Fidenae

Uncommon card · No. 187593

Fidenae (Ancient Greek: Φιδῆναι) was an ancient town of Latium vetus, situated about 8 km north of Rome on the Via Salaria. Its inhabitants were known as Fidenates. As the Tiber was the border between Etruria and Latium, the left-bank settlement of Fidenae represented an extension of Etruscan presence into Latium, or a Latin border town. The site of the arx of the ancient town was probably on the hill on which lies the contemporary Villa Spada, though no traces of early buildings or defences are to be seen; pre-Roman tombs are in the cliffs to the north. The later village lay at the foot of the hill on the eastern edge of the high-road, and its curia, with a dedicatory inscription to Marcus Aurelius by the Senatus Fidenatium, was excavated in 1889. Remains of other buildings may also be seen. In 27 AD the town was the site of what was probably the worst stadium disaster in history, in which at least 20,000 people were killed when a poorly-built wooden stadium collapsed.

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