Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/648

 632 PISAE. placed a little east of Olympia, and its acropolis ' probably occupied a height on the western side of the rivulet of Miriika, near its junction with the Alpheius. Strabo (I. c.) says that it lay between the mountains Olympus and Ossa, which can only have been heights on different sides of the river. See its position marked in the map in Vol. II. p. 477. (Leake, Morea, vol. ii, p. 211, Peloponnesiaca, }i. 6, Mure, Tour in Greece, vol. ii. p. 283 ; Curtius, Peloponnesos, vol. ii. p. 51.) PISAE (ni(rai,Strab.Poh; niV(Tai, Ptol. ; niVtro, Lycophr.: Eth. Pisanus: Pisa), an important city of l':truna, situated on the N. bank of the river Arnus, a few miles from its mouth. All authors agree in repre- senting it as a very ancient city, but the accounts of its early history are very confused and uncertain. The identity of its name with that of the city of Elis naturally led to the supposition that the one was derived from the other; and hence the founda- tion of the Italian Pisae was ascribed by some authors to Pelops himself (Plin. iii. 5. s. 8), while others assigned it to a body of settlers from the Peloponnesian Pisa who had accompanied Nestor to Troy, and on their return wandered to this part of Italy. (Strab. V. p. 222; Serv. ad A en. x. 179.) Epeiu.s, the reputed founder of Metapontum, was, according to some writers, that of Pisae also. (Serv. I. c.) The Elean, or Alphean, origin of the city is generally adopted by the Roman poets. (Virg. Aen. X. 179; Claudian, B. Gild. 483; liutil. liiii. i. 565.) Cato, however, followed a different tradition, and represented the city as founded by the Etruscans under Tarchon, though the site was previously pos- sessed by a people called the Teutanes, who spoke a Greek dialect. (Cato, ap. Serv. I. c.) Virgil also calls it distinctly an Etruscan city, though he de- rives its more remote origin from Elis; and the tra- dition reported by Cato seems to prove at least that it was one of the cities of which the Etruscans claimed to be the founders, and which must there- fore have been at one period a genuine Etruscan city. On the other hand, Dionysius mentions it among the cities founded or occupied by the Pelasgi in conjunction with the Aborigines (Dionys. i. 20); and there seems to be some reason to regard it as one of the early Pelasgic settlements on the coast of Etruria, which fell at a later period under the power of the Etruscans. We know almost nothing of Pisae as an Etruscan citv, nor are there any remains of this period of its history. But Strabo still found vestiges of its past greatness, and the tradition of its foundation by Tarchon seems to point to it as one of the principal cities of Etruria. Its inhabitants were trained to arms by frequent contests with their neighbours the Ligurians, while they appear to have been one of the principal maritime powers among the Etruscans, and, like most of their countrymen, combined the pursuits of commerce and piracy. (Strab. v. p. 223.) We have no account of the period at which it be- came a dependency of Rome ; but the first historical mention of its name is in b. c. 225, when the consul C. Atilius landed there with two legions from Sar- dinia, with which he shortly after attacked and defeated the Gaulish army near Telamon. (I'ol. ii. 27.) It is clear therefore that Pisae was at this time already in alliance with Rome, and probably on the same footing as the other dependent allies of the republic. Its port .seems to have been much frequented, and became a favourite point of departure for the Roman fleets and armies whose destination PISAE. was Gaul, Spain, or Liguria. Thus it was from thence that the consul P. Scipio sailed to Massilia at the outbreak of the Second Punic War (b. c. 218), and thither also that he returned on finding that Hannibal had already crossed the Alps. (Pol. iii. 43, 56 ; Liv. sxi. 39.) The long-continued wars of the Romans with the Ligurians added greatly to the importance of Pisae, which became the frontier town of the Roman power, and the customary head- quarters of the generals appointed to carry on the war. (Liv. xsxiii. 43, xxxv. 22, xl. 1, &c.) It was not, however, exempt from the evil consequences incident to such a position. In b. c. 193 it was suddenly attacked and besieged by an army of 40,000 Ligurians, and with difficulty rescued by the arrival of the consul Minucius (Liv. xxxv. 3); and on several other occasions the Ligurians laid waste its territory. Hence in b. c. 180 the Pisans themselves invited the Romans to establish a colony in their territory, which was accordingly carried out, the colonists obtaining Latin rights. (Liv. xl. 43.) From this time we hear but little of Pisae; its colonial condition became merged, like that of the othnr " coloniae Latinae," in that of a municipium by virtue of the Lex Julia (Fest. v. Municipiuni) : but it seems to have received a fresh colony under Augustus, as we find it bearing the colonial title in a celebrated inscription which records the funeral honours paid by the magistrates and senate of Pisae to the deceased grandchildren of Augustus, C. and L. Caesar. (Orell. Inscr. 642, 643.) It is here termed " Colonia Obscquens Julia Pisana:" Pliny also gives it the title of a colony (Plin. iii. 5. s. 8), and there seems no doubt that it wms at this period one of the most flourishing towns of Etruria. Strabo speaks of it as carrying on a considerable trade in timber and marble from the neighbouring mountains, which were sent to Rome to be employed there as building materials. Its territory was also very fer- tile, and produced the fine kind of wheat called siligo, as well as excellent wine. (Strab. v. p. 223; Plin. xiv. 3. s. 4, xviii. 9. s. 20.) We have no ac- count of the fortunes of Pisae during the declining period of the Roman empire, but during the Gothic wars of Narses it is still mentioned as a place of importance (Agath. B. G. i. 11), and in the middle ages rase rapidly to be one of the most flourishing commercial cities of Italy. There is no doubt that the ancient city stood on the same site with the modern Pisa, but natural causes have produced such great changes in the locality, that it would be diihcult to recognise the site as described by Strabo, were not the identity of the modern and ancient cities fully established. That author (as well as Rutilius and other writers) describes the ancient city as situated at the con- fluence of the rivers Arnus and Auser (Serchio), and distant only 20 stadia (2 4 miles) from the sea. (Strab. v. p. 222; Plin. iii. 8. s. 14; Rutil [tin. i. 505 — 570.) At the present day it is more than 6 miles from the sea, while the Serchio does not flow into the Arno at all, but has a separate channel to the sea, the two rivers being separated by a tract of 5 or 6 miles In width, formed partly by the accu- mulation of alluvial soil from the rivers, partly by the sand heaped up by the sea. There are no re- mains of the Etruscan city visible; it is probable that all such, if they still exist, are buried to a con- siderable depth by the alluvial soil. The only ves- tiges of Roman antiquity which remain are " some mean traces of baths, and two marble columns with