Tres Tabernae - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

TRES TABERNAE (Three Taverns), an ancient village of Latium, Italy, a post station on the Via Appia, at the point where the main road was crossed by a branch from Antium. It is by some fixed some 3 m. S.E. of the modern village of Cisterna just before the Via Appia enters the Pontine marshes, at a point where the modern road to Ninfa and Norba diverges to the north-east, where a few ruins still exist (Grotte di Nottola), 33 m. from Rome. It is, however, more probable that it stood at Cisterna itself, where a branch road running from Antium by way of Satricum actually joins the Via Appia. Ulubrae, mentioned as a typical desert village by Roman writers, lay in the plain between Cisterna and Sermoneta. Tres Tabernae is best known as the point to which St Paul's friends came to meet him on his journey to Rome (Acts xxviii. 15). It became an episcopal see, but this was united with that of Velletri in 592 owing to the desertion of the place.

The name occurs twice in other parts of Italy as the name of post stations.