Ministero per i Beni
e le Attività Culturali

Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici
dell'Emilia Romagna

THE HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT SARSINA

The old sources (Polibio, Livio, Plinio and Marziale) and the archaeological findings, above all the epigraphic texts of the public and sepulchral monuments, helped to trace out the essential lines of the history of the roman municipality of Sarsina (Sassina).
In the 4th century b.C. the Umbrian people (Umbri Sapinates), who were already present in the Savio valley since the 6th century, created the first permanent settling in the area of the modern city. They occupied the fluvial terrace which dominated the valley of the Savio river, an important natural axis which linked the Pianura Padana and the Adriatic coast in the North, the Casentino and the Val Tiberina in the South, and the Marecchia valley in the East.
The traces of the first urban agglomerate go back to the second part of the 4th century b.C. It was next to the modern Piazza Plauto ( the former Seminary area), and it consisted of simple wooden buildings with little artisan facilities.
In 266 b.C., after two hard militar campaigns, Sarsina was subjected by the Romans who, however, granted a certain autonomy to the city, conferring on it the status of civitas foederata (allied city).
After that, in 225 b.C., during the war between Gauls and Romans, the Sassinates, together with the Umbrians, provided the Romans with 20,000 soldiers.
It is in this period  that Titus Maccius Plautus, the famous Latin playwright, was born (254 b.C.).
During the central years of the 1st century b.C.the city, by then integrated in the roman State as Municipium, was reorganized on the architectural and urbanistic level, and it was also provided of solid city-walls.
The presence of freedmen (free slaves), was very important for the social and economical organization of the city: these freedmen were usually of oriental origins, and when they became an entrepeneurial class, they contributed to the revitalization of the city.
In the Augustan age the municipality of Sarsina became part of the Regio VI district (Umbria) instead of the Regio VIII (Emilia), in confirmation of its umbrian origins.
During the Imperial age, up to the 3rd century a.C., Sarsina had a considerable development based on a solid agricultural and pastoral economy and on the commercial relationship with the port of Ravenna.The numerous references in the sepulchral textes to the existence of the fabri (craftsmen), the centonari (fabric manufacturers), the dendrophori (carpenters), and the muliones (muleteers) associations, testify the great amount of business attained in the various activities.
In the late 3rd century a.C. Sarsina underwent violent ravages, maybe by some barbaric populations, considering the evident signs of fire on the mosaic floorings of certain houses. A period of decline and settling standstill followed.
Between the 3rd and the 4th century Sarsina had its first bishop, Vicinio, who later became the patron saint of the city. Other incursions took place between 409 and 470, maybe by Visigoths and Erulis, and in 757 the city was subjected to the Esarcato. The Romanic Cathedral was erected  in the 10th century : during the centuries it acted as the nucleus around which the city continued to gravitate.

THE FINDINGS IN THE CITY

The ancient Sarsina was situated in the same area occupied by the modern Sarsina. As for all the pluristratified urban centres, the occasions of archaeological investigations almost always depend on the opportunities offered by urbanization works or housing interventions. Therefore, the excavations are affected by the most recent structures which are superimposed and prevent from searching freely the remains below.

Nevertheless, the different, archaeological findings, recovered in varied places of the town (see picture below) permitted to reconstruct a general town structure, starting from the origins of Sarsina.

Archaeological investigations, carried out in the '80s in the area of the Ex-Seminary, brought to light some structural remains of the first permanent settlement. This settlementdates back to the Umbrian phase (IV century b.C.) and consisted of wooden huts with some small production and craft facilities (n.1); the stratifications surveyed in other parts of the town confirmed the development of the first Umbrian settlement in the same area occupied by the Roman Sarsina (nn.2,6).

During the I century b.C., owing to the acquisition of the status of municipium, an incisive city redevelopment was carried out, on the grounds of a specific planning and a regular distribution of the spaces.

The layout of the roads was the basis of the town-planning scheme: it consisted of rectilineal axes which crossed each other orthogonally (n.7) and it is attested by the remains of pavements or by the layout of big sewer pipe lines made of sandstone slabs. (One of these pipes is visible inside the museum.)

The different blocks of houses, in a rectangular shape, were of various breadth since they adjusted themselves to the altimetrical variations of the ground. As a matter of fact, the town was northwards arranged in terracings, with a clear scenographic effect. In the first half of the same century, the town was surrounded with walls made of blocks of sandstone (n.8).

The forum was the social and political centre and it corresponded only in part to the present Piazza Plauto (n.9). The forum, situated at the crossing of two roads, spread from North to South for about 120 metres. The floor levels which came to light are at least two: the first one, in sandstone slabs, belong to the republican Age; the second one,in slabs of marble from Verona, carefully squared and disposed, dates back to the half of the I century a.C. 

The most important public, civic and religious buildings gravitated around the forum, while the private houses were mainly in the various blocks.

Among the public buildings, the most evident remains are, once again, those which emerged from the area of the ex-Seminary and which were superimposed, between the end of the II century b.C. and the early Imperial Age, to the remains of the umbrian settlement; these remains belonged to business premises, may be a market (n.10).

The basilica or the senate house (buildings for the administration of justice) were maybe situated in the North-East side of the forum, but the archaeologists could only find circumstantial evidence of it. To all these buildings, we should add, even if not directly looking onto the forum, two thermal spa: the one was in the area of the old Foro Boario (cattle market), situated on the remains of a republican domus which, later on, was totally restored and enlarged (n.11): the other was near via Linea Gotica (n.12).

A redevelopment of the public aspect of the town, between the end of the I century and the beginning of the II century a.C., is confirmed by different epigraphs dedicated to Nerva and Traiano and connected to monuments in honour of the Imperial family. The town redevelopment was carried out in a period of special civic and economic liveliness for the city(room VI). 

In the area of the ex-sports ground architectural structures, columns and other materials, dating back mostly to the I century b.C., formed areligious building (n.13). From the same area,we have some bronze ex-voto, dating back to the III century b.C. which testified the presence of a cult place of umbrian tradition.

Some other remains, found in vicolo Aurigemma (not far from the North-East side of the forum)belonged to a second cult building (n.14). They prove the existence of a monumental complex, a votive cella, directly overlooking the square and dedicated to various greek and italic divinities. It dates back to the beginning of the beginning of the II century a.C. and it was commissioned by Cesius Sabinus, a rich Sarsina citizen.

Another relevant monumental complex was situated in the South-West part of the town (n.15); probably the structures brought to light were part of a sanctuary dedicated to oriental divinities: this hypothesis is supported by the iconography of the statues found in the excavation place.

As far as housing is concerned, Sarsina offered several finds, dating back between the I century b.C. and the II century a.C.- constituted mainly by architectural fragments or by single flooring sections. In the present via Finamore (nn.16-17) and in the ex-Foro Boario (n.18), two relevant buildings were brought to light: from their structural remains, the archaeologists could trace out the plan of the typical, italic domus centred on the presence of an entrance with a well.

Between the end of the I century and the beginning of the III century a.C., in the domus in via Finamore, the most representative rooms, probably the triclinia rooms (dining rooms) had excellent mosaic floorings, representing polychrome, dionysiac scenes (rooms V and E); the houses were destroyed by a fire that, in the late III century a.C., devastated a whole quarter of Sarsina. This area was not rebuilt anymore, testifying in this way, a strong population crisis.

In other peripheral areas we could find simpler houses, sometimes with craft facilities, proved by the presence of tanks, stoves and furnaces (n.19-23); these activities, which were run by the families themselves, together with other trade resources, must effectively supplement the local economy, connected , by tradition, to a flourishing agriculture and breeding.

THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM

The National Archaeological Museum in Sarsina, as it appears nowadays, is the result of many structural works and of the rearrangements made in the last fifteen years, after the several phases of enlargement which followed one another after its establishment.
The first exposition of the museum, called "M.A.Plauto", was organized in 1890 by an archaeologist from Forlì, Antonio Santarelli, for the will of the Town Council. In the first two rooms they prepared a rich collection of public and funerary inscriptions dating back to the Roman age, and coming from the occasional findings occurred during the centuries both in the city and in the suburb. These findings had been collected since the 17th century by researchers and lovers of the local history, first among the others Filippo Antonini, the erudite priest from Sarsina who provided the first organic description of 35 epigraphic documents preserved in the Cathedral or by privates.
Later on, all the archaeological rests found during the various explorations of the city run regularly to the museum, and they helped to trace the first features of the built-up area.
However, the greatest increase of the collection was due to the items found in the roman necropolis of Pian di Bezzo, regularly inspected from 1927 to 1939.
Because of the exceptionality and the state of preservation of the great funeral monuments in the necropolis, it was necessary to add new exposition rooms. From 1927 to 1950 they progressively occupied the whole ground floor of the same building, even though these rooms were still unsufficient in comparison to the exigences. During these years the work of Traiano Finamore, Onorary Preserver of the museum up to the seventies, was foundamental because he directed all the restauration phases of the various funeral monuments.
In 1957 the museum was acquired by the State and was named "Archaeological Museum of Sarsina". The building was enlarged trough the construction of a new room on the ground floor (Room V), and the progressive occupation of the first floor.
From 1966 and 1976 the museum was reorganized by Gino Vicinio Gentili, Antonio Veggiani and Giancarlo Susini. Susini has a special credit for studying and interpreting a foundamental source for the reconstruction of the political and social history of the city.
Finally, during the eighties, thanks to the collaboration of the Sarsina's Town Council, the "Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici dell'Emilia Romagna" futher enlarged the exposition rooms (the room with the Mausoleum of Rufus); this restoration, accomplished under the scientific direction of Jacopo Ortalli, allowed to reassemble integrally the principal roman funerary monuments, which were before dismembered, and to reach the today's arrangement of the collection.

THE EXCAVATIONS IN PIAN DI BEZZO

In the history of the archaeology of Sarsina we want to underline the importance  of the excavations which brought to light the most important roman necropolis, one of the most significant in the North of Italy, for the tipology of its sepulchral monuments.
Between 1927 and 1933 systematic excavation campaigns run by the "Soprintendenza dell'Emilia Romagna" and directed by Salvatore Aurigemma, allowed to find a part of the roman necropolis which had been developing since the 1st century b.C., in Pian di Bezzo. This area is less than 2 km (as the crow flies) from the city center, on the right side of the Savio river.
At the beginning of the 3rd century a.C. a landslide, maybe caused by an earthquake, obstructed the course of the river and provoked the flooding of the whole area, which was soon submerged by several metres of alluvial deposits that protected for years the tombs which were there. The following fluvial erosion brought to light, during the centuries, tombstones and architectural parts of funerary monuments which were added to the first collection of the museum. They were the principal signs which helped to circumscribe the area that had to be examined.
When the "Società Idroelettrica dell'Alto Savio" planned the creation of an artificial dam, the "Soprintendenza Archeologica" decided to start a systematic exploration over the area, almost 3,000 sq.metres wide.
The first excavation campaign immediately brought to light the remains of the Mausoleum of Rufus, and it also revealed the presence of the road, along which the tombs were placed.
This discovery was followed by a series of other excavation campaigns and also by the first restoration works on the big monuments, the enlargement of the exposition rooms and the recontruction in the public garden of the Mausoleum of A.Murcio Obulacco.
After two more examinations in 1939 and 1951, which confirmedthe absence of other monumental sepulchres, 1981-84 the "Soprintendenza" started again, under the direction of Jacopo Oratlli, the exploration of a zone situated almost 30 m in the east of the monumental area, not far from the borders of the excavations. Archaeologists discovered a new stretch of the road in fluvial pebbles: it was separated by a ditch from the field where they found almost twenty tombs- a lot of them were cremation tombs- and three stelae.
The up-to-date methods of examination helped to get and record a series of data concerning the funeral ritual, and to complete in this way the knowledge of foundamental aspects for the comprehension of the whole sepulchral context.

The reassemblement of the extraordinary funeral monuments in Pian di Bezzo, which are today visible in their entirety, is the result of a laborious restoration and integration work. This work started during the excavation campaign, it continued when the monuments were placed inthe Museum (even though they were divided into several parts because of the inadequacy of the rooms available for the exposition), and it concluded with the present expositive phase.
The careful studies of the monuments which are still on site and the graphic accounts made by Traiano Finamore (designer of the Soprintendenza during the excavations and then "Conservatore Onorario del Museo Sarsinate" until 1970), were foundamental for a correct reconstruction of the parts preserved and the integration of the missing ones.
Howerver, unitl the nineties the monuments placed in the Museum were not completed, except the Mausoleum of Obulaccus, reassembled since the thirties in the public garden of Sarsina and later become a war memorial. For this reason, Finamore's designs were for a long time the only references which could help to trace the typology of the expressions and of the funeral customs.
Thanks to the last enlargement works. made possible by the assignment of plots of land by the Municipality, it was possible to reconstruct the Mausoleum of Rufus and the Monument of Verginius Paetus, and to come to the present exposition.
During the hard phases of reassemblement, Stanislav Kasprzysiak's designs and Uber Ferrari's restorations were also very important.

THE TOPOGRAPHY OF THE NECROPOLIS

Since the Republican age, the prohibition to bury the dead in the built-up areas determined the external position of graveyards from the city.
Tombs, expeciallly the monumental ones, were preferably placed all along the principal roads which led to the city, on both sides. The position of the tombs near the road, together with the architectural and epigraphic value, showed the will of self-celebration of the indiviuals; behind these monuments there were more modest tombs, which usually had no identification marks on the ground. In a necropolis this sort of modest tombs were the most numerous because the celebrative purpose attribued to a tomb was a characteristic of a quite short period and it concerned only people of a high social class.
The elder tombs were generally placed on the part of the road which was closer to the city. Groups of tombs, even though from different ages, could show the belonging to the same family or social group.
In Sarsina the two areas, in the North and in the South of the extraurban road, differentiated one another: the first, although it was only partially examined, revealed simple graves; the one in the South, instead, revealed a scenographic disposition.
This area was probably privileged because it was flat and surrounded by a pleasant natural setting, with a nice vegetation all around the tombs.
The systematic excavation works revealed the distribution. on both sides of the gravel road, of imponent and fascinating sepulchral architectures, interposed by stelae and funeral altars. The most monumental tombs, which go back to the end of the 1st century b.C. and the first half of the 1st century a.C.( the period when the upper class made a name for itself), were concentrated in a area of no more than ten metres, near the road. Behind this zone there was instead a prevalence of more modest tombs, of no monumental importance.
During the 1st and the 2nd century a.C. the different types of sepulchres became less numerous, together with the social levelling and the ideological change concerning the burial, which was no more considered a means of self-celebration.
Finally, in the necropolis of Pian di Bezzo there are also groups of tombs for whole families, as it is shown iin the sepulchral areas near the monument of Verginius Paetus,or by the group of tombs of the Murcii family.
Another important group of tombs of the end of the 2nd century a.C. is the one of the dead who belonged to the collegium of the muliones. This group was identified thanks to a stele found in the last examined area, built on a side of the road: it reminds of a sepulchral plot (locus) assigned to the muleteers who lived in Sarsina. 

THE TYPOLOGIES OF THE SEPULCHRES

The type of locus sepolturae was considered for a long time an important and efficacious means of social communication.
The shape, the dimensions, the whole of the elements represented in the monuments, paid honour to the dead's memory, exalting his social status.
The necropolis in Pian di Bezzo distinguished itself for the big variety of tombs. 25 tombs, on a total of 92, showed a different architectural typology:
- a brick tomb with an underground room and a vaulted roof.
- a cylindrical tamboured monument with a square cobblestone basement and a round body covered by bricks.
- two dado monuments built with cubeshaped sandstone slabs and decorated with a Doric frieze (one of them was very fragmented and has not been recovered). The monument of Verginius Paetus, which has been rebuilt in room IV.
- five aedicule mausolea with a pyramidal cusp and formed by three different architectural bodies: a corniced dado base; a central structure which reminds of a temple with a dummy door; a pyramidal roof surmonted by a symbolic funreary urn supported by a big capital. Only a few architectural elements testify the existence of two of the five mausolea found in the necropolis (room IV); this is not the case of the imposing Mausoloem of Rufus, 14,13 m high, which has been rebuilt in the new wing of room V. Another valuable monument is the Mausoleum of Obulaccus, which was also rebuilt between 1936 and 1938 in the public gardens at the entrance of the town; on the other hand, we still have only the base of the Mausoleum of Oculatio, Obulaccus' son, exposed in room V.
The typology of the monument of Obulaccus, which had Hellenistic origins and was widely diffused among the Romans, underlined a great commemorative purpose and a will of heroising the dead.
Other kinds of tombs have been recovered besides these big monuments: they are altars, cippi and stele, which were widely diffused during the first Imperial age. The aedicula stele and those witha dummy door are the most relevant ones.
The inscription, carved on the front of the funerary monuments, was a constant characteristic: it always included the personal data of the dead, often accompanied by the names of those who had commissioned the burial. It could also sometimes include other pieces of information: simple formulae expressed by initials and abbreviations, indications of the profession or of civil and militar charges, expressions of love.

Among the numerous sepulchral inscriptions, which are the most important source to study and understand the ancient inhabitants, the testament carved on the altar of Cetrania Severina (room I) and the inscription in the cippus of Oratius Balbus (room III) deserve a special attention. 
During the 2nd century a.C., with the affirmation of the new religions coming from the Mediterranean area and from the East, the burials (both inhumations and cremations) often used, as external signs, a simple stone or groups of stones. Together with the tops of the amphorae emerging from the grave, these stones permitted to recognize from the outside the different burials, in order to practise the periodical funerary rites.

THE ROMAN BURIAL RITES

At the end of the 1st century b.C., after the romanization of the regional territory, the funeral cult underwent important changes. The inhumation practise, typical of the Italic populations, was abandoned in favour of the incineration, a practise that was diffusely adopted in Rome.
The inhumation practise spread in the second half of the 2nd century, as a consequence of a series of religious changes, but the two rites could live together, according to the custom and the individual belief.

The imhumation rite was the simplest one: the corpse was put supine, sometimes in a wooden coffin, in a hole born in the ground; the corpse could sometimes be protected with large slabs or roofing tiles (copertura alla cappuccina), or put in brick coffins or, less frequently, in marble sarcophagi.
The incineration rite was more complex, and it was practised in two different ways:
-direct cremation (bustum): the dead, put on a wooden board or on funeral bed, and often surrounded by personal aritcles or jewels, was burnt in the hole; the remains of the funeral pyre were often covered with bricks. It was sometimes possible to practise the ossilegium, that is the selection of the bones which were then collected in the funerary urn, put inside the grave.
-indirect cremation: this kind of rite required a special place, the ustrinum, where the funeral pyre was lit; after burning the corpse, his calcined bones were collected and put in the grave. If a box was available, a part of the ashes was put near the bones. If, instead, bones were collected in a funerary urn, they were chosen from the rest of the combustion and they were sometimes washed.
Certain monuments could contain, in a special cell, the urns with the ashes of the dead,  the monuments in Sarsina, instead, had yhe only function of giving prominence to the place where people were buried, and the urn was put underground, sometimes covered by blocks of sandstone (some examples are near the Monument of Paetus).
The ceremony of the outfit was as important as the burial rite, and objects were put in the grave, according to the richness of the dead. The most frequent objects were a coin, as "offering to Charon"; a lamp to light up the jouney towards the hereafter; small bottles of unguents. The dead wore more personal objects, diversified according to the sex.
In the necropolis in Pian di Bezzo, where cremations are the 89% of the burials, the excavation made in the eighties helped to recognize some of the funerary practises made during and after the funeral (funus) near the tombs.On the ground there were various materials which could be connected to the ritual officiated by the dead's relatives: funeral banquet (silicernium), offerings, collective libations, purifying acts (profusiones), leftovers, kitchen implements and lamps found around the graves.

THE ORIENTAL DIVINITIES

The cult of the Oriental divinities spread throughout the Roman world especially during the II century a.C., a period of religious eclecticism and favourable support by the imperial dinasty. The intensity of the commercial and cultural relations with Ravenna, base of the roman fleet, settled in Classe and often composed by sailors devoted to the oriental cults, may justify the worship of these divinities in Sarsina.The oriental cult was addressed to six deities: two coming from the Phrygian-Anatolian cycle and four coming from the Egyptian one.

The workshops were probably in Rome or in the oriental area, as testified by eight blocks composing the statue of Serapide which are numbered with letters of the greek alphabet.

At the moment of their discovery, in 1923, the statues were totally broken in pieces. We can maybe suppose that the discovery place of the statues coincided with the original location of the sanctuary: together with the statues, as a matter of fact, walls, pillars, shafts of columns, Corinthian capitals and marble floorings have been found. Several clear signs of damaging on many parts of the sculptures underline the deliberateness of their destruction, maybe during the Christian Age. Probably the statues, transported outside the cellae of the temple, have destroyed with the stroke of a club, with the consequent crumbling and loss of whole parts. However, even if its artistic value is belittled by its fragmentary character, the archaeologists recognized and recomposed the statue of Cibele, the Great Mother of men and animals, and the statue of the young shepherd Attis (in love with Cibele) with the typical Phrygian cap, both belonging to the Asiatic cult. The identification of other Egyptian divinities is, instead, more controversial. Serapide (Pluto) and his dog, Cerbero, on the contrary, are the only ones which can be for certain attributed to this group.

The identification of the statues of Arpocrate, Mitra and Anubis (Egyptian divinity with the head of a dog) must be reconsidered.

The archaeologists found in the same excavation place the head of a woman that had been previously considered as missing and, therefore, had not been taken into account during the restoration works. This head was probably part of the draped statue which stands near Serapide and which should be, as a consequence, the representation of Iside instead of Anubis. This hypothesis is also supported by the presence of a urn (situla) and by the representation of a special kind of clothes (a tunic and a himation).
If we accept this hypothesis, the Egyptian, sculptural cycle would be completed: Serapide, Iside and the young Arpocrate. Anubis (a part of a statue with a short tunic) could be added to this group, while Mitra would be excluded, since the archaeologists have not identified it yet.

THE CITY WALLS (panel 13 room VII)

The city walls were the first elements which, together with the layout of the roads and the realization of the sewer system, outlined the urban area, regularizing the perimeter and highlighting its wideness.

Since the city walls were a sort of "enclosure" inside which the city itself developed, they had a double function: they were a protection from the enemies and a clear definition of the city area and perimeter (pomerium: sacred and inviolable boundary of the town).

Thanks to some inscriptions, we know that in Sarsina, during the first half of the I century b.C. some parts of the city walls were built. They were about 1000 feet long (a little bit less than 300 m.)and were constructed thanks to the will of the highest authorities of the municipium.

The city walls had a nearly trapezoidal shape, its sides were 200X400 m. long and were made of blocks of sandstone.

The inscriptions on the walls mention the construction of a murus and the presence of towers (turres) and doors (portae) with doorknockers (valvae). Since all these inscriptions are almost coeval, we suppose that the city walls were designed in a single general plan.

Probably, the walls were built not only to defend the town but also to adorn it: Sarsina, for its position on terracings, should in this way assume a strong, scenographic value.

certainly, the important role and the great value of the city walls were clear, since on a slab, we can read the word architectus even though his first name got lost.

On the contrary, the patronymic of the magistratus Cesellius (who ordained the construction of the walls) is clear.

Some parts of the roman city walls are still visible along the eastern side of the group of houses in via Matteotti, under the medieval walls "I Torricini" and in the parco delle Rimembranze. An architectural structure, probably the basement of a tower, is situated in via Guerin Capello, under the so-called "casa di Plauto" (Plauto's house). In this building, even though it has benn largely readapted in the Medieval Age, we can still find the foundations of a tower (7,50X8,70 m.) and one-metre-thick walls.

Moreover, it is not easily to establish if the numerous remains along the slopes of the Calbano hill were re-employment or if they actually represent a trace of a roman, defensive structure.