Martinsicuro (former Roman town of or )
is a town and
comune (municipality) in province of Teramo,
Abruzzo, central
Italy. It is located on the right of the mouth of
Tronto River.
History
Remains of a
Bronze Age (10th-9th centuries BC) settlement were found in the communal territory, on a hill overlooking the Tronto river. At the river's mouth existed
Truentum, remembered by Roman writer Pliny the Elder as part of the Roman region of
Picenum, and attributed to the
Liburni tribe. It was noted during the Roman civil wars as one of the centers occupied by Julius Caesar.
[Letter from Pompey to L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, attached to a letter from Cicero to Atticus, February 49 B.C.: Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum (8,12)] It is cited by
Strabo,
Pomponius Mela and
Silius Italicus, also reported in the Antonine Itinerary and in the Tabula Peutingeriana. The territories alongside of his river were divided under the reform of
Augustus. After the Roman conquest in the 3rd century BC it became a
municipium and later was reached by the
Via Salaria.
Castrum Truentinum was conquered by the Lombards in the wake of the fall of Fermo in 580, but in the subsequent centuries most of the inhabitants moved to other centres in the mainland. In the 16th century the Spaniards built here two watchtowers, around which a small borough grew.
Main sights
-
Tower of Charles V (1547). Since 2009 it has housed an archaeological museum.
Notable people
-
Gigliola Staffilani (1966) - Mathematician, professor at MIT
Twin towns
Martinsicuro is twinned with:
-
Puerto de la Cruz, Spain
-
Makó, Hungary