DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.786#0086
70
PALO.
[chap. XXXIV.
researches. The earliest notice of it by Roman writers is
its receiving a colony in the year 507.3 At no time does
it seem to have been of much importance; the highest
condition it attained, as far as we can learn, being that of
a small town.4 This may have been owing to its unhealthy
position, on a low swampy coast. Yet it was much
frequented by the wealthy Romans;5 and even the
Emperor Antoninus chose it as his retreat, and had an
Imperial villa on this shore.6
Haveva un bel giardin sopra una riva,
Che colli intorno e tutto '1 mare scopriva.
At the beginning of the fifth century Alsium, like the
neighbouring Pyrgi, had sunk to the condition of a large
3 Veil. Patera I. 14. As a maritime
colony it was compelled to furnish its
quota of troops in the year 547 (b.c.
207), when in the Second Punic War
Italy was threatened with a second
invasion of Carthaginians under Has-
drubal. Liv. XXVII. 38. But it is
not mentioned with the other naval
colonies, which, in 563 (b.c. 191), were
reluctantly compelled to aid in fitting
out a fleet against Antioehus the Great,
King of Syria. Liv. XXXVI. 3. Pliny
(III. 8), and Ptolemy (Geog. p. 68, ed.
Bert.) certify to its existence as a
colony in their days.
4 Rutil. I. 224. Strabo (V. p. 225)
also speaks of it as a mere iroXlxwov.
Yet the fact of giving its name to a
lake—now Lago Martignano—full 20
miles distant, implies an extensive ager,
and no small importance. For the
Lacus Alsietinus, see Frontinus, de
Aqujeduct. II. p. 48. Cluver (II. p.
524) errs in taking the Lago Straccia-
cappa to be the Lacus Alsietinus.
5 Pompey had a villa here. Cicero,
pro Milone, XX. M. jEmilius Porcina
also built one on so magnificent a scale,
that he was accused of it as a crime,
and heavily fined by the Roman people.
Val. Max. VIII. 1, Damn. 7. And the
mother-in-law of the younger Pliny
had also a villa at Alsium, which had
previously belonged to Rufus Verginius,
who took such delight in it, that he
called it " the nestling-place of his old
age."—senectutis sum nidulum—and was
buried on the spot. Plin. Epist. VI.
10 ; cf. IX. 19. Cicero (ad Divers.
IX. 6 ; cf. ad Attic. XIII. 50) refers to
Alsium as the spot where Caesar was
thinking of landing on his return from
Africa.
6 Fronto,deFeriis Alsiensibus. Gruter
(p. 271, 3) gives a dedicatory inscrip-
tion to Marcus Aurelius, by the Decu-
riones of the Colony of Alsium, which was
found at Palo. Cf. Cluver. II. p. 497.
An inscription also, found at Ceri, men-
tions a villa at Alsium. See Visconti,
Mon. Ant. di Ceri, p. 12:—
d. m.
T. AELIO. EVTYCHO.
PROC. AUG. N
VILLAE. ALSI
ENSI
HEREDES.
PALO.
[chap. XXXIV.
researches. The earliest notice of it by Roman writers is
its receiving a colony in the year 507.3 At no time does
it seem to have been of much importance; the highest
condition it attained, as far as we can learn, being that of
a small town.4 This may have been owing to its unhealthy
position, on a low swampy coast. Yet it was much
frequented by the wealthy Romans;5 and even the
Emperor Antoninus chose it as his retreat, and had an
Imperial villa on this shore.6
Haveva un bel giardin sopra una riva,
Che colli intorno e tutto '1 mare scopriva.
At the beginning of the fifth century Alsium, like the
neighbouring Pyrgi, had sunk to the condition of a large
3 Veil. Patera I. 14. As a maritime
colony it was compelled to furnish its
quota of troops in the year 547 (b.c.
207), when in the Second Punic War
Italy was threatened with a second
invasion of Carthaginians under Has-
drubal. Liv. XXVII. 38. But it is
not mentioned with the other naval
colonies, which, in 563 (b.c. 191), were
reluctantly compelled to aid in fitting
out a fleet against Antioehus the Great,
King of Syria. Liv. XXXVI. 3. Pliny
(III. 8), and Ptolemy (Geog. p. 68, ed.
Bert.) certify to its existence as a
colony in their days.
4 Rutil. I. 224. Strabo (V. p. 225)
also speaks of it as a mere iroXlxwov.
Yet the fact of giving its name to a
lake—now Lago Martignano—full 20
miles distant, implies an extensive ager,
and no small importance. For the
Lacus Alsietinus, see Frontinus, de
Aqujeduct. II. p. 48. Cluver (II. p.
524) errs in taking the Lago Straccia-
cappa to be the Lacus Alsietinus.
5 Pompey had a villa here. Cicero,
pro Milone, XX. M. jEmilius Porcina
also built one on so magnificent a scale,
that he was accused of it as a crime,
and heavily fined by the Roman people.
Val. Max. VIII. 1, Damn. 7. And the
mother-in-law of the younger Pliny
had also a villa at Alsium, which had
previously belonged to Rufus Verginius,
who took such delight in it, that he
called it " the nestling-place of his old
age."—senectutis sum nidulum—and was
buried on the spot. Plin. Epist. VI.
10 ; cf. IX. 19. Cicero (ad Divers.
IX. 6 ; cf. ad Attic. XIII. 50) refers to
Alsium as the spot where Caesar was
thinking of landing on his return from
Africa.
6 Fronto,deFeriis Alsiensibus. Gruter
(p. 271, 3) gives a dedicatory inscrip-
tion to Marcus Aurelius, by the Decu-
riones of the Colony of Alsium, which was
found at Palo. Cf. Cluver. II. p. 497.
An inscription also, found at Ceri, men-
tions a villa at Alsium. See Visconti,
Mon. Ant. di Ceri, p. 12:—
d. m.
T. AELIO. EVTYCHO.
PROC. AUG. N
VILLAE. ALSI
ENSI
HEREDES.