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SIGNIA (mod. Segni)

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Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 78 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SIGNIA (mod. Segni) , an See also:ancient See also:town of See also:Latium (adiectum), See also:Italy, on a projecting See also:lower See also:summit of the Volscian mountains, above the Via See also:Latina, some 35 M. S.E. of See also:Rome. The See also:modern railway station, 33 M. S.E. of Rome, lies 5 M. S.E. of Signia, 669 ft. above See also:sea level. The modern town (2192 ft.) occupies the lower See also:part of the ancient site. Pop. (1901) 6942. Its See also:foundation as a See also:Roman See also:colony is ascribed to Tarquinius Superbus, and new colonists were sent there in 495 B.C. Its position was certainly of See also:great importance: it commands a splendid view, and with See also:Anagnia, which lies opposite to it, guarded the approach to the valley of the Trerus or Tolerus (Sacco) and so the road to the See also:south. It remained faithful to Rome both in the Latin and in the Hannibalic See also:wars, and served as a See also:place of detention for the Carthaginian hostages during the latter.

It seems to have remained a place of some importance. Like Cora it retained the right of coining in See also:

silver. The wonderfully hard, strong See also:cement, made partly of broken pieces of pottery, which served as the lining for Roman See also:water cisterns (See also:opus signinum) owes its name to its invention here (See also:Vitruvius, viii. 7, 14). Its See also:wine, See also:pears and See also:charcoal were famous in Roman times. In 90 B.C. it became a See also:municipium with a senatus and praetores. In the See also:civil See also:war it joined the democratic party, and it was from here that in 82 B.C. See also:Marius marched to Sacriportus (probably marked by the See also:medieval See also:castle of Piombinara, near Segni station, commanding the junction of the Via See also:Labicana and the Via Latina; see T. See also:Ashby, Papers of the See also:British School at Rome, See also:London, 1902, i. 125 sqq.), where he was defeated with loss. After this we hear no more of Signia until, in the See also:middle ages, it became a papal fortress. The See also:city See also:wall, constructed of polygonal blocks of the See also:mountain See also:limestone and It m. in circumference, is still well preserved and has several See also:gates; the largest, Porta Saracinesca, is roofed by the See also:gradual inclination of the sides until they are See also:close enough to allow of the placing of a See also:lintel.

The other gates are mostly narrow posterns covered with See also:

flat monolithic lintels, and the careful jointing of the blocks of which some of them are composed may be noted. Their date need not be so See also:early as is generally believed (cf. See also:NORBA) and they are certainly not pre-Roman. A portion of the wall in the modern town has been restored in opus quadra.tuna of tufa in Roman times. Above the modern town, on the highest point, is the See also:church of S. Pietro, occupying the central See also:cella of the ancient Capitolium of Signia (which had three celiac). The walls consist of rectangular blocks of tufa, and the whole rests upon a See also:platform of polygonal masses of limestone (see R. Delbriick, Das Capitolium von Signia, Rome, 1903). An open circular cistern in front of the church lined with rectangular blocks of tufa may also be noted. (T.

End of Article: SIGNIA (mod. Segni)

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