marica); J. Johnson,
Excavations at
Minturno II, pt. 1 (1933) (magistri inscriptions and
literary testimonia)
I; id.,
Excavations at Minturno I
(1935)
PI (Republican forum; coins by I. Ben-Dor; reviewed by L. R. Taylor,
AJA 40 [1936] 284-85 and
I. A. Richmond,
JRS 27 [1937] 291-92); id., “Minturnae”
in
RE Suppl. VII (1940) 458-94; E. T. Newell, “Two
Hoards from Minturno,”
NNM 60 (1933)
I; I. A. Richmond,
JRS 23 (1933) 154-56 (west gate)
P; L. Crema,
BStM 4 (1933-34) 22-44 (sculptures)
I; A. K. Lake,
“Campana Supellex, The Pottery Deposit at Minturno,”
BStM 5 (1934-35) 97-114
I; A. Adriani,
NSc (1938)
159-226 (sculptures)
I; P. Mingazzini,
MonAnt 37 (1938)
696-983 (sanctuary of Marica)
I; H. Comfort,
AJA 47
(1943) 313-30 (terra sigillata)
I; S. Aurigemma, “Gaeta-Formia-Minturno,”
Itinerari dei Musei, Gallerie et Monumenti d'Italia no. 92 (1964)
PI; Bro. S. D. Ruegg,
AJA
72 (1968) 172; B. W. Frier,
Historia 18 (1968) 510-12
(pons Teretinus); id. & A. Parker,
NC 7 (1970) 89-109.
H. COMFORT
