Gabii

About

Gabii was an ancient city of Latium, located 18 km (11 mi) due east of Rome along the Via Praenestina, known in earlier times as the Via Gabina. It lies within an archaeological park in which many remains have been recently unearthed. Gabii was a renowned city and once a powerful rival to Rome, particularly during the early Republican period. In legend it was said to be the place where Rome’s founders Romulus and Remus were educated. It was sited on the south-eastern perimeter of an extinct volcanic crater lake, approximately circular in shape, named the Lacus Gabinus, and then during later times called the Lago di Castiglione, "lake of the fortification", after Castiglione, a mediaeval tower erected on the site of the ancient acropolis, or arx, of Gabii. A necropolis is adjacent on that side of the lake. At present, the former lake is entirely agricultural land. Gabii is located in the frazione of Osteria dell'Osa 10 km (6.2 mi), in the Province of Rome, Region of Lazio.

Some of the earliest settlement was in the crater of Lacus Buranus. Two streams flowing north to south flanked the lake on the west: the Fosso del'Osa, and the east: Fosso di San Giuliano. These originated in another body of water, believed to be Lacus Regillus, on the south side of the road. The streams cut the road on either side of Gabii and were crossed by bridges; in other words, Gabii was constructed at a defensible location on an isthmus between two lakes. The quadrangle so formed contained its own water supply and straddled a major route on the east flank of Rome. The two streams flow north to the Anio river, which flows west into the Tiber river on the north side of Rome.

The draining of the lake was a project of the Borghese family, which had purchased it in 1614 from the Colonna family.

An 1846 topographic work reports that the Osa came from "a large marshy plain, extending almost to the Via Labicana." Passing by Lake Gabino it was connected to the latter by "artificial canals", which were in the process of draining the lake:

The water of the lake has been very much lowered by this canal, and more draining is yet in contemplation, although there are already many square miles of uncultivated ground in the vicinity.

Octavian Blewitt 's handbook was able to report in 1850:

The lake was drained a few years ago by prince Borghese, who has converted it from the state of a pestilential marsh into a district of great fertility.

Near the river a small inn had been built, the Osteria dell'Osa ("Inn of the Osa"), north of which was the main necropolis of Gabii. The habitation today has expanded into the centre of a frazione.

The basin with a marshy plain is the last trace of the quasi-legendary lake. It is now mostly agricultural land, except that the community of Lago Regillo has been placed in it near Gabii. Osteria del Finocchio marks the western limit, which is heavily settled and is on higher ground. The Battle of Lake Regillus decided whether the Roman Republic would continue or the kings of Rome would be restored by the intervention of the Latin League, to which Gabii belonged. The site of the battle is still a matter of dispute, which, on the unwarranted assumption that the location of the battle reveals the location of the lake, has extended into a dispute over the location of the lake. To modern topographers the deep lake basin, now kept dry, and the aqueducts that drew water, and still draw water, from its sources leave no doubt that the lake was located in the basin.

English Wikisource has original text related to this article: Fountains of Papal Rome/Fontana del Mosè

Lake Regillus varied in size and depth over the centuries but was certainly between the Via Labicana and the Via Praenestina east of Finocchio and north of Colonna (ancient Labicum ), the last remnant at Pantana Borghese having been drained by the Borghese family in conjunction with the restitution of the first part of the Acqua Alexandrina as the Acqua Felice under Pope Sixtus V in the years 1585–1587. The two roads joined on the outskirts of Rome. The Pantana was the low point; from springs on its hillside exuded the water that filled the lake. During the thousand years of the post-classical period a much smaller Rome had lived on a greatly reduced water supply due to the broken and unrepaired aqueducts.

The basin with a marshy plain is the last trace of the quasi-legendary lake. It is now mostly agricultural land, except that the community of Lago Regillo has been placed in it near Gabii. Osteria del Finocchio marks the western limit, which is heavily settled and is on higher ground. The Battle of Lake Regillus decided whether the Roman Republic would continue or the kings of Rome would be restored by the intervention of the Latin League, to which Gabii belonged. The site of the battle is still a matter of dispute, which, on the unwarranted assumption that the location of the battle reveals the location of the lake, has extended into a dispute over the location of the lake. To modern topographers the deep lake basin, now kept dry, and the aqueducts that drew water, and still draw water, from its sources leave no doubt that the lake was located in the basin.

English Wikisource has original text related to this article: Fountains of Papal Rome/Fontana del Mosè

Lake Regillus varied in size and depth over the centuries but was certainly between the Via Labicana and the Via Praenestina east of Finocchio and north of Colonna (ancient Labicum ), the last remnant at Pantana Borghese having been drained by the Borghese family in conjunction with the restitution of the first part of the Acqua Alexandrina as the Acqua Felice under Pope Sixtus V in the years 1585–1587. The two roads joined on the outskirts of Rome. The Pantana was the low point; from springs on its hillside exuded the water that filled the lake. During the thousand years of the post-classical period a much smaller Rome had lived on a greatly reduced water supply due to the broken and unrepaired aqueducts.

Scattered surface pottery from the Middle Bronze Age has been found outside the necropolis located below Castiglione, from which nothing can be deduced concerning the settlement at Gabii. The Late Bronze Age is missing. The Final Bronze Age is represented by minimal Latial I (1000-900 BC) material around the inside of the crater on the southern side, indicating low-density settlement at the water's edge there.

Definitive settlement at Gabii is believed to have begun with Latial IIA (900-830 BC) when the cemeteries of Castiglione, some 60 tombs of only IIA, and Osteria del'Osa, over 600 tombs primarily of II and III (900-630 BC), and some of IV (730-580 BC), began. Both of these necropoli are dated entirely before the foundation of Rome and well before the classical city of Gabii. The location of the settlements producing these cemeteries was an issue of some mystery until aerial reconnaissance revealed a string of six "Iron Age hamlets" on the isthmus and more along the ridge to the east. Latial IIA is regarded as pre-urban and IIB as proto-urban; that is, at some time during 830-730 BC the settlements acquired a common geopolitical identity. By the end of IV (580 BC) the name Gabii must have been in place as the name of the city, as by then the history was well into the events of its legends.

The most archaeological work has been done on the cemetery of Osteria dell'Osa. The tombs are divided into 14 groups, each exhibiting a set of distinctive traditions and each believed to represent one community of roughly 100 persons, round numbers. The earliest two, contemporaneous and dated to IIA, termed the northern and southern groups from their location within the cemetery, evidence the presence of a male warrior class. At the center of the cluster is a small set of male-only cremation burials, some in hut-urns. Around them is a greater group of inhumations of men, women and children. The richer cremation burials included grave gifts of miniaturized bronze tools and weapons and miniaturized pottery forms. The inhumations lacked weapons. Women were buried with jewelry and spindle-whorls (used in weaving).

The northern group (25 tombs) covered the mouth of the burial jar (dolium) with a travertine slab, made ovicaprine food offerings, left serpentine fibulae, razors of quadrangular shape and spearheads with sockets for wooden handles. The pottery is decorated. The southern group (30 tombs) used an impasto lid on the burial jars, left serpent-fibulae of a different-style, a razor of lunate shape and one-piece cast spears. The pottery is undecorated.

Urbanization of the area probably did not begin before the start of the second half of the 8th century BC. This process most likely finished by the end of the 7th century BC, and, at its height, the city's borders enclosed 0.75 square miles (1.9 km 2 ).

The early date of the prehistoric Gabii suggests that the Roman writers could have little traditional memory of its foundation or of who founded it. The surviving traditions are therefore in the legend category; there may or may not be elements of truth in them. The tradition is two-fold: Gabii was founded either by the Latin kings of Alba Longa (according to Vergil and Dionysius of Halicarnassus ) and therefore was aboriginal Latin in ethnic descent, or by the Sicels as the Siculi, a substrate population of east Italy expelled by the Italics to Sicily. They became one of the three major indigenous tribes of ancient Sicily, giving their name to it.