ON THE ORIENTATION OF ROMAN TOWNS IN ITALY

Summary.   Several Roman writers report on the existence of a town foundation ritual, inherited from the Etruscans, which allegedly included astronomical references. However, the possible existence of astronomical orientations in the layout of Roman towns has never been considered in a systematic way. As a first step in this direction, the orientation of 38 Roman towns in Italy is studied here. Non-random orientation patterns emerge from these data, calling for further research in this field.