Fano: Remains of a Roman city

The Roman origins of Fano have been preserved in the name of the town. Once Fano was called Fanum Fortunae. Fanum is the Latin word for a sanctuary, and this sanctuary was dedicated to Fortuna, the goddess of good and bad luck. The area around Fano had been inhabited since prehistoric times. Before the coming of the Romans it was home to Piceni, and later Celtic Senones settled here as well. In 284 or 283 BCE the Roman commander Manius Curius Dentatus defeated these Senones, who had previously threatened the Etruscan city of Arretium (Arezzo). Curius Dentatus’ incursion into what was then called the Ager Gallicus led to the founding of the first Roman colony on Celtic territory, the town of Sena Gallica on the Adriatic Sea, now known as Senigallia. In the years that followed, the Romans began extending their influence in the Ager Gallicus. Their dominance was crowned with the founding of the large Latin colony of Ariminum (Rimini) in 268 BCE.

Fanum Fortunae

Fanum Fortunae was situated between Sena Gallica and Ariminum. Initially it was presumably no more than a village. The area south of Ariminum had been distributed among poorer Roman citizens as a result of a law that people’s tribune Gaius Flaminius had tabled in the Roman popular assembly in 232 BCE. Twelve years later that same Gaius Flaminius became censor and started the construction of an important Roman road, the Via Flaminia. This road connected Rome to Ariminum. It stretched through Latium, Umbria and Picenum, reaching the Adriatic Sea right where Fanum Fortunae was located. There the Via Flaminia took a left turn and followed the Adriatic coast, passing by Pisaurum (Pesaro) before ending at Ariminum. Although travelling on Roman roads was relatively safe, many travellers must have popped into the sanctuary of Fortuna to fend off potential evil.

It is possible that the founding of Fanum Fortunae was connected to the Roman victory over the Carthaginian commander Hasdrubal in the battle of the Metaurus river in 207 BCE. Hasdrubal had already suffered a defeat against the Romans the previous year, but he had nevertheless succeeded in breaking out from the Iberian peninsula in an attempt to join his brother Hannibal in Italy. He had reached Northern Italy, which was then called Gallia Cisalpina, in record time, and had unsuccessfully laid siege to the Latin colony of Placentia (Piacenza). Then he had moved south, hoping to meet his brother in Umbria and unite their armies. The Romans, however, were prepared for him and had gathered a huge force, led by two consuls and a praetor. On 22 June a large battle took place at the river Metaurus (now the Metauro). The precise location is unknown, but as Hasdrubal had evidently marched along the Via Flaminia, the battle must have been fought close to the coast.  In this respect the plains of Montemaggiore al Metauro and San Liberio, just south of Fano, are often mentioned.

The consul Marcus Livius commanded the Roman left flank, while his colleague Gaius Claudius Nero was in charge of the right flank and the praetor Lucius Porcius Licinus commanded the centre. Hasdrubal’s Spanish veterans clashed with Livius’ troops and some fierce fighting ensued, with the elephants – Hasdrubal had about fifteen of these monsters – causing panic and casualties on both sides. Meanwhile, Nero was facing the Celtic troops, but the hilly terrain in front of him was too difficult for a direct assault and the consul could not find a way to flank the enemy line either. Nero then demonstrated his boldness by simply taking a few maniples away from the Roman right flank and marching them behind the Roman battle line over to the left flank. There they outflanked Hasdrubal’s Spaniards and cut them to pieces. The Carthaginian right flank was now rolled up and the furious Romans quickly reached the Celts on the hilly terrain and made short work of them too. Hasdrubal’s army was destroyed and the general himself was killed.

After the Roman victory the Senate ordered three days of public thanksgiving. There is a fair chance that it was this victory that led to the construction of the sanctuary of Fortuna. Although direct evidence is lacking, there are other examples of Roman victories on the battlefield that were followed by the founding of temples of Fortuna. In 173 BCE the censor Quintus Fulvius Flaccus for instance had a temple dedicated to Fortuna Equestris to celebrate a victory that he had won in Spain several years previously. The main reason the dedication was recorded was, by the way, an infamous incident. The censor had stolen half of the marble roof tiles of the famous temple of Juno Lacinia in Croton to embellish his own temple. The Senate condemned this theft in the strongest possible terms and ordered Flaccus to return the roof tiles to Croton.

Augustus and the Imperial age

In 49 BCE Julius Caesar occupied the towns of Pisaurum, Fanum Fortunae and Ancona right after crossing the Rubicon. This is the first time Fanum Fortunae is mentioned in our written sources.[1] The town does not seem to have had any special significance, but that all changed when the emperor Augustus (27 BCE-14 CE) turned it into a Roman colony which he called Colonia Julia Fanestris. In the gardens (Giardini Roma) just south of the historical centre we find the statue of Rome’s first emperor (see the first image in this post). It is a bronze copy of the so-called Augustus of Prima Porta, which is currently in the Vatican Museums. In the year 2 BCE Augustus granted the colony city walls, part of which was a beautiful gate made of travertine. This Arco d’Augusto was erected on the spot where the Via Flaminia reached the town. The gate is still standing, and to the left of it we see the remains of one of the defensive towers. The gate moreover has an inscription which is still legible. Augustus calls himself Divi Filius, i.e. son of the divine Julius Caesar. He also bears the title of pater patriae, father of the fatherland. Augustus is supreme pontiff (pontifex maximus), consul for the thirteenth time, invested with the powers of a tribune (tribunicia potestas) for the thirty-second time, and hailed imperator or victorious general for the twenty-sixth time.

The Arco d’Augusto was originally higher. It was topped by a gallery, which has unfortunately been lost. This happened during a conflict between Pope Pius II (1458-1464) and Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, Lord of Fano. The pope decided to hire Federico da Montefeltro (1422-1482), Lord of Urbino and one of the most famous condottieri in Italian history (if only because of the beautiful portrait that Piero della Francesca painted of him). Federico defeated the forces of Malatesta and subsequently besieged Fano. His artillery bombarded the town and accidentally also hit the Arco d’Augusto, which lost its head. The debris was then used to make a façade for the church of San Michele, which was built next to the gate between 1493 and 1504, on the spot previously occupied by the second defensive tower. The façade is a work by Bernardino di Pietro da Carona. His sculpted portal is beautiful, but much more conspicuous is the relief that he left on the façade. It features the original Arco d’Augusto, with its second storey still fully intact. The gallery used to have an inscription mentioning the emperor Constantine (306-337). The gate was restored in his name, but probably well after his death, by a certain Lucius Turcius Secundus Apronianus, whose name has been preserved on the object. During the reign of Constantine’s sons the town was renamed Colonia Flavia Fanestris.

Fano seems to have been a rather prosperous town during the Roman Imperial age, but only in the year 271 was it mentioned again in the annals. After a campaign in Pannonia the emperor Aurelianus (270-275) had raced back to Italy, which was suffering from an invasion by Germanic tribes, probably Alemanni and Juthungi. The emperor’s exhausted troops were then lured into an ambush near Placentia. The ensuing defeat was probably more humiliating than serious, but it did mean that the road to Rome lay wide open. As the Alemanni and Juthungi advanced along the Via Aemilia, the emperor rallied his troops and started the pursuit. He caught up with the invaders at Fano. There Aurelianus inflicted a severe defeat upon his opponents and chased them back to the north. There was a final confrontation near Ticinum (Pavia), in which the surviving Alemanni and Juthungi were destroyed. Italy, and especially Rome, had been saved. It was this Germanic invasion which led to the construction of the so-called Aurelian Walls in Rome. Almost three centuries later, Colonia Flavia Fanestris was destroyed during the Gothic War (535-554), an event which marked the end of Roman Fano.

Archaeology

Fano’s central square, the Piazza XX Settembre, has a fountain with a statue of the goddess Fortuna. Although it was intended as a reminder of Fano’s past as Fanum Fortunae, it was only made in the sixteenth century by the sculptor Donnino Ambrosi.[2] If we want to see original Roman objects we should visit the archaeological museum, which is located in the Palazzo Malatestiano directly behind the piazza. The museum is small, but it offers an interesting collection of archaeological finds in the town. Included in the collection are several statues of members of the imperial family, such as a presumed head of Octavia, sister of the emperor Augustus, from ca. 40-30 BCE (image above). I also liked a largely intact statue of the emperor Claudius (41-54), but by far the best object was a mosaic of Neptune in his chariot, drawn by hippocampi, crosses between horses and fish. The mosaic dates from the second half of the second century.

The museum has plenty of religious objects as well. Very important is a statue of a headless Fortuna (image above). It dates from the first or second century, but it is not clear what its function was in Colonia Julia Fanestris. Truly splendid items are the head of Hercules with the skin of the Nemean lion (second century) and a fascinating fragment of a sarcophagus (early third century). The fragment features the sacrifice of a rooster. A priestess is holding the animal by the legs while lowering it into the fire. The Latin word for a rooster was gallus, and that also happened to be the word that the Romans used for Celts (Gauls) and for priests of the eastern goddess Cybele. The presence of a head of this Cybele in the museum is evidence that she too was worshipped in Roman Fano, as were Mithras, Isis and Serapis.

A statue that is not in the museum, but according to virtually everybody in Fano belongs there by right, is the so-called Athlete of Fano, alternatively known as the Victorious Youth or Lysippos of Fano. The bronze statue, attributed to the Greek sculptor Lysippos (fourth century BCE) or – ever more often – a follower, was recovered from the Adriatic Sea by Italian fishermen in 1964. The statue, from ca. 300-100 BCE, was covered by a thick crust, the result of a chemical reaction between the sea water and the bronze. Feet and parts of the lower legs were missing, which is a strong indication that this is a statue that the Romans stole from Greece during their wars there in the second and first century BCE.[3] Statues coveted by the Romans were literally sawn or broken off at the ankles. The Roman ship that took the statue to Italy was probably lost at sea, after which a period of over two thousand years elapsed before its precious cargo was brought to the surface again. Although the law required the Italian fisherman to report their find to the authorities, they failed to do so, instead selling the statue on the black market. At some point the German art dealer Herman Heinz acquired it, who sold it to the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles in 1977. We still find it there today.

The J. Paul Getty Museum has always dismissed the Italian claim to the Athlete of Fano. One of the arguments used by the museum is that the statue has no connection whatsoever with Italy. After all, it was made by a non-Italian sculptor, presumably stolen from Greece and recovered in international waters (although that is actually unclear, as the precise location is unknown). Moreover, the statue cannot have been exported illegally, as neither the fishermen nor the Italian buyers have ever faced criminal charges. However, so far Italy has won all court cases regarding ownership of the statue. In 2018 the Italian Supreme Court or Corte Suprema di Cassazione ruled in its favour. The American museum then applied to the European Court of Human Rights and claimed that the Italian order to confiscate the statue was a violation of its right to protection of property. On 2 May 2024 the Court unanimously dismissed all complaints, but the decision has not yet led to the Athlete of Fano being returned to Italy. On the pier of Fano we currently find a replica of the statue. The colour of the athlete’s genitals differs sharply from the rest of the statue. It looks very much like people have given them a good rub for luck.

Notes

[1] Bellum Civile, book 1.11.

[2] The statue is a copy. The original is in the Museo Civico. In 2025 the decision was taken to restore it.

[3] See Bradt travel guide Umbria & the Marche (2021), p. 281.