Anagni () is an ancient town and comune in the province of Frosinone, Latium, in the hills east-southeast of Rome. It is an historical and artistic centre of the Latin Valley.
Geography
Overview
Anagni still maintains the appearance of a small medieval hill town (424 m above sea level), with small twisting streets and steep lanes. It is built inside Roman boundary walls.
History
Prehistory and ancient era
The first human settlements date back to more than 700,000 years, according to the dating of some Palaeolithic hand-made fragments recently recovered. Several objects made of bone and flint stone and also two human molars and incisors belonging to fossil Homo erectus have been found in Fontana Ranuccio.
The people who lived in the area were the Hernici who migrated from the Aniene valley and descended from the Marsi (Marsians) (or from the Sabines), at least according to the ethnical term deriving from the Marsian herna ("stone"), that is: "Those who live on the stony hills". Only two words remain of their language: Samentum, a strip of sacrificial skin, and Bututti, a sort of funeral lament.
Anagni was an important city and spiritual centre of the Hernici. The town was located on the acropolis (the north-east zone comprising the Cathedral, Tufoli gate, and Piazza Dante) and partially defended by walls in opus quasi-quadratum (almost squared work).
Recent archaeological discoveries have revealed cultural and economic relationships between the Hernici and the Etruscans around the 7th century BC.
Roman Period
In 307 BC, the Hernici, with the exception of Aletrium (Alatri), Verulae (Veroli), and Ferentinum (Ferentino) declared war on Rome. After suffering setbacks the Hernici offered unconditional surrender. In 306 BC the towns which had not joined the war remained independent, while “Anagnia and such others as had borne arms against the Romans were admitted to citizenship without the right to vote. They were prohibited from holding councils and from intermarrying, and were allowed no magistrates save those who had charge of religious rites.” Anagni preserved her religious autonomy and strategic importance.
Under Roman domination the town expanded and the so-called Servian walls were modified at the beginning of the 3rd century BC.
In Imperial times, many emperors spent their summers in Anagni to escape the heat of Rome, the most notable ones being Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, Commodus, and Caracalla. The large imperial villa in the vicinity at Villa Magna was owned by Marcus Aurelius.
The city was the seat of temples and sanctuaries including the temple of Ceres on which the Cathedral was built. In the 2nd century AD, many linen codices containing sacred Etruscan texts were still well-conserved, according to Emperor Marcus Aurelius. There is a sole survivor of these texts, the Liber Linteus.
By the end of the Roman Empire, a crisis caused a collapse of Anagni's population; the lower parts of the city were abandoned.
Middle Ages
Anagni was a diocese, the seat of a bishop, since the 5th century. In the 9th century, the first Cathedral was built on the ruins of the temple dedicated to the Goddess Ceres. This cathedral, including a hospice, was rebuilt in the 11th century through the effort of bishop Peter of Anagni, who convinced the Byzantine Emperor Michael VII Doukas to provide funds and craftsmen. The agricultural reconquest, begun in the 10th century, was supported by the ecclesiastic power, which allowed the secular lords to exploit the land and to build fortified settlements for their peasants, favouring new economic and demographic growth. The boundary walls were subjected to rebuilding and restoration in the course of the first millennium AD; but the major re-arrangement took place in the 16th century.
During the 10th and the 11th centuries, the city strengthened its link with the papal court: In fact, the popes began to consider the old capital city of the Hernici a safer and healthier spot compared to Rome, which was the place of frequent epidemic diseases. For this reason, even if the presence of factions inside the town could not be prevented, Anagni remained faithful to the Roman Church, becoming one of the favourite residences of the popes, in the 12th and 13th centuries.