Tres Tabernae originated as a
post station on the
Appian Way (), around the 3rd century BC. Here, the Christian saint
Paul of Tarsus, on his way to Rome, was met by a band of Roman Christians (
Acts 28:15). The "Tres Tabernae was the first
mansio or
mutatio, that is, halting-place for relays, from Rome, or the last on the way to the city. At this point three roads run into the Via Appia, that from
Tusculum, that from
Alba Longa, and that from
Antium; so necessarily here would be a halting-place, which took its name from the three shops there, the general store, the blacksmith's, and the refreshment-house...Tres Tabernae is translated as Three Taverns." The
Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition identifies it as "an ancient village of
Latium, Italy, a post station on the Via Appia, at the point where the main road was crossed by a branch from Antium". It is by some fixed some 3 m. S.E. of the modern village of
Cisterna just before the Via Appia enters the
Pontine Marshes, at a point where the modern road to
Ninfa and
Norba diverges to the north-east, where a few ruins still exist (
Grotte di Nottola), 33 m. from Rome. Others believe that it stood at Cisterna itself, where a branch road running from Antium by way of
Satricum actually joins the Via Appia. However, excavations that took place at km 58.1 of the Via Appia Nuova between 1993 and 2001 revealed a
bath plant and some further buildings. Around the 3rd century AD, the area was invaded by marshes, and the inhabitants of the nearby
Ulubrae likely moved to
Tres Tabernae, which grew of importance and became a Christian
episcopal see with a
Palaeo-Christian cathedral dedicated to St. Paul. In 307, emperor
Flavius Severus was assassinated (or forced to commit suicide) here by Heraclius, by order of other emperors
Maximian and
Maxentius. The barbaric invasions in Italy caused a further expansions of the marshes, and Tres Tabernae declined so that, in 592,
Pope Gregory I united its diocese to
that of Velletri. Later in the high Middle Ages, Tres Tabernae was ravaged several times by the
Saracens, until it was completely destroyed in 868. The position of the Tres Tabernae is also shown in the
Tabula Peutingeriana in a location south of Rome. ==Notes==