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Aquinum at Castrocielo: The Roman Colony on the Via Latina at the Foot of Monte Cairo
Aquinum lies in the Liri Valley, at the foot of Monte Cairo, in the territory of Castrocielo (province of Frosinone). Before becoming a Roman colony it was a Volscian settlement, founded between the 5th and 4th centuries BC. It was the birthplace of Juvenal, the poet who gave us the phrase “mens sana in corpore sano” (a healthy mind in a healthy body). Today the archaeological area, covering nearly 8 hectares of flat ground, is one of the most extensive Roman sites in southern Lazio. And much of it still remains to be excavated.
From Hannibal to the triumvirs
The earliest mention of Aquinum in the sources refers to the date of 211 BC: Livy records that Hannibal’s army passed through the area during the Second Punic War. The city became a colony under the Second Triumvirate (Octavian, Mark Antony and Lepidus) and reached its greatest splendour between the late Republic and the early Imperial age. The Via Latina, connecting Rome to Capua, ran through it from west to east, dividing it in two. In the 6th century the city declined with the arrival of the Lombards.
What can be seen today
The Porta Capuana (Capuan Gate) is the best-preserved monument. There are vestiges of the theatre, the Capitolium and the Terme Vecciane (Veccian Baths), named after Marcus Veccius, the magistrate who had them built (with a 9-metre inscription in the frigidarium). Very little remains of the amphitheatre after it was destroyed during the construction of the Autostrada del Sole (Motorway of the Sun) between 1960 and 1961.
