← Back to the map1750 painting by Richard Wilson of the Roman bridge of Tiberius at Rimini
Richard Wilson, 1750 (period painting) · Wikimedia Commons

Rimini

Italia · Roman province·Italy·Founded 268 BCE (Latin colony)

Roman Ariminum, the pivot of Roman north — the Via Flaminia met the Via Aemilia here. Its Arch of Augustus (27 BCE) and Bridge of Tiberius (21 CE) both still stand.

A living seaside city of around 150,000; the Arch of Augustus and the Bridge of Tiberius, both still in everyday use, stand within the modern town.

Excavation history

1989
Municipal public-works crew / Comune di Rimini archaeologists — The remains of the 'Domus del Chirurgo,' a 2nd-century CE Roman house, came to light in Piazza Ferrari during work on the municipal gardens.
1989-2006
Italian archaeological superintendency — Systematic excavation of the domus continued for roughly 17 years, recovering over 150 surgical instruments that gave the house its 'Surgeon's House' name.

Notable finds

Surgical Instrument Set of Eutyches
Over 150 bronze scalpels, forceps, saws and bone levers came out of the Domus del Chirurgo in one collection, precise enough tools that scholars read them as a military surgeon's kit for treating arrow wounds and broken bones, not a general practitioner's.
Museo della Città 'Luigi Tonini', Rimini
Port Scene Mosaic
A domus under what's now Palazzo Diotallevi held this floor mosaic of Ariminum's own harbor, its fishing boats and Adriatic catch laid out species by species around the scene.
Museo della Città 'Luigi Tonini', Rimini
Bronze Votive Hand to Jupiter Dolichenus
A soldier's offering to Jupiter Dolichenus, the Syrian storm-god the army carried west and adopted as a protector, this raised bronze hand once tipped a standard or hung in a shrine to the legions' own version of the god.
Museo della Città 'Luigi Tonini', Rimini
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