Ardea () is an ancient town and ''

comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

''(municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, south of

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

and about from today's

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

coast. The economy is mostly based on agriculture, although, starting from the 1970s, industry has played an increasingly important role.

Foundation legends

The city's foundation is attributed to different sources. Some writers suggest it was established by Ardeas, a son of

Odysseus In Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology, Odysseus ( ; , ), also known by the Latin variant Ulysses ( , ; ), is a legendary Greeks, Greek king of Homeric Ithaca, Ithaca and the hero of Homer's Epic poetry, epic poem, the ''Odyssey''. Od ...

and

Circe In Greek mythology, Circe (; ) is an enchantress, sometimes considered a goddess or a nymph. In most accounts, Circe is described as the daughter of the sun god Helios and the Oceanid Perse (mythology), Perse. Circe was renowned for her vast kn ...

, while the more widely accepted tradition attributes it to Danaë, the mother of

Perseus In Greek mythology, Perseus (, ; Greek language, Greek: Περσεύς, Romanization of Greek, translit. Perseús) is the legendary founder of the Perseid dynasty. He was, alongside Cadmus and Bellerophon, the greatest Greek hero and slayer of ...

. Both versions imply a Pelasgic origin. Barthold Georg Niebuhr considers Ardea to have been the chief city of the Pelasgian segment of the Latin nation. He also connects its king, Turnus, to the

Tyrrhenians Tyrrhenians (Attic Greek: ''Turrhēnoi'') or Tyrsenians ( Ionic: ''Tursēnoi''; Doric: ''Tursānoi'') was the name used by the ancient Greeks authors to refer, in a generic sense, to non-Greek people, in particular pirates. While ancient so ...

. In the

Aeneid The ''Aeneid'' ( ; or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan War#Sack of Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Ancient Rome ...

, Ardea is portrayed as the capital of the Rutuli, a people who either vanished or merged into the Latin population. Despite this, King Turnus is depicted as being under Latinus authority while maintaining his own sovereignty. Additionally,

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding i ...

mentions that the Ardeans along with Zacynthians, were involved in founding Saguntum in

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

History

Ardea is one of the most ancient towns in

western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's extent varies depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the Western half of the ancient Mediterranean ...

, founded during the 8th century BC. In 509 BC, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the king of Rome, sought unsuccessfully to take the town by storm, and then commenced a siege of the town. However, the siege was interrupted by the

revolution In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...

which resulted in the overthrow of the king and the establishment of the

Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( ) was the era of Ancient Rome, classical Roman civilisation beginning with Overthrow of the Roman monarchy, the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom (traditionally dated to 509 BC) and ending in 27 BC with the establis ...

. One of the leaders of the revolution, Lucius Junius Brutus, came to the camp of the Roman army at Ardea and won the army's support for the revolution. In 443 BC, the Volscians laid siege to Ardea. The siege was soon broken by Roman troops under the leadership of Marcus Geganius Macerinus. After the Roman conquest, Ardea was most often mentioned in connection with the Via Ardeatina, one of the consular roads, to which it gave its name. During the

Second Punic War The Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC) was the second of Punic Wars, three wars fought between Ancient Carthage, Carthage and Roman Republic, Rome, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean Basin, Mediterranean in the 3rd century BC. For ...

, it was one of the few cities that refused military support to Rome, and, after the Roman victory, was deprived of its autonomy. In the 3rd– 2nd centuries BC, it decayed until, in the Imperial Age, it was scarcely populated at all. The 1st century agricultural writer Columella possessed estates there. Ardea12

After the fall of the

Western Roman Empire In modern historiography, the Western Roman Empire was the western provinces of the Roman Empire, collectively, during any period in which they were administered separately from the eastern provinces by a separate, independent imperial court. ...

, Ardea was abandoned. It returned to grow only after the 9th century AD. Its castle in 1118 housed Pope Gelasius II and was later contended among various feudal barons of the area. In 1419,

Pope Martin V Pope Martin V (; ; January/February 1369 – 20 February 1431), born Oddone Colonna, was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 11 November 1417 to his death in February 1431. His election effectively ended the We ...

assigned it to his kinsmen, the Colonna family, who sold it in 1564 to the Cesarini. In 1816, it became a ''

frazione A ''frazione'' (: ''frazioni'') is a type of subdivision of a ''comune'' ('municipality') in Italy, often a small village or hamlet outside the main town. Most ''frazioni'' were created during the Fascist era (1922–1943) as a way to consolidat ...

'' of Genzano. Starting from 1932, the surrounding area was drained and Ardea began to flourish again, becoming a ''frazione'' of Pomezia starting from its foundation around 1948 and an independent municipality in 1970.

Main sights

Remains of the ancient city include the old defensive '' agger'', dating to the 7th century BC and later ( 4th century BC) updated to larger walls. Archaeological excavations have brought to light four temples, of unknown dedication. Part of the pavement of a

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...

(c. 100 BC) have also been found in the area of the ancient Forum. Other sights include: *The Church of Santa Marina, erected in 1191 by Cencio Savelli, the future Pope Honorius III. The interior, on a single nave, was originally entirely frescoed. * Romanesque Church of San Pietro Apostolo (

12th century The 12th century is the period from 1101 to 1200 in accordance with the Julian calendar. In the history of European culture, this period is considered part of the High Middle Ages and overlaps with what is often called the Golden Age' of the ...

), which was a possession of the monks of San Paolo Fuori le Mura of Rome. It incorporates a former watchtower used to counter

Saracen upright 1.5, Late 15th-century German woodcut depicting Saracens ''Saracen'' ( ) was a term used both in Greek and Latin writings between the 5th and 15th centuries to refer to the people who lived in and near what was designated by the Rom ...

attacks, now turned into a bell tower. It has 15th-century frescoes and a 16th-century wooden crucifix. *The Giardini della Landriana, designed by

Russell Page Montague Russell Page OBE (1 November 1906 – 4 January 1985) was a British gardener, garden designer and landscape architecture, landscape architect. He worked in the UK, western Europe and the United States of America. Biography Montague ...

. * Giacomo Manzù Museum, housing some 400 works of the artist. * Tor San Lorenzo, a tower in the eponymous seaside ''

''. It was rebuilt in 1570 after a design by

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6March 147518February 1564), known mononymously as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was inspir ...

, in the area of a former Palaeo-Christian church devoted to St. Lawrence.

International relations

Ardea is twinned with: * Argos,

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

* Rielasingen-Worblingen,

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

References

Sources

,''

Ab urbe condita ''Ab urbe condita'' (; 'from the founding of Rome, founding of the City'), or (; 'in the year since the city's founding'), abbreviated as AUC or AVC, expresses a date in years since 753 BC, 753 BC, the traditional founding of Rome. It is ...

'' 4.9

External links

Official website
*
Ardea, Lazio {{Lazio-geo-stub