Piceno and Roman roots in the territory | Itinerario

The Sabines periodically proclaimed the Sacred Spring (Ver Sacrum) so that the most devastating misfortunes would not hit their possessions, which represented their only means of livelihood. On such an occasion the children born during the following spring, when they reached twenty years old, were not sacrificed to a deity, but were forced by the elders to leave their comunities to look for new lands to conquer. According to legend this journey came about with the blessing of a totemic animal that guided the young appointed people to their intended destination. In the case of the Piceni it was a woodpecker (picus) to lead them to a rather extended territory, which covered the area between Ancona and Atri. Providing real information on the Piceni, Picenti or Picentini were authoritative figures such as Polibio in his works Histories, Plinio the elder in his Naturalis Historia, Strabone in Geography and many others such as Appiano, Marco Verio Flacco and Isidoro of Seville. The archaeological remains from the necropoli picene, on the other hand, suggest which were the main centers of this Iron Age and later populations and besides Atri, Ancona, Ascoli Piceno and Pesaro, it results that also Fermo, Amandola, Falerone, Grottazzolina, Belmonte Piceno, Cupra Marittima and Porto Sant'Elpidio were important settlements. Despite that the Piceni were found to be open to other cultures, urban development was very slow. The scholar Delia Lollini, after analyzing the various archaeological findings, related to their civilization, defined six different stages of settlement between the IX and III centuries BC, when the territory was conquered by the Romans. Plinio, through the Naturalis Historia through (3.18.110-112), spread the news that about 360,000 Piceni surrendered, but probably the number did not coincided with the reality of the facts. It was rather just a figure, which served to indicate the high population density of those areas, and so enhance accordingly the victory of the Romans. Part of the population Picena spared from slavery, was confined near Lake Fucino and the Gulf of Salerno with the intent of warding off any new possible riots, while another group was placed into the Roman state property. In 264 BC Firmum Picenum, which had incorporated the picena culture into the Villanovan one, becomes a Latin law colony. Fermo was considered a determining pawn to the romanization of Piceno, not only because it had demonstrated an incorruptible loyalty (the coat of arms bears the motto: "Firmum Firma Fides Romanorum Colonia"), but mostly for its strategic geographical position. In fact, besides being located midway between the independents Anconi and Ascoli, from the top of Mount Sabulo it dominated the surrounding area and being close to the sea it was a port with a good number of ships. Over time its political-social role matured to such an extent that in 90 BC Firmum was elevated to the rank of Municipium. However the crisis that shook the roman state during the 1st century BC, reached its height with the triumvirale age wars that shook the entire firmanus ager.

The population in fact came out of the long period of civil strife very withdrawn, because many areas had suffered looting, a great number of young people had been recruited and massacred, the previously cultivated land had been left uncultivated and the contributions required to advance the wars had proven so costly that they had greatly weaken the economy. The following period was just as hard to bear. Caesar Augustus was forced to donate approximately twenty-eight colonies celeberrimae to 100,000 veterans who claimed a place worthy of the service they had provided so far and Fermo, like all other new colonies, had to suffer their abuse. The years that followed have not provided us with many resources and the short supply of epigraphic documents made the scholars believe that it was a rather critical period destined to extend until the II-III century. Before the advent of the barbarian populations and the decline of the western Roman Empire, the piceno territory was provincializzed and administered by a governor who held political, economic and legal functions. The last recovered documents inform that between the late IV and early V century, the province was renamed Picenum suburlicarium. The urban centres of the Fermo areas, which sunk their roots into a fertile territory such as the picenum and roman one, are rich in ancient testimonies of the past that resurface through fruitful archaeological digs or have even remained standing throughout centuries of wars and famine, now proudly show their former ancient glory. With the passage of time, the attention towards the archaeological heritage became accentuated, to the extent that the competent institutions have begun to promote solid and positive initiatives to implement projects aimed at their conservation, enhancement and fruition. The interest in archaeology, in fact, came into vogue again after some five hundred years and the Marche focused primarily on the Piceno civilization and the Roman era. Witness to this, are an unknown number of publications, new excavations and a growing number of archaeological parks, municipal depots and municipal or state museums. On the other hand, the population has shown a keen interest in the past and to all those properties that are witness to it. To visit them, means to bring back times from long ago, to reconstruct faithfully, through such precious sources, the traditions, the political system, the economic strategies, the ancestral fears and the solace of religion. To admire the remains of the past, means to read with more enlightened eyes your own cultural and linguistic identity.