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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.786#0098
82 LUNI. [chap. xxxv.
year 559 (b.c. 195), when Cato the consul collected a
force in the port, and sailed thence against the Spaniards.2
It is mentioned again in the year 568,3 and in 577, in
the Ligurian War, it received a colony of two thousand
Romans.4 In the civil war between Csesar and Pompey,
it is said to have been in utter decay, inhabited only by a
venerable soothsayer—
Arruns incoluit desertae moenia Lunse.5
But a few years later it was re-colonized by the Romans ;6
and inscriptions found on the spot prove it to have existed
at the close of the fourth century of our era.
After the fall of the Roman Empire Luna was desolated
by the Lombards, Saracens, and Normans, but it was a yet
more formidable, though invisible, foe that depopulated the
site, and that ultimately caused it, in the fifteenth century,
to be utterly deserted.7
Luna, under the Romans, was renowned for its wine,
which was the best in all Etruria; 8 and for its cheeses,
which were stamped with the figure, either of the moon,
or of the Etruscan Diana, and were of vast size, sometimes
weighing a thousand pounds.9 But what gave Luna most
2 Liv. XXXIV. 8. 6 By the Triumvirate, under the Lex
3 Liv. XXXIX. 21. Julia. Frontin. de Colon, p. 19, ed.
* Liv. XLI. 13. Whether Luna or 1588.
Luca is here the correct reading, is ? There is an old legend which
disputed. Veil. Paterculus (I. 15) has ascribes its destruction to another
Luca. Promis (p. 29) thinks Luna cause. The lord of Luna won the
was intended ; but Repetti (II. p. 939) affections of a certain Empress, who, to
holds the opposite opinion. obtain her end, feigned herself dead ;
5 Lucan. I. 586. Here again some her lover playing the resurrectionist,
editions have " Lucse." Dante (Inferno, and carrying her to his own house.
XX. 47) places this soothsayer in the This coming to the ears of the Emperor,
mountains— he not only took vengeance on the
Che ne* monti di Luni, dove ronca offenders, but laid the city in the dust.
Lo Carrarese ehe di sotto alberga, Alherti, Descrit. d'ltalia, p. 22.
Ebbe tra bianchi marmi la spelonca 8 Plin. XIV. 8, 5.
Per sua dimora; onde a guardar le 9 Martial. XIII. epig. 30; Plin. XI. 97.
stelle Though the Greek writers translate the
E'l mar, non gli era la veduta tronca. name of this town by SeX^t), and
year 559 (b.c. 195), when Cato the consul collected a
force in the port, and sailed thence against the Spaniards.2
It is mentioned again in the year 568,3 and in 577, in
the Ligurian War, it received a colony of two thousand
Romans.4 In the civil war between Csesar and Pompey,
it is said to have been in utter decay, inhabited only by a
venerable soothsayer—
Arruns incoluit desertae moenia Lunse.5
But a few years later it was re-colonized by the Romans ;6
and inscriptions found on the spot prove it to have existed
at the close of the fourth century of our era.
After the fall of the Roman Empire Luna was desolated
by the Lombards, Saracens, and Normans, but it was a yet
more formidable, though invisible, foe that depopulated the
site, and that ultimately caused it, in the fifteenth century,
to be utterly deserted.7
Luna, under the Romans, was renowned for its wine,
which was the best in all Etruria; 8 and for its cheeses,
which were stamped with the figure, either of the moon,
or of the Etruscan Diana, and were of vast size, sometimes
weighing a thousand pounds.9 But what gave Luna most
2 Liv. XXXIV. 8. 6 By the Triumvirate, under the Lex
3 Liv. XXXIX. 21. Julia. Frontin. de Colon, p. 19, ed.
* Liv. XLI. 13. Whether Luna or 1588.
Luca is here the correct reading, is ? There is an old legend which
disputed. Veil. Paterculus (I. 15) has ascribes its destruction to another
Luca. Promis (p. 29) thinks Luna cause. The lord of Luna won the
was intended ; but Repetti (II. p. 939) affections of a certain Empress, who, to
holds the opposite opinion. obtain her end, feigned herself dead ;
5 Lucan. I. 586. Here again some her lover playing the resurrectionist,
editions have " Lucse." Dante (Inferno, and carrying her to his own house.
XX. 47) places this soothsayer in the This coming to the ears of the Emperor,
mountains— he not only took vengeance on the
Che ne* monti di Luni, dove ronca offenders, but laid the city in the dust.
Lo Carrarese ehe di sotto alberga, Alherti, Descrit. d'ltalia, p. 22.
Ebbe tra bianchi marmi la spelonca 8 Plin. XIV. 8, 5.
Per sua dimora; onde a guardar le 9 Martial. XIII. epig. 30; Plin. XI. 97.
stelle Though the Greek writers translate the
E'l mar, non gli era la veduta tronca. name of this town by SeX^t), and