POLLENTIA
(Pollenzo) Piedmont, Italy.
An
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.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cic.
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
