Ardea
Frieze-Dennison Vergil
- the capital of the Rutuli, six leagues south of Rome; acc. to the myth, it was burned by Aeneas, and from its ashes the heron (ardea) was produced, Ov. M. 14, 573; Verg. A. 7, 411; cf. Serv. ad h. l.; Mann. Ital. I. 617; Müll. Roms Camp. 2, 296-312.—Hence, Derivv.,
- A Ardĕas, ātis, adj. (old nom. Ardeātis, like Arpinātis, Cato ap. Prisc. p. 629 P.), of or belonging to Ardea, Ardean: in agro Ardeati, Cic. N. D. 3, 18, 47: Ardeas templum, Plin. 35, 10, 37, § 115.— Hence, in the plur.: Ardeātes, ium, m., the inhabitants of Ardea, Liv. 5, 44; 4, 7.—
- B Ardĕātīnus, a, um, adj. (rare for Ardeas), Ardean: praedium, Nep. Att. 14, 3 (Halm, Arretinum); absol., in Ardeatino (sc. agro), Sen. Ep. 105.
A´RDEA (Ἀρδέα: Eth., Ἀρδεάτης, Ardeas, atis), a very ancient city of Latium, still called Ardea, situated on a small river about 4 miles from the seacoast, and 24 miles S. of Rome. Pliny and Mela reckon it among the maritime cities of Latium: Strabo and Ptolemy more correctly place it inland, but the former greatly overstates its distance from the sea at 70 stadia. (Plin. Nat. 3.5. s. 9; Mela, 2.4; Strab. 5. p. 232; Ptol. 3.1.61.) All ancient writers agree in representing it as a city of great tiquity, and in very early times one of the most wealthy and powerful in this part of Italy. Its foundation was ascribed by some writers to a son of Ulysses and Circe (Xenag. ap. Dionys. 1.72; Steph. B. v.Ἀρδέα); but the more common tradition, followed by Virgil as well as by Pliny and Solinus, represented it as founded by Danaë, the mother of Perseus. Both accounts may be considered as pointing to a Pelasgic origin; and Niebuhr regards it as the capital or chief city of the Pelasgian portion of the Latin nation, and considers the name of its king Turnus as connected with that of the Tyrrhenians. (Verg. A. 7.410; Plin. I. c.;Solin. 2.5; Niebuhr, vol. 1. p. 44, vol. 2. p. 21.) It appears in the legendary history of Aeneas as the capital of the Rutuli, a people who had disappeared or become absorbed into the Latin nation before the commencement of the historical period; but their king Turnus is represented as dependent on Latinus, though holding a separate sovereignty. The tradition mentioned by Livy (Liv. 21.7), that the Ardeans had united with the Zacynthians in the foundation of Saguntum in Spain, also points to the early power and prosperity ascribed to the city. In the historical period Ardea had become a purely Latin city, and its name appears among the thirty which constituted the Latin League. (Dionys. 5.61.) According to the received history of Rome, it was besieged by Tarquinius Superbus, and it was during this longprotracted siege that the events occurred which led to the expulsion of this monarch. (Liv. 1.57--60; Dionys. 4.64.) But though we are told that, in consequence of that revolution, a truce for 15 years was concluded, and Ardea was not taken, yet it appears immediately afterwards in the first treaty with Carthage, as one of the cities then subject to Rome. (Plb. 3.22.) It is equally remarkable that though the Roman historians speak in high terms of the wealth and prosperity it then enjoyed (Liv. 1.57), it seems to have from this time sunk into comparative insignificance, and never appears in history as taking a prominent part among the cities of Latiumn. The next mention we find of it is on occasion of a dispute with Aricia for possession of the vacant territory of Corioli, which was referred by the consent of the two cities to the arbitration of the Romans, who iniquitously pronounced the disputed lands to belong to themselves. (Liv. 3.71, 72.) Notwithstanding this injury, the Ardeates were induced to renew their friendship and alliance with Rome: and, shortly after, their city being agitated by internal dissensions between the nobles and plebeians, the former called in the assistance of the Romans, with whose aid they overcame the popular party and their Volscian allies. But these troubles and the expulsion of a large number of the defeated party had reduced Ardea to a low condition, and it was content to receive a Roman colony for its protection against the Volscians, B.C. 442. (Liv. 4.7, 9, 11; Diod. 12.34.) In the legendary history of Camillus Ardea plays an important part: it afforded him an asylum in his exile; and the Ardeates are represented as contributing greatly to the very apocryphal victories by which the Romans are said to have avenged themselves on the Gauls. (Liv. 5.44, 48; Plut. Camill. 23, 24.)
From this time Ardea disappears from history as an independent city; and no mention of it is found on occasion of the great final struggle of the Latins against Rome in B.C. 340. It appears to have gradually lapsed into the condition of an ordinary Colonia Latina,a nd was one of the twelve which in B.C. 209 declared themselves unable to bear any longer their share of the burthens cast on them by the Second Punic War. (Liv. 27.9.) We may hence presume that it was then already in a declining state; though on account of the strength of its position, we find it selected in B.C. 186 as the place of confinement of Minius Cerrinius, one of the chief persons implicated in the Bacchanalian mysteries. (Liv. 39.19.) It afterwards suffered severely, in common with the other cities of this part of Latium, P from the ravages of the Samnites during the civil wars between Marius and Sulla: and Strabo speaks of it in his time as a poor decayed place. Virgil also tells us that there remained of Ardea only a L great name, but its fortune was past away. (Strab. 5. p. 232; Verg. A. 7.413; Sil. Ital..) The unhealthiness of its situation and neighbourhood, noticed by Strabo and various other writers (Strab. p. 231; Seneca, Ep. 105; Martial (Mart. 4.60), doubtless contributed to its decay: and Juvenal tells us that in his time the tame elephants belonging to the emperor were kept in the territory of Ardea (12.105); a proof that it must have been then, as at the present day, in great part uncultivated. We find mention of a redistribution of its agerb y Hadrian (Lib. Colon. p. 231), which would indicate an attempt at its revival,--but the effort seems to have been unsuccessful: no further mention of it occurs in history, and the absence of almost all inscriptions of imperial date confirms the fact that it had sunk into insignificance. It probably, however, never ceased to exist, as it retained its name unaltered, and a castellum Ardeaei s mentioned early in the middle ages,--probably, like the modern town, occupying the ancient citadel. (Nibby, vol. 1. p. 231.)
The modern village of Ardea (a poor place with only 176 inhabitants, and a great castellated mansion belonging to the Dukes of Caearini) occupies the level surface of a hill at the confluence of two narrow valleys: this, which evidently constituted the ancient Arx or citadel, is joined by a narrow neck to a much broader and more extensive plateau, on which stood the ancient city. No vestiges of this exist (though the site is still called by the peasants Civita Vecchia); but on the NE., where it is again joined to the table-land beyond, by a narrow isthmus, is a vast mound or Agger, extending across from valley to valley, and traversed by a gateway in its centre; while about half a mile further is another similar mound of equal dimensions. These ramparts were probably the only regular fortifications of the city itself; the precipitous banks of tufo rock towards the valleys on each side needing no additional defence. The citadel was fortified on the side towards the city by a double fosse or ditch, hewn in the rock, as well as by massive walls, large portions of which are still preserved, as well as of those which crowned the crest of the cliffs towards the valleys. They are built of irregular square blocks of tufo: but some portions appear to have been rebuilt in later times. (Gell, Top. of Rome, pp. 97--100; Nibby, Dintorni di Roma, vol. i. pp. 233--240.) There exist no other remains of any importance: nor can the sites be traced of the ancient temples, which continued to be objects of veneration to the Romans when Ardea had already fallen into decay. Among these Pliny particularly mentions a temple of Juno, which was adorned with ancient paintings of great merit; for the execution of which the painter (a Greek artist) was rewarded with the freedom of the city.
Concerning the name and origin of the painter, which are written in the common editions of Pliny Marcus Ludius Elotas Aetolia oriundus,f or which Sillig would substitute Plautius Marcus Cleoetas Alalia exoriundus,s ee the art. Ludius, in Biogr. Dict., and Sillig's note on the passage, in his new edition of Pliny. But his emendation Alalia is scarcely tenable.
In another passage he speaks of paintings in temples at Ardea (probably different from the above), which were believed to be more ancient than the foundation of Rome. (Plin. Nat. 35.3. s. 6, 10. s. 37.) Besides these temples in the city itself, Strabo tells us that there was in the neighbourhood a temple of Venus (Ἀφροδίσιον), where the Latins annually assembled for a great festival This is evidently the spot mentioned by Pliny and Mela in a manner that would have led us to suppose it a town of the name of APHRODISIUM ; its exact site is unknown, but it appears to have been between Ardea and Antium, and not far from the sea-coast. (Strab. 5. p. 232; Plin. Nat. 3.5, 9; Mela, 2.4.)The VIA ARDEATINA which led direct from Rome to Ardea, is mentioned in the Curiosum Urbis (p. 28, ed. Preller) among the roads which issued from the gates of Rome, as well as by Festus (v. Retricibus, p. 282, M.; Inser. ap. Grutesr, p. 1139. 12). It quitted the Via Appia at a short distance from Rome, and passed by the farms now called Tor Narancia, Cicchignola, and Tog di Nona (so called from its position at the ninth mile from Rome) to the Solfarata, 15 R. miles from the city: a spot where there is a pool of cold sulphureous water, partly surrounded by a rocky ridge. There is no doubt that this is the source mentioned by Vitruvius ( Fons in Ardeatino,8 .3) as analogous to the Aquae Albulae; and it is highly probable that it is the site also of the Oracle of Faunus, so picturesquely described by Virgil (Aen. 7.81). This has been transferred by many writers to the source of the Albula, but the locality in question agrees much better with the description in Virgil, though it has lost much of its gloomy character, since the wood has been cleared away; and there is no reason why Albunea may not have had a shrine here as well as at Tibur. (See Gell. l. c. p. 102; Nibby, vol. 2. p. 102.) From the Solfarata to Ardea the ancient road coincides with the modern one: at the church of Sta Procula, 4 1/2 miles from Ardea, it crosses the Rio Torto, probably the ancient Numicius. [NUMICIUS] No ancient name is preserved for the stream which flows by Ardea itself, now called the Fosso della Incastro. The actual distance from Rome to Ardea by this road is nearly 24 miles; it is erroneously stated by Strabo at 160 stadia (20 R. miles), while Eutropius (Eutrop. 1.8) calls it only 18 miles.
[E.H.B]A´RDEA (Ἄρδεα), a town in the interior of Persis, S.W. of Persepolis. (Ptol. 11.4.5; Ammian. 23.6.)
[V]The chief town of the Rutuli in Latium, situated about three miles from the sea, one of the most ancient places in Italy, and the capital of Turnus. It was conquered and colonized by the Romans B.C. 442 (Livy, iv. 9).
A city of the Rutuli ca. 4.5 km from the coast on the last slopes of the mountain chain that culminates in the Alban Hills. Connected with the legend of Aeneas in Latium (Verg. Aen. 7.409-411), Ardea is recorded in the first Roman-Carthaginian treaty (Polyb. 3.22.24) and was one of the thirty cities of the Latin League (Dion. Hal. 5.61.3). A Latin colony from 442 B.C. (Livy 4.9-11; Diod. 12.34.3), Ardea is mentioned by ancient sources (Ptol. 3.1.61), which refer particularly to the principal temples (Plin. HN 35.115, Iuno Regina; Serv. Aen. 1.44, Castor et Pollux). Like other centers in S Latium, Ardea was important in archaic times, but in steady decline after the middle Republican period. It was already reduced to a small hamlet in the first Imperial age, and Virgil could say of it: nunc magnum Ardea nomen, sed fortuna fuit (Aen. 7.412).
The terrain, level but crossed by frequent and deep fissures, probably accounts for the articulation of the Latin city that, like nearby Lavinium, had its acropolis almost completely isolated from the remaining urban zone. Recent excavations in the part of the acropolis occupied by the modern town have brought to light remains of protohistoric huts with material that dates to the Early Iron Age. Earlier occupation is attested by the discovery of ceramics from the Late Bronze Age. A considerable number of axes, hatchets, and fibulae in bronze have been found in a cache from the 9th-8th c. B.C. The archaic city expanded on the hill of Civitavecchia to the E of the acropolis, which has natural defenses on three sides and on the NE flank an interesting fortification with an agger and fore-ditch. The agger, constructed with the earth extracted from the ditch, was consolidated by a rampart of large blocks of tufa in squared work, placed on its exterior to contain it. The acropolis had its own autonomous fortification at the point of contact with Civitavecchia, but the handsome wall in blocks of yellow tufa visible today seems to date between the second half of the 3d c. and the beginning of the 1st c. B.C. The remains of a three-celled temple, identified by some as that of Juno Regina, are visible in the W zone. It is famous for the paintings executed there by M. Plautius, and its architectural terracottas are preserved in the Museum of the Villa Giulia in Rome. Nearby, next to a storage place for water and for foodstuffs and a drainage tunnel, the remains of a private house with two construction phases have been found. The second is in opus incertum and the mosaic pavement has the name P. Cervisius inserted in it.
In the Casalinaccio section of the city is a temple from which there remain parts of the podium with the characteristic profiles of projecting moldings and fictile decorations analogous to those found on the acropolis. Beside it is one of the oldest basilicas known, probably built at the beginning of the 1st c. B.C. There remain structural parts in opus incertum and the bases of the colonnade. Also inside the city there have been sporadic finds of villas and a monetary treasure from the Imperial period. Outside the city, several tombs have been found at Casalazzaro. A necropolis with painted chambered tombs and a small dromos from the 4th-3d c. B.C. has been discovered to the SW of the city at the place called Valle Guarniera. Recently a Roman hypogeum has been found, which was probably used for cult purposes and reused in mediaeval times. A large villa with massive foundations in squared work, which occupies a level area along the road to the sea, has been discovered.
BIBLIOGRAPHYFor bibliography to 1954 see C. Caprino in EAA 1 (1958) 600; A. Andrén, “Scavi e scoperte sull'cropoli di Ardea,” Acta Inst. Rom. R. Sueciae 21 (1961) 1-68; P. C. Sestieri, “Il Museo della Preistoria e Protostoria del Lazio,” Itiner. Mus. Gall. 58 (1964) 23; P. G. Gierow, “The Iron Age Culture of Latium,” Acta Inst. Rom. R. Sueciae 26.1 (1966) 440ff; R. Peroni, “Considerazioni ed ipotesi sul ripostglio di Ardea,” BPI 75 (1966) 176-96; id., “Inventaria Archaeologica,” Italia 4.19 (1967).
City plan and fortifications : G. Lugli, La tecnica edilizia romana, I (1957) 269f; A. Boëthius, “Le fortificazioni di Ardea,” Acta Inst. Rom. R. Sueciae 22 (1962) 29-43; L. Quilici, “A proposito del secondo aggere di Ardea,” ArchCl 20.1 (1968) 137-40; G. Schmiedt, Atlante aereofotografico della sedi umane in Italia, II (1970) plan 20.
The Temple on Casalinaccio : L. T. Shoe, “Etruscan and Republican Mouldings,” MemAmAcRome 28 (1965) 84ff.
Roads and Monuments outside the City : A. Ferrua, “Oratorio cristiano ipogeo in quel di Ardea,” AttiPontAcc 3.37 (1964-65) 283-306; P. Sommella, “La via Ardentina,” Quad. Ist. Topog. Ant. Univ. Roma, I (1964) 17ff; G. M. De Rossi, Tellenae, Forma Italiae, IV (1967) 128ff.
P. SOMMELLA