Gravisca

Gravisca (common in ancient sources Graviscae is called) the Latin name of an Etruscan city, as the port of Tarquinia acted. The Etruscan and Greek names of the place are unknown. The exact location of Gravisca was controversial for a long time, until the remains of the ancient city were found in 1969 during excavations on the coast south of the mouth of the Marta River near the ruins of the later papal port of Porto Clementino . The excavations are located on the southern edge of Lido di Tarquinia, a district of Tarquinia.

For the Etruscan period, excavations have so far mainly found the remains of several sanctuaries from around 600 BC. Performed. These were dedicated to Aphrodite , Hera and Demeter , later a cult for Adonis was added. There were numerous Greek inscriptions that indicate the presence of many Greek traders, including probably the well from Herodotus known Sostratos of Aegina . Gravisca was probably an Emporion , a kind of Greek trading post, which is also indicated by the numerous finds of high-quality ceramics and lamps from the Greek region.

Gravisca was founded in 181 BC. Established as a Roman citizen colony by the tresviri coloniae deducendae Gaius Calpurnius Piso , Publius Claudius Pulcher and Gaius Terentius Istra . Due to its unhealthy location in the swampy coastal region, Gravisca subsequently remained a modest place that could not match the size and wealth of its Etruscan phase. It had only one road connection to the Via Aurelia . Pliny the Elder mentions that the city exported products such as coral and wine . Extensive remains have been archaeologically researched from the Roman city, which existed until late antiquity. Their road network was laid out regularly; Among other things, a luxurious palace and a cemetery (2nd – 4th century AD) were discovered. According to the excavation results, parts of Gravisca burned down during the invasion of the Visigoths under Alaric I (408 to 410 AD), and according to the Roman poet Rutilius Claudius Namatianus , the place was in 416 AD, but it remained settled, as a bishop is recorded here for the year 504.

literature

• Robert Leighton: Tarquinia. To Etruscan City . Duckworth, London 2004, ISBN 0-7156-3162-4 .
• Mario Torelli :  Gravisca or Graviscae, Latium, Italy . In: Richard Stillwell et al. a. (Ed.): The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ 1976, ISBN 0-691-03542-3 .
• Jakob Weiss: Graviscae. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume VII, 2, Stuttgart 1912, Col. 1847 f.

Web link

• Site plan and photos (ital.)

Remarks

1. ↑ Herodotus, Historien 4, 152.
2. ↑ Titus Livius 40, 29, 1f .; Velleius Paterculus 1, 15, 2; CIL I² p. 200.
3. ↑ Strabon 5, 225; Cato in Maurus Servius Honoratius , commentary on Virgil , Aeneis 10, 184; Rutilius Claudius Namatianus , Carmen de reditu suo 1, 181f.
4. ↑ Celsus in Digest 31, 30.
5. ↑ Pliny the Elder, Naturalis historia 14, 67; 32, 21.
6. ^ Rutilius Claudius Namatianus, Carmen de reditu suo 1, 181f.

Coordinates: 42 ° 13 '  N , 11 ° 43'  E