Bassano in Teverina is a comune in the Province of Viterbo in the Italian region Latium. It is inhabited by 1,332 people and is located about 90 kilometres north of Rome and about 20 kilometres northeast of Viterbo.
The origin of the town is extremely uncertain. The ending of the name, derived from the Latin adjectival suffix -anus, takes back to Roman times and, together with the root of the name, seems to remember the family name (Bassus) of a character who owned large estates in the area: Bassus – Bassanus – Bassano.
The town center of Bassano in Teverina arises on a tuff spur set in a slightly rearward position compared to the Tiber Valley, of which it overlooks one part. Downstream from the city center, not far away from the Tiber, lies Lake Vadimo, locally known as the “Pond”, described by Pliny the Younger as “a lying wheel with a regular circumference […] paler, greener and more intense than the sea.”
In Roman times the lake, called Lacus Vladimonis, besides being larger was also considered sacred: near its shores, the Etruscans performed rituals and periodic celebrations, while in its waters the Romans immersed their weapons to make them invincible.
The little center was already inhabited in Etruscan times but was abandoned during the domination of Romans, who conquered the whole surrounding area, taking the territory thanks to two bloody battles: the first in 309 BC, under the leadership of the consul Quintus Fabius Rullianus, and the second in 283 BC, with which they finally defeated Etruscans and Senones.
