Pisae
Pisae, an ancient coastal city located at the mouth of the river Arnus (modern Arno), played a significant role in the maritime activities of Etruria. Historically, it was situated on a unique lagoon that facilitated trade and navigation, with its name possibly meaning "harbor." The origins of Pisae are intertwined with various ancient narratives, suggesting influences from Greek settlers and Celtic kings, although many of these accounts lack archaeological evidence. The city is believed to have been inhabited by the Etruscans, who were skilled in managing the surrounding wetlands, supporting its development as a trading hub.
Pisae's significance grew as it became a military and logistical base for Rome during conflicts with local tribes. It attained the status of a municipium around 90/89 BC and later was named Colonia Obsequens Julia, reflecting its integration into the Roman Empire. Despite suffering from coastal silting that diminished its direct access to the sea, Pisae re-emerged in the Middle Ages as a prominent maritime republic. The remnants of its ancient infrastructure, such as walls and roads, continue to be of interest to historians and archaeologists today, revealing insights into the city's storied past.
Subject Terms
Pisae
(Pisa)
A coastal city just beyond the northwestern extremity of Etruria. It stood on the right (north) bank of the river Arnus (Arno) at the point where this was joined by the Auser (Serchio). Today the two rivers remain entirely separate, but in ancient times they apparently merged into a single large basin from which their waters debouched together into the Tyrrhenian Sea; the basin formed one of those large protected sea lagoons and harbors which were features of the Etruscan coastline in antiquity. According to Servius, `Pisae’ means `harbor.’
The appearance of the place-name in a list at Pylos (southwestern Peloponnese) in the later second millennium BC may signify the existence of a Mycenaean market and trading post at Pisae, of which, however, the traces have not yet come to light. The antiquity of the site, however, is also suggested by ancient tales claiming foundation by various Greeks (the sons of Pelops, or people from the Peloponnesian land of Pisa), but these accounts are probably fictitious. Servius records a Celtic King Pisus as another reputed founder, and the obscure tribe of the Teutani also seem to be mentioned in this connection. The Ligurians, who spoke a non-Indo-European language and pervaded northwest Italy, may have had a hand in the origins of Pisae; a male skeleton recently found at Vecchiano and objects discovered at Poggio di Mezzo (San Rossore) seem to belong to this prehistoric phase. An alternative tradition, indicating that it was the Etruscans who played the major part, is recorded by Cato the Elder and confirmed by the discovery of Etruscan or Etruscanizing objects at least as early as c 500 BC. The Etruscans possessed the expertise needed to drain the extensive swamps round the coastal lagoons. Pisae may have been an outlying dependency of the Etruscan city-state of Volaterrae (Volaterra).
In later times, according to Strabo, the place was a frequent target for Corsican raiders. In 225 it served Rome as a frontier base against the Ligurians, but after their suppression, when Luna (Luni)—farther north—became a Roman citizen colony (c 177), Pisae did not, so that its importance was diminished. Its position, however, on an extension of the Via Cassia from Rome to Arretium (Arezzo, 154–125), and on the Via Aemilia Scauri linking the capital to the north (109), exercised a restorative effect, and after gaining the rank of a municipium, like other Italian cities, in 90/89, Pisae achieved colonial status either under Julius Caesar (whose father had died there in 85) or more probably under Octavian (Augustus). Thereupon it assumed the names of Colonia Obsequens Julia.
An inscription of the patriotic city council praised the virtues of Augustus' grandson Gaius Caesar in glowing terms and at voluminous length, obviously believing him to be the heir apparent, though in fact he did not live to succeed to the throne. After the death of Augustus himself in 14, the same body pronounced him `Guardian of the Roman Empire and Governor of the Whole World.’ Inscriptions found at Pisae indicate the existence of a corporation of shipwrights (fabri navales), who derived their timber from the thick forests that at that time existed nearby.
In 409 the place witnessed an engagement, in which three hundred Huns, fighting in the imperial army, were said to have slain eleven hundred of Ataulf's Visigoths, losing only seventeen men themselves. By this time the silting up of the coastline had removed the city far from the sea, with the result that San Piero a Grado, four miles to the west, took over its position as a river harbor; and Santo Stefano farther south, near the later Livorno, became known to the Itineraries as the Portus Pisanus. Nevertheless, Pisae returned to fame in the Middle Ages, as a leading maritime Republic.
As regards its ancient port before these developments took place, the vast subsequent hydrographical changes have meant that even the location of these harbor installations is still disputable. The sites of the forum and a section of the Via Aemilia Scauri have been tentatively identified (in the Piazza dei Cavalieri and Vie Ulivo-Faggiola or Via Roma), and walls apparently belonging to a house of Roman imperial date—later destroyed by fire—have now been unearthed in the Piazza del Duomo.