menu dei contenuti

We know quite little about the origins of Trebula Mutuesca, a settlement whose ruins were discovered and unearthed near the present-day village of Monteleone Sabino. Its name is likely connected to the Latin term "trabes"—the rough equivalent of the Italian term "casale", or farmhouse—although the meaning of the adjective "Mutuesca" remains a mystery.

In the second century BCE, thanks to the Bruttii Praesentes, a family of rich landowners in the area, a remarkable boom in construction took place. They built the amphitheatre, baths, large cisterns and other important public works in opus mixtum (with mixed brick and stone facing).

The urban area of Trebula was in the valley known as the Pantano Valley, bordered by three hills—Castellano, Colle Forum and Colle Diana—precisely where we now find the imposing ruins of the ancient amphitheatre. The building is partly constructed along and into the natural rock, and partly built as an extension of the outcrop. In this arena, gladiator games and fighting would have taken place, along with fairs. The centre features an hypogeum consisting of a square pit that was used to contain the elevator-like machines used to bring gladiators, ferocious animals and other spectacles up to the main arena floor.

Farther south, in the valley of the Turano, traces of an ancient vicus (road) have been found, leading to numerous sites of both major and minor importance. The Sambuco Bridge, built in large, juxtaposed square blocks, is noteworthy. It is one of the few survivors of the oldest stretch of the Via Salaria, and is a particularly remarkable example of technical engineering and construction in ancient Roman times.

Along the slopes of the Colle Castellano and Colle Forum visitors can see the twelfth-century church of Santa Vittoria, built atop an earlier sacred site dedicated to the Italic goddess Feronia or Vacuna. Below it is a small catacomb, where there is a sarcophagus that, according to tradition, held the remains of Santa Vittoria (Saint Victoria), martyred in the reign of Emperor Decius.

Finally, along the Via Turanense, visitors can see the well-known funerary monument known as "Pietra Scritta", or "Inscribed Stone." The tomb was built around a boulder that had detached from the rocky wall above, and was then modelled by a sculptor who took into account the characteristics of the monolith. Underneath it a cavity had been dug, no longer visible today, which was to receive the remains of two deceased people, while a well on the upper façade was to hold the ashes of a third body.

The inscription extends over three rows, and certifies that only the son is a citizen of full Roman rights, while the father is an "ingenuus" (freeborn) and the mother is mentioned only by a form of her family name.