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Sutri (Sutrium) (Notes on Southern Etruria, 3)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

Guy Duncan
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The modern town of Sutri lies 50 km. north of Rome, beside the Via Cassia, on the site of the ancient Sutrium (pl. X, a, b). It was already in existence in Etruscan times, passed to the Romans at the beginning of the fourth century b.c., was twice colonised by them and reached a peak of prosperity under the early Empire. It continued to flourish in the early Middle Ages, but a rapid decline set in after the fourteenth century and the town to-day is comparatively modest and unimportant.

The following report is concerned mainly with the ancient town and with a typical area of the surrounding countryside (7 km. × 12 km. in extent), as it was in Etruscan and Roman times (fig. 1, p. 64). It is chiefly a record of the archaeological remains found in the area during five months' fieldwork in the winter and spring, 1957–1958, undertaken as part of the British School's current programme of survey in southern Etruria, which is designed to record permanently such remains before they disappear for ever, as they are fast doing.

The antiquities of the ancient town itself are already well known and have been described several times in the past. But, apart from occasional references to isolated finds and an attempt towards the end of the last century to map the ancient roads, the countryside outside the town has never been properly explored. The bulk of the original work, therefore, lies in sections III and IV. The Etruscan and the Roman roads have been located, as far as is possible, and all the sites which are still to be found have been recorded. In certain areas present-day woodland concealed a few, notably round the small town of Bassano di Sutri and towards the summit of M. Calvi, south of Sutri, and cultivation in the immediate vicinity of the modern towns may have destroyed a few more, especially near Ronciglione; but at the most it is probable that only about 20 sites were lost or missed in this way, as opposed to a total recorded of some 220. Except for woodland, all the ground within the limits of the area chosen was walked over and examined.

Type
Research Article
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Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 26 , November 1958 , pp. 63 - 134
Copyright
Copyright © British School at Rome 1958

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References

1 Cf. PBSR, xxiii, 1955, pp. 44–72Google Scholar; xxv, 1957, pp. 67–208.

2 The earliest literary reference is a cryptic remark in Diodorus belonging to this period (394 B.C.). ‘Pωμαἴοι … ΣούΤριογ μϵγ ὤρμησαγ, (xiv, 98). Nepi lies some 10 km. east of Sutri and the fortunes of the two towns have always been coupled together. Livy describes them jointly as the gateway of Etruria, ‘velut claustra inde portaeque’ (6, 9, 4). Both control natural routes connecting Rome with central and northern Etruria, routes which were later to be taken by two major Roman roads, the Via Amerina, through Nepi, and the Via Cassia, past Sutri.

3 Diod. xiv, 117: Livy, 6, 3. Livy records a similar incident in 386 B.C., when Furius Camillus had again to recover the two towns from the Etruscans. But this second recapture is perhaps a duplication of the first, since Diodorus only mentions the one incident.

4 Diodorus refers to Sutri as άποικίαγ at the time of its recapture by Furius Camillus (which he places in 390 B.C. (xiv, 117)), though Livy in his account of it only uses the phrase, ‘socios populi Romani’ (6, 3, 2 : 6, 9, 12) But Velleius Paterculus (1, 14) places the colonisation of Sutri in 383 B.C., followed 10 years later by that of Nepi. Livy, however, assigns the colonisation of Nepi to that year (383 B.C.), making no mention of when Sutri was colonised (6, 21, 4). In 210 B.C. he lists Sutri among the 12 Latin colonies who refuse aid to Rome (27, 9, 7).

5 Livy, 9, 32–36.

6 Livy, 27, 9, 7; 29, 15.

7 Appian, , B.C., 5, 31Google Scholar.

8 See the introduction to the section on Sutri, in CIL, xi, p. 489Google Scholar.

9 Cf. CIL, xi, 3254: Pliny, , H.N., 3, 51Google Scholar. If it was a triumviral colony, this would account for the otherwise puzzling CONIVNCTA which appears in the title. Sutri is occasionally credited with an Augustan colony, too, on the basis of a restored inscription found at Matrini, Vicus (CIL, xi, 3322Google Scholar). Parallels are rare, however, for the order of words, AVGVSTA IVLIA, in the proposed restoration:—

In other inscriptions of Augustan colonies, the word order is almost always IVLIA AVGVSTA (cf. Dessau, , ILS, III, 2Google Scholar, pp. 666–667). An alternative restoration is given in Bull. d. Inst., 1864, p. 107 (cf. ILS, 122):—

10 Strabo, 5, 2, 9. It is classed together with Arretium, Perusia and Vulsinii, which are distinguished from the smaller towns like Blera, Ferentum, Falerii, Faliscum, Nepi and Statonia.

11 Dedications to Antoninus Pius (A.D. 144) and to Caracalla (A.D. 212), recorded on two inscriptions from the town, confirm that it continued to under the Empire (CIL, xi, 3249 and 3250).

12 M. E. Blake, Ancient Roman Construction in Italy, p. 75; Lugli, G., La Tecnica Edilizia Romana, vol. I, p. 277Google Scholar.

13 Nibby, in 1837, saw ‘many traces of these walls,… especially on the south side’ of the town (iii, p. 140, 1st edit.). Dennis mentions ‘fine fragments,’ but only on the south side (i, p. 64). Tomassetti, in 1913, saw remains on the south side, near the west gate, and on the north side near the Porta Furia (iii, p. 174).

14 Dennis implies that it had a gate in his day, 1883 (i, p. 66), and Tomassetti specifies it as a single, round arch, without defences (iii, 1913, p. 193).

15 Nibby, iii, p. 140. The presence of a 16th–17th century bastion beside the Porta Romana indicates probably that the Porta Furia had already been superseded by then.

16 The best description, with drawings and photographs, is by Sestieri, , in Palladio, iii, 1939 (no. 6), pp. 241–248Google Scholar.

17 A narrow ambulacrum, running all the way round the amphitheatre, divides the lower tier from the middle tier of seats. A corresponding ambulacrum dividing the middle and upper tiers exist to-day only at the west end. There may have been a similar one at the east end too, now destroyed. But it never continued along the north and south sides, where the seats ran unbroken from the middle tier to the top of the amphitheatre (cf. pls. XII, a, b; XIII, a). The plan published by Sestieri is incorrect in this respect, as it shows this upper ambulacrum as encircling the whole amphitheatre. But for convenience I have retained his division of the seats into three tiers.

18 Most of the earlier writers regarded it as Etruscan, Dennis included (i, p. 70). Nibby considered it to be Augustan (iii, p. 143). Middleton, echoed by Ashby, assigned it to the Flavian period (Middleton, , The Remains of Ancient Rome, ii, p. 76Google Scholar. Anderson, Spiers and Ashby, The Architecture of Ancient Rome, p. 91). Sestieri (loc. cit.), after listing previous views, dates it to the decade, 40–30 B.C., on the grounds of the architectural details, the shape of the 10 doorways into the arena and the general simplicity of the design. But neither the doorways nor what is to be seen of the details of the mouldings show necessarily early traits or Etruscan affinities, while the simplicity he refers to need not indicate an early stage in the development of the amphitheatre as an architectural form, but may equally well be due to the small scale of this particular example and the fact of it being entirely cut out of the rock.

19 The stands for spectators shown in the wall-paintings of the ‘Tomba delle Bighe,’ Tarquinia, are of wood and seem to be square or rectangular in plan, rather than round (G. Q,. Giglioli, L'Arte Etrusca, pl. CXV, 2).

20 Pliny, , H.N., 36, 24, 14Google Scholar ( = 15, 24, 117).

21 By Statilius Taurus: Dio Cassius, 51, 23; Suet., Aug. 29.

22 There is a description, with drawings and a photograph, by Frothingham, in A.J.A., 1889, p. 322. Sestieri also includes a plan and photograph in his discussion of it (Bull. della Comm. Arch. Com. di Roma, lxii, 1934, part 2, pp. 33–36Google Scholar).

23 Notably Sestieri (loc. cit.) and F. Cumont (see note 12 to the article by Sestieri).

24 As Dennis, for example, thought (i, p. 69).

25 E.g. the mithraea of ‘Planta Pedis’ and ‘degli Animali’ at Ostia, where the pillars are those of an earlier building; the mithraeum of the Baths of Caracalla, in Rome; and that of Dura-Europos, where the pillars are contemporary with the mithraeum (Scavi di Ostia, II, I Mitrei, pp. 77 and 87; Not. Scav., 1912, pp. 319 ff.; Dura-Europos Preliminary Report, 1933–1935, pp. 62 ff.).

26 Cumont, F., Textes et Mon. fig. relatifs aux mystères de Mithra, ii, p. 487Google Scholar, no. 98 bis. The mithraic relief, built into a wall in the garden of the Villa Savorelli, which occupies the top of the hill above, was not found at Sutri, but imported from elsewhere.

27 That below S. Prisca, in Rome, was deliberately filled with earth.

28 E.g. S. Prisca and S. Clemente, in Rome. The so-called ritual pit in the nave would in this case have been cut as a grave from the first.

29 For a detailed description of each tomb or group of tombs, see the list of sites, p. 98.

30 The two small groups immediately west of the town are so close as to be clearly related to it (706806, 708806). One tomb lies 4 km. south of Sutri, 729764.

31 Cf. Studi Etruschi, i, pp. 164–165 and pls. XXIX and XXX—‘Tombe dei Letti e dei Sarcofagi’ and ‘Tomba dei Vasi Greci.’

32 Loc. cit., pls. XLV, XLVII, XLVIII, a, XLIX, a, L, b.

33 By the main cemetery is meant the large group of tombs beside the Via Cassia as one approached Sutri from Rome (716800). This group is the only one which seems to have been used intensively over a considerable period, though there are also other small groups related to the town (706806, 708806, 711802, 713802, 715805, 718798).

34 E.g. 729764, probably to one of the larger sites nearby, rather than to the adjacent site, which is comparatively small; 729798 to 728798 (?); 734798 to 733798 (?); the 3 mausolea by Lago di Vico to one or other of the two large neighbouring villas.

35 For a discussion of this whole question, see p. 106.

36 Livy, 9, 36, 1.

37 Monumenti Antichi, iv, 1894, cc. 44–47 and 95–104Google Scholar.

38 PBSR, xxv, 1957, p. 180Google Scholar.

39 See The Roman Roads, 7, p. 88.

40 Cf. PBSR, xxv, 1957, p. 179Google Scholar.

41 Not the full list of points along its route, for which see the Tabula Peutingeriana.

42 PBSR, xxv, 1957, p. 188Google Scholar; JRS, xlvii, 1957, pp. 139–143Google Scholar.

43 PBSR, loc. cit.

44 A bridge is shown on an unpublished map compiled by Angelo Pasqui and Adolfo Cozza, now in the care of the Superintendency of Antiquities for Southern Etruria (at the Villa Guilia Museum, in Rome).

45 There is also a tufa abutment left uncut in the first ditch, which is partly concealed by the earthen causeway.

46 It was perhaps the medieval ward of Santo Stefano, which is known to have existed from the eleventh to the fourteenth century. When it was occupied, however, remains a problem. For a discussion of the question, see pp. 123–5.

47 Cf. PBSR, xxv, 1957, p. 192Google Scholar, where the relevant inscriptions are collected.

48 Assuming the cutting, or ditch, to be ancient in origin (see p. 69).

49 Along a road of this description, it is often impossible to distinguish between Roman and Etruscan work.

50 PBSR, xxv, 1957, p. 136Google Scholar.

51 PBSR, xxv, 1957, pp. 73 ffGoogle Scholar. and especially pp. 89–107. It is possible that this track from Sutri to Falerii Novi may have been wholly or partly in existence before 241 B.C., since it passes beyond the latter and continues as far as Falerii Veteres. It may have served an at present unknown Falisian site (or sites) in the vicinity of Falerii Novi, or it may have acted as an alternative through road between Sutri and Falerii Veteres. There could have been times when it was inconvenient to have to pass through Nepi, travelling from one town to the other (cf. PBSR, xxv, 1957, p. 144)Google Scholar.

52 PBSR, xxv, 1957, pp. 159–160Google Scholar. Judging by the density of the sites discovered within the map area of the present article, it seems possible that the ground between Sutri and Falerii Novi was not all as heavily forested as is indicated at the end of that account.

53 For an Etruscan cutting, on an exactly parallel course 50 m. to the west, see The Etruscan Roads, I, p. 79. The Etruscan cutting was probably abandoned because of falls, being considered unsafe.

54 Livy, 9, 36, 1.

55 Monumenti Antichi, iv, 1894, cc. 95–104Google Scholar. Though probably correct, the findings of this article have not been checked in the light of subsequent knowledge of Italian prehistory.

56 At roughly the same time that the cities of Narce and Falerii Veteres appear to have been founded in the Faliscan plain (loc. cit.).

57 Op. cit., cc. 44–47.

58 390 or 383 B.C. See p. 68, note 4.

59 Livy indicates that there was vacant land near Sutri in 210 B.C., either deserted or still unsettled. In that year the Senate decreed that certain of the Campani should be moved and settled ‘in Veiente Sutrino Nepesinove agro, dum ne cui maior quam quinquaginta iugerum agri modus esset.’ (Livy 26, 34, 10.) Though the measure was never carried out, it implies that there was land available.

60 The same caveat applies to the distribution maps of terra sigillata and red polished ware.

61 At least on the ridge to the west and equally well, therefore, on Monte Calvi itself. It was impossible to explore it, however, as it is covered with present-day woods.

62 One cannot argue, on the other hand, for an Imperial date for the Via Cassia!

63 713823 and 714814, respectively.

64 Another deposit, near Bassano di Sutri, lies just off the map area, to the south-west; see p. 98.

65 The Roman site on the north side of Lago di Vico, near the foot of the long terrace by which the Via Ciminia may have ascended the far side of the ancient volcano, produced sigillata and red polished ware (672930, out of the map area).

66 Terra sigillata continued in use until that time, having superseded black-glazed ware during the reign of Augustus.

67 The term includes the whole range of middle and late Roman wares produced in imitation of terra sigillata.

68 At first sight the map gives the impression of more intensive settlement than was evident in the terra sigillata map. But this is probably deceptive, as it represents a far longer period.

The figures of pottery distribution over all the sites are as follows:—

Sites with black-glazed ware .. 38

Sites with terra sigillata .. 52

Sites with red polished ware .. 70

Sites with coarse ware only .. 93

Total number of sites producing pottery .. .. .. 207

The increase between black-glazed ware and terra sigillata correctly indicates an increase of settlement in the area; that between terra sigillata and red polished ware indicates only a longer interval of time, during which the pottery was in circulation. The high percentage of sites producing coarse ware only emphasises the weakness of figures that are derived from surface finds and not from excavated sites.

The coins found in the area confirm the historical sequence suggested by the pottery.

1. Republican coin, on or very near the clay ridge north of Sutri: 137-134 B.C. (720825).

2. Coin of Vespasian, by Lago di Vico: [A.D. 69–79] (689871).

3. Coin of Nerva, on the clay ridge north of Sutri: A.D. 97 (704829).

4. Coin of Maximinus Thrax, at the villa of ‘S. Giovanni a polio’: A.D. 236–238 (701785).

69 For the post-Roman pattern of settlement, see p. 125.

70 The cultivation belongs to some indefinite date in the past. For much of the land has been pasture in recent years, though the Ente Maremma are now beginning to plough it up once again.

71 This concrete deserves a special note, for, apart from some 3–4 examples, it was invariably made of small chips of selce or local white stone (or both), mixed with some form of pozzolana and producing an exceedingly strong result. Sometimes a little tufa was included in the aggregate, and occasionally a less durable type of concrete was made with tufa only (e.g. 684871). Rarely was brick used (e.g. 684871, again).

The ‘local white stone’ employed is a hard, calcareous stone, occurring in clay of volcanic origin, which forms a ridge on top of the tufa north of Sutri.

72 Generally 50 cm. square in section by over 1 m. long.

73 Additional information on some sites is contained in my original notes, which can be seen in the British School. They contain, for example, the approximate measurements and orientation of the fragments of concrete walls and buildings found; it did not seem worth while to include such information in this report.

74 The density of Roman sites is approximately 3 per sq. km. This is making no allowances for the blank areas near the modern towns of Ronciglione and Bassano di Sutri and on the ridge of Monte Calvi. In the first instance, cultivation has probably removed a few buildings, in the last two, woods conceal them.

The modern figures for the same areas are 4⅓ approx. per sq. km., in the more intensively cultivated, northern section of the map, but 1⅓ per sq. km., in the region south of Sutri, covering the uncultivated pasture land of the hills.

75 i.e. in the northern section of the map.

76 See p. 106.

77 Cf. 682765, 688848, 690762, 722818, 728861.

78 The visible remains seem all to belong to a bathing establishment, and this interpretation would offer a reasonable explanation of the large amount of coarse ware in its vicinity.

79 704828, 714814: 713823.

80 There was black-glazed ware at the pottery and at one of the kilns.

81 As far as grid line 750.

82 There were imperially-owned brick-kilns not far away, at Vicus Matrini (CIL, xi, 8106). No brick-stamps were found at either of the Sutri kilns.

83 For a fuller account of the chapel and of the fresco, in particular, see p. 127.

84 Fedele, , ‘Carte del monastero dei SS. Cosma e Damiano in Mica Aurea,’ Archivio di Storia Patria Romana, xxii, 1899, 43Google Scholar, no. XXVIII: “a primo latere casale qui appellatur Ofiano, a secundo latere casale qui appellatur Picazano; a tertio latere casale qui appellatur Casanellu et vinee de Bacerratu, a quarto latere vinee de casale Novelletu, qui sunt de homines (sic) de Plocainnu.”

This note was contributed by P. R. L. Brown.

85 The best and most reliable account of Sutri in the Middle Ages is that of Tomassetti, from whom most of the following account is taken (Tomassetti, , La Campagna Romana, Rome, 1913, vol. iiiGoogle Scholar). The comprehensive work of Nispi-Landi contains more detail, but is less critical (Nispi-Landi, , Storia dell' Antichissima Citta di Sutri, Rome, 1887Google Scholar. The sections dealing with the periods before the Middle Ages are of little or no value).

86 This was equally true in Roman times.

87 v. Tomassetti (op. cit.) and Not. Scav., 1878, p. 159 (where a coin of A.D. 578–582 was among the finds); 1882, p. 265; 1920, p. 121.

88 The road still ran that way in Dennis's day and it was not until the beginning of the present century that it returned to its original route past Sutri.

89 Enciclopedia Italiana, vol. 33, p. 31, s.v. Sutri.

90 The east one has been replaced by an earthen causeway, see p. 83.

91 There were two gates to it, ‘Porta maior’ and ‘Porta puscerula,’ and, though we have no proof of the identification, this ridge is the most likely spot on which to locate it. For the information concerning S. Stefano and its ward, I am indebted to a monograph by the late Mgr. Giacomo Gentili of Sutri, a friend and pupil of Tomassetti, entitled ‘Memorie del Borgo di Sutri’ (August, 1933).

92 An inventory of 1382 mentions houses, walls, gates, church and castle.

93 The few sherds found on the ridge were of medieval date.

94 The church of S. Stefano was given to the monastery of S. Paolo in Rome by Pope Gregory VII (1073–1085); ‘concedimus tibi … ecclesiam S. Stephani cum castello et burgo suo positam iuxta civitatem Sutrinam.’

85 One argument in favour of a Lombard origin for the occupation of this ridge is that it would not be surprising if they had, in fact, fortified the end, in order to control the Via Cassia which passed along it.

96 E.g. Ronciglione, Caprarola, Carbognano, Canepina, Soriano nel Cimino, S. Martino al Cimino.

97 The present population of Sutri, for comparison, is 2,982.

98 The following description and comment was contributed by P. R. L. Brown.

99 Blume und Dreves, , Analecta hymnica medii aevi, L, 212Google Scholar: ‘Hymnus in natale SS. Ioannis et Pauli,’ l. 43.

page 134 note 1 See W. Schulze, Zur Geschichte Lateinischer Eigennamen, p. 115. Campatii are notably numerous at Caere, see CIL, xi, index nominum, s.v.

page 134 note 2 See especially the very similar career of Valerius, T. Victor, CIL, xi, 3261Google Scholar; decurioni Sutri, IIvir. i.d., iterum quinquennali, curatori pecuniae publicae, pontifici.

page 134 note 3 CIL, xi, pp. 466 and 481.

page 134 note 4 CIL, xi, 3101.

page 134 note 5 See Mommsen St. R. I3 340, note 1 for references and a brief comment.

page 134 note 6 See, e.g., note 2 above.

page 134 note 7 See Mommsen, note to CIL, ii, 1305Google Scholar.