Sentinum
 baths | |
  Shown within Italy | |
| Location | Sassoferrato, Province of Ancona, Marche, Italy |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 43°25′6.56″N 12°51′8.1″E / 43.4184889°N 12.852250°E |
| History | |
| Cultures | Ancient Rome |
| Site notes | |
| Ownership | Public |
Sentinum was a Roman town now located in the Marche region of Italy. It is situated about a kilometre south of the present-day town of Sassoferrato where the museum contains many finds from Sentinum.
Two areas of the town, the forum and the baths, can be visited today.
The site is protected as the Archaeological park of Sentinum.
History
The location of the original settlement of Sentinum is unknown but it was probably of Umbrian origin. The Senone Gauls ousted the Umbrians between Ariminum (modern-day Rimini) and Ancona and settled there from 390 BC.[1] Sentinum was at the confluence of ancient roads that came from Umbria to reach the Adriatic.
The town is best known for the great Battle of Sentinum which took place nearby during the 3rd Samnite War in 295 BC: the Romans lost 8,700 men but defeated a coalition of Samnites and Senone Gauls.[2] After 283 BC the territory was under Roman control.
During the civil wars of the 40s BC, Sentinum sided with Mark Antony, but in 41 BC was taken and destroyed by Quintus Salvidienus Rufus who was leading troops of Octavian.[3] The town was soon rebuilt with a Hippodamian orthogonal plan and Augustan walls in opus vittatum over Roman concrete. It flourished under the Empire as a municipium.
The considerable wealth of the ancient city is evident from the archaeological record, amongst which is the large number of mosaics found in public and private buildings both inside and outside the walls.
Civic life at Sentinum seems to have collapsed at the time of the invasion of Alaric I[4] and not to have resurged.
Archaeology
The archeological excavations in 1890[5] unearthed city gates, a road, cisterns, and the remains of houses. Notable cultural finds include several mosaic pavements[6] and inscriptions from the second half of the 3rd century AD, including three important tabulae patronatus, records of legal appointments of official patrons.
More recent excavations in 2005-8 found a large circular fountain at the crossroads of the cardo maximus and the decumanus maximus. Among important finds were two marble heads, one from the Julio-Claudian era now in the archaeological museum and a very fine one of a young ephebe.
Of the many mosaics found, some are still in situ and visible such in those in the baths of the archaeological area of Santa Lucia, mostly with black and white tesserae, while others are have been preserved in museums. The most famous mosaic is that of Aion, the young boy standing on the left who personifies the eternity of time, and Terra, Mother Earth, sitting in the right corner with three seasons. It was found in the insula del Pozzo (for the proximity to an ancient well) in 1806 and preserved in the Glyptothek, Munich. The same origin is likely for the other valuable polychrome mosaic with the central emblem of the god Ocean found at the same time in an adjacent room but in poor condition and of which only a watercolour is preserved. In 1922 the large mosaic with marine monsters was removed and restored at the National Archaeological Museum of Ancona where it was damaged by bombing in 1943. The figures in black tesserae on a white background is made up of a rich series of fantastic beings all characterised by the rear part of the body ending in a fishtail with several coils, while the front part is the head of a newt or griffin or horse. The mosaic was studied and published by the then Superintendent G. Moretti who observed the stylistic inhomogeneity of the figures, some of which were notable such as the one with the forepart of a bull (unfortunately lost) and he attributed it both to several hands in the second half of the 2nd century AD, and to repairs at later times.
In the insula del Pozzo in 1956, a complex of rooms with mosaic floors was found probably belonging to several structures, the most noteworthy of which is a polychrome one with geometric motifs laid out in a checkerboard pattern and edged with a fan motif currently buried, but documented by a colour drawing from the time of discovery.
Public baths
The public baths (thermae) inside the walls are along the cardo B and date from the late Republican era and underwent several reconstructions to the beginning of the 3rd century AD. It had a large rectangular swimming pool surrounded by a peristyle. On the western side is a frigidarium with an apse decorated with polychrome marbles, and a tepidarium and along the southern and eastern sides a calidarium to catch the sun's heat.
The baths had a large figured mosaic, presently kept at the Museo Nazionale delle Marche. A 2nd-century coloured mosaic of Mithra-Sol is conserved in the Glyptothek, Munich; Mithraic bas-relief of animals representing the stages of the initiate's progress were reused in the Church of Santa Croce, and Mithraic inscriptions are recorded.[7]
Outside the walls in the archaeological area near the church of S. Lucia along the main roman road to the south are other monumental baths probably built within an extension of the town due to population growth and shortage of urban space.[8] Out of an area of 7000 m2, 3000 m2 were baths with a vestibulum (changing room), atrium, a large palaestra (exercise area) with peristyle, several apodyteria, frigidaria with pools, tepidaria and caldaria.
See also
Notes
- ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Senones". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 24 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press
- ^ Livy 10,28-29
- ^ Cassius Dio 48.13.2.5; Appian The Civil Wars 5.30.
- ^ Zosimus 5.37.
- ^ http://icarus.umkc.edu/sandbox/perseus/pecs/page.4150.a.php Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, s.v. "Sentinum"
- ^ T. Buccolini (1890). "SASSOFERRATO". Notizie degli scavi di antichità: 346–350.
- ^ C. Ramelli, Monumenti mitriaci di Sentinum (1863); Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum XI, 5736-37.
- ^ De Marinis et al. Lo scavo e il restauro delle Terme di Santa Lucia (Sassoferrato). In M. Medri (Ed.), Sentinum 295 a.C.—Sassoferrato 2006. 2300 anni dopo la battaglia. Una città romana tra storia e archeologia. Convegno internazionale Sassoferrato 21–23 Settembre 2006, Studia Archaeologica (pp. 205–211). Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider
References
- Medri, Maura. Sentinum: ricerche in corso I - Roma: "L'Erma" di Bretschneider, 2008, 162 - ISBN: 9788891311368
- Marina Lo Blundo, SENTINUM 2. L'area sacra, Studia Archaeologica, 213, "L'Erma" di Bretschneider 2017, ISBN: 9788891309853
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Sentinum". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 24 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 649.
