The Clitunno, in Antiquity the Clitumnus, is a river in

Umbria it, Umbro (man) it, Umbra (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. The name is of uncertain origin, but it was also borne by the river god. The Clitunno rises from a spring within a dozen metres of the ancient

Via Flaminia The Via Flaminia or Flaminian Way was an ancient Roman road leading from Rome over the Apennine Mountains to ''Ariminum'' (Rimini) on the coast of the Adriatic Sea, and due to the ruggedness of the mountains was the major option the Romans had ...

near the town of

Campello sul Clitunno Campello sul Clitunno is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Perugia in the Italian region Umbria, about 45 km southeast of Perugia. The Temple of Clitumnus, and the source of the Clitunno River, are within its boundaries. It is a ...

, Umbria, Trevi. The spring was well described by

Pliny the Younger Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, born Gaius Caecilius or Gaius Caecilius Cilo (61 – c. 113), better known as Pliny the Younger (), was a lawyer, author, and magistrate of Ancient Rome. Pliny's uncle, Pliny the Elder, helped raise and educate ...

who records his visit toward the end of the first century AD:

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...

mentions the site too in Book II of his ''

Georgics The ''Georgics'' ( ; ) is a poem by Latin poet Virgil, likely published in 29 BCE. As the name suggests (from the Greek word , ''geōrgika'', i.e. "agricultural (things)") the subject of the poem is agriculture; but far from being an example ...

'' where he celebrates ". . . the milk-white herds of the Clitumnus, those bulls that often bathed in the river's sacred stream, the noblest of the victims Romans sacrifice at their triumphs . . ." It was visited by

Caligula Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (31 August 12 – 24 January 41), better known by his nickname Caligula (), was the third Roman emperor, ruling from 37 until his assassination in 41. He was the son of the popular Roman general Germanicu ...

and by the

emperor Honorius Honorius (9 September 384 – 15 August 423) was Roman emperor from 393 to 423. He was the younger son of emperor Theodosius I and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla. After the death of Theodosius, Honorius ruled the western half of the empire while ...

. It was also celebrated as a great beauty spot by

Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...

and

Giosuè Carducci Giosuè Alessandro Giuseppe Carducci (; 27 July 1835 – 16 February 1907) was an Italian poet, writer, literary critic and teacher. He was very noticeably influential, and was regarded as the official national poet of modern Italy. In 1906, h ...

; in the 19th century it was planted with willows, and zealously monitored for pollution. It is open today as a paying tourist attraction. The Clitunno then flows, generally north, through the east Umbrian plain, past the church of the so-called

Temple of Clitumnus The so-called Temple of Clitumnus ( it, Tempietto del Clitunno) is a small early medieval church that sits along the banks of the Clitunno river in the town of Pissignano near Campello sul Clitunno between Spoleto and Trevi, Umbria, Italy. In 201 ...

and the towns of Pissignano,

Cannaiola Cannaiola is a village of 730 inhabitants in the Italian province of Perugia in east central Umbria in the floodplain of the Clitunno River; altitude 218 m (715 ft) above sea-level. It is a ''frazione'' of the ''comune'' of Trevi, whic ...

and

Trevi The area of freedom, security and justice (AFSJ) is a collection of justice as well as migration & home affairs policies designed to ensure security, rights and free movement within the European Union (EU). Fields covered include the harmonisati ...

, to join the

Timia Timia is a small town and commune in northern Niger, situated at an oasis in the Aïr Mountains, Agadez Region, Arlit Department. Visitors come to the Tuareg town to see a seasonal waterfall, a former French fort and the nearby ruined town of A ...

, a

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...

of the

Topino The Topino is a river in Umbria, central Italy. It was known in ancient times as ''Supunna'' by Umbri and later in Latin as ''Tinia'' and is mentioned by Dante Alighieri in the ''Canto'' XI of the ''Paradise''. It is the main tributary of the Chi ...

, near

Bevagna Bevagna is a town and ''comune'' in the central part of the Italian province of Perugia (Umbria), in the flood plain of the Topino river. Bevagna is south-east of Perugia, west of Foligno, north-north-west of Montefalco, south of Assisi and ...

.Agenzia regionale di protezione ambientale dell'Umbria
Caratterizzazione dei bacini idrografici e dei corpi idrici superficiali
Sottobacino Topino Marroggia, map p. 10 of 22. Though its current is usually sluggish, it is subject, like many other rivers in the east Umbrian plain, to sudden flooding. It was only tamed completely in the 19th century, and is largely banked by levees. The

, later a church, lies on its bank.

References

External links

{{Authority control Rivers of the Province of Perugia Rivers of Italy