Luceria

(Lucera)

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An inland town of southeast Italy, occupying a key hilltop site on the northwestern border of Apulia (Puglia), where the plains of that region meet the highlands of Samnium. The mythological founder of Luceria was Diomedes, who was said to have carried a sacred image of Pallas Athena, the Palladium rescued from Troy, to the site. In historical times Luceria became a Samnite fortress, and during the Second Samnite War, after earlier vicissitudes, was captured by the Romans and made a Latin colony (enjoying rights at the capital) in 314, receiving 2,500 settlers; after heavy fighting in 294, its possession enabled Rome to fasten an iron grip on the southeastern regions of the peninsula. The earliest heavy bronze coinage of the city, displaying a variety of designs, dates from this period.

During the Second Punic War (218–201), Luceria became a Roman winter headquarters, and its lands were devastated by Hannibal. Subsequently however, according to Cicero, it became one of the most important cities of Apulia. Pompey the Great briefly paused there during his retreat from Caesar at the outset of the Civil War (49). After receiving, probably, a Roman veteran colony during the triumviral period (43–32), Luceria formed part of Augustus' Third Italian Region, and attained considerable prosperity during the Principate. In the later empire it was on the northern border of the province or district of Apulia et Calabria.

Built over structures of Republican date—which themselves had overlaid earlier tombs—the amphitheater, according to an inscription, was built in honor of Augustus and of the colonia of Luceria. Temples of Athena (Minerva) and Apollo are known to have existed, and an abundant votive deposit testifies to a shrine of the underworld divinities. The remains of a circus and theater have disappeared.