Peltuinum
PELTUI´NUM (Eth. Peltuinas,--ātis: Ansedonia), a considerable town of the Vestini, and one of the four ascribed to that people by Pliny (Plin. Nat. 3.12. s. 17). Its name is not found in Ptolemy or the Itineraries, but its municipal importance is attested by various inscriptions. One of these confirms the fact mentioned by Pliny, that the Aufinates were closely connected with, or dependent on, Peltuinum, apparently the more important place of the two. We learn from the Liber Coloniarum (p. 229) that it attained the rank of a colony, probably under Augustus : but at a later period, as we learn from an inscription of the date of A.D. 242, it was reduced to the condition of a Praefectura, though it seems to have been still a flourishing town. (Orell Inscr. no. 4036; Zumpt, de. Coloniis, p. 359, not.). Its site was unknown to Cluverius, but can be fixed with certainty at a spot called Ansedonia, between the villages of Castel Nuovo and Prata, about 14 miles SE, of Aquila, on the road from thence to Popoli. The ancient name is retained by a neighbouring church, called in ecclesiastical documents S. Paolo a Peltuino. A considerable part of the circuit of the ancient walls is still visible, with: remains of various public buildings, and the ruins of an amphitheatre of reticulated work. (Giovenazzi, Aveia, p. 119; Romanelli, vol. iii. pp. 264--268; Orelli, Inscr. 106, 3961, 3981).
[E.H.B]A city of the Vestini and a Roman prefecture on the high plain of Aquila near Prata d'Ansidonia and Castelnuovo. The community referred to itself as pars Peltuinatium (CIL IX, 3420, 3430 = ILS 5668) or as civitas Peltuinatium Vestinorum (CIL IX, 3314 = ILS 5056).
The entire perimeter of the walls is recognizable, including long, exposed stretches with several towers and the W gate. The remains of several buildings are well preserved, including a theater and a rectangular foundation, perhaps for a temple. The Via Claudia Nova constituted the main axis within the urban area. The aqua Augusta was constructed under Tiberius and enlarged by Sex. Vitulasius L. f. Qui. Nepos, sub-consul in A.D. 78.
BIBLIOGRAPHYCIL IX, p. 324ff; H. Nissen, Italische Landeskunde 2 (1902) 441; R. Gradner in JRS 3 (1913) 221ff; A. La Regina in Quaderni Ist. Topogr. Ant. Univ. Roma, I (1964) 69ff; id. in MemLinc 13 (1968) 396-400, 429ff.
A. LA REGINA