To Civitavecchia - PlanetServiceRome

Tour FOr Civitavecchia

If your cruise starts from or ends in Rome , Most Likely your ship will be docking in the port of Civitavecchia , northwest of Rome . Byzantium took control of Civitavecchia between 537 and 538 AD , tearing the Goths . The Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea, in narrating the events of the war against the Goths , underlines the strategic importance of the occupation of Civitavecchia by the Byzantine forces , considering the size and the large number of the inhabitants of the city , with a I still in full working order . During the domination of the Eastern Roman Empire the city depended on the Duke , based in Rome , but the real command depended on the Count at the head of the military garrison stationed in the city . One of them , a certain Teofanio , who lived towards the end of the sixth century , there is a mention in the Dialogues of Pope Gregory the Great , by reason of his virtues of meekness in the government. Byzantium retained control of Civitavecchia until the eighth century.

The city came under the rule of the Papal States in 728 AD Gregory III in 740 A.D. he restored the walls that allowed the city to resist the attempt to occupy the militia led by Duke Grimoald Lombards in 749 AD The walls were not enough Gregorian few decades later against the attacks of the Saracens. The looming threat of incursion " Saracen " seems to occur in the year 776 when there is news of pirate ships conducted at Centumcellae and burned . A first devastating raid and pillage of Centumcellae is news dell'813 between the end and the beginning of 814 (from Einhard , the historian of the court of Charlemagne in his book " Life Karoli " ) , which was followed by repeated incursions , until to a supposed conquest of the city by the Saracens in 828 but in truth two successive invasions date back all'846 and all'876.

The losers had to find refuge in the surrounding wooded forests , but already in 854 Pope Leo IV , to give them stable and secure home , consecrated not far away, in the hills of the Monti della Tolfa on the left side of the river Mignone , on the ruins of a pre-existing " pagus " Etruscan , a new city that according to the biographer of this pontiff should have been called Lviv , but in reality , as evidenced by the documents , perpetuated the name of Centumcellae , because there had moved the bishop of the primitive Roman city bringing with it the title of the ancient diocese of the same name . This new city equipped with ten towers and three gates prospered for a long time as a free city gradually changing its name to Centocelle and then
Cencelle. A tradition arose from incorrect interpretations of history has it that after 60 years of undocumented Saracen invasion in 828 AD, the population of the new city of Lviv was highly uncertain whether to return to the ruins of the old Centumcellae or stay in the new town of Lviv , away from sea ​​but certainly more protected from any other invasion.

The population totally renewed and young people loyal to the native place would gather everyone in the countryside under the shade of a large oak tree , to decide whether to return to the ancient sites close to the sea or stay on the hill of Lviv . When they were opposed to the return to get the majority would intervene an old sailor named Leandro , one of the survivors of the ancient city. His speech was so convincing that he could change the outcome of the vote by convincing the Assembly to vote unanimously for the return to the old city, which would be renamed precisely Civitas Vetula. This would be , according to legend, the origin of the symbol of the city , the oak with the letters OC , for the excellent advice provided by the old
sailor, who was named the new main square of the village , still called Piazza Leandra .

In fact, the name goes back oleander ( Leandro ) according to a medieval custom of giving the name of plants of the streets in the vicinity of this fact there are via Piazza Olmo , via Olive Hill, via Laura ( Laurel = Lauro ) . The Legend of Leandro however, strong and deeply rooted tradition and believed founded by historians of the last century , is contradicted by the most recent historical evidence . The Centumcellae (Lviv- Cencelle ) founded by Pope Leo IV finally died out only in the middle of the fifteenth century, coinciding with the discovery of alum in the mountains of Tolfa and subsequent commercial development of the Roman Centumcellae , which appears around the year 1072 for the first time as a fortress on the ruins of the port, with the name of Civita Civita Vetula or Veccla , hence the final name of Civitavecchia.

The letters that stand OC nell'insegna heraldry of Civitavecchia , it is believed that they are the initials of the motto "Great Council " refers to the fable of the legendary Leandro that he "advised" the inhabitants to return to the seaside town , but the initials of the motto ORDO CENTUMCELLENSIS in memory and in honor of the Roman origins of Civita old .

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