Cures was an ancient

Sabine The Sabines (, , , ; ) were an Italic people who lived in the central Apennine Mountains (see Sabina) of the ancient Italian Peninsula, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome. The Sabines divided int ...

town in the Tiber Valley in central Italy, about from

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, between the left bank of the

Tiber The Tiber ( ; ; ) is the List of rivers of Italy, third-longest river in Italy and the longest in Central Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio, where it is joined by the R ...

and the Via Salaria. Its remains are located in the modern commune of Fara Sabina. According to legend, it was from Cures that Titus Tatius led to the Quirinal the Sabine settlers, from whom, after their union with the settlers on the

Palatine A palatine or palatinus (Latin; : ''palatini''; cf. derivative spellings below) is a high-level official attached to imperial or royal courts in Europe since Roman Empire, Roman times.

, the whole Roman people took the name

Quirites Quirites is the name of Roman citizens in their peacetime functions. Its use excluded military statute. During the mutiny of his legions in 47 BC, Julius Caesar expressed the dismissal of his army by addressing them as Quirites, implying his soldi ...

. Another legend, related by Dionysius, connects the foundation of Cures with the worship of the Sabine god ''

Quirinus In Roman mythology and Roman religion, religion, Quirinus ( , ) is an early god of the Ancient Rome, Roman state. In Augustus, Augustan Rome, ''Quirinus'' was also an epithet of Janus, Mars (mythology), Mars, and Jupiter (god), Jupiter. Name ...

'', whence Quirites. It was also renowned as the birthplace of Ancient Rome's second king

Numa Pompilius Numa Pompilius (; 753–672 BC; reigned 715–672 BC) was the Roman mythology, legendary second king of Rome, succeeding Romulus after a one-year interregnum. He was of Sabine origin, and many of Rome's most important religious and political ins ...

. According to

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a 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 traditional founding i ...

, Numa Pompilius resided in Cures immediately prior to his election as king. Its importance among the Sabines at an early period is indicated by the fact that its territory is often called simply ager Sabinus. At the beginning of the imperial period, it is spoken of as an unimportant place, but seems to have risen to greater prosperity in the 2nd century. Pliny notices the Curenses as one of the municipal towns of the Sabines; and numerous inscriptions of Imperial date speak of its magistrates, its municipal senate (''ordo''), etc., whence we may infer that it continued to be a tolerably flourishing town as late as the 4th century. In these inscriptions it is uniformly termed Cures Sabini, an epithet probably indicating the claim set up by the people to be the metropolis of the Sabines. It appears as the seat of a bishop in the 5th century, after the establishment of Christianity. The bishops assumed the title of ''Curium Sabinorum'', and sometimes even that of ''Episcopus Sabinensis''. The town seems to have been destroyed by the

Lombards The Lombards () or Longobards () were a Germanic peoples, Germanic people who conquered most of the Italian Peninsula between 568 and 774. The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the ''History of the Lombards'' (written betwee ...

in 589 AD. An epistle of

Pope Gregory I Pope Gregory I (; ; – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great (; ), was the 64th Bishop of Rome from 3 September 590 until his death on 12 March 604. He is known for instituting the first recorded large-scale mission from Ro ...

states that in 593 the site was already desolate.Nibby, ''Dintorni'', vol. i. pp. 532, 533. The site consists of a hill with two summits, round the base of which runs the Fosso Corese: the western summit was occupied by the

necropolis A necropolis (: necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'' (). The term usually implies a separate burial site at a distan ...

, the eastern by the citadel, and the lower ground between the two by the city itself. Excavations from 1874 up until 1877 revealed a temple, forum, baths, etc.

Sources

* Thomas Ashby i
''Papers of the British School at Rome''
iii. 34–35, 1906. (T. As.) * *

References

{{Authority control Sabine cities 589 disestablishments Populated places disestablished in the 6th century Archaeological sites in Lazio Former Roman Catholic dioceses in Italy

See also

Sources

References