Castrum Novum
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Castrum Novum (new fort) was an ancient Roman town now located in the municipality of Santa Marinella, to the north of Cape Linaro, ca. 60 km north-west of Rome Italy.[citation needed] It is located near Mount Guardiole, 1.5 km from the coast, where an Etruscan settlement was found.[1]
Its location was known since the 16th century and confirmed by the excavations carried out between the late-18th and the 19th century. Since 2010, archaeological investigation was resumed by the Gruppo Archeologico del Territorio Cerite (GATC) which shed new light on the topography and the history of the site.[2]
Finds from the Iron Age (9th century BC) and from the archaic Etruscan period show their presence in the area prior to the Roman colony. The anchorage was already active in Etruscan times.
It was founded as a colony in about 264 BC probably superimposed on an Etruscan settlement[3][4] along with nearby Pyrgi and other coastal colonies in defense of the northern coast of the territory of Caere. The town had originally a rectangular plan in the form of a castrum (fort) of 120 x 63 m, surrounded by walls as its name suggests.[5] Since the 3rd century BC the colony was charged with protecting the coastal waters,[6] as did Pyrgi and Gravisca. A small harbour nearby would have held a few ships.
During the first years the inhabitants of Castrum Novum had plots of land of modest size (compared to Terracina, for example) as the plots were only 2 iugera, i.e. half a hectare,[7] which suggests that they were poor Romans attracted by the idea of owning some land.
The Via Aurelia was constructed in approximately 241 BC to serve the needs of Roman expansion, including swift army movements and quicker communication with Roman colonies[8] and allowed Castrum Novum to become well connected to Rome and to the two military colonies of Cosa and Pyrgi.
On several occasions, the colony had to protest against Rome's will to take away some privileges. However, in 207 BC, it does not appear among the colonies that sent delegates to Rome to defend their military exemption after Hasdrubal's invasion. But in 191 BC it took part in the revolt against the praetor Gaius Livy, who intended to impose naval levies on the maritime colonies when Rome needed soldiers for the Roman–Seleucid War.[9]
It was re-colonised perhaps under Caesar as Colonia Iulia Castronovo(rum)[10] from inscriptions. This brought new wealth to the settlement as gold coins dating from Nero to Marcus Aurelius indicate.[11]
In the imperial era it grew into a town with a theatre, a curia, an archive (tabularium), an altar sacred to Apollo and an aqueduct, as inscriptions show. Probably in the Augustan age, L. Ateius Capitus had the curia and the tabularium restored, donating the theatre and its arcades to the city.
From inscriptions found in Santa Marinella we know of the existence of decuriones (members of the colony's senate), duumviri quinquennales (supreme magistrates of the city), Augustales (priests of the imperial cult), magistri vici (local administrators). Inscriptions inform about the foundation of public buildings by the Statilii and Ateii families: a porticus, theatre and a temple.[12]
From the Republican age magnificent seaside villas were built nearby along the coast by patricians from Rome. Their most recent construction phases are from the Severan dynasty at the beginning of the 3rd century AD.[13]
The Site
Over the last three centuries a large number of architectural and sculptural fragments have been found including a herm of veiled Aspasia, statues of emperors, a small statue of Bacchus, a statue of a lying mastiff dog; of exceptional interest was the discovery in 1778 of a casket containing 122 gold coins dating back to the 1st and 2nd century AD.
Numerous wall structures, marble mosaic floors, basins and colonnades from the imperial phase have been found recently. Masonry in opus reticulatum and brick, floors and sewers are visible in land exposed by erosion along the beach, for a long stretch below the modern stilt houses.
In 2022 a large and elegant theatre from the Imperial age which overlooked on the Tyrrhenian Sea was uncovered.[14]
