Venafrum
- a very ancient town of the Samnites, celebrated for its olive-oil, now Venafro, Plin. 3, 5, 9, § 63; Cato R. R. 135; 136; Cic. Att. 7, 13, b, 7; id. Q. Fr. 3, 1, 2, § 3; Hor. C. 2, 6, 16; Mart. 13, 101, 1.— Hence,
- A Vĕnāfer, fra, frum, adj., of or belonging to Venafrum: oleum, Varr. R. R. 1, 2, 6.—
- B Vĕnāfrānus, a, um, adj., of Venafrum, Venafran: agri, Hor. C. 3, 5, 55; Plin. 15, 2, 3, § 7.—Subst.: Vĕnāfrānum, i, n. (sc. oleum), Venafran-oil: ipse Venafrano piscem perfundit, Juv. 5, 86.
VENAFRUM (Οὐέναφρον: Eth. Venafranus: Venafro), an inland city of Campania, situated n the upper valley of the Vulturnus, and on the Via Latina, 16 miles from Casinum and 18 from Teanum. (Itin. Ant. p. 303.) It was the last city of Campania towards the N., its territory adjoining on the W., that of Casinum (S. Germano), which was included in Latium, in the more extended sense of that name, and that of Aesernia on the NE., which formed part of Samnium. It stood on a hill rising above the valley of the Vulturnus, at a short distance from the right bank of that river. (Strab. 5. p. 238.) No mention is found in history of Venafrum before the Roman conquest of this part of Italy, and it is uncertain to what people it originally belonged; but it is probable that it had fallen into the hands of the Samnites before that people came into collision with Rome. Under the Roman government it appears as a flourishing municipal town: Cato, the most ancient author by whom it is mentioned, notices it as having manufactures of spades, tiles, and ropes (Cato, Cat. Agr. 135): at a later period it was more noted for its oil, which was celebrated as the best in Italy, and supplied the choicest tables of the great at Rome under the Empire. (Hor. Carm. 2.6. 16, Sat. 2.4. 69; Juven. 5.86; Martial (Mart. 13.98; Strab. v. pp. 238, 242; Varr. R. R. 1.2.6; Plin. Nat. 15.2. s. 3.)
The only occasion on which Venafrum figures in history is during the Social War, B.C. 88, when it was betrayed into the hands of the Samnite leader Marius Egnatius, and two Roman cohorts that formed the garrison were put to the sword. (Appian, App. BC 1.41.) Cicero more than once alludes to the great fertility of its territory (Cic. de Leg. Agr. 2.2. 5, pro Planc. 9), which was one of those that the tribune Rullus proposed by his agrarian law to divide among the Roman citizens. This project proved abortive, but a colony was planted at Venafrum under Augustus, and the city continued henceforth to bear the title of a Colonia, which is found both in Pliny and in inscriptions. (Plin. Nat. 3.5. s. 9; Lib. Col. p. 239; Zumpt, de Colon. p. 347; Mommsen. Inscr. R.N. 4643, 4703.) These last, which are very numerous, sufficiently attest the flourishing condition of Venafrum under the Roman Empire: it continued to subsist throughout the middle ages, and is still a town of about 4000 inhabitants. It retains the ancient site as well as name, but has few vestiges of antiquity, except the inscriptions above mentioned and some shapeless fragments of an edifice supposed to have been an amphitheatre. The inscriptions are published by Mommsen. (Inscr. R. N. pp. 243--249.)
[E.H.B]Now Venafro; a town in the north of Samnium, near the river Vulturnus, and on the confines of Latium, celebrated for the excellence of its olives (Juv. v. 86).
A center of the Pentri Samnites in the valley of the Volturno ca. 19 km SW of Isernia. The Roman city was listed among the prefectures by Festus (262 L.), and later became an Augustan colony. It was noted for the products made by its artisans and for the fertility of its soil, particularly for the cultivation of olives, which is still a major activity of the area. On the slopes of Mt. S. Croce the city (ca. 595 x 462 m, with an area of 274,000 sq m) was subdivided into blocks (70 x 75 m) delimited by parallel roads. The network of roads largely survived as mediaeval and modern streets. The theater is toward the upper extremity of the city, built against the slope of the mountain; and the amphitheater is in the lower part of the city. Several stretches of the city walls in opus incertum (to which the inscription CIL X, 4876, must refer) remain above the inhabited center.
The outline of an aqueduct from the Volturno has been noted, along with the Augustan edict relative to it. Among numerous constructions in the environs the most important are monumental terraces in polygonal work in the vicinity of the Madonna della Libera.
BIBLIOGRAPHYCIL x, pp. 477ff; S. Aurigemma in BdA (1922-23) 58-76; G. Radke in RE VIII A (1955) coll. 668-70; A. Pantoni in RendPontAcc 33 (1960-61) 153-71; A. La Regina in Quaderni Ist. Topogr. Ant. Univ. Roma, I (1964) 55-67; id.; EAA Suppl. (1970) 894-95.
A. LA REGINA