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Concept
Civitavecchia
Summary
Civitavecchia (ˌtʃivitaˈvɛkkja; meaning "ancient town") is a city and comune of the Metropolitan City of Rome in the central Italian region of Lazio. A sea port on the Tyrrhenian Sea, it is located west-north-west of Rome. The harbour is formed by two piers and a breakwater, on which stands a lighthouse.
The whole territory of Civitavecchia is dotted with the remains of Etruscan tombs and it is likely that in the centre of the current city a small Etruscan settlement thrived. The Etruscan necropolis of Mattonara, not far from the Molinari factory, is almost certainly from the 7th - 6th century BC and was most likely connected with the nearby necropolis of Scaglia. An ancient port formed by small parallel basins capable of accommodating single vessels was still visible at the end of the 19th century near Fort Michelangelo.
An Etruscan settlement on the hill of Ficoncella can still be seen where the first baths were built before 70 BC, known by the Romans as Aquae Tauri.
The nearby monumental baths at Terme Taurine were built originally in the Roman Republican era, possibly by Titus Statilius Taurus, prefect of Rome.
The harbour was greatly enlarged by the Emperor Trajan at the beginning of the 2nd century and known as Centum Cellae thereafter probably due to the many vaulted "cells" forming the harbour wall some of which can still be seen. The first occurrence of the name Centum Cellae is from a letter by Pliny the Younger in AD 107. It has been suggested that the name could instead refer to the centum ("hundred") halls of the extensive villa of Trajan which was nearby. The harbour was probably built by Trajan’s favourite architect, Apollodorus of Damascus (who also built the harbour of Ancona). The town was also known as Centum Cellae and was developed from the same time. Trajan's sumptuous villa pulcherrima (most beautiful, according to Pliny) must have been built at the same time but traces have yet to be found, although the Terme Taurine baths and the large cistern nearby are likely to have been included.
Official source
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