1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cupra

CUPRA, the name of two ancient Italian municipia in Picenum.

1. Cupra Maritima (Civita di Marano near the modern Cupra Marittima), on the Adriatic coast, 48 m. S.S.E. of Ancona, erected in the neighbourhood of an ancient temple of the Sabine goddess Cupra, which was restored by Hadrian in A.D. 127, and probably (though there is some controversy on the point) occupied the site of the church of S. Martino, some way to the south, in which the inscription of Hadrian exists. At Civita the remains of what was believed to be the temple were more probably those of the forum of the town, as is indicated by the discovery of fragments of a calendar and of a statue of Hadrian. Some statuettes of Juno were also among the finds. An inscription of a water reservoir erected in 7 B.C. is also recorded. But the more ancient Picene town appears to have been situated near the hill of S. Andrea, a little way to the south, where pre-Roman tombs have been discovered.

See C. Hülsen in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopädie (Stuttgart, 1901), iv. 1760; G. Speranza, Il Piceno (Ascoli Piceno, 1900), i. 119 seq.

2. Cupra Montana, 10 m. S.W. of Aesis (mod. Jesi) by road. The village, formerly called Massaccio, has resumed the ancient name. Its site is fixed by inscriptions—cf. Th. Mommsen in Corp. Inscrip. Lat. ix. (Berlin, 1883), p. 543; and various ruins, perhaps of baths, and remains of subterranean aqueducts have been discovered near the church of S. Eleuterio.

See F. Menicucci in G. Colucci, Antichità Picene, xx. (1793).