Aquae Statiellae
AQUAE STATIELLAE (Ἀκούαι Στατιέλλαι, Strab.), a city of Liguria, situated on the N. side of the Apennines in the valley of the Bormida: now called Acqui. Its name sufficiently indicates that it owed its origin to the mineral springs which were found there, and Pliny notices it (31.2) as one of the most remarkable instances where this circum-stance had given rise to a considerable town. It is probable that it did not become a place of any importance until after the Roman conquest of Liguria, nor do we find any actual mention of it under the Republic, but it was already a considerable town in the days of Strabo, and under the Roman Empire became one of the most flourishing and important cities of Liguria, a position which we find it retaining down to a late period. The inhabitants bear on an inscription the name Aquenses Statiellenses.I t was the chief place of the tribe of the STATIELLI and one of the principal military stations in this part of Italy. (Strab. 5. p. 217; Plin. Nat. 3.5. s. 7; Orell. Inscr. 4927; Inser. ap. Spon. Misc. Ant. p. 164; Notit. Dign. p. 121.) It is still mentioned by Paulus Diaconus among the chief cities of this province at the time of the Lombard invasion: and Liutprand of Cremona, a writer of the tenth century, speaks of the Roman Thermae, constructed on a scale of the greatest splendour, as still existing there in his time. (P. Diac. 2.16 ; Liutprand, Hist. 2.11.) The modern city of Acqui is a large and flourishing place, and its mineral waters are still much frequented. Some remains of the ancient baths as well as portions of an aqueduct, are still visible, while very numerous inscriptions, chiefly sepulchral, have been discovered there, as well as innumerable urns, lamps, coins, and other relics of antiquity.
We learn from the Itineraries that a branch of the Via Aurelia quitted the coast at Vada Sabbata (Vado) and crossed the Apennines to Aquae Statiellae, from whence it communicated by Dertona with Placentia on the Via Aemilia. The distance from Vada Sabbata to Aquae is given as 52 R. miles. (Itin. Ant. p. 294; Tab. Peut.)
[E.H.B]A city inhabited before the Roman conquest by the Ligurian Statielli. Discoveries of rough-hewn flint and small knives found in the valley of the railroad bridge toward Ovada and in the higher part of the site give evidence that this area was inhabited in Neolithic times.
Pliny mentions the city among the civitates of the Augustan Regio IX and remarks that its inhabitants, at the time of the war between the Ligurians and the Romans, were taken prisoner by the Romans and reduced to slavery. However, they were later freed and allotted lands beyond the Po.
The interest of the Romans in this capital of the Statielli was mainly strategic for the city was at the junction of two great communication arteries: the Aemilia Scauri (later the Julia Augusta)—which, from Vada Sabatia and from the sea, went as far as Dertona to join the Via Postumia, which united the large centers of the E Po valley—and another road which, passing Alba, permitted direct communication with Augusta Taurinorum and the Alpine passes beyond.
Numerous finds from the interior of the modern city illuminate the Roman passion for bathing establishments. The city was rich in spas and monumental buildings around Fonte Bollente. A large aqueduct, bringing water from the Erro river, a few km upstream from the city, approached the city by following the slope of the valley. Running underground, the aqueduct then joined the territory of the Acqui, across the Bormida, on arches of a truly grand Roman scale.
Today eight large piers of this marvelous work remain on the flat right bank sloping toward the river. Particularly majestic are seven others with low, ogival arches. These follow the river bed, their walls covered by small squares of local stone.
A series of tombs discovered at the perimeter of the city define its boundaries and have supplied notable archaeological finds from the first centuries of the Empire. A mosaic pavement has inscriptions which mention L. Ullatius and L. Valerius, high officials of the town, who constructed or reconstructed the chambers, pavimenta, and tecta of the building.
BIBLIOGRAPHYG. Biorci, Antichità e prerogative della città di Acqui Tortona (1818-20); V. Scati, “Antichità Acquensi,” Atti della Società Piemontese di Archeologia e Belle Arti (1887) 30ff; id., “Scoperta di un nuovo acquedotto romano in Acqui,” Rivista di Storia Arte e Archeologia della Provincia di Alessandria 2 (1892); id., “La fonte bollente in Acqui e gli edifici eretti intorno alla medesima,” op.cit. (1898) 23ff; U. Mazzini, “Piscina romana,” NSc (1922) 200ff.
C. CARDUCCI