Spello is located on Mount Subasio, not far from Assisi, known much more of it. But the old Roman "Hispellum" has an illustrious history too. It was an ancient city of Umbrians, known to Greeks and Latins historians and geographers; Strabo (58-25 ca. BC) calls it “Eispellon”, and Ptolemy (90-168 AD) “Ispellon”. Spello was also a Roman “Municipium” mentioned by Latin writers, as Silius Italicus (26 ca.-101 AD), who mentions it among the cities that provided soldiers to the Romans, engaged in the Second Punic War (218-201 BC), and also Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD) made some notes in Spello, describing it as "Colonia Julia Hispellum", since it was refunded by Augustus (63 BC-14 AD), who was responsible for the construction of walls and “thermae”. The city, in an document of Emperor Constantine (274 ca.-337), who granted it the privilege of erecting a temple to "Gens Flavia," called it "Flavia Constans," while in some medieval documents dating from the ninth century AD, it was called  “Spellatensis Urbs”, hence the Italian place-name “Spello”.

As regards the etymology,  data are not reliable; however, we quote two hypothesis of long tradition. "Hispellum" would derive from “Ipseo Pelisio”, a legendary friend of Aeneas, or from the Latin word “speculum” (“mirror”), which already Ludovico Antonio Muratori, in the eighteenth century, called it a “curious etymology”. Probably, as M. Brozzi says, “Hispellum” is the Romanization of an ancient Umbrian name (See M. Brozzi, "Guida a Spello Romana”, Porziuncola, 1975).

During the Imperial Age, "Hispellum" enjoyed the favour of many emperors and it was a religious place of a great importance; a temple in honour of Flavian dynasty was built in it, whose the priests guarded the cult by arranging the scenic “Ludi” (“games”) and fights among gladiators; and, in fact, in Spello there are some remains of this splendid period as the thermae, Amphitheatre, Temple and Theater. Spello had a period of decline with the fall of Roman Empire and barbarian invasions. It was submitted to the Duchy of Spoleto, which was born with the conquest of the Lombards in 576, and then to the Church State and its Vicars; but, in medieval times, the city had several Lords. Probably it became a municipality around the twelfth century, and it was for a time governed by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa (1155-1190); in 1240 the city put itself under the protection of Frederick II of Swabia (1194-1250), but, in later years, it rebelled against imperial domination, suffering as a result sieges and destruction. Like all Italian towns, it was involved in battles against other cities such as Assisi (1293) and the Duchy of Spoleto (1298), and in the fourteenth century it was subjected to various families, like the Baglioni, Gian Galeazzo Visconti (1347-1402), Braccio Fortebraccio (1368-1424), and, in 1411, it was conquered by Guido Antonio da Montefeltro (1377-1443), until it returned to the Church State with Pope Martin V (1368-1431). After a new rebellion of the city to papal rule, the popes entrusted it to Government of Malatesta Baglioni (1491-1631); more years of war followed, until, in the sixteenth century, Spello, finally, came under the dominion of Church State until the Unification of Italy (1861)