The so-called coloniae maritimae, founded by Rome along the Italic coasts between 338 BC and the first decade of the 2nd century BC, are the first type of city with a regular urban layout founded by the Romans. They are fundamental to understand the dynamics of acquisition and elaboration of the urban models by the Romans in regular colonial urban planning. The aim of this research is to deepen this theme of the Romanization process at Antium (60 km south of Rome), the first colony under Roman law (colonia maritima), founded after the Astura battle.
In particular, a Republican complex of buildings has been identified within the current Municipal Villa, including a podium in peperino, which could be related to the first phase of the colony. The excavation of this archaeological complex could clarify some aspects of the urban planning of Antium city and of other similar colonies later founded along the Tyrrhenian and Ionian coasts, in particular after the end of the Hannibal war.
The so-called coloniae maritimae, founded by Rome along the Italian coasts between 338 BC and the first decade of the 2nd century BC, are the first type of city with a regular urban layout founded by the Romans. They are therefore fundamental to understand the dynamics of acquisition and elaboration of the urban models by the Romans in colonial urban planning.
The models that inspired the first foundations are still under discussion, from the so-called castrum of Ostia to Minturnae and Pyrgi. The models seem to be the Greek castles, especially attics, but also those founded by the Phocean colony of Massalia along the Mediterranean coasts of France. It is a very simple typology, small in size and rather flexible in relation to the geopolitical framework in which it is inserted. From the mouth of the Rhone as a stronghold in trade with the Celts to the island of Failaka (Kuwait) as a control stronghold of the Seleucids on the eastern route to India (Bats 2004, Lippolis 2016).
In the Roman reworking, the central scheme is at the basis of the invention of the scheme of military camps, considering the Pyrrhic war.
In this context, trying to identify the solutions adopted in Antium, the oldest case attested by the ancient sources (moreover relating to a site where an urban area already existed), could help to highlight some cornerstones of the Roman urban planning theory.
The foundation of this type of colonies affects a large part of the Italian coasts and also provides for the systematic militarization of the port areas connected to the inland penetration routes. Clarifying some aspects of this process at Antium will help to highlight the settlement dynamics in other areas of Italy, such as in Magna Graecia, affected by the massive reorganization in the post-Hannibal age. The cases of Buxentum (current Policastro Bussentino), Tempsa, Crotone etc., could be taken into consideration, in the light of the researches recently carried out by PI (Jaia 2021).
Essential bibliographic references:
M. BATS, Les colonies massaliètes de Gaule méridionale: sources et modèles d¿un urbanisme militaire hellénistique, dans Des Ibères aux Vénètes. Phénomènes proto-urbains et urbains de l'Espagne à l'Italie du Nord (IVe -IIe s. av. J.-C.). Actes du colloque intern. de Rome (1999). Rome 2004, 51-64
- E. LIPPOLIS, La città in Italia tra modelli ellenistici e politica romana, in M. ABERSON, M.C. BIELLA, M. DI FAZIO, P. SANCHEZ, M. WULLSCHLEGER (a cura di), L'Italia centrale e la creazione di una koiné culturale. I percorsi della romanizzazione, Atti del Convegno E pluribus unum? L'Italie, de la diversité préromaine à l'unité augustéenne (Roma, 21-24 ottobre 2014), 2, Bern 2016, pp. 202-248
- A.M. JAIA, Crotone, Thurii-Copia, Metaponto: problemi dell¿assetto urbano delle città dell¿arco ionico in età post-annibalica, in A.M. JAIA, C.M. MARCHETTI, V. PARISI (a cura di), "Ti dono Satyrion". Percorsi di archeologia tra Taranto, Saturo e la Magna Grecia in ricordo di Enzo Lippolis, Thiasos. Monografie 16, Roma 2021, pp. 227-255