Description

Superaequum was one of the three towns in the ancient Peligni territory which included Sulmona and Corfinio and sits at a road junction between the Vestini, Marsi, and Marrucini territories
The city was not very far from the modern town of Castelvecchio Subequo, in the district of Macrano, where relics of great archaeological value from the Superequani people were found.
The city was built in the second half of the 1st century BC as the municipal centre of a population living mostly in vici spread over the hills of the ‘Conca Subequana’. The civilisation of Superaequum was not inferior to that of Corfinio, or even that of Sulmona, thanks to relations with its neighbours and to its strategic location, which made it a communication node between the Vestini and the Marsi peoples and the Romans. From this civilisation we have retained the remains of ancient walls, aqueducts, mosaic floors, ruins of buildings built in opus reticulatum, remnants of pagan temples, tombstones, weapons and coins.
In 1921, In the area near Fonte Sant'Agata, a memorial stone dedicated to Hercules with a double inscription was found: SA SEIO VOLENTIERI AL SUO PATRONO ERCOLE DA’ IN DONO METALLI LAVORATI - SEIO SA AD ERCOLE VINCITORE.   It is in Latin mixed with elements of both the local and Osco-Umbrian dialects, dating from between the 2nd and 1st first centuries BC. Near the memorial, bronzes depicting the same divinity -  who carries a club in his right hand while holding a lion's skin in his left - were also found.
These were votive offerings to the god from the people. This discovery led scientists to assume the presence in the immediate vicinity of a temple dedicated to Hercules, and that the population had to have been devoted to this deity. Years before, the historian Theodor Mommsen had already attributed to the territory of Superaequum a plaque dedicated to Hercules with the inscription: SEX VIBUS SEX CARUS HER D.D.L.M. (Dedicated to Hercules with grateful memory by Sesto Vibio and Sesto Caro).
In July 1943 a Christian catacomb from the 4th century was also found. It is a tunnel that consists of two wings, each about 20 metres long at right angles. The walls house numerous tombs, which are largely intact, that is to say they are still closed in at the front and on some of them there is also the name of the deceased with the date of burial.