HISTORY OF THE ROMAN CITY OF SARSINA
axes, and was surrounded by
public, civil and religious buildings according to its high representative
function. Firstly the religious buildings: the main urban temple, already
working in the Umbrian phase, is located on the northern short side of the
forensic area, while the wall ruins of a trilobe planed building, found in
vicolo Aurigemma, are ascribed to a temple (donarium) around the II century A.D.
A sanctuary devoted to oriental cults and to several Phrygian and Egyptian
divinities rise in a slightly more peripheral area, to the south-west.
The presence of a public building of a certain importance (probably a basilica),
located to the north-west corner of the forum, is documented by the discovery of
the head of a feminine statue of the Julio-Claudian family .
At least two thermal installations are known: the so-called Bagno della Regina (Queen’s
Bath) next to the western city bound and the structural elements erected on a
previous Republican domus (marble covered basins and water mains) in the old
Forum Boario. The colonnades and the marble floors (end of the II century b.C. –
beginning of the Imperial Age), found in the former Seminary area, are
considered part of a commercial building.
As far as findings of private building are concerned, two complexes have been
investifgated to the south of via Roma and in the former Forum Boario. Generally
houses show a plan hinged on an atrium (on one occasion also including a well),
with all the other rooms located around. The situation in the suburbs is
different: modest houses are located beside handicraft structures.
Excavations have brought to light wall reamins as well as furnishings and
furniture; their high quality have confirmed the prosperity of Sarsina up to the
end of the III century A.D. The noticeable epigraphic reports have also supplied
with important data about the social, cultural and economic structure of the
town; particularly thanks to the finding of the cemetery of Pian di Bezzo the
recovery of a considerable amount of documents was possible, to be added to the
several civic epigraphs.
The area of the necropolis was probably favoured as quite flat and located
within a pleasant naturalistic environment, with bushes licking the tombs.
Buried under a remarkable quantity of lime sediments, following the formation of
a sheet of water due to the slumping obstruction of the course of Savio river
(round 200 A.D.), the Sarsina funerary evidences have been preserved up to the
first decades of the XX century, when systematic excavations started. A
combination of prestigious and important sepulchral architectures with more
modest steles and funerary altars were clustered along the sides of the gravel
road leading out of the town towards the plain. The most monumental tombs were
concentrated in a few dozen metres, close to the road. These are dated to the
phase of main performance of the local ruling classes, between the end of the I
century b.C. and first half of the I century A.D.
The significant growth of Sarsina, based on a stable sylvan-pastoral economy and
on commercial trades with the port of Ravenna, from the imperial age to the III
century A.D., decreased around the end of this century as a consequence of
violent devastations, probably by Barbarian populations, followed by a period of
decadence and settlement stagnation. Further raids, probably by Visigoths and
Erulians, date back to the period between the year 409 and 470, while in 757 the
town was under the Exarchate.
a cura dell' IBC Emilia Romgna