Reate
Reate, an ancient city located in central Italy within the northern Lazio region, is historically significant as the chief town of the Sabines. Situated at the base of Mount Terminillo, it was strategically positioned where the ancient Via Salaria crossed the river Avens (now Velino). The city has roots dating back to the early Iron Age and became part of Roman administration in 290 BC, achieving full citizenship by 268 BC. Reate's history is marked by challenges related to flooding from the Avens and its tributary, the Tolenus, leading to the implementation of drainage systems by the Roman general Manius Curius Dentatus.
The area is renowned for its notable historical figures, including Marcus Terentius Varro, an influential scholar, and Vespasian, the founder of the Flavian dynasty. Despite its rich history, Reate never gained the status of a colonia, though it was a municipium. The city is also recognized for its mules and features remnants of ancient infrastructure, including bridges and fortifications that highlight its historical significance. The interplay of geography, Roman governance, and local resources shaped Reate's development and its legacy in the region.
Subject Terms
Reate
(Rieti)
A city in central Italy (northern Lazio), the chief town of the Sabines. Reate was situated at the foot of Mount Terminillo, at a point where the ancient Via Salaria from Rome (forty-five miles to the southwest) crossed the river Avens (Velino) and extensions of the road led to the north and northeast. Finds show that the place existed in the early Iron Age.
Manius Curius Dentatus brought Reate under Roman administration in 290 and it obtained full citizenship in 268. Its upland plain was subject to flooding by the Avens and its tributary the Tolenus, so that drainage and flood control played an important part in the history of the town. Dentatus' draining of the Veline river and lake, now the diminished Lago di Piediluce—which he discharged into the Nar (Nera), thus creating the famous Falls of Terni—was intended to prevent the plain of Reate from being flooded, but proved the cause of recurrent quarrels with Interamna Nahars (Terni), its neighbor along the Via Curia. Thus disputes arose in 54 BC, when Cicero supported the Reatines' complaint, and again in AD 15 when they made a further protest, before the emperor Tiberius, on the grounds that a proposed damming of the lake would burst its banks into the surronding fertile country (the Rosea or Rosulana rura, allegedly from ros, dew, or humidity, now Le Roscie).
Reate was the birthplace of the great encyclopedic scholar Marcus Terentius Varro (116 BC) and of Vespasian (AD 9), founder of the Flavian dynasty, who planted a settlement of ex-soldiers in the city, although it remained a municipium without elevation to the rank of colonia. The place was also well-known for its mules. Remains of bridges across the Avens, and traces of another carrying the Via Salaria over a small stream, have come to light, and large rectangular blocks survive from the ancient fortifications.