15 Facts About Cosa

1.

Cosa was a Latin colony founded in southwestern Tuscany in 273 BC, on land confiscated from the Etruscans, to solidify the control of the Romans and offer the Republic a protected port.

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2.

Cosa seems to have prospered until it was sacked in the 60s BC, perhaps by pirates - although an earthquake and unrest related to the Catilinarian Conspiracy have been cited as reasons.

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3.

One of the last textual references to Cosa comes from the work of Rutilius Claudius Namatianus in his De reditu suo.

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4.

Cosa further suggests that a plague of mice had driven the people of Cosa away.

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5.

City wall of Cosa was built at the time of the foundation of the colony on 273 BCE.

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6.

The arx or citadel of Cosa received some of the first serious treatment by Frank E Brown and his team when they began the Cosa excavations in 1948.

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7.

The forum of Cosa is fairly complex in archaeological terms and many of the Republican structures were later built over with constructions of the Imperial period.

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8.

The Comitium at Cosa is a fairly new discovery and shows many similarities to Rome.

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9.

Regardless of the reasoning behind the different sizes and layouts of the private spaces, the houses at Cosa are extremely telling of the history of Cosa after 200 BC.

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10.

Ancient port of Cosa is located below the city on the hill to the southeast.

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11.

The Cosa harbor was never a major port of transit, however in ancient times it provided the best anchorage between Gaeta in the south and La Spezia to the north.

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12.

Port at Cosa was first surveyed by Professor Frank E Brown of the American Academy in Rome in 1951.

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13.

The abundance of Sestius amphorae fragments suggest that the port of Cosa was likely the center of manufacturing and distribution of these famous jars, which firmly places Cosa as a key trading center during the late Republic.

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14.

Cosa appears to have been affected by an earthquake in 51, which occasioned the reconstruction of the republican Basilica as an Odeon under the supervision of Lucius Titinius Glaucus Lucretianus, who worked on the Capitoline temple; however, as early as 80, Cosa seems to have been almost deserted.

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15.

Cosa appears in some documents dating from the 11th century, although a 9th-century occupation is suggested by frescoes at the abbey of S Anastasio alle Tre Fontane in Rome, recording the capture of the site by Charlemagne and Pope Leo III.

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