- Sentinum
Sentinum was an ancient town of
le Marche ,Italy , lying a kilometre to the east of the modern town ofSassoferrato , in the low ground; its ruins were identified in 1890 and published by T. Buccolini. [ [http://icarus.umkc.edu/sandbox/perseus/pecs/page.4150.a.php "Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites", "s.v." "Sentinum"] ]The foundations of the city walls are preserved, and city gates a road, cisterns and remains of houses have been discovered, including several mosaic pavements [T. Buccolini in "Notizie degli scavi", 1890, 346.] and inscriptions of the latter half of the third century A.D., including three important "tabulae patronatus", recording legal ratifications of civic appointments of official patrons.
In the neighborhood, the
Battle of Sentinum took place, in which the Romans defeated the combined forces of the Samnites and Gauls in295 BC . It sided withAnthony but was taken and destroyed in41 BC by Salvidienus Rufus leading troops of Octavian. [Cassius Dio 48.13.2.5;Appian "The Civil Wars" 5.30.] It was replanned under a regular urbanisation and continued to exist under the Empire, as a "municipium ", never (as some wrongly suppose) a "colonia". From a "thermae " of the earliest Empire a large figured mosaic pavement is preserved in theMuseo Nazionale delle Marche . A second-century colored mosaic ofMithra -Sol is conserved in theGlyptothek , Munich; Mithraicbas-relief of animals representing the stages of the initiate's progress were reused in the Church of Santa Croce, and Mithraic inscriptions are recorded. [C. Ramelli, "Monumenti mitriaci di Sentinum" (1863); "Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum " XI, 5736-37.] .Civic life at Sentinum seems to have collapsed at the time of the invasion of
Alaric I [Zosimus 5.37.] and not to have been renewed.The site and its environs, which have been excavated under the joint auspices of the Università degli studi di Genova (Prof.ssa Maura Medri) and the Università degli studi di Urbino "Carlo Bo" (Prof. Sergio Rinaldi Tufi) are protected as the
Archaeological park of Sentinum .Notes
References
*1911
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
