Historians and writers have identified Cascia with the Roman Cursula, mentioned by Dionigi of Alicarnasso stationed in the proximity of Rieti. On the contrary, the pre-Roman origins (Villanovian vase) of this place are uncertain, despite the numerous pre-Roman artefacts found in the borderlands between Monteleone and Norcia. The confluence of important routes, (from the north, the antique Forca Vespia road that leads to Norcia through the Avendita Plane, and from the south the antique roads that pass by Monteleone and the Forca di Chiavano Plane before arriving at Rieti), must have initially driven the Italic peoples (small bronze votive) and later the Romans, (Roman temple of Villa S. Silvestro), (see picture), to transform this area into an important political, economical, military and religious centre. After the fall of the Roman Empire in the V-VI centuries A.D., the Visigoths, the Vandals and the Barbarians passed through the Valley of Spoleto and penetrated the Apennine territory where several military out-posts were set-up: Cascia, like Norcia, became a military base. Its strategic position and the type of fortified castle, an antique image of Cascia, have been confirmed by the following events: the attempts to siege the castle by the Byzantine Narsete and the wars between the Goths and the Longobards. The latter, under the command of Alboino, having invaded Northern Italy, spread through Umbria; their Kingdom was divided in 36 Duchies and one of these was the city of Spoleto. In 757 A.D., Lotario built the Gastaldati, military garrisons with total political and military power, with the right to collect the taxes and one third of all the crops harvested. Cascia, and almost all its current territory, built the Gastaldato Equano. During this period of great insecurity and anarchy which followed the fall of the Roman Empire and aggravated by the invasion of the Goths and later the Longobards, the territory of Cascia was inhabited by intellectuals, wealthy men, merchants escaping from the cities and peaceful hermits who founded numerous hermitages which were not just used as a place of ascetic life but it was where the reorganization of the working environment and economic security of the territory took place. They offered refuge to the countless number of fugitives and exiles. In the VII century, the entire area became an important religious centre when the hermitages and the monastic cells were united to become important monasteries like, St. Pietro in Valle, St. Felice of Norcia and St. Eutizio where the solitary lifestyle was set-aside in favour of the new working order of "Ora et Labora", founded by St. Benedetto. These monasteries further increased their power under the Saxon Empire becoming, in their own right, religious feuds thanks to generous donations and the hard work of the monks who built fortified constructions around the pre-existing castles as a defence system against the raiding Saracens. The territory of Cascia was encompassed by two important monasteries: the monastery of St. Lorenzo of Fano which included the monastic cells of the Santa Trinità, Serviglio, Colle St. Stefano, Maltignano, Acuti and most importantly the monastery of Farfa thus owning the entire valley of Cascia. It was during this period that Cascia assumed its own architectonic, urban and political dignity. The Benedictine friars transformed the monastic cells, which had become elegant homes and castles, into rural "comunitates". After the dreadful invasion by the Saracens in the X and XI centuries, fortified buildings were commissioned by the feudal Lords in the most strategic points of the area and above all, the fortified castles of Cascia Ocosce, the ruins and tower of Collegiacone, Poggioprimocaso, St. Giorgio, Frenfano and Chivano all of which dominate the Corno Valley.