Civita d'Antino ( la, Antinum) is a ''

comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...

'' and

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

in the

province of L'Aquila The Province of L'Aquila ( it, Provincia dell'Aquila) is the largest, most mountainous and least densely populated province of the Abruzzo region of Central Italy. It comprises about half the landmass of Abruzzo and occupies the western part o ...

, in the

Abruzzo Abruzzo (, , ; nap, label=Neapolitan language, Abruzzese Neapolitan, Abbrùzze , ''Abbrìzze'' or ''Abbrèzze'' ; nap, label=Sabino dialect, Aquilano, Abbrùzzu; #History, historically Abruzzi) is a Regions of Italy, region of Southern Italy wi ...

region of

Central Italy Central Italy ( it, Italia centrale or just ) is one of the five official statistical regions of Italy used by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), a first-level NUTS region, and a European Parliament constituency. Regions Central It ...

History

''Antinum'' was a city of the

Marsi The Marsi were an Italic people of ancient Italy, whose chief centre was Marruvium, on the eastern shore of Lake Fucinus (which was drained for agricultural land in the late 19th century). The area in which they lived is now called Marsica. ...

: it is mentioned in ancient sources only by

Pliny Pliny may refer to: People * Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE), ancient Roman nobleman, scientist, historian, and author of ''Naturalis Historia'' (''Pliny's Natural History'') * Pliny the Younger (died 113), ancient Roman statesman, orator, w ...

, who enumerates Antinum among the cities of the Marsi. The numerous inscriptions that have been discovered in the modern village suggest that it must have been a municipal town of considerable importance. Besides these, there remain several portions of the ancient walls, of polygonal construction, with a gateway of the same style, which still serves for an entrance to the modern village, and is called Porta Campanile. The Roman inscriptions confirm the testimony of Pliny as to the city being a Marsic one (one of them has ''populi Antinatium Marsorum''); but an

Oscan Oscan is an extinct Indo-European language of southern Italy. The language is in the Osco-Umbrian or Sabellic branch of the Italic languages. Oscan is therefore a close relative of Umbrian. Oscan was spoken by a number of tribes, including th ...

inscription which has been found there is in the

Volscian Volscian was a Sabellic Italic language, which was spoken by the Volsci and closely related to Oscan and Umbrian. Overview Volscian is attested in an inscription found in Velitrae (Velletri), dating probably from early in the 3rd century BC; it ...

dialect, and renders it probable that the city was at an earlier period occupied by that people. It has been supposed by some writers to be the ''castellum ad lacum Fucinum'' mentioned by

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Ancient Rome, Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditiona ...

as conquered from that people in 408 BCE, although this has been disputed.Romanelli, vol. iii. pp. 222-32; Orelli, ''Inscr.'' 146, 3940;

Keppel Richard Craven The Honourable Richard Keppel Craven (14 April 1779 – 24 June 1851) was a British traveller and author. Life Craven was the third and youngest son of William Craven, 6th Baron Craven and his wife née Lady Elizabeth Berkeley, daughter of the 4 ...

, ''Abruzzi'', vol. i. pp. 117-22; Richard Hoare, ''Classical Tour'', vol. i. p. 339, ''et seq.''; Kramer, ''Der Fuciner See'', p. 54, note.

References

Sources

* Cities and towns in Abruzzo Marsica {{Abruzzo-geo-stub