IGUVIUM (mod. Gubbio, q.v.), a town of Umbria, among the mountains, about 23 m. north-north-east of Perusia and con nected with it by a by-road, which joined the Via Flaminia near the temple of Iuppiter Appenninus, at the modern Scheggia. It appears to have been important in pre-Roman times, both from its coins and from the celebrated tabulae Iguvinae (see below).
We find it in possession of a treaty with Rome, similar to that of the Camertes Umbri; and in 167 B.C. it was used as a place of safe custody for the Illyrian King Gentius and his sons. After the Social War, in which it took no part, it received full citizen rights and was included in the tribus Clustumina. Under the empire we hear almost nothing of it. Silius Italicus mentions it as subject to fogs. A bishop of Iguvium is mentioned as early as A.D. 413. It was taken and destroyed by the Goths in 552, but rebuilt with the help of Narses. The Umbrian town had three gates only, and probably lay on the steep mountain side as the present town does, while the Roman city lay in the lower ground. Here is the theatre, restored by Cn. Satrius Rufus in the time of Augustus. The diameter of the orchestra is 762 ft. and of the whole 23o ft.; the stage is well preserved and so are parts of the external arcades of the auditorium. Not far off are ruins probably of ancient baths, and the concrete core of a large tomb with a vaulted chamber within.
Iguvine Tables.—The famous Iguvine (less correctly Eugu bine) Tables, were discovered at Iguvium in 1444, bought by the municipality in 1456, and are still preserved in the town hall. They were originally nine in number, and two of the nine were taken to Venice in 154o and never reappeared. The existing seven were first published in 1724.