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ARDEA

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 449 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ARDEA , a See also:

town of the See also:Rutuli in See also:Latium, 3 M. from the S.W. See also:coast, where its See also:harbour (Castrum Inui) See also:lay, at the mouth of the stream now known as Fosso dell' Incastro, and 23 M. S. of See also:Rome by the Via Ardeatina. It was founded, according to See also:legend, either by a son of See also:Odysseus and See also:Circe, or by See also:Danae, the See also:mother of See also:Perseus. It was one of the See also:oldest of the coast cities of Latium, and a See also:place of considerable importance; according to tradition the Ardeatines and Zacynthians joined in the See also:foundation of See also:Saguntum in See also:Spain. It was the See also:capital of Turnus, the opponent of See also:Aeneas. It was conquered by Tarquinius Superbus, and appears as a See also:Roman See also:possession in the treaty with See also:Carthage of 509 B.C., though it was later one of the See also:thirty cities of the Latin See also:league. In 445 B.C. an unfair decision by the See also:Romans in a frontier dispute with See also:Aricia led, according to the Roman historians, to a rising; the town became a Latin See also:colony 442 B.c., and shortly afterwards it appears as the place of See also:exile of See also:Camillus. It had the See also:charge of the See also:common See also:shrine of See also:Venus in See also:Lavinium. It was devastated by the See also:Samnites, was one of. the 12 Latin colonies that refused in 209 B.C. to provide more soldiers, and was in 186 used as a See also:state See also:prison, like See also:Alba and See also:Setia. In imperial times the unhealthiness of the place led to its rapid decline, though it remained a colony. In the forests of the neighbourhood the imperial elephants were kept. A road, the Via Ardeatina, led to Ardea See also:direct from Rome; the See also:gate by which it See also:left the Servian See also:wall was the Porta Naevia; a large See also:tomb behind the See also:baths of See also:Caracalla lay on its course.

The gate by which it left the See also:

Aurelian wall has been obliterated by the See also:bastion of See also:Antonio da See also:Sangallo (Ch. Hiilsen in Romische Mitteilungen, 1894, 320). The site of the See also:primitive See also:city, which later became the citadel, is occupied by the See also:modern town; it is situated at the end of a See also:long See also:plateau between two valleys, and protected by perpendicular tufa cliffs some 6o ft. high on all sides except the See also:north-See also:east, where it joins the plateau. Here it is defended by a See also:fine wall of See also:opus quadratum of tufa, in alternate courses of headers and stretchers. Within its See also:area are scanty remains of the See also:podium of a See also:temple and of buildings of the imperial See also:period. The road entering it from the See also:south-See also:west is deeply cut in the See also:rock. The area of the place was apparently twice extended, a further portion of the narrow plateau, which now bears the name of Civita Vecchia, being each See also:time taken in and defended by a See also:mound and ditch; the nearer and better-preserved is about i m. from the city and See also:measures some 2000 ft. long, 133 ft. wide and 66 ft. high, the ditch being some 8o ft. wide. The second, a m. farther north-east, is smaller. In the cliffs below the plateau to the north are See also:early rock habitations, and upon the plateau primitive Latin pottery has been found. In 1900 a See also:group of tombs cut in the rock was examined; they are outside the farther mound and ditch, and belong, therefore, to the period after the second See also:extension of the city. See O. See also:Richter, in Annali dell' Istituto (1884), 90; J.

H. See also:

Parker in Archaeologra, xlix. 169 (1885); A. Pasqui, in Notizie degli scavi, (19o0) 53• (T.

End of Article: ARDEA

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