The Roman era and the Latin poet Sextus Propertius

One of the most illustrious sons of the city of Assisi, which as we have already told you was called Asisium in Roman times, is the Latin poet Sextus Propertius.
Born around 50 BC to an aristocratic family among the most important in the Umbrian center, at the age of twenty he moved to Rome with his mother, after his father had been killed in the clashes following the so-called war of Perugia in 41-40 BC, which saw Octavian (the future Augustus) and Lucius Antonius, brother of the triumvir Mark Antony, to whose faction the father of the little Propertius belonged. A sad period, to which the poet often refers in his writings.
In Rome he soon came into contact with the cultured circles of the city, frequenting the circle of Maecenas where he met Virgil, Ovid and above all Hostia, the rich Roman matron with whom he fell in love and to whom, under the pseudonym of Cinzia, he dedicated his first book of Elegies.
From internal references to his literary work, we are able to follow his life until 15 BC, and then lose track of him.
His bond with Assisi was strong: thanks to his verses we can have an idea of ​​the urban planning and society of this city.
It will be the footsteps of Propertius that will guide us through the streets and monuments of Asisium.

A journey through the remains of the most important Roman buildings

Excavated several times between the 19th and 20th centuries, the area under Piazza del Comune is one of the most emblematic places of the Roman Asisium.
This place preserves the remains of important Roman buildings that characterized the center of the city.
After crossing the entrance, from the crypt of the church of San Nicolò, the space is delimited on the left by a large wall in travertine blocks, in front of which the lapidary develops.
The paving in front of the wall was also carefully made with travertine slabs: it was a work of great importance and commitment, as recalled by the remains of the long monumental inscription in bronze letters placed in the center of the stalls, of which today only the fixing holes remain.
The architectural development of the area and the presence of the Temple of Minerva which stands above the wall, probably dedicated to the Dioscuri (the twins Castor and Pollux) like the tetrastyle built in the centre of the stalls, has suggested the most probable hypothesis that it was precisely the forum of Asisium, consecrated to the cult of the Dioscuri.

Built on the highest point of Assisi, the Rocca Maggiore stands out on the Asio hill that overlooks the city.

“The Castle is a splendid example of ruin, perched on the top of the mountain to whose sides Assisi seems to cling, while it stretches out two arms of stone to enclose the small city in its embrace”.
Built on the highest point of Assisi, already the site of the first settlement nucleus of the protohistoric age, the Rocca Maggiore can be reached from via Porta Perlici and stands out on the Asio hill that overlooks the city.
The first historical news of the fortress dates back to 1174 when the archbishop of Mainz stayed there, who occupied Assisi on behalf of Frederick Barbarossa.

From that moment, the fortress was the seat of German feudal power until Pope Innocent III expelled the Duke of Spoleto and with him the little Frederick II of Swabia, who had been baptized in Assisi in 1197, at the age of three. In 1198 the fortress was destroyed by a popular uprising.
Reconquered by the Papal State, it was rebuilt by Cardinal Egidio Albornoz in 1362.
In the centuries that followed, this splendid fortress became the symbol of the power of the factions that fought over the city, undergoing various renovations, such as that of Paul III Farnese who, in 1535, built the mighty circular bastion, on which the papal coat of arms still stands out today. During the sixteenth century, the imposing fortification lost its defensive function and became the residence of the castellans responsible for controlling the territory.
Later, until the unification of Italy, it was used as a prison, and then became a simple warehouse.
The entrance to the Rocca, now completely restored, opens near the sixteenth-century bastion.
Inside there is a large brick-paved courtyard dating back to the fourteenth century, onto which the service rooms opened.
Adjacent to the courtyard stands the Maschio, once the residence of the castellan, divided into five overlapping rooms and joined together by a spiral staircase. From the top of the Maschio you can enjoy an extraordinary view of the city and the valley, from Perugia to Spoleto. The eye is lost in a boundless space that extends between the fertile sweetness of the plain and the rugged gorge of the Tescio river, revealing a breathtaking panorama.

A testimony to the political, civil and religious evolution of the city

The collection, created at the end of the 19th century with the aim of preserving the city's artistic heritage, includes paintings dating from the 13th to the 16th century, mostly from public buildings, street shrines, city gates, confraternity headquarters and city hospitals.
Among the decorated rooms of the palace, you can admire the frescoes of the Studiolo adjacent to the small balcony that recall the style of the Umbrian neoclassical painter Antonio Castelletti, born in Paciano on Lake Trasimeno, who worked in 1820 on some restorations in Santa Maria degli Angeli.
Inside the Pinacoteca are collected some objects of everyday use that tell the story of life in Assisi in ancient times: vases, glass and metals, dating between Protohistory and the full Roman age. Exceptional are the fragments of frescoes from under Casa Rocchi, a domus excavated in 1864 by the Archaeological Society of Subasio and today known only from drawings and these few fragments of painted plaster. The Art Gallery also houses a small group of Egyptian finds donated to the Community by the Cortona religious Guido Corbarelli, who from 1888 held the office of Archbishop of Pelusio and Apostolic Delegate for Arabia and Egypt.

The opulence of the wealthy families of Assisi in the Roman era is reflected in the private homes

The upper part of the urban space seems to have been intended for public monuments, reserving the sector sloping down towards the plain for residential neighborhoods.
The domus del Larario was discovered thanks to an excavation in 2001, in the space between Palazzo Giampè and Palazzo del Cardinale following the works for the 1997 earthquake.
The excavations brought to light 13 rooms, an atrium and a peristyle, that is, a courtyard, with three brick columns, which overlooked the reception room and the living room also used for banquets; particularly important is the triclinium, that is, the dining room, a large room paved with mosaics with colored limestone tiles.
The state of conservation of the walls is exceptional: they are over 4 meters high and feature wonderful frescoes.
The domus, in which at least two construction phases can be distinguished, was built between the second half of the 1st century BC and the first decades of the following century and takes its name from the discovery of a terracotta statue of Silvanus, one of the protective deities of the house, usually housed in a domestic altar, called a lararium.