The Via Latina

The Via Latina is one of the oldest roads in Italy. Already existing in protohistoric and archaic ages, the path that characterizes the Liri valley was settled around the IV-III century. BC, during the Roman colonization of southern Lazio. Leaving Rome at Porta Capena together with the Queen of Roads (the Appian Way), the Via Latina came in Capua through several major centers. Aquinum was one of these.

In the urban structure of Aquinum the Via Latina plays a key role, being the decumanus maximus of the city, along which were the main monuments.

 

The Amphitheater

The amphitheater is located in the south-western sector of the city. Of the monument are visible only few remains  because was partially destroyed during the construction of the A1 highway between 1960 and 1961.
In the summer of 2010 he was made ​​a first archaeological excavation.
A farmhouse rested on four radial septa of the monument. In the cellars of the building and outside on the walls you can see the remains of walls in opus reticulatum.
The amphitheater Aquinum was probably very similar to that of Casinum, even if larger than this.

The Apsidal Building

The building is located close to the theater, in the central sector of the Roman city. It is a structure built of large blocks of local travertine squared. In the past, on the basis of Juvenal to the ruins had been given the name of “Temple of Diana”. In the writings of some nineteenth-century travelers, the building is mentioned by the name “S. Mary Magdalene “that would suggest his conversion, however, fairly common practice in late antiquity, in place of Christian worship.

Do not know the chronology of the monument, variously dated in the second century. B.C. in the Augustan age, or more generally in the second half of the sec.aC
Equally unknown is its function, attributable perhaps to a basilica.

 

The Temple

 

The major temple of Aquinum, better known as the “so-called Capitolium” was one of the largest buildings in the city. The remains are located in the northwest of the colony, in a peripheral area. The temple was built on a pre-existing cult certainly the oldest, pre-Roman times.
According to the most recent studies, the ” so-called Capitolium” was a temple with six columns on the front, with two architectonical orders of architecture, Doric and Corinthian. The monument is dated between the end of II century B.C., and the early decades of I  centuryB.C.
The temple was probably dedicated to a female deity (perhaps Juno Regina Populonia), linked to healing sphere.

 

The Tower

The monument is located in the extreme western sector of the urban area, on the line of the walls, a few meters to the north of the route of the Latina and the remains of the Porta Romana.

It was one of the towers that formed part of the defense system of the city. The monument is built of large blocks of travertine. The building technique is polygonal work. The plan of the structure is almost square, and measures 6.40 x 6.80 m., with a high stored for a maximum of 2.80 m.
The set of building characteristics and historical considerations establish the dating between the late IV-III centuries. B.C.

The Theater

The theater is on the Via Latina, decumanus maximus of the ancient colony. There are visible the walls that supported the media cavea, and part of the scaena. Of the building remain 22 radial septa. The walls are cementitious, and facing walls are characterized by an opus reticolatum with cubilia in local travertine.

The first archaeological excavation was carried out by the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Lazio.
These assays have identified 3 steps still in situ. On the basis of the excavations we can hypothesize the existence of two orders of steps: the upper sostruito, the lower excavated. There are different proposals for dating the building. A first dating places the theater in the early years of the I century. A.D. . Differently, others have dated the building to a previous period, dating it to the middle of the I century. B.C.

Terme

Arco

Nel suburbio orientale di Aquinum si trova l’arco onorario cosidetto “di Marcantonio”. L’attribuzione questa, assai suggestiva, trae le sue origini da un passo di Cicerone (CIC., Philipp., II, 41, 105-106). Il monumento costituisce uno dei più antichi esempi di arco onorario noti in Italia. Costruito in blocchi di travertino locale, L’arco manca di tutta la parte superiore. La parte inferiore del monumento non è visibile, poiché sommersa parzialmente da un corso d’acqua.

Le forme eleganti dell’arco “di Marcantonio” hanno da sempre suscitato interesse: già nel Rinascimento troviamo l’arco disegnato e integrato con ipotetiche ricostruzioni, da parte di nomi di rilievo quali Antonio e Giuliano da Sangallo, Sallustio Peruzzi, Giovannantonio Dosio.

La costruzione del monumento è databile intorno agli anni 41-40 a.C.

Via Latina

La via Latina è tra le più antiche strade d’Italia.  Già esistente  in età protostorica ed arcaica, il tracciato che caratterizza la valle del Liri fu regolarizzato intorno al IV-III sec. a.C, durante la colonizzazione romana del Lazio meridionale. Partendo da Roma presso Porta Capena insieme alla Regina Viarum (la via Appia), la via Latina arrivava a Capua attraversando numerosi centri importanti. Aquinum era uno di questi.

Nella struttura urbanistica di Aquinum la via Latina riveste un ruolo fondamentale, costituendo il decumanus maximus della città, lungo il quale si trovavano  i principali monumenti.

 

Anfiteatro

Sito nel settore sud-occidentale della città, l’anfiteatro di Aquinum, di cui sono visibili solo pochi resti, fu tagliato in due durante la realizzazione dell’autostrada A1 fra il 1960 e il 1961.

Nell’estate del 2010 è stata condotta una prima indagine di scavo da parte della Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Lazio.

Su quattro dei setti radiali dell’edificio, poggiava un casale esistente forse già dalla fine del XVIII secolo e demolito sul fine del 2006, noto con il nome di “Casale Bonanni”. Nelle cantine del fabbricato e sui muri all’esterno è possibile osservare resti di muri in opera reticolata.

L’anfiteatro di Aquinum  era probabilmente molto simile a quello di Casinum, anche se di dimensioni maggiori rispetto a quest’ultimo.