Satricum

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Satricum (modern Conca), an ancient town of Latium, situated some 30 m. to the SE of Rome, in a low-lying region to the south of the Alban Hills, to the NW of the Pomptine Marshes. It was accessible direct from Rome by a road running more or less parallel to the Via Appia, to the SW of it. It is said to have been an Alban colony: it was a member of the Latin League of 499 BC and became Volscian in 488 BC. It was several times won and lost by the Romans, and twice destroyed by fire. After 346 BC we hear of it only in connection with the temple of Mater Matuta. A. Nibby (Analisi della carta dei dintorni di Roma, Rome, 1848, iii.64) was the first to fix the site upon the low hill, surrounded by tufa cliffs, on which were still scanty remains of walling in rectangular blocks of the same material, which is now occupied by the farm-house of Conca. One mile WNW, on the hill above Le Ferriere, remains of an archaic temple, ascribed to Mater Matuta, were discovered by excavation in 1896. The work was begun under the direction of Professor H. Graillot of the University of Bordeaux, member of the French School of Rome, but after two weeks work was suspended by order of the Italian government, and then resumed under the supervision of their own officials. The objects discovered are in the Museo di Papa Giulio at Rome. Another Satricum lay on the right bank of the Liris, not far from Arpinum.

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.