PUNICUM
(Santa Marinella) Italy.
A site
identified in the
Peutinger Table, which places it on the
Via Aurelia 9.6 km N of Pyrgi. The modern town lies
along the S curve of Cape Linaro, the first distinct
promontory N of the Tiber. The neighborhood had several scattered settlements in Etruscan times and many opulent villas under the Empire.
South of the Fosso Marangone, which separates the
territory of Marinella from that of Civitavecchia, a site
called La Castellina has yielded habitations and tombs
dating from the 8th c. B.C. to the 3d. One, of the 4th-3d
c., has been re-erected in front of the Municipio of
Marinella; the material from the excavation is in the
Museo Nazionale at Civitavecchia.
This museum also houses material from a Sanctuary
of Minerva on a hill overlooking the Punto della Vipera
just N of Marinella: architectural terracottas of the late
6th and 3d c., archaic and Hellenistic votive terracottas
including several heads of Minerva, and Roman coins
down to Trajan. Fine marbles, including an Apollo of
Hellenistic type, from the neighboring villas, are also to
be seen here.
The city is now so heavily built up that nothing ancient
can be seen except two bridges of the 2d c. B.C. which
once carried the Via Aurelia.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
O. Toti,
NSc (1961) 125-33; (1967)
55-86; P. Gazzola,
Ponti romani (19-3) nos. 12, 141.
E. RICHARDSON