The land of Abruzzo was inhabited
by nomadic people in paleolithic times. Its recorded history
dates back to 1000 BC with the civilization of the Piceni
people testified by the burial sites at Alfadena and Capestrano,
and the famous statue of a warrior.
The early peoples in the North of Abruzzo were the Umbro-Sabelli
while those occupying the eastern flank of the region along
the Adriatic Sea were
Piceni, Vestini, Marrucini and Frentani. The rocky and mountainous
heart of the region was inhabited by Sabini, Peligni and
Marsi.
The Romans moved into the region in approximately 300 BC,
during the Social Wars following Hannibal’s unwelcome
visit. The local people tried to stop the Roman invasion
by forming an Italic league but the Roman might and military
skills were overwhelming. Though defeated, they were granted
Roman citizenship on account of their prowess and valour;
that’s why the territory was given the name of Valeria.
Many sons of ancient Valeria gained prominence as citizens
of the Roman Empire, among them Apius, the Consul who built
the Apian Way (Via Appia) linking Abruzzo to Apulia (Puglia)
to the south, the so called heel of the Italic boot. There
was, obviously, the great poet Ovid and Sallust, a close
ally of Caesar and governor of Roman provinces in North
Africa.
After the break up of the Roman Empire one thousand years
later ( 4th Century AD) , Abruzzo was traversed and temporarily
subjugated by the Byzantines, the Longobards (who split
it into two provinces, Spoleto and Benevento), the Franks,
the Normans (who annexed them to the Kingdom of Two Sicilies
but re-united the territory making Sulmona its capital).
In the footsteps of the nordic Svevi, the French Angioins
and the Spanish Aragonese, it was the French Bourbons who
annexed it to the Kingdom of Naples.
After centuries of interactive turmoil, in 1861 Abruzzo
was incorporated by plebiscite in the unified Kingdom of
Italy under the House of Savoy (Piedmont) headed by King
Victor Emmanuel II.
One much more recent historical event is linked to Abruzzo:
when Benito Mussolini was deposed as the country’s
political leader -hence head of government- on 24 July 1943
by the Grand Council of Fascism, he was placed under arrest
by King Victor Emanuel III and protectively held in a hotel
on the Gran Sasso peak, an almost inaccessible location
overlooking a spectacular ravine.
Hitler entrusted the mission of rescuing ‘il Duce’
to air-ace Col. Scorzeny, who managed to perilously land
a small plane on the restricted area in front of the hotel
and take off safely with his human cargo on board.
If this mission had failed, the history of the last phase
of the war on Italian soil, and its aftermath, would have
been completely different.
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