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Hotel Viterbo

Nepi and Via Amerina

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Situated at the west confine of Argo Falisco, Nepi occupies a tuffaceous cliff isolated on three sides by the valleys of Fosso, Ponte and Fosso dei Salici, while the fourth side was fortified by a powerful wall circle in tufa blocks, dating back to the 5th - 6th centuries B.C.
The oldest phases of life are documented by the necropolises that extend around the city; in Vigna Pentriani to the north, Gilastro and Sante Grotte to the west and La Massa to the south.
In the tombs, both underground and chamber with lateral niches, fittings including vases, similar to those of the Faliscan, buccheros, and ceramics with both black and red figures, dating back to as early as the 7th century B.C., were found.
Entering precociously in the Roman orbit, it became a colony around 383 B.C.
It became a municipal following the social war and seems to have enjoyed a degree of prosperity during the empire as documented in numerous iscriptions relative both to the funerary and religious sphere as well as the existenace of public offices, found in the portico of the municipal Palace and in the Duomo, probably built on the ruins of a Roman temple.
The Roman city was an important station of Via Amerina: the Tabula Peutingeriana, a medieval copy of an original map, representing the entire Roman road network during the Imperial age, indicates, in fact, that Nepi was 8 miles from Vacanas (from the valley of Baccano where the road originates) and 5 miles from Falerii Novi.
The urbanistic structure wasn't regulated and in the west sector, where via Amerina entered into the city, it led to the Forum and a basilica.
Proof of a Christian Nepi is found in a catacomb called Savinilla, along the road that united the city to Sutri, whose access is from the presbytery of the modern church of Saint Tolomeo.
Funerary inscriptions from the 4th century A.D. are found painted on the closure tiles and edges.
The particularly strategic location of Nepi made it an important center even up until the last century of the Imperial age.In 568 A.D. it was destroyed by the Lombards only to gain importance again in the medieval age.