British School at Rome: Papers of the British School at Rome (9.1920)

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The British School at Rome.

Mommsen (C.I.L. ix. pp. 296, 297 and Eph. Epigr. vol. viii. p. 36)
and Hiilsen (Pauly-Wissowa. iv. 1226) summarize our knowledge of
Corfinium.1 That, as Italia, it was chosen as the capital of the allies in
the Social War adds interest to its history. Its geographical position
made it an important road centre. It stood at the junction where the
stream of commerce between the Fucine I.ake and the Adriatic Sea met
that which came down from the land of the Vestini and the northern
Sabini to Samnium. At the watersmeet of the Aternus and the Tirinus
(ad confluentes Aternum et Tirinum), a few miles north of Corfinium the
Via Claudia Nova met the Via Claudia Valeria, while at Corfinium itself
another highway 2 went south to Sulmo and, after crossing the Piano di
Cinquemiglia, reached Aesernia and eventually at Beneventum joined
the Via Appia and the Via Traiana, the great highways of Southern Italy.
(2) From Corfinium (S. Pelino) to Ostia Alerni (Pescara).
On leaving Pentima the modern road zigzags to the left in negotiating
the steep descent to the valley of the Sagittario, but there is a track
which leads straight down to the lower ground. This may well represent
the course of the Via Valeria, although it presents no traces of antiquity.
The next indication of its course is the concrete core of a small tomb,
measuring 3 by 4 metres at the base, which is seen just to the left of the
modern road, a kilometre before Popoli is reached, as it begins to descend
through the Piano di Popoli. Assuming that this tomb stood near the
Via Claudia Valeria, we must acknowledge that the road crossed the
Sagittario before its confluence with the Aternus and continued approxi-
mately along the line of the modern road to Popoli.
According to our literary tradition the Aternus was crossed at a point
three miles from Corfinium by a bridge, which receives special mention in
the account of the operations following upon Caesar’s advance from
North Italy in 49 b.c. Domitius Ahenobarbus was in command at
Corfinium, and, on hearing that Caesar had captured Ausculum in
Picenum, attempted to block his advance southward by destroying this
1 For Italic inscriptions from Corfinium see Conway, The Italic Dialects, vol. i.
p. 241 seq.
2 For the Itineraries see Mommsen, C.I.L. ix. p. 201. I went along this road in May
1914. Of the road itself nothing is left, but the remains of the cities in the Samnite country
through which it passed were of” great interest.