Sinuessa
Coordinates: 41 ° 8 ' N , 13 ° 51' E
Sinuessa ( Greek Σινούεσσα ; also Σινόεσσα ) was an ancient Italian port city on the Via Appia in the extreme south of Lazio on the border with Campania . It was located in a mild, fertile and particularly vinous area between Monte Massico and the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea in the area of the present-day communities of Cellole , Sessa Aurunca and Mondragone .
history
Allegedly, at the site of Sinuessa, there was first a Greek complex that was named Sinope . In any case, the immediate predecessor settlement of Sinuessa was a city called Vescia , which was built in 314 BC. Was destroyed by the Romans. During the Third Samnite War in 296/295 BC , the Romans founded the civil colony Sinuessa on the territory of this submerged city of the Aurunker . BC at the same time as Minturnae to protect against the attacks of the Samnites . The city got its name according to the ancient geographer Strabo due to its location on a spacious bay (Sinus) , today's Gulf of Gaeta.
217 BC BC, one year after the Second Punic War broke out, Hannibal ravaged the most fertile areas of Italy and devastated the area of Sinuessa. But the dictator Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus only watched Hannibal and, in accordance with his defensive strategy, did not allow himself to be carried away to an open battle with the Carthaginians despite great pressure from his army. Later in the war, Sinuessa, Minturnae and other coloniae maritimae refused to provide reinforcements to soldiers. However, this concern was unsuccessful; it was refused on the grounds that there were still armed enemies in Italy. 191 BC When Rome against the Seleucid king Antiochus III. fought, the citizens of Sinuessa got into conflict with the praetor Gaius Livius Salinator, who was in charge of the naval command, because of their efforts to be exempted from military service at sea, but they did not succeed in their demands.
Since the reign of Augustus , Sinuessa has been outflanked by the nearby Minturnae. Later the Via Domitiana leading from Sinuessa to Puteoli was built. The itineraries mention Sinuessa as a still existing city on the Via Appia. When it went down is unknown.
Only small remains of Sinuessa such as parts of the city wall, an amphitheater and an aqueduct have been preserved.
Wine trade; Abode; Baths
The location on the Via Appia and the trade in wine, which originated in particular from the neighboring, up to 813 meters high Mons Massicus (today Monte Massico ), contributed significantly to the prosperity of Sinuessa. The city was also a popular travel destination. So Gaius Julius Caesar stopped here when he was 49 BC. Was on the way from Brundisium to Rome , and on his journey to Brundisium Horace met his friends Virgil and Lucius Varius Rufus here . The speaker Marcus Tullius Cicero owned an estate in Sinuessa.
Near Sinuessa there were also well-known thermal baths (Aquae Sinuessanae) , which, according to Pliny the Elder , were recommended against infertility in women and insanity in men. Emperor Claudius, among others, frequently visited these baths. It was here that Nero's notorious Prefect of the Guard Tigellinus was forced to commit suicide in 69 AD.
literature
- Edward Herbert Bunbury: Sinuessa . In: William Smith : Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London 1854.
- Maria Milvia Morciano: Sinuessa. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 11, Metzler, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-476-01481-9 , Sp. 588.
- Hans Philipp : Sinuessa. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume III A, 1, Stuttgart 1927, Col. 259 f.
Remarks
- ↑ Some ancient authors put Sinuessa in Campania ( Polybios 3, 91; Ptolemy 3, 1, 6), others in Latium ( Strabon 5, 219; 5, 231; 5, 234; Pomponius Mela 2, 70; Pliny , Naturalis historia 3 , 59).
- ^ Livy 10:21 , 8; Pliny, Naturalis historia 3, 59.
- ↑ Livy 8:11 , 5; 9, 25, 4.
- ^ Livy 10:21, 7f .; 22, 14, 3; Velleius Paterculus 1, 14, 6.
- ^ Strabo 5, 234.
- ^ Livy 22: 13f .; on this Serge Lancel, Hannibal , German edition Düsseldorf / Zurich 1998, p. 167f.
- ↑ Livius 27, 38, 2ff.
- ↑ Livius 36, 3, 4ff.
- ↑ Cassius Dio 67, 14, 1; Statius , Silvae 4, 3.
- ↑ Itinerarium Antonini p. 108; Itinerarium Burdigalense vel Hierosolymitanum p. 611; Tabula Peutingeriana 6, 3.
- ^ Horace , Epistulae 1, 5, 5.
- ↑ Cicero , Epistulae ad Atticum 9, 1, 5; 9, 14, 8; Epistulae ad familiares 12, 20.
- ^ Horace, Saturae sive sermones 1, 5, 40.
- ↑ Cicero, Epistulae ad familiares 12, 20; Epistulae ad Atticum 14, 8, 1 u. ö.
- ↑ Livy 22:13 , 10; Pliny, Naturalis historia 31, 8; Tacitus , Annals 12, 66; Silius Italicus 8, 529.
- ↑ Tacitus, Historiae 1, 72; Plutarch , Otho 2.