The ancient Arezzo, situated in the north-eastern part of Etruria proper on
the hills overlooking the Clanis valley, and held by some sources to
have been one of the twelve major cities known as lucumonie, was
considered by Strabone as the most inland of the Etruscan cities.
Its position made it a natural center for the
agricultural population scattered over the fertile Valdichiana, and as
an organized settlement it may have developed as an outpost of Chiusi at
the time of the greatest Etruscan expansion northwards (sixth century
BC).
The city grew up on a low upland set between the hills
of San Pietro and San Donato, at the center of the obligatory routes
towards the north and east (Emilia Romagna) and towards the south (Lazio
and Umbria).
There is relatively little archaeological data relating to
this city in the archaic and late-archaic period. We can assume that the
urban nucleus developed between the end of the sixth and the beginning
of the fifth century BC.
The sources
however begin to refer to Arezzo in an homogenous manner starting
from the sixth century BC.
Effectively, within the city there are numerous
important sanctuaries which must have been worthy to house, among other
things, famous bronzes such as the Chimera, and which were adorned with
terracottas of great aesthetic value as a result of the presence of an
acclaimed local coroplastic school (Piazza S. Jacopo; Via Roma).
Nor is
there any shortage of small bronzes, also produced by Arezzo workshops
(archaic series and votive collections of the Fonte Veneziana), which
possibly used the metal quarried in the mines of the nearby Monti
Rognosi.
Corresponding to the urban area was the spacious
necropolis of Poggio del Sole, also set up in the sixth century BC
and used in subsequent periods up to the Roman age.
In this period the city took on a precise urban layout. It
undoubtedly possessed a ring of walls made of large blocks of stone,
some stretches of which have come to light in recent excavations (Piazzetta
S. Niccolò).
This ring marked out a relatively small perimeter, a boundary later
surpassed by the construction of several buildings beyond the walls
(the sanctuary della Catona and the constructions of Piazza S.
Francesco).
At the same time the boundaries of the agricultural district subject to
the direct influence of the city also had to be defined.
This territory must have extended southwards over the Valdichiana as
far as what is now Sinalunga, northwards as far as Casentino,
westwards to the peak of Pratomagno, descending as far as San
Giovanni, and eastwards through the Valtiberina.
In parallel, there
was a great expansion of building within the city itself, witnessed
not only by the presence of numerous terracottas, both architectural
(S. Croce; Via Roma; Catona) and votive (Società Operaia votive
collection), but also by the templar constructions of Viale Buozzi
and by the ceramic finds of both local production (black-painted)
and imported.
In
the third century Arezzo also coined its own money for a brief time
(series wheel/amphora; wheel/crater). In this period the city was
characterized not only as a major agricultural center (we would recall
the famous “far clusinum” spelt), but also as an industrial and
commercial center of great importance (production of ceramics and metal
working, trade with nearby cities such as Volterra). This fact explains
the recurrent disturbances of a social character recorded by the sources
(360 BC; 302 BC Livio, 3.5) and the existence in the city of a strong
and restless urban populace.
Despite the varied political and social vicissitudes
(relations with Rome and wars against the Gauls, Punic Wars), Arezzo
managed to maintain a remarkable economic prosperity throughout the
Hellenistic age. Among the monumental complexes which arose in this
period, in the area immediately outside the town we should mention the
impressive sanctuary of S. Cornelio-Castelsecco, possibly constructed in
the second century BC, which was later to be endowed with a magnificent
layout through the theatre-temple combination which recalls the
architectural models of the Lazio sanctuaries.
As is well known, at the beginning of the third
century BC all the inland cities of northern Etruria were forced to
surrender to the Romans, and Arezzo too entered within the orbit of
Rome.
