POTENTIA
(Santa Maria a Potenza) Macerata, Marche, Italy.
Near the abbey in the district of Portorecanati are remains of a Roman colony derived from Picenum in 184 B.C. (
Livy 39.44.10; 41.27.11-13; Vell.
Pat. 1.15.2; Cic.
Har. Resp. 28.62) on the left bank of
the ancient mouth of the Potenza river. It flourished also
in the Imperial period (
Strab. 5.241; Mela 2.65; Plin.
HN 3.13.111; Ptol. 3.1.18) and was an Early Christian
diocesan seat. It disappeared in the Middle Ages.
Beneath the Casa dell'Arco, are visible in situ the remains of the Roman bridge over which passed the road
to the coast (
It. Ant. 101, 313;
Tab. Peut.;
Rav. Cosm.
4.31, 5.1). Within its territory, extensive traces of centuriation are recognizable. An important fragment of the
Fasti Consulares and other discoveries from the Imperial
period may be found in the National Museum at Ancona.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CIL IX, p. 556; Nissen,
Italische Landeskunde, II 420-21. F. Lanzoni,
Le diocesi d'Italia (1927)
390; M. Ortolani & N. Alfieri, “Deviazioni di fiumi
piceni in epoca storica,” in
Riv. geogr. ital. 44 (1947),
1-16; id., “I Fasti consulares di Potentia (regio V),”
Athenaeum 26 (1948) 110-34; id. et al. “Ricerche paleogeografiche e topografico-storiche sul territorio di Loreto,”
Studia Picena 33-34 (1965-1966) 11-34; E. T. Salmon,
The coloniae maritimae, Athenaeum 41 (1963) 37;
L. Mercando, in
I problemi della ceramica romana di
Ravenna, della valle padana e dell'alto Adriatico (1972)
203ff.
N. ALFIERI
