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ARRETIUM (mod. Arezzo)

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 648 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ARRETIUM (mod. See also:Arezzo) , an See also:ancient See also:city of See also:Etruria, in the upper valley of the See also:Arno, situated on the Via See also:Cassia, 5o m. S.E. of Florentia. The site of the See also:original city is not quite certain; some writers See also:place it on the isolated See also:hill called See also:Poggio di S. Cornelio, 21, m. to the S.E., where remains of a fortified See also:enceinte still exist (cf. F. Noack in Romische Miiteilungen, 1897, p. 186); while others maintain, and probably rightly, that it occupied the hill at the See also:summit of the See also:modern See also:town, where the See also:medieval citadel (fortezza) was erected, and which was enclosed by an ancient See also:wall. Numerous See also:Etruscan tombs have been discovered within the See also:lower portion of the See also:area of the modern town, which appears to correspond in site with the See also:Roman (C.I.L. xi. p. 1082; G. Gamurrini in Notizie degli scavi, 1883, 262; 1887, 437)• See also:Vitruvius (ii. 8. g) and See also:Pliny (Nat.

Hist. See also:

xxxv. 173) speak of the strength of its walls of bricks, but these have naturally disappeared. Many remains of Roman buildings have been discovered within the modern town, and the See also:amphitheatre is still visible in the See also:southern See also:angle. Arretium appears as one of the cities which aided the Tarquins after their See also:expulsion. It was an opponent of See also:Rome at the end of the 4th and beginning of the 3rd See also:century B.C., but soon sought for help against the attacks of the Gauls, against whom it was almost a frontier fortress. It was an important Roman See also:base during the Hannibalic See also:wars (though at one See also:time it threatened defection—Livy See also:xxvii. 21-24), and in 205 B.C. was able to furnish Scipio with a considerable quantity of arms and provisions (See also:Livy See also:xxviii. 45). In 187 B.C. the high road was extended as far as See also:Bononia. Arretium took the See also:part of See also:Marius against See also:Sulla, and the latter settled some of his veterans there as colonists. See also:Caesar, or Octavian, added others, so that there are three classes, Arretini veteres, Fidentiores, and lulienses. A considerable contingent from Arretium joined See also:Catiline and in 49 B.C.

Caesar occupied it. C. See also:

Maecenas' was perhaps a native of Arretium. Its fertility was famous in ancient times, and still more the red pottery made of. the See also:local See also:clay, with its See also:imitation of chased See also:silver. The reliefs upon it are sometimes of considerable beauty, and large quantities of it, and the sites of several of the kilns, have been discovered in and near Arretium. It was also considerably exported. See Corp. Inscrip. See also:Lat. xi. (See also:Berlin, 1901) p. 108x, and Notizie degli scavi, passim (especially, 1884, 369, for the See also:discovery of a See also:fine See also:group of the moulds from which these vases were made). The museum contains a very fine collection of these and a See also:good collection of medieval See also:majolica.

(T.

End of Article: ARRETIUM (mod. Arezzo)

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