entry Sept 2003
In the Imperial Hinterland
Saepinum
It’s certainly not Herculaneum or Pompeii, but
if you've seen those places or simply been to Rome, you
know more than a bit about life in the big city at the
time of the Roman Empire: colossal arenas, spacious
forums, huge temples, labyrinthine public baths,
gigantic this and monumental that. At the other end of
the scale, however, and highly interesting in its own
right, is the small Roman country town, the Imperial
outback, the Roman sticks. Fortunately, fairly close to
Naples is one of the best-preserved examples in Italy of
the small rural Roman town. Get on the autostrada to
Avellino, turn north on SS 87 for Benevento and
Campobasso; before Campobasso take the turn-off for
Sepino. As you approach the modern town of that name
there are signs directing you to the center of town. Go
the other way, down the hill to the right for 3 km and
you will drive right up to the west wall of Roman
Sepino, or, in Latin, Saepinum.You are now in
Molise, a mountainous and largely unspoiled area of
Italy. The site of Saepinum, itself, is at the crossroad
of two important and truly ancient trails: the
north-south trail along the Tamaro Valley was used long
before the presence of the Romans as the path for the transumanza,
the seasonal migration of shepherds and livestock into
Puglia and Campania. That trail was crossed by the
east-west path leading through the mountains to the
Adriatic. [Also see this item
& this one.] Etruscan
relics from the 7th century BC have been found near the
site, and, indeed, Saepinum is virtually on top of a Samnite town, which the Romans
conquered in 293 BC. Inscriptions have been found in
Oscan, the language of the Samnites, a warrior people
that battled Rome for over two centuries before
succumbing.
Saepinum
is 12 square hectares in area (about 30 acres),
circled by a wall of just over 1200 meters. The wall was
highly fortified, originally having 27 towers along its
length. Entrance was through four gates, each bound by
two towers; the east and west gates were at either end
of the cardine, one of the two streets in
Saepinum; the north and east gates stood at either end
of the other street, the decumanus. The cardine and decumanus
intersected and that was the center of town. Here was
the forum and, across the street, the basilica and
market-place. The entire town is visible if you stand at
the crossroad, and it’s no more than a seven or eight
minute stroll along each main street, end to end.Still there and to
be seen are the twenty columns of the basilica. That
word is used, here, in the pre-Christian sense of a
"city hall," of sorts, although it was, indeed, in the
basilica where the religious rites connected with the
cult of the Emperor were held. The forum contains the
ruins of a temple to Jupiter as well as a number of
massive white slabs from a mysterious structure which
archaeologists have thus far been unable to figure out.
(Sepino has been undergoing extensive excavation and
restoration since the 1950s.) Three of the four gates to
the town are still standing—or have been restored—with
their arches intact.
The perimeter of
the city wall (completed over a six-year period from 4
BC to 2 AD) is partially intact, and remnants of a few
circular towers still stare out over the landscape.
Inside the wall at the north gate are remnants of
thermal baths. Along both axes of the town, remnants of
stone walls have been restored to show where the
original residences and shops stood. The "industrial"
section of town consisted of structures where wool and
hides were prepared. Also, there is a theater with room
for 3,000 spectators. Next to the theater, 17th century
farmhouses have been restored and serve as a museum.
Outside the walls are the ruins of two large funeral
monuments. They are, interestingly, of totally different
design; the tomb on the north side is square and bears
clear Greek ornamentation. The tomb at the south gate is
round and typical of the age of Augustus. Also, one of
the two towers guarding the south gate actually served
as a cistern, gravity-feeding water to the entire town,
which is on a slight downward slope to the north. Latin
inscriptions on the gates and buildings abound, telling
you which wealthy family donated this and that
structure. One such inscription cites the donors as the
children of Augustus Caesar, himself, memorializing
their exploits during recent campaigns against the
Germanic tribes to the north.
In the first century BC,
Saepinum became one of the 35 Roman municipalities in
Italy. Economic development started with the completion
of the city wall under Caesar Augustus and with the
decision by that emperor to carry out a program of what
is termed “centurionization,”
the granting of parcels of land throughout Italy to
veterans returning from foreign wars. This pattern of
land distribution had a dramatic effect on Roman
society. The square parcels of land still seen in many
places, especially in northern Italy, are directly
traceable to Roman land-grants under Augustus. The
fortress town of Saepinum thus enjoyed an economic boom
during the first two centuries A.D. with the influx of
new land-owners just outside the city-walls.
Subsequently, however, the formation of large land
holdings, huge estates owned by absentee landlords—land
that was in many cases left fallow or at least poorly
run—contributed to the economic decline of the area and,
indeed, of the Empire, itself. The presence of tombs
from the 4th century A.D. within the city walls of
Saepinum suggest that the city had been largely
abandoned by that time. After a few more centuries of
being battered in what are termed the “Greek and Gothic wars”
following the collapse of the Western Roman empire,
Saepinum was taken in 882 by Saracens.
The survivors moved a few miles away and founded modern
Sepino.
Today, the area
around Saepinum is as rural as ever. A few farmers have
encroached on the archaeological site, although I’m sure
they take the opposite point of view. When you go, take
a lunch; then pull up a marble slab and enjoy the peace
and quiet of a small Roman town. Depending on when you
go, the small museum on the site may or may not be open.
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