Sulmona
Sulmona historical timeline
History
Sulmona has been continuously important for longer than most Italian towns of its size, and the reasons keep changing.
The Paeligni
The basin was the territory of the Paeligni, an Italic people, and Sulmo was one of their three towns. They were reputedly formidable and were absorbed by Rome rather than destroyed.
The name Italia
In 91 BC the Italic allies rose against Rome in the Social War and made Corfinium, seven kilometres up the valley, their capital, renaming it Italia. It is the first recorded use of the word for a state, and the coin struck there carries it. The rebellion failed and its participants got Roman citizenship, which was what they had wanted.
Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso was born at Sulmo in 43 BC. Exiled to the Black Sea by Augustus, he wrote in the Tristia that Sulmo was his homeland, and the town has used the line ever since: the four letters SMPE appear on its arms.
Swabians and Angevins
Under Frederick II and his son Manfred the town was favoured and fortified, and the aqueduct dates from 1256. Under the Angevins it grew rich on fairs, wool and goldsmithing.
1706
On 3 November 1706 an earthquake on the Maiella fault destroyed most of Sulmona and killed a large part of its population. What stands today is largely the rebuilding.
The modern town
Emigration emptied the valley from the 1880s. During the Second World War a large Allied prisoner-of-war camp stood at Fonte d'Amore just outside the town, and escapes from it went east over the Maiella.