Tusculum
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Tusculum was an ancient city of Latium in Italy situated in a commanding position on the north edge of the outer crater ring of the Alban volcano, in Alban Hills 18 km (11 miles) north-east of the modern Frascati on the Tuscolo hill.
The highest point is 670 m above sea level. It has a very extensive view of the Campagna Romana, with Rome lying 25 km (15 mi) to the north-west. Rome was approached by the Via Latina (from which a branch road ascended to Tusculum, while the main road passed through the valley to the south of it), or by the Via Tuscolana (though the antiquity of the latter road is doubtful).
History
Antiquity
Funerary urns datables to the 8th - 7th centuries BCE, is a clear demonstration of the presence of a habitat of the late phases of Latial culture in this zone and a continuous occupation from the eighth century BCE to the 12th century CE.According to tradition, the city was founded by Telegonus, the son of Ulysses and Circe. When Tarquinius Superbus was expelled from Rome his cause was espoused by the chief of Tusculum, Octavius Manilius, who took a leading part in the formation of the Latin League, composed of the thirty principal cities of Latium, banded together against Rome. Mamilius commanded the Latin army at the battle of Lake Regillus (497 BCE), but was killed, and the predominance of Rome among the Latin cities was practically established. According to some accounts Tusculum became from that time an ally of Rome, and on that account frequently incurred the hostility of the other Latin cities.
In 381 BCE, after an expression of complete submission to Rome, the people of Tusculum received the Roman franchise, Tusculum became the first "municipium cum suffragio", and thenceforth the city continued to hold the rank of a municipium. Other accounts, however, speak of Tusculum as often allied with Rome's enemies last of all with the Samnites in 323 BCE.
Several of the chief Roman families were of Tusculan origin, e.g. the gentes Mamilia, Fulvia, Fonteia, Juventia, Oppia, Coruncania, Quinzia, Javolenia, Cordia, Manlia, Furia and Porcia; to the last-named the celebrated Catos belonged (as Marcus Porcius Cato "Cato the Elder" was born in Tusculum 243 BCE).
In 54 BCE, in his Orationes Pro Cn. Plancio, Marcus Tullius Cicero said: "....tu es ex municipio antiquissimo tusculano ex quo plurimae sunt familiae consulares quot e reliquis municipiis omnibus non sunt...." VIII cap.
The town council kept the name of senate, but the title of dictator gave place to that of aedile. Notwithstanding this, and the fact that a special college of Roman equites was formed to take charge of the cults of the gods at Tusculum, and especially of the Dioscuri, the citizens resident there were neither numerous nor men of distinction. The villas of the neighborhood had indeed acquired greater importance than the not easily accessible town itself, and by the end of the Republic, and still more during the imperial period, the territory of Tusculum was one of the favorite places of residence of the wealthy Romans.
In 45 BCE Cicero wrote a series of books in his Roman villa in Tusculum, the Tusculanae Quaestiones.
The last archeological evidence of Roman Tusculum is a bronze tablet of 406 CE commemorated Anicio Probo Consul and his sister Anicia.
From the 5th to the 10th century there are no historical mentions of Tusculum. In the 10th century it was the famous base of Counts Tuscolo, important family in the Medieval History of Rome.
The number and extent of the remains almost defy description, and can only be made clear by a map. Even in the time of Cicero there were eighteen owners of villas there. Much of the territory (including Cicero's villa), but not the town itself, which lies far too high, was supplied with water by the Aqua Crabra. On the hill of Tuscolo are remains of a small theatre excavated in 1839 (pictured) by Queen Maria Cristina of Borbon, wife of Charles Felix of Sardinia; she was owner of the Villa Rufinella in Frascati and funded the archaelogical excavations of Tusculum, with spirit of the antiquarian collecting. The ancient works of art excavated were sent to Ducal Savoia Castle of Agliè in Piedmont.
Middle Ages
In the Middle Ages there were in Tusculum three churches, St. Savior, Holy Trinity and St. Thomas. The Greek monastery of St. Agata lay at the foot of the Tuscolo hill, at XV mile of Via Latina road, the old "Statio Roboraria" : it was founded in 370 A.C. by basilian monk John of Cappadocia disciple of St. Basil of Caesarea, called St. Basil the Great, he brought a relic of the master, handed it over to him by monk Gregory Nazianzus. In this Greek monastery the 27 December 1005 Saint Nilus the Younger died.
Portrait of "Madonna del Tuscolo" placed nowadays in a little aedicule on the Tuscolo hill, is a reprodution in ceramic of an earlier original icon of Tusculum, which now is in the Abbey of St. Mary in Grottaferrata.
Destruction
The Roman Communal's Army destroyed the town on 17 April 1191 with the consent of Pope Celestine III and the authorization to proceed of Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor, son of Frederick Barbarossa, obteined by Roman people under condition to the crowned save in Rome, two days before. Roger of Hoveden wrote "lapis supra lapidem non remansit", indeed the Roman Commune's army took away the stones of the walls of Tusculum as spoils of war in Rome.
Cross
Now on the top of the Tuscolo hill there are an altar and an iron cross 19 metres (62,33 feet) high. On the altar there is a marble slab with the Latin inscription:
| HIC UBI DIIS GENTIUM EXTITERE DELUBRA | |
| CRUX CHRISTI REFULGET | |
| QUAM PERENNANDAE MEMORIAE SAECULI XIX A REPARATA SALUTE | |
| ET ANNI L AB INITIO SACERDOTIO MICHAELIS LEGA CARD EPISC | |
| OPTIMATES CLERUS POPULUSQUE TUSCULI ET DIOECESEOS | |
| ERIGENDAM CURARUNT A.D. MCMXXXIV A FR XII | |
| PIO XI PONT. MAX - VICTORIO EMM. III REGE - BENITO MUSSOLINI DUX - | |
| ALDOBRANDINIO PRINCIPE PATRONO |
Sources
- Gregorovius, Ferdinand. Rome in the Middle Ages Vol. IV Part 1. 1905.
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