1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cagli

CAGLI, a town and (with Pergola) an episcopal see of the Marches, Italy, in the province of Pesaro and Urbino, 18 m. S. of the latter town by rail, and 830 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901) of town, 4628; commune, 12,533. The church of S. Domenico contains a good fresco (Madonna and saints) by Giovanni Santi, the father of Raphael. The citadel of the 15th century, constructed by Francesco di Giorgio Martini of Siena, is on the S.E. of the modern town. Cagli occupies the site of an ancient vicus (village) on the Via Flaminia, which seems to have borne the name Cale, 24 m. N. of Helvillum (mod. Sigillo) and 18 m. S.W. of Forum Sempronii (mod. Fossombrone). Below the town to the north is a single arched bridge of the road, the arch having the span of 381/4 ft. (See G. Mochi, Storia di Cagli, Cagli, 1878.) About 5 m. to the N.N.W. of Cagli and 21/2 m. W. of the Via Flaminia at the mod. Acqualagna is the site of an ancient town; the place is now called piano di Valeria, and is scattered with ruins. Inscriptions show that this was a Roman municipium, perhaps Pitinum Mergens (Corp. Inscr. Lat. xi. [Berlin, 1901] p. 876). Three miles north of Acqualagna the Via Flaminia, which is still in use as the modern high-road, traverses the Furlo Pass, a tunnel about 40 yds. long, excavated by Vespasian in A.D. 77, as an inscription at the north end records. There is another tunnel at lower level, which belongs to an earlier date; this seems to have been in use till the construction of the Roman road, which at first ran round the rock on the outside, until Vespasian cut the tunnel. In repairing the modern road just outside the south entrance to the tunnel, a stratum of carbonized corn, beans, &c., and a quantity of burnt wood, stones, tiles, pottery, &c., was found under and above the modern road, for a distance of some 500 yds. This débris must have belonged to the castle of Petra Pertusa, burned by the Lombards in 570 or 571 on their way to Rome. The castle itself is mentioned by Procopius (Bell. Goth. ii. 11, iii. 6, iv. 28, 34). Here also was found the inscription of A.D. 295, relating to the measures taken to suppress brigandage in these parts. (See Apennines.)

See A. Vernarecci in Notizie degli Scavi, 1886, 411 (cf. ibid. 227); Corp. Inscr. Lat. (Berlin, 1901), Nos. 6106, 6107. (T. As.)