Gabii

Gabii was an ancient city of Latium, between 12 and 13 miles East of Rome. It was located on the south-eastern bank of an extinct volcanic crater-lake, the Lago di Castiglione.Sestieri, Bietti. "The Iron Age Community of Osteria Dell'Osa". Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992. 50-77.] .

This was an advantageous location as it was close to routes that ran north, east, and west Hornblower, Simon, and Antony Spawforth. "The Oxford Classical Dictionary". 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.] . Gabii was supposedly founded by Alba Longa or the Sicels (Pauly-Wissowa0 "New Pauly : Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World" (Leiden: Brill), 2002. vol. 5, pp 630-631.] , one of the three major indigenous tribes of ancient Sicily [Brea, L. B. "Sicily Before the Greeks". Thames and Hudson, 1957. 147-149.] . The area that would come to hold the city had been inhabited since the middle Bronze Age , although the urbanization of the area probably did not begin before the start of the second half of the eighth century BC . This process most likely finished by the end of the seventh century BC, and, at its height, the city's borders enclosed roughly .75 square miles . Through Gabii ran the Via Praenestina , which was in early times known as the "Via Gabina".

Legend

There is a legend that Romulus and Remus were raised in Gabii, where they learned everything from literature to the use of Greek weapons . As told in Livy's History of Rome (Liv. 1,53,4), Gabii went to war with Rome during the reign of Tarquinius Superbus, and, after initial success, was defeated through the use of trickery by Tarquinius and his youngest son Sextus [Perseus Digital Library Project. Ed. Gregory R. Crane. Tufts University. 05/10/2007 .] . Dionysius of Halicarnassus states (Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 4,58) that Tarquin was lenient with Gabii, and their subsequent treaty, whose original text was written on a bullock's skin and draped over a wooden shield, was said by Dionysius of Halicarnassus to be still extant in his day in the Roman temple of Sancus [LacusCurtius. Ed. Bill Thayer. 05/11/2007 .] .

Impact

Gabii's importance in the earliest history of Rome is also apparent elsewhere: the adoption of the cinctus Gabinus (a method of draping the toga which leaves both arms free) by the Romans for certain ceremonies (Liv. 5,46), the unique role it played for the augurs as seen from the specific term "ager Gabinus" used by these priests (Varro, Ling. 5,33), and its presence in a Roman damnation formula (Macrob. Sat. 3,9,13).

Subsequent Developments

Its subsequent history is obscure. Gabii was an ally of Rome after 493 BC , and we hear of it again in the 1st century BC as a small and insignificant place. In fact, since the late Republican period the city became depopulated due to the extensive use of the "lapis Gabinus" quarry, which was just under the arcaic city. Cicero and the Augustan poets used Gabii when demonstrating a city that had fallen from its old heights The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites. Stillwell, Richard. MacDonald, William L. McAlister, Marian Holland. Princeton, N.J. Princeton University Press. 1976.] . From inscriptions we learn that from the time of Augustus or Tiberius onwards it enjoyed a municipal organization. Its baths were well known , and Hadrian, who was responsible for much of the renewed prosperity of the small towns of Latium, appears to have been a very liberal patron, building a senate-house (Curia Aelia Augusta) and an aqueduct. After the 3rd century, Gabii practically disappears from history, though its bishops continue to be mentioned in ecclesiastical documents till the close of the 9th century.

Archaeology

The citadel of Gabii is now marked by the ruins of the medieval tower of Castiglione. The most conspicuous ruin at the site of Gabii is a ruined temple, generally attributed to Juno, which had six Ionic or Corinthian columns in the front and six on each side, excluding the back. The temple was composed of a single room, and it was made of "lapis Gabinus", a fire-resistant rock that was found in the quarries around Gabii and that also made its way into some of the buildings of Rome itself. The temple was situated in the middle of a podium, which had a colonnade of Doric columns along the back and extending around the sides. This colonnade stood in front of rooms that were probably used as shops . The temple was excavated and published by the Spanish School at Rome in the 1960s and 1970s. To the west of the temple was the Lago di Castiglione (an ancient volcanic lake that was filled with soil during the time of Benito Mussolini) and to the east of the temple lay the supposed area of the forum, where excavations were made by Gavin Hamilton in 1792 . Hamilton discovered a large cache of statues that were initially placed in the Borghese collection, although many of them subsequently were carried off to Paris by Napoleon, and still remain in the Louvre. The statues and busts are especially numerous and interesting (38 in all); besides the deities Venus, Diana, Nemesis, etc., they comprise Agrippa, Tiberius, Germanicus, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Trajan and Plotina, Hadrian and Sabina, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, Geta, Gordian III and others. The inscriptions relate mainly to local and municipal matters.

New fieldwork has been undertaken to the east of Gabii along the lines of the ancient city wall where a sanctuary has been excavated by Marco Fabbri close to one of the city's gates. Other work at the site has been carried out by Stefano Musco. In 2007 the multi-institution [http://www.lsa.umich.edu/kelsey/research/Excavation/Gabii/ Gabii Project] , led by Nicola Terrenato of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, was launched and will, in June of 2009, begin excavations within the ancient urban center of Gabii.

ee also

*Roman Art
*Praxiteles

References

ources

*1911
* [http://icarus.umkc.edu/sandbox/perseus/pecs/page.1728.a.php Richard Stillwell, ed. "Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites", 1976:] "GABII(Castiglione), Latium, Italy"
* [http://www.unibas.it/SSA/gabii.htm]