Populonia

• a surname of Juno, Macr. S. 3, 11; Arn. 3, 118; Mart. Cap. 2, § 149; Sen. ap. Aug. Civ. Dei, 6, 10 fin.

• a town on the coast of Etruria, now the ruins of Poplonia, near Piombino.—Form Populonia, Verg. A. 10, 172; Mel. 2, 4, 9: Populonium, Plin. 3, 5, 8, § 50: Populonii, Liv. 30, 39, 2.—Hence,
• II Pŏpŭlōnĭen-ses, ĭum, m., the inhabitants of Populonia, the Populonians, Liv. 28, 45.

or Populonium. An ancient town of Etruria, situated on a lofty hill, sinking abruptly to the sea, and forming a peninsula. It was destroyed by Sulla in the Civil Wars, but parts of its walls still exist.

A city on a promontory 14 km N of Piombino. Inhabited from the Bronze Age, it had its major floruit in the orientalizing period (7th c. B.C.). The city encompassed the acropolis, 181 m above sea level, and to the E of it on a ridge a coastal settlement, with a small harbor on the Gulf of Baratti. Each had a fortified circuit wall. The name is found only on coins of the 4th c. B.C. In the Hellenistic period, when it mined the iron ore on the island of Elba it became an industrial center. The city declined after the Roman conquest, was sacked by Totila in 546, and in 570 was nearly destroyed by the Longobard Gummaruth.

The archaic necropolis follows the curve of the gulf. The tombs of the orientalizing period have square chambers with funeral beds; the mound sometimes rests on a cylindrical base, sometimes directly on the ground. In the second half of the 6th c., the architectural stone sarcophagus appeared and in the 5th c. the niche tomb, constructed along the lines either of an architectural sarcophagus or of a cult shrine.

The Hellenistic necropolis on a nearby knoll has rock-cut chamber tombs. Covered tombs of the late Roman period have been discovered at many areas.

A. Minto, Populonia (1943); K. R. Maxwell-Hyslop, “Notes on some distinctive types of bronzes from Populonia, Etruria,” Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 22 (1956) 126ff; M. A. Del Chiaro, “The Populonia Torcop Painter,” StEtr 28 (1960) 142ff; G. Schmiedt, “Contribution of photo interpretation to the reconstruction of the geografic-topografic situation of the ancient ports in Italy,” Papers for the X International Photogrammetry Congress (1964); A. De Agostino, “Scoperte archeologiche nella necropoli,” NSc (1957) 1ff; (1961) 63ff; id., in StEtr 24 (1956) 255ff; 30 (1962) 275ff.