Allifae
- a town of Samnium, in a pleasant valley, near the left bank of the Vulturnus, early colonized by the Romans, now Alife: Tria oppida in potestatem venerunt, Allifae, Callifae, Rubrium, Liv. 8, 25; 9, 42; 9, 38; 22, 18; cf. Mann. Ital. 1, 789.
- —Hence, Allīfānus (Alīph-), a, um, adj., of or pertaining to Allifae: ager Allifanus, Cic. Agr. 2, 25: vinum (in high estimation among the Romans), Sil. 12, 526.—Allīfāni, ōrum, m. (sc. calices), or Allīfāna, ōrum, n. (sc. pocula), large-sized drinking-cups made there, Hor. S. 2, 8, 39.—Allīfāni, ōrum, the inhabitants of Allifae, Plin. 3, 5, 9, § 63.
ALLI´FAE(Ἀλλιφαί, Strab., Diod.; Ἄλλιφα, Ptol., Eth. Allifanus: Alife), a city of Samnium, situated in the valley of the Vulturnus, at the foot of the lofty mountain group now called the Monte Matese. It was close to the frontiers of Campania, and is enumerated among the Campanian cities by Pliny (Plin. Nat. 3.5. 9), and by Silius Italicus (Sil. Ital. 8.537); but Strabo expressly calls it a Samnite city (p. 238). That it was so at an earlier period is certain, as we find it repeatedly mentioned in the wars of the Romans with that people. Thus, at the breaking out of the Second Samnite War, in B.C. 326, it was one of the first places which fell into the hands of the Romans: who, however, subsequently lost it, and it was retaken by C. Marcius Rutilus in B.C. 310. Again, in B.C. 307, a decisive victory over the Samnites was gained by the proconsul Fabius beneath its walls. (Liv. 8.25, 9.38, 42; Diod. 20.35.) During the Second Punic War its territory was alternately traversed or occupied by the Romans and by Hannibal (Liv. 22.13, 17, 18, 26.9), but no mention is made of the town itself. Strabo speaks of it as one of the few cities of the Samnites which had survived the calamities of the Social War: and we learn from Cicero that it possessed an extensive and fertile territory in the valley of the Vulturnus, which appears to have adjoined that of Venafrum. ( Pro Planc. 9, de Leg. Agr. 2.25.) According to the Liber Coloniarum (p. 231), a colony was established there by the triumvirs, and its colonial rank, though not mentioned by Pliny, is confirmed by the evidence of inscriptions. These also attest that it continued to be a place of importance under the empire: and was adorned with many new public buildings under the reign of Hadrian. (Zumpt, de Coloniis, p. 335; Orell. Inscr. 140, 3887; Romanelli, vol. ii. pp. 451--456.) It is placed by the Itineraries on the direct road from Rome to Beneventum by the Via Latina, at the distance of 17 miles from Teanum, and 43 from Beneventum; but the latter number is certainly too large. (Itin. Ant. pp. 122, 304.) The modern Alifeis a poor and decayed place, though it still retains an episcopal see and the title of a city: it occupies the ancient site, and has preserved great part of its ancient walls and gates, as well as numerous other vestiges of antiquity, including the remains of a theatre and amphitheatre, and considerable ruins of Thermae, which appear to have been constructed on a most extensive and splendid scale. (Romanelli, l. c.;Craven, Abruzzi, vol. 1. p. 21.)
[E.H.B]or Alifae. A town of the Samnites on the Vulturnus, celebrated for its manufacture of wine flagons; hence called pocula Allifana.
A city of the central valley of Volturno and, in the 4th c. B.C., a part of Samnium; after the Augustan redistricting it became part of Campania. In the first half of the 4th c., the city coined its own money and later was involved on many occasions in the problems of the second and third Samnite wars. It was reduced to a colony during the second triumvirate and must have suffered damage from an earthquake in the 4th c. B.C. Its territory comprised a huge, low-lying belt, on the left of the Volturno, almost bounded by the Titerno and Lete rivers, and the eminence of the Matese (Tifernus).
In addition to occasional finds from the prehistoric era, there is evidence of a settlement of the Iron Age in the area of Cila, above Piedimonte d'Alife. Many cemeteries have been noted, over the entire area at the foot of the mountains, the most important of which are in the vicinity of Alife and Piedimonte, dating from the 7th c. B.C. to the Roman era. On the basis of various bits of evidence, the fortification wall at the foot of Mt. Cila appears to date to the period of the Samnite wars, while much evidence supports the notion that the population was widely scattered or lived in vici, as was also somewhat true in the Roman period.
The city, rectangular in plan, still preserves a large part of its straight, urban grid and of its fortifications. The latter in limestone opus incertum, with towers for the most part square and circular with four gates on piers of limestone blocks, apparently date to the Late Republican era. Of the same period were the theater, to which were added the stage in the Augustan period, the three-aisled basement with a cistern, and the oldest sections of the two houses with atrium. There are also some large funerary monuments from the period between the end of the Republic and the 1st c. of the Empire. They are mainly tower-like, in the area in which there are also important remains of country and would-be urban villas.
BIBLIOGRAPHYF. V. Duhn, Italische Gräberkunde I (1924) 610; D. Marrocco, L'Antica Alife (1952) MPI; M. Merolla in ArchCl 16 (1964) 36f; see also NSc 1876-78, 1880-81, 1915, 1916, 1927-29, 1965.
W. JOHANNOWSKY