Pinna
PINNA(Πίννα: Eth. Pinnensis: Civita di Penne), a city of the Vestini, situated on the eastern slope of the Apennines, about 15 miles from the sea. It is noticed both by Pliny and Ptolemy, as well as by Silius Italicus, among the cities of the Vestini, and seems to have been a municipal town of importance; but the only mention of its name in history is during the Social War, when its inhabitants distinguished themselves by their fidelity to Rome, and withstood all the efforts of the Italian allies to shake their constancy. (Diod. xxxvii. Exc. Vales. p. 612, Exc. Vat. p. 120.) The circumstances are evidently misrepresented by Valerius Maximus (Val. Max. 5.4.7). Numerous inscriptions attest its local considration; and it appears to have received a colony, or at least an accession of citizens, under Augustus. (Plin. Nat. 3.12. s. 17; Ptol. 3.1.59; Lib. Colon.pp. 227, 257; Sil. Ital.; Inscr. ap. Romanelli, vol. iii. pp. 252, 253; Mommsen, Inscr. R. N. p. 327.) Vitruvius also notices it as having some mineral waters in its neighbourhood, which resembled those at Cutiliae (8.3.5). It early became an episcopal see, a dignity which it still retains; and the modern city undoubtedly occupies the same site with the ancient one. Some remains of ancient buildings are extant, but they are of little importance. The name of Pinna is found in the Tabula, where it is marked as a place of importance; but the distances annexed are confused and erroneous. [E. H. b.]
The chief town of the Vestini, at the foot of the Apennines (Pliny , Pliny H. N. iii. 107).
A city of the Vestini and a Roman municipium in what is today the province of Pescara. After the confiscation of the territories of the Vestini to the W of Mt. Fiscellus (Gran Sasso) in the 3d c. B.C., Pinna became the capital of the Vestini and remained so until the social war. It maintained its position as the preeminent urban center in the area between Hatria and Teate Marrucinorum during the mediaeval period, when it was a diocesan seat, and into modern times.
In area the ancient urban center approximates the size of the mediaeval city but is unlike it in its internal conformation. The site has never been investigated by archaeologists but there have been chance finds. The ancient public buildings are mainly indicated through inscriptions. A series of stamped bricks documents the existence of a public brickyard and of temples dedicated to Vesta, Venus, and Juno.
BIBLIOGRAPHYCIL IX (1883) 317ff; H. Nissen, Italische Landeskunde 2 (1902), 439; G. Colasanti, Pinna: ricerche di topografia e di storia (1907); K. Scherling in RE 20 (1950) 1710f; A. La Regina, in MemLinc 13 (1968) 416-19, 429-32; G. Cerulli Irelli, Carta archeologica, Foglio 140 (1971) 43ff.
A. LA REGINA