LUPIAE
(Lecce) Apulia, Italy.
An ancient
city of Salento on the Via Traiana ca. 40 km S of Brindisi. Strabo (
6.282) places it, along with Rudiae, among
the cities of the interior as does Pliny (
HN 3.101), but
Ptolemy (3.1.12) considers it a coastal town, even
though it was ca. 12 km from the sea. In a passage
(6.19.9) which has posed not a few perplexing questions,
Pausanias says that the city was originally called Sybaris,
perhaps confounding Lupia or Lopia with the Roman
colony of Copia in Lucania. However, it appears certain
that the city now covered by modern Lecce was originally a native center whose founding has been attributed
by the ancients to the king of the Salentini, Malennius,
the son of Dasumnus (Iul. Cap. M. Ant. 1). The Romans
probably founded Lupiae after the capture of Brindisi in
267 B.C. Octavian spent some time there on his return
to Italy after the death of Caesar (App.
BCiv. 3.10). The
city was enrolled in the tribus Camilia, was raised to the
status of a municipium at an unknown date, and under
the Antonines it had the title of a colony. According to
Pausanias (
6.19.9), the harbor was most likely constructed by Hadrian and must have been along the beach
at San Cataldo where the remains of a pier are visible.
Precise evidence for the first settlement comes especially from tombs which date from the 5th c. to the 3d c.
B.C. An Attic black-figure kylix (late 6th c. or early 5th
c.) found at Lecce is, at the present stage of investigations, the most ancient document of the commercial contacts of the city with the archaic Greek world. Beginning
in the second half of the 5th c. B.C. and particularly in
the 4th c., the city came under Tarentine influence, as
attested by the relief frieze of the well-known Palmieri
hypogeum and by the frequency of the proto-Italic and
Apulian pottery finds of Tarentine workmanship. However, the language remained Messapic, to judge from the
numerous inscriptions gathered from the necropolis.
Imposing monuments of the Roman city have been
preserved, such as the amphitheater, the theater, and
scattered remains of public and private buildings from
which have come marble statues, inscriptions, and mosaics. The amphitheater, constructed between the 1st and
2d c. A.D., measured 102 by 83 m, with an arena of 53 by
34 m. It had a seating capacity of ca. 25,000. Partially
set into the tufa and partially raised on arches in opus
quadratum, it was of impressive proportions. It had a
double order of maeniana, largely restored today only on
the lower order, which was separated from the arena by
a high wall with a parapet decorated in relief (mostly
preserved) with lively scenes of combat between men and
animals. Among the marbles which come from this monument, a copy of the Athena of Alkamenes is noteworthy.
It is kept in the Museo Castromediano. The theater is
perhaps of the Hadrianic period and not very large,
measuring 40 m in diameter outside the cavea. It is well
preserved and had a seating capacity of 5,000. Also well-preserved are the orchestra, paved with large, regular
stone slabs, and one of the parodoi. The stage, 7.7 m
deep and 0.7 m above the orchestra floor, must have
been richly decorated. Some fragmentary marble sculptures have been found, generally copies of Greek originals, such as the torso of an Amazon of the Berlin type,
another torso of the Borghese Ares, a likeness of Athena-Roma with a shield, and other works collected in the
Museo Provinciale.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
C. De Giorgi,
Lecce sotterranea (1907);
K. Miller,
Itineraria Romana (1916) 222;
RE 13.2
(1927) 1842; M. Bernardini,
Il Museo Provinciale di
Lecce (1958); id.
Lupiae (1959); O. Parlangeli,
Studi
messapici (1960) 134;
EAA 4 (1961) 522 (M. Bernardini); G. Susini,
Fonti per la storia greca e romana
del Salento (1962) 138; P. Zancani Montuoro,
RendLinc
28 (1973) 1ff.
F. G. LO PORTO
