Listed 9 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "POTENZA Town BASILICATA" .
GRUMENTO (Ancient city) BASILICATA
Grumentum (Groumenton: Eth. Grumentinus: Saponara), a city of Lucania,
and one of the chief towns situated in the interior of that province. From its
inland position it is evident that it was never a Greek settlement, and there
is little doubt that it was a native Lucanian town; but no mention occurs of it
in history previous to the Second Punic War. Its name is first found in B.C. 215,
when the Carthaginian general Hanno was defeated under its walls by Tib. Sempronius
Longus (Liv. xxiii. 37): and again in B.C. 207, when Hannibal himself, having
broken up from his winter quarters in Bruttium and marched into Lucania, established
his camp at Grumentum, where he was encountered by the consul C. Claudius Nero,
and sustained a slight defeat (Id. xxvii. 41, 42). Grumentum appears to have been
at this time one of the Lucanian cities that had espoused the Carthaginian cause,
and was there. fore at this time in the possession of Hannibal, but must have
been lost or abandoned immediately after. We hear no more of it till the period
of the Social War (B.C. 90), when it appears as a strong and important town, in
which the Roman praetor Licinius Crassus took refuge when defeated by M. Lamponius,
the Lucanian general. (Appian, B.C. i. 41.) But it would seem from an anecdote
related by Seneca and Macrobius that it subsequently fell into the hands of the
allies, and withstood a long siege on the part of the Romans. (Senec. de Benef.
iii. 23; Macrob. i. 11.)
It now became a Roman municipium, but seems to have continued to be
one of the few flourishing or considerable towns in the interior of Lucania. Strabo,
indeed, terms it a small place (mikra katoikia, vi. p. 254), and the Liber Coloniarum
includes it among the towns of Lucania which held the rank of Praefecturae only.
(Lib. Col. p. 209.) But we learn from an inscription that it certainly at one
time enjoyed the rank of a colony; and other inscriptions, in which mention is
made of its local senate and various magistrates, as well as the ruins of buildings
still remaining, sufficiently prove that it must have been a place of consideration
under the Roman Empire. (Mommsen, Inscr. R. N. pp. 19-22; Plin. iii. 11. s. 15;
Ptol. iii. 1. § 70.) The Itineraries attest its existence down to the fourth century,
and we learn from ecclesiastical records that it was an episcopal see as late
as the time of Gregory the Great; but the time of its destruction is unknown.
The site of Grumentum, which was erroneously placed by Cluverius at
Chiaromonte, on the left bank of the Sinno or Siris, was first pointed out by
Holstenius. Its ruins are still visible on the right bank of the river Agri (Aciris),
about half a mile below the modern town of Saponara: they include the remains
of an amphitheatre, with many walls and portions of buildings of reticulated masonry,
and the ancient paved street running through the midst of them. Numerous inscriptions
have also been discovered on the site, as well as coins, gems, and other minor
objects of antiquity. (Cluver. Ital. p. 1279; Holsten. Not. ad Cluver. p. 288;
Romanelli, vol. i. pp. 399, 400; Mommsen, l. c. p. 19.) The position thus assigned
to Grumentum - which is clearly identified by early ecclesiastical records - agrees
well with the distances given in the Itineraries, especially the Tabula, which
reckons 15 M. P. from Potentia to Anxia (still called Anzi), and 18 from thence
to Grumentum. (Itin. Ant. p. 104; Tab. Pent.) Many of the other distances and
stations in this part of the country being corrupt or uncertain, the point thus
gained is of the highest importance for the topography of Lucania. At the same
time its central position, near the head of the valley of the Aciris, sufficiently
accounts for its importance in a military point of view.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
A town in the interior of Lucania, on the road from Beneventum to Heraclea.
VENUSIA (Ancient city) BASILICATA
Now Venosa; an ancient town of Apulia, south of the river Aufidus, and near Mount Vultur, situated in a romantic country, and memorable as the birthplace of the poet Horace. See Horatius.
GRUMENTO (Ancient city) BASILICATA
In the upper valley of the Acris (Agri), the city is known to history
as the scene of actions during the second Punic war and social war. The theater
was excavated in 1956-57 and restored in 1964-67. The cavea dates from the 1st
c. A.D.; the scene building was constructed in the 2d c. and was rebuilt in the
4th c. The theater is located between two major N-S streets, which have been exposed
by excavation.
R. R. Holloway, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
VENUSIA (Ancient city) BASILICATA
On the borders of Apulia and Samnium, the city was originally Samnite
and was colonized by the Romans in 291 B.C. Here the consul Terentius Varro and
the survivors of Cannae sought refuge after their defeat by Hannibal (216 B.C.).
The area of the excavations includes a bath complex of the Hadrianic period, the
amphitheater, the Early Christian baptistery and the Romanesque Basilica of the
Holy Trinity in the walls of which are incorporated numerous ancient gravestones
with family portraits in the Roman Republican manner.
R. R. Holloway, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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