FICANA
FICANA an ancient city of Latium, which figures in Roman history only on the occasion of its conquest by Ancus Marcius, who is said to have removed the inhabitants to Rome, and destroyed the city itself. (
Liv. 1.33;
Dionys. A. R. 3.38, where the editions have Fidenae, but there is little doubt that the event referred to is the same related by Livy.)
It is certain that it was never repeopled: its name is found in Pliny's list of the extinct cities of Latium (3.5. s. 9), and is noticed also by Festus (v.
Puilia Saxa) as a place no longer in existence.
The latter passage, however, affords us a clue to its position; according to Antistius Labeo there cited, it was situated on the Via Ostiensis, eleven miles from Rome, and apparently immediately adjoining the Tiber, on which it had a port, at a place called by Fabius Pictor the Puilia Saxa.
A rocky hill, abutting on the Tiber, to the right of the Via Ostiensis, at the required distance from Rome, now marked by a farm called
Dragoncello, may therefore be presumed to be the site of
Ficana, though no ruins remain. (Gell,
Top. of Rome, p. 245; Nibby,
Dintorni, vol. ii. p. 40.)
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E.H.B]
