Historical analysis of a Roman urban center. ‘Hispellum’ as a case study

: The paper proposes a model of historical-architectural analysis of the urban center of Spello, Italy (Umbria). We intended to extrapolate from the plurality of data, that makes up today’s landscape, the frst macro-phase that can still be traced and detected on an urban scale, the one relating to the Roman period (from III-II centuries B.C. to IV century A.D.), which contributed to modify the landscape by operating on the environmental and natural framework through the action of man. The stratigraphic methodology, typical of the archeological landscape, was therefore followed, according to which the landscape should be read as the product of history. Among the various architectures that shaped the landscape of the Roman age, the fortifcation and the city gates built around the second half of the frst century B.C. have been brought to light. The same structures have been compared with similar models existing in Umbria and Italy, belonging to approximately the same period. The fnal aim is to understand the signifcance that the fortifcation would have had in the political construction of the Colony of Hispellum in ancient times.