Castrum Novum

A t the 64km. of the Via Aurelia you meet a plain, Torre Chiaruccia, in which is situated the antic Roman marine colony of Castrum Novum, founded in 264 B.C. at defence of the northern coast of the Caere territory , re-populated perhaps in Cesariana age (Colony Iulia Castronovana).

The town probably rectangle plan in origin, enclosed by walls, in the imperial age it had a theatre, the curia, an archive (tabularium), a sacred plough to Apollo and of public aqueducts as remembered by some inscriptions found in the course of the non regular excavations, conducted in many times starting from XVIII century. Regularly epigraphic documented we are informed of the existence of decuriones (members of the senate of the colony), duumviri quinquennales (supreme magistrate of the town), Augustales (priests of the imperial cult), magistri vici (administers of the area).

Probably in Augustea age L. Ateio Capito restored the curia and the tabularium donating it to the town at his own expense, the theatre and the adjoining gates. Numerous walled structures, mosaic marble pavements, baths and columns relative to the imperial phase have been seen in occasion of the research of the arch in the last three centuries have brought to discovery of a great number of architectonic and sculpture fragments among which records a herma of veiled Aspasia, Emperors statues, a small statue of Bacco, a statue of a mastiff dog; of exceptional interest the find discovered in 1778, of a jewel-case containing 122gold coin dating from the I to II century A.D.

Complex stratigraphy of the territory comprehends wall remains in work reticulate and brick, pavement and sewers are visible in the section of land exposed to marine erosion along the beach, for a long track under the modern piles.

Numerous material from the iron age (IX cent. B.C. and Etruscan archaic age, restored in more times in the last ten years, documented the frequency of the area in an age before the Roman colonies; it is possible that the docking point of Castrum Novum maybe active already in the Etruscan age and that the fortress-town of the II cent. B.C. like the case of Pyrgi, it had in part over placed the first settlement.

Plate with relieve gladiator
It seems that the two plates of limestone come from Castrum Novum, with scenes of gladiator fights evidently coming from Castrum Novum a funeral monument of some important citizen of the Roman colony.