A Steel Town - Terni

  Roman Terni
  (Hyperion by Agapito Minucchi - 1981)

Everyday a train leaves Stazione Termini at about 8:00 am. First stop: Orte; second stop: Narni; third stop ...Terni!

View of the valley of Terni from Rocca di Narni

We rode from Narni over a pleasant and fruitful valley, encompassed with mountains, and cultivated after the manner of Lombardy to Terni, anciently Inter amna from its situation, a handsome little City, having a pretty piazza, on which stands a Church that seems to have been an ancient temple. At the further end of this valley beyond Terni and upon the hills were the greatest olive-yards or rather forests of huge olive-trees that I have any where seen in Italy, and at this time of the year we found the people very busie in brushing down and gathering of olives.
John Ray - Observations made in a journey through part of (..) Italy, and France - 1673.
Terni is situated in a fine fruitful plain encompassed by two branches of the river Nera, from whence it derives its ancient name of Inter amnia quasi Inter amnes.
Thomas Nugent - The Grand Tour - 1749
From Narni to this town, Terni, the road is very good, it lies through a fertile valley, seven miles long; the eye is conveyed over a wide extended country, the river Nera, like a great silver serpent, winding along in volumes through these plains, forms peninsulas, which, in some points of view, appear like islands of various shapes, some present you with rich meadows, others stately groves of oak, others are covered with corn and planted with regular rows of mulberry trees, which sustain the luxuriant branches of the vine, whose arms embrace the mulberry-trees from side to side.
Anna Miller - Letters from Italy - 1771

The River Nera (Lat. Nar) near the amphitheatre

Terni was formerly called Interamna, for the same reason that a part of Asia was named Mesopotamia. We enter (from Spoleto) at the gate of the Three Monuments, so called, because there stood near it a monument erected to Tacitus the historian, with two others to the emperors Tacitus and Florianus (275-276 AD), all of them natives of the place. These were a few years ago demolished by thunder, and the fragments of them are in the hands of some gentlemen of the town.
Joseph Addison - Remarks on several parts of Italy - 1705
It is allowed to be a place of great antiquity, having been formerly a Roman colony, and built (as some affirm from an inscription made here for Tiberius) 671 years before Christ, under the reign of Numa Pompilius. Their bridge, according to the modern inscription put upon it by pope Urban VIII. is said to have been built by Pompey the Great. (..) Pliny praises the cabbages and turnips of Interamnia. Nugent
The ancient town was almost completely surrounded by the Nera and one of its tributaries. The Nera is a fundamental feature in the geography of area. It rises in the Apennines to the north of Terni and carves out a lengthy narrow valley, the Valnerina, before flowing through the town. The Valnerina constituted an important route connecting southern Umbria and Latium with the Sabine centre of Nursia and the neighbouring region of Picenum. The bridge mentioned by Nugent, on the road leading to Rieti, was actually named after Sextus Pompeius, son of Pompey, who supported a revolt against Octavian in 41 BC. It was destroyed during WWII.

Museum of Terni: Cascata delle Marmore in a Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot-style painting. You may wish to see it also in a painting by Giambattista Bassi (1784-1852) - it opens in another window

Terni stands in a most pleasant soyl, and is famous for being the birth-place of Cornelius Tacitus the great Historian. Arriving here betimes, we went four miles off, to see the famous Cascata, in the Mountains, which far excells that of Tivoli.
Richard Lassels - The Voyage of Italy - 1670
I went out of my way to see the famous cascade formed by the fall of the river Velino. The channel of this river lies very high, and is shaded on all sides by a green forest, made up of several kinds of trees that preserve their verdure all the year. The neighbouring mountains are covered with them, and, by reason of their height, are more exposed to the dews and drizzling rains than any of the adjacent parts. (..) The river runs extremely rapid before its fall, and rushes down a precipice of a hundred yards high. It throws itself into the hollow of a rock, which has probably been worn by such a constant fall of water. It is impossible to see the bottom on which it breaks, for the thickness of the mist that rises from it, which looks at a distance like clouds of smoke ascending from some vast furnace, and distils in perpetual rains on all the places that lie near it. Addison
Five miles from hence, is the famous cascade, but I cannot see it, for the mountain is so steep, that there is no ascending it but upon a mule's back, or on a very sure-footed horse; and in order to see it well, there are such ugly steps to pass, that I fear I may break my neck, and M. wishes me ardently not to attempt it. (..) He is just getting out, for he will see it -, and I have been recommending strongly to him to walk, if he should find the road very steep. (..) M. is returned, and quite charmed with the cascade; it is called Caduta delle Marmora and is formed by the river Velino, which falls above two hundred feet in height into the Nera. This prodigious fall of water descends in three cascades; its spray forms curious incrustations, some of which he brought me in his pocket. (..) He placed himself in different parts of the mountain, to view it in all its glory, and the variety of its appearances exceeded his expectations. Miller
The source of the Velinus is close to the ancient Falacrinum, the birth-place of Vespasian. Its waters are so strongly impregnated with carbonate of lime, that they constantly tend to form a deposit of travertine, and so to block up their own channel. The result was, that unless the course of the river was artificially regulated, the valley of the Velinus was frequently inundated, while, if the waters were allowed to descend with too great vehemence, the fertile lands of Interamna shared the same fate. Marcus Curius Dentatus, the conqueror of the Sabines, in b. c. 271, was the first who attempted to make a permanent channel, which should protect both the lower and upper valleys, and for that purpose carried the river through a cutting in the cliff, and formed the celebrated waterfall. The channel of Dentatus was gradually filled up by time, and other beds formed for the river, but the original course was re-opened by Pope Clement VIII, in 1598.
Augustus J. C. Hare - Days near Rome - 1875

Amphitheatre (near the Cathedral)

There are near the duomo the ruins of an ancient theatre, with some of the caves entire. I saw among the ruins an old heathen altar, (..) and among the rubbish of the theatre, lie two pillars, the one of granite, and the other of a very beautiful marble. Addison
Terni is a city famous in antiquity. (..) Here are still to be seen some small vestiges of antiquities; in the bishop's garden is a fragment of an amphitheatre, and some underground passages: in the church of S. Salvadore, are some small remains of a temple of the Sun, and part of a temple to Hercules in the cellars belonging to the Jesuits. Miller
This ancient town, retains no traces of its former splendor, if it ever was splendid, though it may boast of some tolerable palaces, and what is superior to all palaces, a charming situation. The ruins of the amphitheatre in the episcopal garden, consist of one deep dark vault, and scarce merit a visit.
John Chetwode Eustace - A Classical Tour through Italy in 1802

Amphitheatre (see the Colosseum and a list of other Roman amphitheatres shown in this website)

The amphitheatre was located within the walls of the Roman town near its southern gate. Until a few decades ago the dating of the monument was related to an inscription of 32 AD by Faustus Titius Liberalis, a sevir, one of the six members of a college in charge of the ceremonies in honour of the Emperor. Today the inscription is thought to refer to another monument. The amphitheatre however is still dated early Ist century AD. It has lost almost completely its outer ring, but it retains a decoration in opus reticulatum. Over the centuries parts of the masonry structures of the amphitheatre were used for the construction of the bishop's palace and of a church, but the original elliptical shape is still very evident.

Museum of Terni: inscription celebrating Faustus Titius Liberalis, the red dot indicates the word Coss

Near the duomo I was shown a square marble, inserted in the wall, with the following inscription:
"Saluti perpetuae Augustae Libertatique Publicae Populi Romani
Genio municipi Anno post Interamnam Conditam. DCCIV. Ad Cn(ejum) Domitium Aehonobarbum ---- Coss.
Providentia Ti. Caesaris Augusti nati ad aeternitatem Romani nominis sublato hoste perniciosissimo P. R. Faustus Titius Liberalis VI. vir Aug. iter. P.S. F. C (that is, pecunia sua fieri curavit)."
This stone was probably set up on occasion of the fall of Sejanus. After the name of Ahenobarbus (the father of Emperor Nero) there is a little furrow in the marble, but so smooth and well polished, that I should not have taken notice of it had not I seen Coss, at the end of it, by which it is plain there was once the name of another consul, which has been industriously razed out. Lucius Aruncius Camillus Scribonianus was consul under the reign of Tiberius, and was afterwards put to death for a conspiracy that he had formed against the emperor Claudius; at which time it was ordered that his name and consulate should be effaced out of all public registers and inscriptions. It is not, therefore, improbable, that it was this long name which filled up the gap I am now mentioning. Addison

(left) Portal of Palazzo Gazzoli; (right) mosaics of the Roman Theatre in the entrance of the palace

The palace was built in 1795 by a very wealthy family. The stables of the building stood on structures of a Roman theatre. Its existence was already known because it was reported in a "History of Terni" which was written in 1643 by Francesco Angeloni, a historian and collector of a wide range of objects including classical antiquities and drawings.

Museum of Terni: (above) inscription from the Roman theatre; (below) IInd century AD sarcophagus with a relief depicting dancing and playing Cupids

A lengthy and finely carved inscription provided Angeloni with clear evidence of the theatre by indicating the names of those who built the arcade around the seating section and the crypt of the building and embellished it with bronze reliefs portraying women. The theatre is dated Ist century AD. It was most likely decorated with reliefs portraying playing and dancing followers of Dionysus as at Italica.

Museum of Terni: inscriptions on pedestals of statues which were already known in the XVIIth century

A number of Roman inscriptions are collected on the walls of the Palazzo Publico. Hare
Angeloni could write a history of Roman Terni because several inscriptions were found in the centre of the town where the Forum was situated. They provided information on the magistrates who held important offices, on their origin and on their deeds.
The inscription celebrating A(ulo) Pompeo was of particular interest because it was rather cryptic in describing what he had actually done to save the town from summis periculis et difficultatibus. Angeloni suggested he supported the rights of Terni in a legal quarrel with Rieti about the exploitation of the River Velino. Today the prevailing opinion links the inscription with the civil war between Antony and Octavian. Aulo Pompeo probably convinced the latter not to take revenge on Terni which had helped Antony's party, but it was felt more prudent not to clearly spell out what had happened.
The inscription of the Corrector Iulius Eubulida celebrates his amore (love) for the people of Terni, a rather unusual word in this context. Correctors were appointed by the emperors to oversee the fiscal revenues of the provinces, but Diocletian in his administrative reform of the Empire appointed correctores to act as governors of the Italian regions. Eubulida was corrector of Tuscia (et Umbria).

Museum of Terni: Pre- and early Roman period: (left) Vth century BC stela showing musicians and soldiers which was found in 1901 near the gates of the town; (right) IInd century BC travertine head of goddess from a shrine at Monte Torre Maggiore, north of Terni

In 2009 a new museum was inaugurated in the premises of a former chemical plant immediately outside the city centre to house the archaeological and fine arts collections of the town. They include some exhibits of the early history of Terni.

Museum of Terni: Mausoleum (Ist century BC): (left) assumed aspect (see a similar reconstruction at Aquileia); (right) a guardian lion (see a similar one at Narni)

The museum houses a number of exhibits which are related to funerary monuments which were found in the environs of Terni especially in the late XIXth century during the construction of new factories. In antiquity tombs and sarcophagi were often decorated with Gorgons, monsters which had wings, glaring eyes and serpent locks; their gaze turned men into stone, thus they were regarded as guardians. The depiction of lion heads had the same function and it is typical of sarcophagi, see an example at Bolsena. Guardian lions were eventually placed at the entrances of medieval churches, e.g. at Verona.

S. Al� (Aloysius): relief of Our Lady of Mercy and Roman statues and reliefs

According to tradition the church was built on the site of a temple to Cybele. It is dated XIth century and later on it was assigned to the Knights of Jerusalem. Four ancient lions and other decorative materials were placed on its walls and at the entrance. Cybele was usually portrayed sitting on a throne decorated with lions or riding a chariot drawn by lions.

Museum of Terni: decorations of funerary monuments (the image used as background for this page shows a detail of another funerary frieze)

In antiquity combats in honour of the dead were part of funerary rites and were described by Homer with reference to the death of Patroclus. A mausoleum in the environs of Lucus Feroniae, north of Rome, was decorated with large reliefs depicting gladiatorial combats.

Museum of Terni: altar to Neptune: (left) priest attending a ceremony; (right) Neptune holding the trident between two dolphins

It may surprise to see an altar to Neptune in a region which is so far from the sea, but both the Velino and the Nera were navigable in antiquity. The altar was erected by a libertus (freedman), an indication of the role of former slaves in Roman society. It was already described by Michel de Montaigne in his Voyage en Italie (1580-1581).

Museum of Terni: (left) altar to Dionysus; (right) relief portraying Mithra slaying the bull

The round altar is decorated with a dancing woman, most likely a maenad, a follower of Dionysus (see a better preserved relief which was found at Tor Tre Teste near Rome).
The relief of Mithra was found at Piedimonte at the foot of the mountains north of Terni. It might have been placed in a small cave where the initiates gathered for their ceremonies (see a fresco at Mitreo Barberini which shows some of them), similar to what occurred at Sutri.

Museum of Terni: Telamon, a male caryatid

The most striking exhibit of the museum is a very recent addition to its collections. It was found in 1971 near the lost southern gate of the town. Its marble, its size and its beauty suggest it was not made for a monument of Terni. It brings to mind some statues which embellished Villa Adriana and in particular those of Antinous as an Egyptian telamon. It might have been looted there at the time of the Greek-Gothic War in the VIth century and then abandoned or placed at the side of the gate.