- Ager Gallicus
The Ager Gallicus was the territory taken by
Rome from theSenones at the beginning of thethird century BC after theBattle of Sentinum (295 BC ). It was later established as a federated territory.Territory
The territory corresponds to that part of the
Marche region lying north of theEsino river .To control the Ager the Romans gathered on the coast roman colonies of "Sena Gallica" (
Senigallia ), "Ariminum" (Rimini ), "Pisaurum" (Pesaro ) and "Fanum Fortunae" (Fano ). The administration of the interior was organized in232 BC by the "lex Flaminia de agro Gallico et Piceno viritim dividundo ", which created a network of prefectures ("praefecturae"). From the middle of the1st century BC , these were granted the status of "municipium ": "Aesis" (Jesi ), "Suasa ", "Ostra ", and "Forum Sempronii" (Fossombrone ).In
220 BC , the construction of theVia Flaminia from Rome, crossing the Ager through theMetauro river valley, influenced the equilibrium of the territory, which found itself suddenly connected to the City by the consular road.Later administrative organization
After the Augustan administrative reorganization of the Italian peninsula, the Ager Gallicus was united with
Umbria and became part of Regio VI Umbria et ager Gallicus.With the reorganization of Italy under
Diocletian in 300 AD the Ager was split off from Umbria and combined withPicenum to become the province "Flaminia et Picenum ".Later, under the emperor
Theodosius I , the territory was split again from Picenum, which became the province of "Picenum Suburbicarium ", and became part of the provice of "Flaminia et Picenum Annonarium ". In this new name, in which for the first time this territory was called "Picenum", it is hypothesized [Nereo Alfieri, "Le Marche e la fine del mondo antico", in "Atti Mem. Deputazione Storia Patria delle Marche. 86",1983 , pp. 9-34.] that it is possible to see a record of the Italic people known as thePiceni , that were in that place from the10th century BC until the elimination of the Senones in the4th century BC .References
Sources
* P.L. Dall'Aglio - S. De Maria - A. Mariotti (eds.), "Archeologia delle valli marchigiane Misa, Nevola e Cesano",
Perugia 1991
* Nereo Alfieri, "Scritti di topografia antica sulle Marche", a cura di Gianfranco Paci, Editrice Tipigraf,2000 , ISBN 88-87994-09-9
* Mario Luni (ed.), "La Via Flaminia nell'ager Gallicus",Urbino 2002
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