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FERENTO (Town) LAZIO
Ferentinum or Ferestium (Pherentinon, Strab. v.; Pherentia, Ptol. iii. 1.50: Ferento),
a city of Etruria, situated on the N. of the Ciminian range, about 5 miles distant
from the Tiber, and the same distance from the modern city of Viterbo. It is not
mentioned in history during the period of Etruscan independence, and must probably
have been then a mere dependency of Volsinii: Strabo speaks of it as one of the
smaller towns in the interior of Etruria, but we learn from other authorities,
as well as from existing remains, that it must have been in his time a flourishing
municipal town: Vitruvius notices the excellent quality of the stone found in
its neighbourhood, and the numerous statues and other monuments hewn out of this
material which adorned the town itself (Vitruv. ii. 7.4). In common with most
of the cities of Etruria, it had received a Roman colony before the end of the
Republic, but did not obtain the title of a colony; and is termed, both by Vitruvius
and Tacitus, a municipium (Lib. Colon.; Vitruv. l. c.; Tac. Hist. ii. 50). It
derived some distinction from being the birth-place of the Emperor Otho, who was
of a noble and ancient Etruscan family (Suet. Oth. 1; Tac. l. c.): we learn also
that it possessed an ancient and celebrated temple of Fortune, i. e. probably
of the Etruscan goddess Nursia or Nortia (Tac. Ann. xv. 53). All these circumstances
point to it as a place of consideration under the Roman Empire, and we find it
termed in an inscription civitas splendidissima Ferentinensium (Orell. Inscr.
3507): it appears to have survived the fall of the Empire, and retained its episcopal
see till the 12th century, when it was attacked and destroyed by the people of
the neighbouring city of Viterbo, on account of some religious disputes which
had arisen between the two (Alberti, Descrizione d'Italia).
The site is now uninhabited, but is still known by the name of Ferento:
and the ruins of the ancient city are considerable, the most important of them
being a theatre, which is, in some respects, one of the best preserved monuments
of the kind remaining in Italy. The scena, or stage-front, is particularly remarkable:
it is 136 feet long, and built of massive rectangular blocks of volcanic masonry,
on which rests a mass of Roman brickwork with arches, decidedly of Imperial times:
while seven gates, with flat arches for architraves, open in the facade itself.
The lower part of this construction is supposed by Mr. Dennis to be certainly
an Etruscan work; but the Cav. Canina regards the whole edifice as a work of the
Roman Empire. (Canina, in the Annali dell' Inst. 1837; Dennis, Etruria, vol. i).
Besides the theatre, portions of the city walls and gates, and various ruins of
buildings of Roman date, are still remaining on the site of Ferento.
The ancient name is variously written: the MSS. of Tacitus and Suetonius
fluctuate between Ferentium and Ferentinum: Ptolemy writes it Ferentia (Phepentia);
and the ethnic form used by Vitruvius, municipium Ferentis, is in favour of the
form Ferentium: on the other hand, the inscription above cited (which certainly
belongs to the Etruscan and not to the Hernican town) gives the form Ferentinensis
from Ferentinum, and the Liber Coloniarum also has Colonia Ferentinensis for the
Etruscan colony.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited Jan 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
FERENTO (Town) LAZIO
Ferentium (Ferento) Italy. A town 88 km NW of Rome and 7.5 km W of the Tiber,
in a region scarred by deep ravines and lying about 300 m above sea level. Rome
wrested control of the district from the Etruscans ca. 265 B.C. Etruscan Ferentium
(7th-5th c. B.C.) lay on a site slightly SW of the later Roman town: excavation
has recently laid bare its necropolis, temples, and houses with terracotta decoration.
Roman Ferentium was already a flourishing municipium by the time of
Augustus, and it remained such down to the Late Empire. Its most famous native
son was Otho, the ephemeral emperor of A.D. 69, whose family sepulcher was found
immediately NE of the site in 1921. Flavia Domitilla, wife of Vespasian and mother
of the emperors Titus and Domitian, may also have come from Ferentium (Suet. Vesp.
3). In the Late Empire Ferentium dwindled to a village, but it retained its own
bishops down to the 7th c. Neighboring Viterbo finally destroyed the place in
1172.
Its temples to Fortune and Salus, recorded by Tacitus (Ann. 15.53),
have disappeared, but its theater, in the S section of the site, is one of the
best preserved anywhere. Apparently it was built under Augustus, or slightly earlier,
and was later restored (perhaps under Septimius Severus). Explorations
in 1901 and 1927-28 revealed that it conforms closely to the theater norms recommended
by Vitruvius (De Arch. 5.6), who may have been living at the time of its original
construction. The scaena, ca. 40 m long, was adorned with marble statues of Apollo,
the Muses, and a winged Pothos, copied from originals by Skopas: these are now
in the Museo Archeologico in Florence. The rear wall of the scaena, lofty as usual,
seems to belong to the later reconstruction: it is largely of brick and was pierced
by 11 exits (seven survive) leading to an ambulatory. The stage proper was on
the N side of the scaena: its surviving foundations, built of a local peperino
commended by Vitruvius (De Arch. 2.4.7), show that it was 5 m deep and ca. 1.5
m high; the customary three doors linked the proscenium with the scaena. The orchestra
has a diameter of 28 m, is paved with the local peperino, and is reached by parodoi
faced with opus reticulatum. The cavea was originally divided into six sections:
little remains of its original stone seating, but 13 rows have been recently restored
in cement. A spectacular semicircle of massive stone pilasters, 60 m in diameter,
runs round the cavea: the 28 pilasters are 4 m apart and are linked by arches,
25 of which (one of them restored) still stand, their voussoirs holding themselves
in place without cement. Surviving fragments of the marble cladding further attest
the sumptuous appearance of the theater.
Next to the theater on the E are extensive ruins of baths, mostly
of brick but with some opus reticulatum: fragments of marble, of stucco veneer,
and of white and black mosaic paving also survive. The date seems Augustan, but
there were later rebuildings. Investigation in 1908-9 revealed that the baths
covered ca. 4000 sq. m, provided separate accommodations for men and women, and
had the tepidaria and calidaria at the S end as usual. They, too, apparently adhered
to Vitruvian canons. An inscription on a marble slab used for repairing the baths
in the Late Empire indicates that the forum was monumentalized, in either A.D.
12 or 18, with an Augusteum, as yet unidentified, which housed over 50 statues.
Blocks from the E end of the town wall and traces of the defensive
agger at its W end also survive, as well as a well-preserved stretch of the decumanus
maximus that ran W to join the Via Cassia some 4 km away. Excavation will probably
reveal much else, especially in the NE part of the site where remains of an amphitheater
are clearly visible.
Several ancient bridges cross the nearby ravines, the most notable
being the lofty Ponte Funicchio of ca. 100 B.C. immediately to the SW.
Many of the archaeological finds are now at Viterbo in the Museo Civico
(the convent of S. Maria della Verita). They include an altar front with bas reliefs
(from the Augusteum ?), a female statue (headless but beautifully draped), and
numerous inscriptions (one of them honoring Otho).
E.T. Salmon, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Jan 2006 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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