Pollentia
- A city in Picenum, now Monte Moline, Cic. Phil. 11, 6, 14; id. Fam. 11, 13, 3.—Hence,
- B Pollentīni, ōrum, m., the Pollentians, Plin. 3, 13, 18, § 111.—
- II A city in Liguria, now Pollenza, Col. 7, 2, 4; Mart. 14, 157; Sil. 8, 598.—Hence,
- B Pollentī-nus (Pōlent-), a, um, adj., of or belonging to Pollentia, Pollentian: plebs, Suet. Tib. 37.
POLLE´NTIA
1.(Πολλεντία: Eth. Pollentinus; Polenza), a city of Liguria, situated in the interior of that province, at the northern foot of the Apennines, near the confluence of the Stura and Tanaro. It was about 7 miles W. of Alba Pomrpeia. It was probably a Ligurian town before the Roman conquest, and included in the territory of the Statielli; but we do not meet with its name in history until near the close of the Roman republic, when it appears as a town of importance. In B.C. 43, M. Antonius, after his defeat at Mutina, withdrew to Vada Sabata, intending to proceed into Transalpine Gaul; but this being opposed by his troops, he was compelled to recross the Apennines, with the view of seizing on Pollentia; in which he was, however, anticipated by Decimus Brutus, who had occupied the city with five cohorts. (Cic. ad Fam. 11.1. 3) Under the Roman Empire, Pollentia is mentioned by Pliny among the nobilia oppidaw hich adorned the tract of Liguria between the Apennines and the Padus. (Plin. Nat. 3.5. s. 7.) It had considerable manufactures of pottery, and the wool produced in its territory enjoyed great reputation, having a natural dark colour. (Plin. Nat. 8.48. s. 73, 35.12. s. 46; Sil. Ital.; Martial (Mart. 14.157.) It is incidentally mentioned as a municipal town under the reign of Tiberius, having been severely punished by that emperor for a tumult that occurred in its forum. (Suet. Tib. 37.) But its name is chiefly noted in history as the scene of a great battle fought between Stilicho and the Goths under Alaric, in A.D. 403. The circumstances of this battle are very imperfectly known to us, and even its event is variously related ; for while Claudian celebrates it as a glorious triumph, Orosius describes it as a dubious success, and Cassiodorus and Jornandes boldly claim the victory for the Goths. (Claudian, B. Get. 580--647; Prudent. in Symmach. 2.696--749 Oros. 7.37; Prosper. Chron. p. 190; Cassiod. Chron. p. 450; Jornand. Get. 30.) But it seems certain that it was attended with great slaughter on both sides, and that it led to a temporary retreat of the Gothic king. No subsequent mention is found of it, and we have no account of the circumstances of its decay or destruction; but the name does not reappear in the middle ages, and the modern Pollenza is a poor village. Considerable remains of the ancient city may still be traced, though in a very decayed condition ; they include the traces of a theatre, an amphitheatre, a temple, and other buildings; and various inscriptions have also been discovered on the spot, thus confirming the evidence of its ancient prosperity and importance. (Millin, Voyage en Piémont, &c. vol. 2. p. 55.) The ruins are situated two miles from the modern town of Cherasco, but on the left bank of the Tanaro.
2.A town of Picenum mentioned only by Pliny, who among the populio f that region, enumerates the Pollentini, whom he unites with the Urbs Salvia in a manner that seems to prove the two communities to have been united into one. (Urbesalvia Pollentini, Plin. Nat. 3.14. s. 18.) The URBS SALVIA now Urbisaglia, is well known; and the site of Pollentia must be sought in its immediate neighbourhood. Holstenius places it at Monte Melone, on a hill on the left bank of the Chienti between Macerata and Tolentino, about 3 miles fom Urbisaglia on the opposite side of the valley. (Holsten. Not. ad Cluv. p. 138.) [E.H.B]
POLLE´NTIA [BALEARES]
(1) Now Polenza; a town of the Statielli in Liguria, at the confluence of the Sturia and the Tanarus. It was celebrated for its wool. In its neighbourhood Stilicho gained a victory over the Goths under Alaric.
(2) A town in Picenum.
An old Roman deity supposed to give strength to growing children (Livy, xxxix. 7).
Town 8 km from Pollensa on the bay of that name. Like Palma, according to Strabo (3.5.1), it was founded in 123-122 B.C. by Caecilius Metellus Balearicus with 3000 Roman colonists. It was a colonia with some sort of special status, since Pollentia and Palma were the only colonies outside of Italy ascribed to the tribus Vellina. It flourished in the heyday of the Empire, was partially destroyed in the second half of the 3d c., and totally obliterated ca. A.D. 435.
Excavation began in the NW sector close to the city wall, and nothing is known as yet of the central area where the forum, temples, and main public buildings must have been. The chief remains now uncovered are the W city wall, a small theater, and a series of buildings which have helped in reconstructing the city's history. The numerous small finds—sculpture, inscriptions, ceramics, and coins—are in the local museum, in Palma, and in the National Museum in Madrid. The city must have been of considerable importance, extending from the open fields of Alcudia to the sea. Four phases can be recognized.
In Phase I circular structures of roughly hewn stone and plentiful native pottery marked the pre-Roman Talayot settlement. Phase II was on the level of the foundation of the Roman town of the end of the 2d c. B.C. and included house walls beneath the so-called House of the Bronze Head, as well as Campanian, Iberian, and pre-Arretine pottery. Phase III, ca. 100-60 B.C., is attested by a construction of squared blocks in the same location. Phase IV, lasting from the Augustan period to the destruction ca. A.D. 435, included the House of the Bronze Head (34 x 8 m). The N section and part of the E area are preserved, comprising a central peristyle 15 m long, with five aligned columns and a covered portico, adjoined by living rooms. The House of the Two Treasures (23 x 20 m), also of the Augustan period, has a small peristyle, 7 by 4 m. The rooms grouped around the peristyle are either paved or floored with heavily tamped earth. Between the two houses runs a street with a portico 3 m high. Among minor finds now dispersed, was some excellent sculpture, such as a veiled head of Augustus.
BIBLIOGRAPHYA. García y Bellido, “Esculturas romanas de Pollentia (La Alcudia, Mallorca),” ArchEspArq 24 (1951) 53ff; id., “Las colonias romanas de Hispania,” Anuario de Historia del Derecho Español 29 (1959) 458; M. Tarradell et al., “Las excavaciones de la ciudad romana de Pollentia (Alcudia, Mallorca),” VII Congreso Nacional de Arqueología (1960) 469ff; A. Arribas et al., “Pollentia: I. Excavaciones en Sa Portella, Alcudia (Mallorca),” Excavaciones Arqueológicas en España 75 (1973).
J. M. ROLDÁNAn ancient city near the confluence of the Tanaro with the Stura and dominating a system of roads including the road for Alba - Hasta, Forum Fulvii - Dertona, that from Augusta Taurinorum and that for Augusta Bagiennorum, which crossed the valleys of the Tanaro and the Bormida and descended to Savona. It was enrolled in the tribus Pollia in the Augustan Regio IX. Its foundation by the Consul Q. Fulvius Flaccus in 179 B.C. seems to have preceded by some years the Roman occupation of the territory.
Pollentia was certainly a fortified city, as is confirmed by the sources. Cicero records it as the scene of encounters between the followers of Antony and of Brutus during the war of Modena (Ad. Fam. 11.14). Suetonius, reporting an episode in the revolt of the urban populace under Tiberius, mentions the numerous gates in the city walls (Tib. 37). Hygenus the Surveyor drew Pollentia with its walled perimeter in the age of Trajan.
The city was rectangular in plan oriented approximately N, following the usual scheme of Roman military establishments. The remains of ancient walls, which may belong to the fortified enclosure, have been noted in the past between the road to Cherasco and the Tanaro. Other traces of public buildings, a temple and a theater, appeared in explorations made in 1805 but are no longer visible. In the Imperial age the city contained a temple dedicated to Victory and another dedicated to Plotina, which is mentioned in local inscriptions. There was also an aqueduct and an amphitheater. Outside the walls, along the principal roads, were monumental mausolea. One of these, with a circular plan, has been discovered on the way to Alba. The necropoleis were along the principal roads and provide the major part of the material from Pollentia housed in the Municipal Museum of Bra. The city was well-known and prosperous in the early centuries of the Empire. It produced dark-colored wool cloth, fine purple wool, and pleasing ceramic cups. The city was the base of a garrison of Sarmatae in the 4th c., and the scene in 402 of the victory of Stilicone over the Goths of Alaric.
BIBLIOGRAPHYCic. Fam. 11.14; Mart. 14. 157,158; Sil. Pun. 7, 599; Plin. 3.49; Suet. Tib. 37; Ptol. 3.1.45; Claud., Cons. Hon. 127,202; Oros. 7.37; Cassiod. Chron. 11.154; Not. Dig. occ. p. 21; Tab. Peut.
CIL V, 7615ff; Inscr. It. IX, 1; XVIII, 126ff; G. Franchi Pont., Delle antichità di Pollenzo (1806); F. Gabotto, Pollenzo (1895); P. Barocelli, “Sepolcreti di cremati,” BSPABA (1933) 65ff; G. Pesce, “La necropoli in contrada Pedaggera,” NSc (1936) 373; E. Mosca, “Note archeologiche pollentine,” RStLig (1958) 137; id., “Scavi nella necropoli di Pollenzo,” BPC (1962) 135; S. Curto, Pollenzo antica (1964).
S. FINOCCHI