Temple
Ad Martis
S. Maria in Pantano
Listen to the story
Beyond Mevania, the Via Flaminia runs on the map as a long blank stretch, while the name Ad Martis sits squeezed onto the road just above it. Older research blamed the copyist; later research doubts anyone would cram a name into so little space when there was room below, and suspects that a second station of the same name was lost. Inscriptions found on the spot name a village of Mars at the church of Santa Maria in Pantano near Massa Martana in Umbria, whose walls still show Roman masonry. Pantano means swamp, and the plain is damp to this day.