Privernum
Frieze-Dennison Vergil
- a very ancient town of Latium, now ruins near Piperno, Liv. 8, 1; 8, 20; Verg. A. 11, 540; Val. Max. 6, 2, 1. —Hence,
- II Prīvernas, ātis, adj., of or belonging to Privernum, Privernian: fundus, Cic. de Or. 2, 55, 224; id. Clu. 51, 141: ager, id. Agr. 2, 25, 66; Liv. 7, 16. de senatu Privernate ita decretum, id. 8, 20: bellum, id. 8, 19: in Privernati, in the territory of Privernum, Cic. Clu. 51, 141.—In plur.: Prīvernātes, ĭum, m., the inhabitants of Privernum, Liv. 7, 15; 8, 1: Privernatium causā, id. 8, 21: vina Privernatia, Plin. 14, 6, 8, § 65 Sill.
PRIVERNUM (Πριούερνον: Eth. Privernas--ātis: Piperno Vecchio), an ancient and important city of the Volscians, afterwards included, with the rest of the territory of that people, in Latium, in the more extended sense of the name. It was situated in the Volscian mountains, or Monti Lepini; but not, like Setia and Norba, on the front towards the plain of the Pontine Marshes, but at some distance forther back, in the valley of the Amasenus. Virgil represents it as an ancient city of the Volscians, and the residence of Metabus, the father of Camilla (Aen. 11.540); and there is no reason to doubt that it was originally a city of that people. Its name is not indeed mentioned during any of the earlier wars of the Volscians against Rome; but on these occasions the name of the people is generally given collectively, and the brunt of the war naturally fell upon those cities which more immediately adjoined the frontiers of Latium. When the name of Privernum first appears in history it is as a city of considerable power and importance, holding an independent position, and able not only to engage in, but to sustain, a war against Rome single-handed. In B.C. 358 the Privernates drew upon themselves the hostility of Rome by plundering the lands of the Roman colonists who had been recently settled in the Pontine Plains. The next year they were attacked by the consul C. Marcius, their forces defeated in the field, and they themselves cempelled to submit (Liv. 7.15, 16). But though their submission is represented as an unconditional surrender (deditio), they certainly continued to form an independent and even powerful state, and only a few years afterwards again ventured to attack the Roman colonies of Norba and Setia, for which they were speedily punished by the consul C. Plautius: their city is said to have been taken, and two-thirds of their territory forfeited. (Id. vii. 42, 8.1.) This was soon after divided among the Roman plebeians. (Id. 8.11.) They do not appear to have taken any part in the general war of the Latins and Campanians against Rome; but in B.C. 327 the Privernates again took up arms single-handed, with only the assistance of a few of the Fundani. Notwithstanding this, the war was deemed of sufficient importance to employ two consular armies; and it was not till after a long siege that Privernum was reduced by C. Plautius, the consul of the following year. The walls of the city were destroyed, and the leaders of the defection severely punished; but the rest of the people were admitted to the Roman citizenship,--probably, however, in the first instance without the right of suffrage, though this also must have been granted them in the year B.C. 316, when the Ufentine tribe was constituted, of which Privernum was the chief town. (Liv. 8.19--21, 9.20; Fast. Capit.; Val. Max.; Festus, s. v. Ufentina; Niebuhr, vol. 3. p. 176.) According to Festus (p. 233) it became a Praefectura ; but notwithstanding this subordinate condition (which was perhaps confined to the short period before it attained the full franchise), it seems to have been a flourishing municipal town under the Roman government. Its territory was one of those which the agrarian law of Servilius Rullus proposed to assign to the Roman populace (Cic. de Leg. Agr. 2.2. 5); but though it escaped upon this occasion, it subsequently received a military colony (Lib. Colon. p. 236). The period of this is uncertain: according to Zumpt (de Colon. p. 401) it probably did not take place till the reign of Trajan. In inscriptions it bears the title of a colony; though others term it a municipium ; and neither Pliny nor Ptolemy assign it the rank of a colony. (Plin. Nat. 3.5. s. 9; Ptol. 3.1.63; Zumpt, l. c.) It was noted, as well as the neighbouring Setia, for the excellence of its wine (Plin. Nat. 14.6. s. 8); but we hear little of Privernum under the Roman Empire, and have no subsequent account of its fate. From its secluded position, no mention occurs of it in the Itineraries. The ruins of the ancient city, which according to Cluverius are considerable, are situated about 2 miles. N. of the modern Piperno, on the site still called Piperno Vecchio. The period or occasion of the abandonment of the ancient site is unknown; but it is certainly erroneous to connect it with a great earthquake which is alluded to by Cicero as taking place at Privernum (Cic. de Div. 1.4. 3). On that occasion, we are told, the earth sank down to a great depth,--a phenomenon which may have given rise to a remarkable chasm or cavity still visible in the neighbourhood of Piperno. The ancient city was more probably deserted in consequence of the ravages of the Saracens in the tenth century, from which all this part of Latium suffered severely (Rampoldi, Corografia d'Italia, vol. 3. p. 258), and the inhabitants sought refuge in more elevated and secure positions, such as that of the modern town of Piperno.
[E.H.B]An ancient town of Latium, on the river Amasenus.
This is a Volscian town, originally probably set either between the rivers Oufens and Amasenus on the height occupied by Priverno, or on Monte Macchione nearby to the NW; both sites lie just E of the first elevations of the Volscian hills above the S end of the Pontine Marshes. The town fought Rome bitterly in the Volscian wars, and after its conquest by Rome in 330-329 B.C., its walls were dismantled, its senate was deported to Rome, and the senators' lands were given to Roman citizens, who were enrolled in 318 B.C. in the newly formed tribus Oufentina (Livy 8.20.6-9, and cf. 8.1.3). Sometime later the town was moved to lower ground in the area known as Piperno Vecchio, where it remained throughout antiquity. It has been argued persuasively that this cannot have been before Julius Caesar settled a veteran colony there in the middle of the 1st c. B.C., and there is no clearly Republican material to be seen on the site. The site was probably abandoned only in the 11th c. It is not known when the town received citizenship, but probably it was in 188 B.C., when its neighbor Fundi did.
The existing remains are few and unimpressive: shapeless remains of an arch in large blocks of limestone that spanned a street (conjectured to have been the decumanus, but there is no proof), a few bits of pavement and short stretches of masonry, the thick litter of tile fragments and potsherds that shows an ancient occupation, and two funerary inscriptions, clearly not in place. But from an area known as Piazza della Regina, plausibly identified as the forum of the ancient city, a number of sculptures were removed in the 18th and early 19th c., most notably the seated Tiberius now in the Vatican (Museo Chiaramonti no. 494) and a colossal head of Claudius (Vatican, Braccio Nuovo no. 18). The site has also yielded inscriptions in some number.
The neighborhood of Privernum is good land, and its wine was prized (Plin. HN 14.65). Many Romans owned property here, and there are remains of a number of villas.
BIBLIOGRAPHYH. H. Armstrong, AJA 15 (1911) 44-59, 170-94, 386-402M; G. Saeflund, OpusArch 1 (1935) 83-84.
L. RICHARDSON, JR.