Aequum Tuticum

About

Aequum Tuticum was a Roman vicus in southern Italy, about 35 km east-northeast of Beneventum. The site lies beside Saint Eleuterio hamlet, overlooking Miscano Valley at an elevation of 575 m, about 15 km north of the modern Ariano Irpino, within Irpinia historical district. The vicus name is partly Latin (Aequum, meaning "plain", "flatland") and partly Oscan (Tuticum, "popular", "public"). Aequum Tuticum was founded near the intersection of two ancient Roman roads: Via Minucia (expressly cited by Ovidius) and Via Aemilia in Hirpinis, whose existence is attested by two 2nd century BC milestones (found in the nearby areas "Torre Amando" and "Camporeale Saint Lucia") showing the inscription "Marcus Aemilius Lepidus". The vicus was first mentioned by Marcus Tullius Cicero in a 50 b.C. letter addressed to his friend Titus Pomponius Atticus; he described the place (under the name of Equus Tuticus) as a regular stopping point along the route to Apulia.

At the time of Hadrian, when the vicus was a possession of the gens Seppia from Beneventum, it became a relevant road junction because the vicus lay at the crossroads between Via Traiana and Via Herculia. Near Aequum Tuticum, just to the north...