CUPRA  , the name of two

ancient Italian municipia in Picenum . r . Cupra Maritima (Civita di Marano near the modern Cupra Marittima), on the Adriatic coast, 48 m . S.S.E. of Ancona, erected in the neighbourhood of an ancient temple of the Sabine goddess Cupra, which was restored by Hadrian in A.D . 127, and probably (though there is some controversy on the point) occupied the site of the church of S . Martino, some way to the south, in which the inscription of Hadrian exists . At Civita the remains of what was believed to be the temple were more probably those of the forum of the town, as is indicated by the discovery of fragments of a calendar and of a statue of Hadrian . Some statuettes of Juno were also among the finds . An inscription of a water reservoir erected in 7 B.C. is also recorded . But the more ancient Picene town appears to have been situated near the hill of S . Andrea, a little way to the south, where pre-Roman tombs have been discovered . See C .

Hulsen in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopadie (

Stuttgart, 1901), iv . 176o; G . Speranza, Il Piceno (Ascoli Piceno, 1900), i . 119 seq . 2 . Cupra Montana, Io m . S.W. of Aesis (mod . Jesi) by road . The village, formerly called Massaccio, has resumed the ancient name . Its site is fixed by inscriptions—cf . Th . Mommsen in Corp .

Inscrip .

Lat. ix . (Berlin, 1883), p . 543; and various ruins, perhaps of baths, and remains of subterranean aqueducts have been discovered near the church of S . Eleuterio . See F . Menicucci in G . Colucci, Antichitd Picene, xx . (1793) .