Augusta Bagiennorum

The Roman city of Augusta Bagiennorum, in present-day Bene Vagienna in northern Italy, was founded around the end of the 1st century B.C. as part of an ambitious Augustan program to reorganize the Piedmont interior. The inhabitants, probably Octavian's veterans, settled a territory belonging to the Ligures Bagienni, a pre-Roman tribe, and there they built a city center that, in its orthagonal framework and building styles, was the mirror image of the city of Rome. Archeological investations at the site of Augusta Bagiennorum were first conducted from 1892-1909 by two scholars from Bene Vagienna, Giuseppe Assandria and Giovanni Vacchetta. In the 1990s, the site was made an archaeological preserve. Recent years have seen a revival of excavations, as part of an expanded program of development of the archaeological site by the Superintendent of Antiquities of the Piedmont, which has enabled the exploration of some of the public monuments in a more systematic method, including the amphitheater and a sacred area in the Forum. This volume not only gives an account of the results of this new research, but also proposes to frame Augusta Bagiennorum in its historical and archaeological context, from the foundation of the city through the medieval period. Through the contribution of numerous scholars and specialists, it strives to give the reader a complete picture of multiple aspects of a city in the ancient world.