Ocriculum - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

OCRICULUM (mod. Otricoli), an ancient town of Umbria, Italy, on the Via Flaminia, near the E. bank of the Tiber, 44 m.

N. of Rome and 12 m. S. 'of Narnia. It concluded an alliance with Rome in 308 B.C. The modern village lies higher than the ancient town, and excavations on the site of the latter in 1775 and following years led to the discovery of the baths, a theatre, a basilica and other buildings. In the baths were found a number of works of art, now in the Vatican, notably the mosaic pavement of the Sala della Rotonda, and the celebrated head of Zeus and the head of Claudius in the same room. An amphitheatre is still visible, but the other buildings have in the main been covered up again.