History of Sulmona

The Birth and The Roman Age

Ancient writers, Ovidio and Silio Italico among them, all agree on the remote origin of Sulmona, which could be related to the destruction of Troy. Escutcheon of Sulmona The name of our city, in fact, could derive from Solimo, a mate of Enea's. But. It is Tito Livio who gives us the first historical news, mentioning the oppidum italico and narrating how the city, despite the lost fights of Trasimeno and Canne, remained loyal to Rome closing its own town gates to Annibal.

On the rise of the Mitra Mountain we find archaeological testimonies of the oppidum, one of the greatest fortified settlements of Central Italy. It is a place, higher than the present city, which assumed its position between the two rivers Gizio and Vella only in the Roman Age. The Peligna Valley, seat of the real urbs, derives its name from the Greek "peline"= muddy. Slimy. In fact, during the prehistoric age, a very wide lake filled the Valley of Sulmona; owing to disastrous earthquakes the rocky barrier, standing in the way of the water toward the sea, collapsed: in return the soil remained a muddy and fertile one.

During the Roman Age. Sulmona was the seat of one of the three peligni municipia together with Corfinium and Superaequum. In 81 b.C, we have the second event historians tell, that is the destruction of the city by Silla, in consequence of the rebellion to obtain the complete pursuance of the Lex Cornelia Suffragiis. 32 years later, however we have the recovery, with the establishment of a garrison of Pompey, which had to submit to Marcantonio, messenger of Caesar, because of an umpteenth revolt of the citizens of Sulmona.

But a historic date for Sulmona is 43 b.C., year of the birth of the famous latin poet Publio Ovidio Nasone, poet of love and of Metamorphosis, later banished in Tomi, in Romania by the Emperor Augustus. The city has taken the letters of its escutcheon S.M.P.E from the initial letters of the famous hemistich Sulmo Mihi Patria Est, (Sulmona is my homeland). Resting Ercole Signs of the roman Sulmona have been found in the excavations of the Ercole Curino Temple, at the foot of the Morrone Mountain, where, according to an old legend, there would be the ruins of Ovidio's villa. Researches brought to light a bronze representing the Resting Ercole, today preserved at the Archaeological Museum of Chieti. It is a small bronze, gift af a merchant, maybe dated III century b.C., representing the hero leaning on his left arm on a club, with a leonskin, it is considered a masterpiece on ancient plastic art. Beside the Ercole, architectural materials and votive images have been found. Finally two elegant lines signed by Ovidio have been found on a column, it is thought they have been drew up on the marble by our Poet.