Marco Basseo?

In 1874, when the first unitary census was made, the municipality encharged the historian and judge De Simone to write down the names of the town streets. The old “Li Santi” street, that took its name from an ancient chapel located between Palazzo Sambiasi and Palazzo Bernardini, that no longer exist, became street “Marco Basseo”.

The name of Marco Basseo has been handed down by a honorary epigraph found in Pozzuoli, perhaps coming from Otranto, which, besides describing the person and his qualities and functions, it is the only evidence of the statute of Lupiae’s colony.

The epigraph dates back to the 2nd century AD and, at present, it is preserved in the Archeological museum of Naples.

Marco Basseo was a very important person in Roman Lecce. Descending from the family of Axio, belonging to the Palatine Tribe,  he was patron of the colony and administrator of public affairs or rather arbiter of the peace and the war. He was also administrator of the sacred things, defender of the quarrels, distributor of the commodities to the inhabitants of the colony and of the salaries to the soldiers. Marco Basseo was also one of the two judges of the ancient Roman colony who was asked to fulfil the needs of the town that he presided and also called to administrate the justice. These judges, called Duumviri, represented the Roman Consul and, performing their duties, they wore a purple robe and, around their head, they wore a band of the same colour; they also organized the shows with gladiators.

He was appointed by the government of Rome to preside to the construction of the roads to Ostia and to Campania. Marco Basseo was a legion officer chosen by the order of Knights and he had very important military charges in the colony of Lupiae and in the municipality of Otranto.

In the epigraph we can also read that the Municipality of Otranto decided to engrave his name on this marble headstone in order to remind his good and wise administration.

From these short historical hints we can understand that Lupiae had a great importance during the period of the Roman dominion on the territories of Salento, above all if we consider that the extension and fertility of this colonial area were among the main reasons of its commercial and agricultural development and, consequently, of its prosperity.