Location | Comune di Arce, Italy |
---|---|
Region | Province of Frosinone |
Type | settlement |
History | |
Founded | fourth century BC |
Abandoned | 125 BC |
Periods | Hellenistic |
Cultures | Roman Republic |
Site notes | |
Excavation dates | yes |
Archaeologists | Filippo Coarelli |
Condition | ruined |
Public access | no |
Website | Museo Archeologico di Fregellae di Ceprano |
Fregellae was an ancient town of Latium adiectum, situated on the Via Latina between Aquinum (modern Aquino) and Frusino (now Frosinone), in central Italy, near the left branch of the Liris. [1]
Fregellae was said to have been founded in early times by the Opici or Oscans, near the modern Arce, and later to have belonged the Volsci. It was apparently destroyed by the Samnites a little before 330 BC; in that year the people of Fabrateria Vetus (modern Ceccano) sought the help of Rome against them and in 328 BC a Latin colony was established there. [2] The place was taken in 320 BC by the Samnites, but re-established by the Romans in 313 BC. It was largely faithful to Rome: by burning the bridges over the Liris, it blocked Hannibal's advance on Rome in 212 BC at the cost of his general devastation of the area. [3] [4] (A messenger from the city caused panic throughout Rome until word arrived that a Roman army was en route from Capua. [4] ) Fregellae's agent headed the deputation of the 18 non-revolting colonies Roman Senate in 209 BC, after 12 other colonies had revolted during the war. [5]
Fregellae appears to have been a very important and flourishing place owing to its command of the crossing of the Liris and to its position in a fertile territory. After the rejection of Flaccus's proposals for the extension of Roman citizenship in 125 BC, a revolt broke out against Rome. [3] A local traitor named Numitorius opened the gates to the Roman army under the praetor Lucius Opimius. The severity of its razing was later credited by the Romans with having prevented a general uprising among the Italian allies. [6]
The following year, Fregellae's place was taken by the colony of Fabrateria Nova, 3 miles (4.8 km) to the southeast on the opposite bank of the Liris. Under the empire, Fregellae is recorded as a small village and a post station at modern Ceprano called Fregellanum is mentioned in the itineraries. [3]
The site is clearly visible in the territory of Arce, in the frazione Isoletta di Arce, not far from the border with the municipality of Ceprano and San Giovanni Incarico. Remains excavated starting from 1978 include items from the Republican age and a large temple of Aesculapius. Some of the items are in the museum of Ceprano.
The Appian Way is one of the earliest and strategically most important Roman roads of the ancient republic. It connected Rome to Brindisi, in southeast Italy. Its importance is indicated by its common name, recorded by Statius, of Appia longarum... regina viarum . The road is named after Appius Claudius Caecus, the Roman censor who, during the Samnite Wars, began and completed the first section as a military road to the south in 312 BC.
Capua is a city and comune in the province of Caserta, in the region of Campania, southern Italy, situated 25 km (16 mi) north of Naples, on the northeastern edge of the Campanian plain.
The First, Second, and Third Samnite Wars were fought between the Roman Republic and the Samnites, who lived on a stretch of the Apennine Mountains south of Rome and north of the Lucanian tribe.
From its origin as a city-state on the peninsula of Italy in the 8th century BC, to its rise as an empire covering much of Southern Europe, Western Europe, Near East and North Africa to its fall in the 5th century AD, the political history of Ancient Rome was closely entwined with its military history. The core of the campaign history of the Roman military is an aggregate of different accounts of the Roman military's land battles, from its initial defense against and subsequent conquest of the city's hilltop neighbors on the Italian peninsula, to the ultimate struggle of the Western Roman Empire for its existence against invading Huns, Vandals and Germanic tribes. These accounts were written by various authors throughout and after the history of the Empire. Following the First Punic War, naval battles were less significant than land battles to the military history of Rome due to its encompassment of lands of the periphery and its unchallenged dominance of the Mediterranean Sea.
The Samnites were an ancient Italic people who lived in Samnium, which is located in modern inland Abruzzo, Molise, and Campania in south-central Italy.
The province of Frosinone is a province in the Lazio region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Frosinone. It has an area of 3,247 square kilometres (1,254 sq mi) and a total population of 493,605 (2016). The province contains 91 comuni, listed in the comuni of the province of Frosinone.
Arpino is a comune (municipality) in the province of Frosinone, in the Latin Valley, region of Lazio in central Italy, about 100 km SE of Rome. Its Roman name was Arpinum. The town produced two consuls of the Roman republic: Gaius Marius and Marcus Tullius Cicero.
The Battle of Lautulae was fought in 315 BC during the Second Samnite War, opposing the Roman Republic and the Samnites, who defeated the Romans.
Latium Adjectum or Adiectum or Latium Novum was a region of Roman Italy between Monte Circeo and the river Garigliano, south of and immediately adjacent to Old Latium and included with it under the Roman Empire.
Arce is a comune (municipality) in the province of Frosinone, in the region of Lazio, Italy. it is an agricultural centre located on a hill overlooking the Via Casilina, in the Latin Valley and in the middle valley of the Liri.
Ceprano is a comune in the province of Frosinone, in the Valle Latina, part of the Lazio region of Central Italy.
The Capture of Neapolis took place during the Second Samnite War in 327 BC, when the Romans seized the city of Neapolis from the Samnites, an ancient Italic people who lived in Samnium. The city's fall is attributed to treachery committed by some of its citizens.
The military campaigns of the Samnite Wars were an important stage in Roman expansion in the Italian Peninsula.
Valle Latina is an Italian geographical and historical region that extends from the south of Rome to Cassino, corresponding to the eastern area of ancient Roman Latium.
Sinuessa was a city of Latium, in the more extended sense of the name, situated on the Tyrrhenian Sea, about 10 km north of the mouth of the Volturno River. It was on the line of the Via Appia, and was the last place where that great highroad touched on the sea-coast. The ruins of the city are located in the modern-day comune of Sessa Aurunca. The city ruins are located, as the crow flies, 12.24 km SSW from the modern city of Sessa Aurunca and 41.43 km from the Province of Caserta. It is 26.71 km from the regional capital (Naples/Napoli) Campania, Italy.
Aquino is a town and comune in the province of Frosinone, in the Lazio region of Italy, 12 kilometres (7 mi) northwest of Cassino.
The Roman expansion in Italy covers a series of conflicts in which Rome grew from being a small Italian city-state to be the ruler of the Italian region. Roman tradition attributes to the Roman kings the first war against the Sabines and the first conquests around the Alban Hills and down to the coast of Latium. The birth of the Roman Republic after the overthrow of the Etruscan monarch of Rome in 509 BC began a series of major wars between the Romans and the Etruscans. In 390 BC, Gauls from the north of Italy sacked Rome. In the second half of the 4th century BC Rome clashed repeatedly with the Samnites, a powerful tribal coalition of the Apennine region.
Isoletta is a village in Italy, in the Valle Latina within the Arce municipality. Isoletta is located in the province of Frosinone, of the southern Lazio region in Italy.
The Sidicini were one of the Italic peoples of ancient Italy. Their territory extended northward from their capital, Teanum Sidicinum, along the valley of the Liri river up to Fregellae, covering around 3,000 square kilometres in total. They were neighbors of the Samnites and Campanians, and allies of the Ausones and Aurunci. Their language was Oscan.
The Valle del Liri is a valley and a geographical region of southern Lazio and part of the larger Latin Valley, located in the province of Frosinone, crossed by the Liri river. The main urban center of the area is Sora.