Hispellum

About

Hispellum (modern Spello) was an ancient town of Umbria, Italy, 6 km (3.7 mi) north of Fulginiae on the road to Perusia.

of Hispellum was significant as the valley had two major rivers, the Clitumnus and Tinia mentioned by Silius Italicus, giving fertility to the land. From 220 BC the Via Flaminia gave the city a direct link to Rome.

The area of Hispellum has been occupied from the Iron Age (7th c. BC), as shown by archaeology, particularly in the necropolis at Portonaccio, although most of the tombs date to the 3rd or 2nd century BC. Traces of the early settlement from the 7th to 4th centuries BC have been found near the church of Sant’ Andrea.

Umbria had been conquered by the Romans by approximately 260 BC. Incorporation into the Roman state occurred soon afterwards; some Umbri were given full citizenship or citizenship without the right to vote and about 40,000 Romans settled in the region.

Hispellum was one of the Umbrian towns that resisted Hannibal and possibly sent aid to Rome during the Second Punic War. It began to be urbanised from the late 3rd century when a long artificial terrace with a retaining wall of opera quadrata using local limestone laid without mortar was built near Sant’ Sant'Andrea in the area of the later forum.

The ancient sanctuary to Venus (or her Umbrian equivalent) was an important sacred place for Umbrian tribes from the 3rd c. BC and the site was monumentalised, at least in the south-eastern part towards the city, in the Republican age (2nd-1st century BC).

Some of the land of the Valle Umbra was brutally confiscated by Augustus to found colonies there as a reward for tens of thousands of Caesar 's veterans who had fought for the Triumvirate and additionally, tens of thousands of them who had fought for the Republican cause in the war at Philippi. This led to the Umbrian revolt culminating in the Perusine War (41-40 BC). Hispellum supported Augustus in the Perusine War and became Colonia Julia Hispellum in ca. 41-40 BC. Augustus also favoured Hispellum by extending its territory to the springs and sanctuary of the Clitunno, 20 km distant, which had originally belonged to the territory of Mevania, and the city provided a public bath and accommodation there.

Under Augustus, the town was also developed and monumentalisation of the hill slope was increased by the extension of the sanctuary with inclusion of the theatre following a Hellenistic model, as at Tibur, Praeneste, and other sites in Lazio.

It must have received more colonists under Vespasian as it is also referred to in inscriptions as "Colonia Urbana Flavia". It received another influx of veteran colonists under Hadrian.

Hispellum received the name of Flavia Constans by a rescript of the emperor Constantine recorded on a marble tablet found in 1733 at the centre of the sanctuary and now at the Communal Palace of Spello. It showed that the city was important, as it was thereby appointed the seat of the annual meetings of the Umbrian peoples, which had previously taken place only in the Etruscan city of Volsinii.

A survey of the upper town in the late 20th century showed that about 80% of the buildings lie on Roman foundations, making Spello the most Roman town in modern Umbria. [ citation needed ]

- The rich and elaborate Villa of the Mosaics has been excavated in recent years and is open to the public.

- The 1.8 km-long walls are among the finest specimens of Roman wall in central Italy, formed by a very thick and compact concrete structure, covered on both sides by a very regular face of rectangular blocks of local pink limestone

- The gate by which the town is entered ( Porta Consolare ) is ancient and has three portrait statues above it, although they are not original to the gate, having been found in the area of the amphitheatre

- Five other gates may still be seen as part of the city wall, built of rectangular blocks of Subasio limestone. They include the Porta Venere, Porta dell'Arce, Porta Urbica

- The upper town also has vestiges of what is possibly a triumphal arch: the inscription is dedicated to Augustus.

- In the interior of the city are sections of large block walls, substructures for terracing the hill.

- The Umbrian sanctuary of Venus includes the grounds of the Villa Fidelia as well as remains of the amphitheatre (the entrance and some stone curtain, which stood in the plain alongside the road to Assisi, can be seen to the northwest of the town), a temple of Venus, baths beneath the church of San Claudio near the amphitheatre with geometric mosaic floors and heated rooms.

- The forum : the whole area between the Palazzo Comunale and the Convent of S. Andrea was terraced on the eastern and south-eastern sides by a supporting wall in local limestone preserved for about 130 m.

- a villa rustica in via Baldini from the 1st/2nd centuries AD with thermal baths in 3 rooms. It was sited on a necropolis of the Republican age. The walls are preserved to their full height in the SE corner where part of a basin with stone slabs covered in cocciopesto has been brought to light: In the southwest corner are remains of the lower part of a square basin and tiled flooring in tiles (perhaps a settling tank), as in the immediate vicinity are traces of a furnace.