PISTO´RIA
PISTO´RIA (
Πιστωρία : Eth.
Pistoriensis:
Pistoja),
[p. 2.635]a town of Etruria, situated in the northern part of that province at the foot of the Apennines, and on the direct road from Florentia to Luca, at the distance of 25 miles from each of those cities. (
Itin. Ant. p. 284.) We have no account of it as an Etruscan town, nor has it any remains which belong to that people: under the Romans it seems to have been an ordinary municipal town of no great importance. (
Plin. Nat. 3.5. s. 8;
Ptol. 3.1.48;
Itin. Ant. l.c.) Its name is known in history only in connection with the final defeat of Catiline, B.C. 62.
That general had assembled his forces in the neighbourhood of Faesulae: but on learning the discovery and failure of the conspiracy at Rome, he drew them off into the territory of Pistoria (
in agrum Pistoriensem), with the view of making his escape across the Apennines into Cisalpine Gaul.
But finding his retreat on that side cut off by Metellus Celer, while he was closely pressed by the consul C. Antonius in his rear, he suddenly turned upon the latter and gave him battle, but was cut to pieces with the whole of his remaining forces. (Sallust.
Cat. 57.) From this narrative it appears that the battle must have been fought in the mountains on the confines of the Pistorian territory, which apparently adjoined that of Faesulae; but we have no more precise clue to its locality. Pistoria is mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus, at a late period of the Roman Empire, as one of the municipal towns of the district called Tuscia Annonaria (
Amm. Marc. 27.3.1); but it seems to have never been a place of much consideration in ancient times, and first rose to importance in the middle ages.
Pistoja is now a considerable towns and the see of a bishop.
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E.H.B]
