GREEK - City of Teanum Sidicinum in Italy - Bronze 16mm (3.6
grams) Struck 280-268 B.C.
Reference: Sear 568 var.
Head of Athena right, wearing crested Corinthian helmet.
Cock standing left with open wings.
You are bidding on the exact item pictured,
provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of
Authenticity.
Teano is a town and
comune of
Campania,
Italy, in the
province of
Caserta, 30 km north-west of that town on the main line to
Rome from
Naples. It
stands at the south-east foot of an extinct
volcano,
Rocca Monfina.
History
Ancient
times and Middle Ages
The ancient Teanum Sidicinum was the capital of the
Oscan tribe of the
Sidicini, which drove the
Aurunci from
Roccamonfina. They probably submitted to Rome in 334 BC and their troops
were grouped with those of Campania in the Roman army. Thus the garrison of
Regium, which
in 280 attacked the citizens, consisted of one cohort of Sidicini and two of
Campanians. Like
Cales, Teanum continued to have the right of coinage, and, like Suessa and
Cales, remained faithful to Rome in both the Hannibalic and the Social wars. Its
position gave it some military importance, and it was apparently made a colony
by Claudius,
not by Augustus.
Strabo speaks
of it as the most important town on the
Via Latina,
joined by a branch road from Suessa, of which remains still exist, and which
continued east to
Alife.
In the 4th century Teano became seat of a diocese, and was later an important
Lombard county, as part of the
Duchy of Benevento. The Benedictines had several property in the city, and
here the monks from
Montecassino took refuge when their abbey was destroyed in 883. Here one of
the first document of vulgare
Italian was issued in 963.
The
"Handshake of Teano"
Teano was the site of the famous meeting of October 26, 1860, between Italian
nationalist fighter
Giuseppe Garibaldi and
Victor Emanuel II, the King of Sardinia. Having wrested the
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies from the Neapolitan Bourbons, Garibaldi shook
Victor Emanuel's hand and hailed him as
King
of Italy. Thus, Garibaldi sacrificed republican hopes for the sake of
Italian unity under a monarchy. The event is a popular subject for Italian
patriotic statues and paintings.
Main
sights
Roman remains of Teano include the theatre (2nd century BC, rebuilt in
the 2nd century AD), once one of the greatest in Italy with its 85 m of
diameter, some extensive baths ("Le Caldarelle"), containing several statues,
and some Roman dwellings. A tomb with a Christian mosaic representing the visit
of the
Three Wise Men to
Bethlehem
was found in 1907. Of the famous amphitheater, cited by several sources, no
traces remain.
Other sights include:
- the
cathedral,
begun around 1050 and completed in 1116, using Corinthian columns obtained
from the ruins of the ancient town. It has a
basilica
plant with a nave and two aisles. After a fire, the church was rebuilt in
1610. The portico preceding the facade houses two
sphinxes in
red granite, coming from a pre-existing pagan temple. In the interior are a
pergamum, with interesting parts from the original of the 12th century,
and a 14th century Crucifix of
Giotto's school, while the crypt houses a noteworthy Roman sarcophagus.
- the Castle, built by the dukes of
Sessa in the 15th century, originating from a
4th century BC fortress. In the Bourbon era it was used as prison.
- the Loggione, built over Roman baths in
Gothic style.
- the church of S. Peter in Aquariis (14th century), built
over a Palaeo-Christian edifice (in turn constructed over a Roman bath,
whence the epithet in Aquariis, "on the water"). Recent restoration
work has revealed precious
Byzantine frescoes depicting St. Agatha, St. Martha, and St. Mark and
John the Evangelists. The belfry is a rare example of Byzantine architecture
in southern Italy.
- the church of St. Benedict, the most ancient holy edifice within
the walls, built in the 9th century over a temple dedicated to Ceres. It has
12 granite and marble columns with antique capitals, and once housed
precious Benedictine documents which went lost after a fire.
- Below the town, on the south-east, is the Palaeo-Christian church of
S. Paride ad fontem. It was built over a Roman cisterna, whence
the name (fons, fontis being Latin for a fountain or water source).
Built originally in the 4th century, the current construction is from the
11th-12th centuries (extensively restored in 1988).
- the Franciscan convent of St. Anthony was in built in 1427,
according the tradition, by the will of
Bernardino da Siena, who also lived here for some years.
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