GOLFO DI SALERNO

 To indicate the city as a fortified place, Latin uses three words with similar meanings: "castrum", "castellum", and "oppidum". The term "castrum", with the addition of the term to the name of the place, indicated the camp fortified by the legionaries: these were mostly built in wood, and it is for this reason that today we do not find any trace of them. The entry "oppidum" instead has its original meaning in every space surrounded by walls, and consequently the meaning of a fortified place but also of a city is taken up. The original nucleus of the Roman colony of Salernum was a castrum, a military camp. The Roman castrums were not designed to withstand long sieges, as we are used to seeing in films about medieval castles with catapults, towers, fiery arrows, etc., but they had to prevent enemies militarily "primitive" and militarily backward, armed with a sword, shield and ladder, penetrated inside the military camp. A seri...

Much has been written about the foundation of Salerno "a little above the sea", without however having certain proofs to support the various theories. Locally Salerno was born after. After Paestum (around 600 BC), after Nuceria (6th century BC), after Vietri, after Pontecagnano (between the 9th and 8th centuries BC) MAP. So the history of the city can be read only under the lens of different previous circumstances. We too will try to give our interpretation, starting from some assumptions: With all probability there were  -in the same area- italic villages and hamlets called "Salernum" older than the Roman castrum and oppidum; the Vietri/Salerno area is particularly favored by an excellent geographical position, which allowed it, in ancient times, to dominate the trade that took place in the gulf between Campania and Lucania on the sea routes connecting the Levantine markets and those of the western Mediterranean, and then ensured them; the historical city extends f...