Fanum Fortunae
FANUM FORTUNAE (Φᾶνον Φορτοῦναι, Ptol.; τὸ Ἱερὂν τῆς Τύχης, Strab.: Eth. Fanestris: Fano), a city of Umbria, situated on the coast of the Adriatic on the left bank of the river Metaurus, between Pisaurum (Pesaro) and Sena Gallica (Sinigaglia). It was here that the Via Flaminia, descending the valley of the Metaurus from Forum Sempronii, joined the line of road which led along the coast from Ancona and Picenum to Ariminum. (Itin. Ant. pp. 100, 126.) It is evident that the town must originally have derived its name from an ancient temple of Fortune: but of this we have no account, nor do we know whether it existed prior to the Roman conquest of this part of Italy. There must, however, have soon grown up a considerable town upon the spot, as soon as the Flaminian Way was completed; and in the Civil War of B.C. 49, we find it mentioned by Caesar as a place of importance which he hastened to occupy with one cohort, immediately after his advance to Ariminum. (Caes. B.C. 1.11.) For the same reason, in A.D. 69, the generals of Vespasian made it their headquarters for some time before they ventured to attempt the passage of the Apennines, and advance upon Rome. (Tac. Hist. 3.50.) These are the only occasions on which it figures in history; but we learn that it received a colony under Augustus, and appears to have become from thenceforth one of the most flourishing and considerable towns in this part of Italy. Its colonial rank is attested by inscriptions, on which it bears the title of Colonia Julia Fanestris,o r Colonia Julia Fanum Fortunac,a s well as by Mela and Pliny. (Plin. Nat. 3.14. s. 19; Mel. 2.4.5: Lib. Colon. p. 256; Orell. Inscr. 83, 1535, 3143, 3969.)
It was at the period of the establishment of this colony that the city was adorned with a basilica, of which Vitruvius, as we learn from himself, was the architect (Vitr. 5.1.6), and to the same period belongs the triumphal arch of white marble, erected in honour of Augustus, which still forms one of the gates of the city on the Flaminian Way (Eustace, Class. Tour, vol. 1. p. 287; Orell. Inscr. 602). Claudian, Sidonius, and the Itineraries attest the continued importance of Fanum, as it was commonly called, throughout the period, and it is probable that, like most of the cities on the Flaminian and Aemilian Ways, it retained some degree of prosperity long after the other towns of the province had fallen into decay. (Claudian, in VI. Cons. Hon. 500; Itin. Ant. pp. 126, 615; Sidon. Apoll. Ep. 1.5). But the city suffered severely in the Gothic wars, and its walls, which had been erected by Augustus, were destroyed by Vitiges. (Procop. B. G. 3.11.) The modern city of Fano contains about 8000 inhabitants; it has no other relics of antiquity besides the arch above mentioned, and a few inscriptions.
[E.H.B]The modern Fano; a town in Umbria at the mouth of the Metaurus, with a celebrated temple of Fortuna, whence the town derived its name.
An Umbrian town on the Adriatic just N of the mouth of the Metaurus at the point where the Via Flaminia reaches the Adriatic after crossing the Apennines. Nothing is known of its early history or the reason for its name; it is first mentioned as occupied by Caesar after the crossing of the Rubicon (BCiv. 1.11.4). It received a veteran colony of Augustus, the colonia Iulia Fanestris, and was inscribed in the Tribus Pollia. An inscription (CIL XI, 1.6218-19) records that Augustus gave the city its walls, and since the Via Flaminia became one of the main axes of a regular street grid, it seems likely that he gave it its city plan as well. By the end of the 4th c. it was called colonia Flavia Fanestris.
Its most conspicuous remains are its fortifications in a rectangle with blunted corners on the landward front; a substantial stretch of the NW sector can be examined inside and out. The curtain is of concrete faced with thin, brick-like slabs of yellow sandstone. There are round towers, their facing in bond with the curtains, except on the sea front. These are placed to protect gates, angles, and dangerous approaches, but have the appearance of occurring at roughly regular intervals. A secondary gate is built in large blocks of the sandstone, used elsewhere for dressing; but the main gate, the Arco di Augusto, is of sandstone faced with fine limestone. It is very elegant, a large central arch trimmed with moldings at imposts and extrados, flanked by small plain arches for foot traffic. Above the central arch runs a pseudo-epistyle carrying the inscription commemorating Augustus' gift of A.D. 9-10. Above this, in a second story, a graceful loggia of seven windows, tall and arched, was framed within an engaged Corinthian order, architecture reminiscent of the tabularium in Rome. Towers projecting boldly to either side and rounded in front complete the harmony.
Vestiges of Roman life and construction have come to light at many places within and without the fortifications, and a wealth of inscriptions and statuary has been collected, but there are no other important ruins, and no certain trace of the basilica that Vitruvius tells us he built here (5.1.6-10) has ever been located though it has been repeatedly sought. BIBLIOGRAPHY. E. Brizio, NSc (1899) 251-59; Atti del XI Congresso di Storia dell'Architettura (Centro di Studi per la Storia dell'Architettura, Rome 1965) 48-51, 67-68 (G. Annibaldi); 95-99 (F. Pellati); 101-4 (G. A. Mansuelli).
E. RICHARDSON