Antium was an ancient coastal town in Latium, south of Rome. An oppidum was founded by people of Latial culture (11th century BC or the beginning of the 1st millennium BC),[1] then it was the main stronghold of the Volsci people until it was conquered by the Romans.
The territory of Roman Antium almost entirely corresponded to modern Anzio and Nettuno.[2][3][4]
Location
The Latin-volscian[1] town stood in the Capo d'Anzio (modern Anzio), on a higher ground and somewhat away from the shore, though it extended down to it. This was defended by a deep ditch, which can still be traced, and by walls, a portion of which, on the eastern side, constructed of rectangular blocks of tufa, was brought to light in 1897.[5] The fortification of the town would included the acropolis, to which it would be adjacent to the east, isolated but connected.[2] The Latin colony of 467 BC, of which it will be said later, would be installed alongside the fortified Latin-volscian oppidum, also to the est.[3]
A coeval port town, Caenon, was the port under the control of Antium (which did not have a natural harbour of its own):[6] according to alternative theories, the port of Caenon would be located in the Capo d'Anzio,[2] or the port town very north of it,[7] or the town on a hill near Nettuno to the east, and the port over the mouth of the nearby river Loricina.[3]
The settlement of Roman Antium was certainly present in the area of the Capo d'Anzio (in particular, a presumed extensive town since the mid-republican age,[8] the imperial colony and the great harbour of Nero), but a parallel agricultural settlement, with the same name, was likely to be in the same position as modern Nettuno since the colony of 338 BC; so from 60 AD the colonia Antium of Nero in the Capo d'Anzio would coexisted with a supposed, more ancient, civitas Antium in Nettuno, which in the 4th century AD would have been the only real town:[3][9] a thesis that has found some perplexities[10] or an opposition.[4]
History
Volscian Antium
As said in the beginning, for a long time Antium was the capital of the Antiates Volsci, on the Thyrrenian coast.[11]
In 493 BC - the same year that, according to a theory, the Volsci likely settled in the town[1] - the Roman consul Postumus Cominius Auruncus fought and defeated two armies from Antium and as a result captured the Volscian towns of Longula, Pollusca and Corioli (to the north of Antium).[12]
According to Plutarch[13] the Roman leader Coriolanus, who fought at Corioli, took refuge at Antium to the noble Attius Tullius Aufidius, when the Roman had been accused of disloyalty to Rome and the Volsci. Aufidius obtained consent that, by Volscian hand, Coriolanus was first tried, then assassinated before the end of the trial.
In 464 BC the Antiates were suspected of allying with the Aequi against Rome. The chief men of Antium were summoned to Rome but they did not give adequate explanations. Antium was asked to contribute emergency troops for the Roman war against the Aequi, however the force of 1,000 troops from Antium arrived too late to help.[16]
In 338 BC the consul Gaius Menius Publius suddenly attacked and defeated the troops of Aricia, Lanuvium and Velitres as they were joining the Antiates next to the river Astura.[17] Antium was finally defeated and its warships seized, a part taken to the arsenals in Rome, while the others burned. The town was banned from navigation, and Gaius Menius had the rostra of the burned ships mounted in the Roman Forum as ornaments of the speaker's platform thenceforth called the Rostra.[18][19]
In 338 BC Antium became a colonia with Roman citizenship of the Antiates, [18] and in 317 BC it became a municipium.[20] The Roman colony had duumvirs,[21] and quaestors were also present as magistrates.[2]
During the civil war against Gaius Marius, Antium - breadbasket of Rome [22] - was allied with Sulla: in 87 BC it suffered a surprise attack and was devastated by the Marian troops, with many citizen deaths.[23][3]
With the expansion of Roman Republic Antium was just far enough away to be insulated from the riots and tumults of Rome. The Romans built magnificent seaside villas there and their remains are conspicuous all along the shore, both to the east and to the northwest of the town.[5]Gaius Maecenas also had a villa. Many ancient masterpieces of sculpture have been found there: the Fanciulla d'Anzio, the Borghese Gladiator (in the Louvre) and the Apollo Belvedere (in the Vatican) were all discovered in the ruins of villas at Antium. When Cicero returned from exile, it was at Antium that he reassembled the battered remains of his libraries, where the scrolls would be secure.
Of the villas, the most famous was the imperial villa, known as Domus Neroniana (Villa of Nero),[5] which was used by each emperor in turn, up to the Severans and which extended some 800 metres (2,600ft) along the seafront of the Capo d'Anzio. Augustus received a delegation from Rome there to acclaim him Pater patriae ("Father of his Country"). The Julian and Claudian emperors frequently visited it; both Emperor Caligula and Nero were born in Antium. Nero razed the villa on the site to rebuild it on a more massive scale and according to an imperial style. Including a theatre were built in Antium.[5] In 60 AD[24] Nero also founded a colony of veterans and built a new harbour, the projecting moles of which still exist.[5]
Of the famous temple of Fortune (Horace, Od. i. 35) no remains are known,[5] but its location is assumed in the Capo d'Anzio, area of the Domus Neroniana.[3][10]
Late Antiquity
There are records of the participation of a few bishops of Antium in synods held in Rome: Gaudentius in 465, Felix in 487, Vindemius in 499 and 501. Barbarian incursions in the 6th century put an end to its existence as a residential bishopric. Accordingly, Antium is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.[25]
Middle Ages
Attacked by the Vandals of Gaiseric (5th century), the Goths of Vitiges (6th century), and then by the Saracens,[26] in the Middle Ages Antium was deserted in favour of Nettuno, which maintained the legacy of the ancient town.[5]
Nettuno is usually attributed only a medieval origin,[4] but in the modern era it was considered a natural heir, a continuation of Antium;[27][3] a view taken up by a contemporary orientation.[3]
↑ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) William Smith "Antium"; The Topography of Rome and Its Vicinity By Sir William Gell, 1846, "Antium"; Handbook for Travellers in Central Italy by John Murray, 1843, "Nettuno", p. 534.
↑ G. Cifani, A. Guidi, A. M. Jaia, Nuove ricerche nel territorio di Colle Rotondo ad Anzio, on G. Ghini (edited by), Lazio e Sabina 7 (atti del Convegno, Roma, 2010), Roma, Edizioni Quasar, 2011.
↑ T. De Haas, G. Tol, P. Attema, Investing in the colonia and ager of Antium, on Daniele Malfitana, Jeroen Problome, John Lund (edited by), «Facta: a journal of roman material culture studies», Pisa-Roma, Fabrizio Serra, vol. V, 2011.
↑ L. Ceccarelli, F. Di Mario, F. Papi et al, Atlante storico ambientale Anzio e Nettuno, Roma, De Luca (2003), pp. 94-96, 160-161.
1 2 B. Cacciotti, Testimonianze di culti orientali ad Antium, on B. P. Benetucci (curator), Culti orientali tra scavo e collezionismo, Roma, Artemide (2008).
↑ J. Hondius, Nova et accurata Italiae hodiernae descriptio, Apud B. et A. Elsevir, 1627, pp. 164-165: a map illustrating Neptunium olim Antium, "Nettuno, once Antium".
Further reading
Antonio Nibby, Dintorni di Roma, i. 181; Notizie degli scavi, passim.
Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) William Smith "Antium"; The Topography of Rome and Its Vicinity By Sir William Gell, 1846, "Antium"; Handbook for Travellers in Central Italy by John Murray, 1843, "Nettuno" p. 534.
F. Lombardi, Anzio antico e moderno: opera postuma (1865).
G. Lugli, Saggio sulla topografia dell'antica Antium, Roma (1940).
P. Brandizzi Vittucci, Antium: Anzio e Nettuno in epoca romana, Roma, Bardi Editore (2000).
H. Solin, Arctos: Acta Philologica Fennica, vol. 36, Helsinki (2002), pp. 210-211.
L. Ceccarelli, F. Di Mario, F. Papi et al, Atlante storico ambientale Anzio e Nettuno, Roma, De Luca (2003), pp. 94-96, 160-161.
B. Cacciotti, Testimonianze di culti orientali ad Antium, on B. P. Benetucci (curator), Culti orientali tra scavo e collezionismo, Roma, Artemide (2008).
G. Cifani, A. Guidi, A. M. Jaia, Nuove ricerche nel territorio di Colle Rotondo ad Anzio, on G. Ghini (edited by), Lazio e Sabina 7 (atti del Convegno, Roma, 2010), Roma, Edizioni Quasar, 2011.
T. De Haas, G. Tol, P. Attema, Investing in the colonia and ager of Antium, on Daniele Malfitana, Jeroen Problome, John Lund (edited by), «Facta: a journal of roman material culture studies», Pisa-Roma, Fabrizio Serra, vol. V, 2011.
GnaeusMarcius Coriolanus was a Roman general who is said to have lived in the 5th century BC. He received his toponymic cognomen "Coriolanus" following his courageous actions during a Roman siege of the Volscian city of Corioli. He was subsequently exiled from Rome, and led troops of Rome's enemy the Volsci to besiege the city.
Ferentina was the patron goddess of the city Ferentinum, Latium. She was protector of the Latin commonwealth. She was also closely associated with the Roman Empire.
The Volsci were an Italic tribe, well known in the history of the first century of the Roman Republic. At the time they inhabited the partly hilly, partly marshy district of the south of Latium, bounded by the Aurunci and Samnites on the south, the Hernici on the east, and stretching roughly from Norba and Cora in the north to Antium in the south. Rivals of Rome for several hundred years, their territories were taken over by and assimilated into the growing republic by 300 BC. Rome's first emperor Augustus was of Volscian descent.
Gaius Nautius Rutilus was consul of the Roman Republic in 475 BC and 458 BC.
Anzio is a town and comune on Lazio coast region of Italy, about 51 kilometres (32 mi) south of Rome.
Nettuno is a town and comune of the Metropolitan City of Rome in the Lazio region of central Italy, 60 kilometres south of Rome. A resort city and agricultural center on the Tyrrhenian Sea, it has a population of approximately 50,000.
Lavinium was a port city of Latium, 6 km (3.7 mi) to the south of Rome, midway between the Tiber river at Ostia and Antium. The coastline then, as now, was a long strip of beach. Lavinium was on a hill at the southernmost edge of the Silva Laurentina, a dense laurel forest, and the northernmost edge of the Pontine Marshes, a vast malarial tract of wetlands. The basis for the port, the only one between Ostia and Antium, was evidently the mouth of the Numicus river.
Agrarian laws were laws among the Romans regulating the division of the public lands, or ager publicus. In its broader definition, it can also refer to the agricultural laws relating to peasants and husbandmen, or to the general farming class of people of any society.
Corioli was a town in ancient times in the territory of the Volsci in central Italy, in Latium adiectum.
Circeii was an ancient Roman city on the site of modern San Felice Circeo and near Mount Circeo, the mountain promontory on the southwest coast of Italy. The area around Circeii and Mount Circeo was thickly populated with Roman villas and other buildings, of which the remains of many can still be seen.
The gens Verginia or Virginia was a prominent family at ancient Rome, which from an early period was divided into patrician and plebeian branches. The gens was of great antiquity. It frequently filled the highest honors of the state during the early years of the Republic. The first of the family who obtained the consulship was Opiter Verginius Tricostus in 502 BC, the seventh year of the Republic. The plebeian members of the family were also numbered amongst the early tribunes of the people.
Postumus Cominius Auruncus was a two-time consul of the early Roman Republic.
The Roman–Latin wars were a series of wars fought between ancient Rome and the Latins, from the earliest stages of the history of Rome until the final subjugation of the Latins to Rome in the aftermath of the Latin War.
The Roman–Volscian wars were a series of wars fought between the Roman Republic and the Volsci, an ancient Italic people. Volscian migration into southern Latium led to conflict with that region's old inhabitants, the Latins under leadership of Rome, the region's dominant city-state. By the late 5th century BC, the Volsci were increasingly on the defensive and by the end of the Samnite Wars had been incorporated into the Roman Republic. The ancient historians devoted considerable space to Volscian wars in their accounts of the early Roman Republic, but the historical accuracy of much of this material has been questioned by modern historians.
The Roman-Aequian wars were a series of wars during the early expansion of ancient Rome in central Italy against their eastern neighbours, the Aequi.
Longula was a town in ancient times in the territory of the Volsci in central Italy. It was located south of Rome, and just north of the Volscian capital Antium.
Pollusca was a town in ancient times in the territory of the Volsci in central Italy. It was located south of Rome, north of the Volscian capital Antium, and just west of Corioli.
Pedum was an ancient town of Latium in central Italy, located between Tibur and Praeneste, near modern Gallicano nel Lazio. The town was a member of the Latin League.
The Fasti Antiates Maiores is a painted wall-calendar from the late Roman Republic, the oldest archaeologically attested local Roman calendar and the only such calendar known from before the Julian calendar reforms. It was created between 84 and 55 BC and discovered in 1915 at Anzio in a crypt next to the coast. It is now located in the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme in Rome, part of the Museo Nazionale Romano.
Publius Cornelius Rutilus Cossus was a statesman and military commander from the early Roman Republic who served as Dictator in 408 BC.
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