Cluviae 1966 - Panel 2

BREAKTHROUGH IN INVESTIGATION.

Nicola Fiorentino, a historian from Casoli, in the summer of 1996, after the contacts he had with the Antiquities Superintendency of Chieti, began, as a volunteer, a research campaign. At first the results were discouraging, such as to lead one to think that at most one was in presence of a vicus or perhaps of scattered villae, which ruled out the existence of an important urban complex.

Gradually Professor Fiorentino discovered large surrounding walls in opus incertum, for longer or shorter stretches, on the verges above the Laio and the Avello. He found the town’s aqueduct, cloacae of large dimensions, lead pipes, opus spicatum floors, terracotta dolia, almost intact dwellings in opus reticulatum, pieces and bases of columns, walls of considerable proportions in opus Ilcaementicium, a mosaic floor in a cellar, and discovered a large tombstone with a funerary inscription, as well as coins issued in various centuries from 145 B.C. to the fourth century A.D.

TABULA PATRONATUS.

The bronze slab found in the Bufalara locality of San Salvo is a tabula patronatus containing the decree of the Cluvian municipality dated May 5, 384 A.D. for the conferral of patronage over the municipality of Cluviae on Aurelius Evagrus Honorius. Thanks to the acquisition of this epigraphic document, the Samnite city of Cluviae was identified on December 12, 1966, in the locality called Piano Laroma, which was, however, known at the time as Pagus Urbanus.

IDENTIFICATION OF THE SETTLEMENT.

Professor Adriano La Regina, then an official at the Superintendency of Antiquities in Chieti, continued the research on the archaeological and historical-critical levels, coming to the conclusion that the housing settlement of Piano Laroma was the oppidum/municipium of Cluviae, mentioned by Livy (IX, 21) and long researched by historians.

Caption (from the top to bottom).

Professor Nicola Fiorentino in his studio in Lanciano.

The Tabula Patronatus, displayed at Crecchio Castle. Photo: www.casoli.org.

Professor Adriano La Regina has been conferred the honorary citizenship of Casoli.

Sources and citations: Nicola Fiorentino, CLUVIAE 1966, Casulae Club, 2012 (BREAKTHROUGH). – From the website www.casoli.org (TABULA PATRONATUS).