Early Inscriptions in Assisi

There are three surviving Umbrian inscriptions from Assisi or its surroundings:

  • The oldest, which came from an architrave in a city gate and is in the garden of the ex-Berkeley Villa, probably dates to the late 3rd or ealy 2nd century BC.  It uses an alphabet that probably came from Etruscan Perusia (Perugia).

  • The other two inscriptions, both of which designated public places,  use the Latin alphabet.

The second of these later inscriptions, the so-called Bastia cippus, is one of the longest that survives in the Umbrian language.  It mentions two Umbrian magistracies, probably as dating devices:

  • the uhter; and
  • the marone.

Latin inscriptions appeared in Assisi from the 2nd century BC, although the Umbrian magistracies seem to have persisted until the formation of the municipium in the following century.  Thus we see Nero Babrius, son of Titus in two inscriptions that pre-date the municipium:

  • as marone in the Latin inscription on the cistern at San Rufino; and
  • as uhter  in the Umbrian  inscripion on the cippus from Bastia.

The second of these posts was the more senior, so the Bastia cippus is presumably the later of the two inscriptions, despite the fact that it is in Umbrian rather than Latin.

The plethora of later inscriptions (only a few of which are described here) point to a vibrant society from at least the time of the Perusine War (40 BC).   Many inscriptions from this time celebrate:

  • members of the College of the Seviri Augustales; and

  • magistrates of the Decurione of the municipim:

    • the quinqueviri;

    • the quattuorviri iure dicundo; and

    • the quattuorviri quinquennali.

Inscriptions also celebrate the wealthy citizens that were responsible for the monumentalisation of the city:

  • The important Caesii family built the Temple "of Minerva" on the forum.

  • The Petronius family made donations for the amphitheatre.  (Together with the Tettius family, they produced Galeo Tettienus Petronius, who was a Consul of Rome in 76 AD).

Freedmen also played a prominent role in Asisium: 

  • Galeo Tettienus Pardalas (a Greek freedman of the Tettius family) and his wife (or mother) financed the statues of Castor and Pollux in the forum.

  • Publius Decimus Eros Merula, an accomplished physician, made a number of large public donations and still managed to leave a substantial fortune when he died.