title: Early Roman military fortifications and the origin of Trieste, Italy.
abstract: An interdisciplinary study of the archaeological landscape of the Trieste area (northeastern Italy), mainly based on airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR), ground penetrating radar (GPR), and archaeological surveys, has led to the discovery of an early Roman fortification system, composed of a big central camp (San Rocco) flanked by two minor forts. The most ancient archaeological findings, including a Greco-Italic amphora rim produced in Latium or Campania, provide a relative chronology for the first installation of the structures between the end of the third century B.C. and the first decades of the second century B.C. whereas other materials, such as Lamboglia 2 amphorae and a military footwear hobnail (type D of Alesia), indicate that they maintained a strategic role at least up to the mid first century B.C. According to archaeological data and literary sources, the sites were probably established in connection with the Roman conquest of the Istria peninsula in 178-177 B.C. They were in use, perhaps not continuously, at least until the foundation of Tergeste, the ancestor of Trieste, in the mid first century B.C. The San Rocco site, with its exceptional size and imposing fortifications, is the main known Roman evidence of the Trieste area during this phase and could correspond to the location of the first settlement of Tergeste preceding the colony foundation. This hypothesis would also be supported by literary sources that describe it as a phrourion (Strabo, V, 1, 9, C 215), a term used by ancient writers to designate the fortifications of the Roman army.
authors.affiliation: Multidisciplinary Laboratory, The "Abdus Salam" International Centre for Theoretical Physics, 34014 Trieste, Italy; Centro Fermi, Museo Storico della Fisica e Centro di Studi e Ricerche "Enrico Fermi," 00184 Rome, Italy; fbernard@ictp.it.
authors.forename: Federico
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bernardini
authors.affiliation: Department of History and Protection of Cultural Heritage, University of Udine, 33100 Udine, Italy;
authors.forename: Giacomo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Vinci
authors.affiliation: Institute of Archaeology, Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia;
authors.forename: Jana
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Horvat
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics and Geosciences, University of Trieste, 34127 Trieste, Italy;
authors.forename: Angelo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: De Min
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics and Geosciences, University of Trieste, 34127 Trieste, Italy;
authors.forename: Emanuele
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Forte
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics and Geosciences, University of Trieste, 34127 Trieste, Italy;
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Furlani
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics and Geosciences, University of Trieste, 34127 Trieste, Italy;
authors.forename: Davide
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lenaz
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics and Geosciences, University of Trieste, 34127 Trieste, Italy;
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pipan
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics and Geosciences, University of Trieste, 34127 Trieste, Italy;
authors.forename: Wenke
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Agriculture and Forests Inspectorate of Trieste and Gorizia, 34134 Trieste, Italy;
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sgambati
authors.affiliation: Civil Protection of Friuli Venezia Giulia, 33057 Palmanova, Italy;
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Potleca
authors.affiliation: Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Friuli Venezia Giulia, Trieste, 34132 Trieste, Italy;
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Micheli
authors.affiliation: Society for the Prehistory and Protohistory of Friuli Venezia Giulia, 34100 Trieste, Italy; and.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fragiacomo
authors.affiliation: Multidisciplinary Laboratory, The "Abdus Salam" International Centre for Theoretical Physics, 34014 Trieste, Italy; Centro Fermi, Museo Storico della Fisica e Centro di Studi e Ricerche "Enrico Fermi," 00184 Rome, Italy; Centre for Archaeological Science, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia.
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tuniz
keywords: Trieste (Italy) origin; airborne light detection and ranging; archaeological surveys; early Roman military fortifications; ground penetrating radar