1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Saepinum

SAEPINUM (mod. Altilia, near Sepino), a Samnite town 9m. S. of the modern Campobasso, on the ancient road from Beneventum to Corfinium. It was captured by the Romans in 293 B.C. The position of the original town is on the mountain far above the Roman town, and remains of its walls in Cyclopean masonry still exist. The city walls (in opus reticulatum) of the Roman town were erected by Tiberius before he became emperor, the date (between 2 B.C. and A.D. 4) being given by an inscription. Within them are remains of a theatre and other buildings, including temples of Jupiter and Apollo, and there still exists, by the gate leading to Bovianum, an important inscription of about A.D. 168, relating to the tratture (see Apulia) in Roman days, forbidding the natives to harm the shepherds who passed along them (Corp. inscr. Lat. ix. 2438).

See L. Fulvio in Not. degli scav. (1878), 374.