Sentinum
 Baths: Hypocaust under hot pool | |
  Shown within Italy | |
| Location | Sassoferrato, Province of Ancona, Marche, Italy |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 43°25′6.56″N 12°51′8.1″E / 43.4184889°N 12.852250°E |
| History | |
| Cultures | Ancient Rome |
| Site notes | |
| Ownership | Public |
Sentinum was a Roman town now located about a kilometre south of the present-day town of Sassoferrato in the Marche region of Italy.
Two areas of the town, the forum/urban baths and the suburban baths, can be visited today[1] protected as an archaeological park.[2]
The local museum contains many finds from Sentinum.
History
The location of the original settlement of Sentinum is unknown but it was probably of
Sentinum was advantageously located at the confluence of ancient roads that came from Umbria to reach the Adriatic.The town is best known for the great and decisive
During the
The considerable wealth of the ancient city is evident from the archaeological record, amongst which is the large number of mosaics found in public and private buildings both inside and outside the walls.
Civic life at Sentinum seems to have collapsed at the time of the invasion of Alaric I[6] and not to have recovered.
Archaeology
The archeological excavations in 1890[7] unearthed city gates, a road, cisterns, and the remains of houses. Notable cultural finds include several mosaic pavements[8] and inscriptions from the second half of the 3rd century AD, including three important tabulae patronatus, records of legal appointments of official patrons.
More recent excavations in 2005-8 found a large circular fountain at the crossroads of the
Of the many mosaics found, some are still in situ and visible such in those in the baths of the archaeological area of Santa Lucia, mostly with black and white tesserae, while others have been preserved in museums.
The most famous mosaic is that of Aion, the young man standing on the left who personifies the eternity of time placed in the circle of the Zodiac, and Terra, Mother Earth, sitting in the right corner with the four seasons. It was found in the insula del Pozzo (for the proximity to an ancient well) in 1806 and preserved in the Glyptothek, Munich. When Aion is associated with the Zodiac and the Seasons, "eternity" is understood as a cyclical, uninterrupted return of events and things: a concept that goes hand-in-hand with that of Saeculum Aureum (Golden Age) and dispenser of fertility and abundance. The idea of eternal return belongs to the "late stoicism", which lasted from the 1st to the 2nd century AD, but which experienced a particular flowering at the time of Antoninus Pius (138-161 AD) to which the mosaic can be dated. Of other depictions of Aion in the Roman Empire four are known:
- the famous "cosmological mosaic" of Augusta Emerita, capital of Lusitania (today Merida in Spain) the figure of Aion is inserted in a vast and very complex composition
- mosaic from Ammaedarain Proconsular Africa (now Haidra in Tunisia) we still see the god associated with the circle of the Zodiac and with the Seasons (albeit formulated in a different way);
- in Thysdrus (today el-Djem) are a series of unfinished busts: Aion in the centre, around (within circular medallions) the Four Seasons and the personifications of the Sun and the Moon;
- in Aphrodisias in Caria (today Geyre in Turkey) the god appears as an bearded old man, together with other divinities and personifications, in the relief dedicated to an illustrious citizen: Zoilos, friend of August. This senile figure means that here infinite Time is seen as extratemporal eternity, as infinity immovable and always equal to itself.
The other valuable polychrome mosaic with the central emblem of the god Ocean was found at the same time in an adjacent room but in poor condition and of which only a watercolour is preserved. In 1922 the large mosaic with marine monsters was removed and restored at the National Archaeological Museum of Ancona where it was damaged by bombing in 1943. The figures in black tesserae on a white background is made up of a rich series of fantastic beings all characterised by the rear part of the body ending in a fishtail with several coils, while the front part is the head of a newt or griffin or horse. The mosaic was studied and published by the then Superintendent G. Moretti who observed the stylistic inhomogeneity of the figures, some of which were notable such as the one with the forepart of a bull (unfortunately lost) and he attributed it both to several hands in the second half of the 2nd century AD, and to repairs at later times.
A complex of rooms with mosaic floors was also found in the insula del Pozzo in 1956, probably belonging to several structures, the most noteworthy of which is a polychrome one with geometric motifs laid out in a checkerboard pattern and edged with a fan motif, currently buried, but documented by a colour drawing from the time of discovery.
Public baths
The public baths (
The baths had a large figured mosaic, presently kept at the
Outside the walls in the archaeological area near the church of S. Lucia along the main roman road to the south are other monumental baths probably built within an extension of the town due to population growth and shortage of urban space.
See also
Notes
- ^ Sentinum https://www.sitiarcheologiciditalia.it/en/sentinum/
- ^ Sentinum Archaeological Park https://www.sassoferratoturismo.it/en/sentinum-archaeological-park/
- ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Senones". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 24 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press
- ^ Livy 10,28-29
- ^ Cassius Dio 48.13.2.5; Appian The Civil Wars 5.30.
- ^ Zosimus 5.37.
- ^ http://icarus.umkc.edu/sandbox/perseus/pecs/page.4150.a.php Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, s.v. "Sentinum"
- ^ T. Buccolini (1890). "SASSOFERRATO". Notizie degli scavi di antichità: 346–350.
- ^ C. Ramelli, Monumenti mitriaci di Sentinum (1863); Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum XI, 5736-37.
- ^ De Marinis et al. Lo scavo e il restauro delle Terme di Santa Lucia (Sassoferrato). In M. Medri (Ed.), Sentinum 295 a.C.—Sassoferrato 2006. 2300 anni dopo la battaglia. Una città romana tra storia e archeologia. Convegno internazionale Sassoferrato 21–23 Settembre 2006, Studia Archaeologica (pp. 205–211). Rome: L'Erma di Bretschneider
References
- Medri, Maura. Sentinum: ricerche in corso I - Roma: "L'Erma" di Bretschneider, 2008, 162 - ISBN 9788891311368
- Marina Lo Blundo, SENTINUM 2. L'area sacra, Studia Archaeologica, 213, "L'Erma" di Bretschneider 2017, ISBN 9788891309853
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Sentinum". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 24 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 649.
