Hispellum
- a city of Umbria, at the foot of the Apennines, now Spello, Plin. 3, 14, 19, § 113; Sil. 8, 458; Inscr. Orell. 3885. —Hispellātes, ium, m., the inhabitants of Hispellum, Plin. Ep. 8, 8, 6.
HISPELLUM(Εἰσπέλλον, Strab.; Ἴσπελλον, Ptol.: Eth. Hispellas,--ātis: Spello), a town of Umbria, at the foot of the Apennines, and on the left of the Flaminian Way, about 4 miles from Fulginium ( Foligno) and 6 from Mevania ( Bevagna). It is noticed by several writers among the more considerable towns of this part of Umbria. (Strab. 5. p. 227; Ptol. 3.1.54; Sil. Ital.; Orell. Inscr. 98.) Pliny terms it a colony, and we find it bearing in inscriptions the titles of Colonia Julia Hispelliand Colonia Urbana Flavia,whence it appears that it must have received two successive colonies, the one under Augustus, the other under Vespasian. (Plin. Nat. 3.14. s. 19; Orell. Iscr. 2170, 3885; Hygin. de Limit. p. 179.) Augustus, indeed, seems to have shown it especial favour, and bestowed on Hispellum the grove and temple of Clitumnus, though these were more than 12 miles distant from the town, and separated by the intervening territories of Mevania an( Fulginium. (Plin. Ep. 8.8.) We learn from the Liber Coloniarum that it received a fresh accession of colonists under Hadrian. (Lib. Colon p. 224; Zumpt, de Col. p. 409.) Inscriptions, as well, as extant remains, testify to its flourishing condition under the Roman empire: besides considerable ruins of its amphitheatre in the plain below the modern town, there exists one of the Roman gate, called Porta Veneris, in good preservation, some. remains of a triumphal arch in a street thence called the Via dell'Arco, and considerable portions of the ancient walls. The inhabitants profess to show the house and tomb of the poet Propertius, for which there is certainly no authority: but many critics consider Hispellum as having a better claim than Mevasia to be regarded as his birthplace. [MEVANIA] Hispellum was an episcopal see till the sixth century, when it was taken and destroyed by the Lombards, and the see transferred to Foligno;but the modern town of Spellois still a considerable place. (Rampoldi, Corogr. d'Italia, vol. 4. p. 1066.)
[E.H.B]A hill town on the Via Flaminia, made colonia Julia (CIL XI, 5278) probably under the triumvirate; it belonged to the tribus Lemonia. Augustus was fond of it and gave it the baths of the Clitumnus (Plin. Ep. 8.8.6). It throve under the Empire and probably received a further draft of colonists under Constantine, when it became colonia Flavia Constans with the privileges of a temple to the Gens Flavia and regional festivals (CIL XI, 5265).
Spello's glory is its walls, probably of a single build and early Augustan, despite differences in style and technique; they may be compared with the walls of Fanum Fortunae and Mevania. The core is concrete faced with small blocks of the local limestone with gates in larger ashlar. Three gates are well preserved, Porta Consolare and Porta Venere (triple archways, the latter flanked by dodecagonal towers) and Porta S. Ventura, a decorative single arch, simplified and set flush in the wall. The poorly preserved Arco di Augusto seems also to have been of this type.
Within the city are traces of the ancient terracing of the site, and in the plain below are remains of a large amphitheater (108 x 82 m). Antiquities from the site are kept in the Palazzo Comunale.
BIBLIOGRAPHYA. L. Frothingham, Roman Cities in Northern Italy and Dalmatia (1910) 188-96; JRS 23 (1933) 163-64 (I. A. Richmond) I; JdI 57 (1942) 100-101 (H. Kähler) P; EAA 7 (1966) 438-39 (U. Ciotti); AA 85 (1970) 326 (H. Blanck).
L. RICHARDSON, JR.