Product Code Database
Antium was an Ancient history 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), then it was the main stronghold of the Volsci people until it was conquered by the ancient Rome.
In some versions of Rome's foundation myth, Antium was founded by Anteias, son of Odysseus.
The territory of Roman Antium almost entirely corresponded to modern Anzio and Nettuno.P. Brandizzi Vittucci, Antium: Anzio e Nettuno in epoca romana, Roma, Bardi Editore (2000). .
A coeval port town, Caenon, was the port under the control of Antium (which did not have a natural harbour of its own):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. according to alternative theories, the port of Caenon would be located in the Capo d'Anzio,G. Lugli, Saggio sulla topografia dell'antica Antium, Roma (1940). or the port town very north of it,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. or the town on a hill near Nettuno to the east, and the port over the mouth of the nearby river Loricina.
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,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. 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:L. Ceccarelli, F. Di Mario, F. Papi et al, Atlante storico ambientale Anzio e Nettuno, Roma, De Luca (2003), pp. 94-96, 160-161. a thesis that has found some perplexitiesB. Cacciotti, Testimonianze di culti orientali ad Antium, on B. P. Benetucci (curator), Culti orientali tra scavo e collezionismo, Roma, Artemide (2008). or an opposition.H. Solin, Arctos: Acta Philologica Fennica, vol. 36, Helsinki (2002), pp. 210-211.
In 493 BC - the same year that, according to a theory, the Volsci likely settled in the town - 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).Livy, Ab urbe condita, ii. 33.
According to PlutarchPlutarch, Parallel Lives, xx. 1-3; xxii. 1. 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 before the end of the trial.
In 469 BC the town Caenon was destroyed by the Roman consul Titus Numicius Priscus.Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities, ix. 56; Livy Ab urbe condita, ii. 63.
In 468 BC Antium was captured by the Roman consul Titus Quinctius Capitolinus Barbatus following a war started by the Volsci, and the mentioned Roman colony was planted there the next year. Three Roman ex-consuls were appointed as commissioners to allocate the lands (triumviri coloniae deducendae) amongst Roman colonists. They were Titus Quinctius, the consul of the previous year who had captured Antium from the Volsci; Aulus Verginius Tricostus Caeliomontanus, the consul of 469 BC; and Publius Furius Medullinus Fusus, the consul of 472 BC.Livy, ii. 64, 65, iii. 1.
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.Livy, iii. 4–5.
In 338 BC the consul Gaius Menius Publius suddenly attacked and defeated the troops of Ariccia, Lanuvium and Velitrae as they were joining the Antiates next to the river Astura.Livy, viii. 13. 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.Florus, Epitomae de Tito Livio bellorum, i. v.
During the civil war against Gaius Marius, Antium - breadbasket of Rome Appian, Historia romana, De bellis civilibus, i, viii. 69; Valerius Maximus, Factorum et dictorum memorabilium libri IX, i, vi. 5; Livy, Ab urbe condita, xxviii. 11. - was allied with Sulla: in 87 BC it suffered a surprise attack and was devastated by the Marian troops, with many citizen deaths.Livy, Ab urbe condita, lxxx Periocha; Appian , Historia romana, De bellis civilibus, i, viii. 69.
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. 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 Museums) 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), which was used by each emperor in turn, up to the Severan dynasty and which extended some 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. In 60 ADTacitus, Annals, xiv. 27; Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, vi. 9. Nero also founded a colony of veterans and built a new harbour, the projecting moles of which still exist.
Of the famous temple of Fortuna (Horace, Od. i. 35) no remains are known, but its location is assumed in the Capo d'Anzio, area of the Domus Neroniana.
Nettuno is usually attributed only a medieval origin, but in the modern era it was considered a natural heir, a continuation of Antium;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". a view taken up by a contemporary orientation.
|
|
