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Civitavecchia in 1699 showing buildings of Roman harbour
Etruscan era[edit]
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The whole territory of Civitavecchia is dotted with the remains of Etruscan tombs and it is likely that in the centre of the current city a small Etruscan settlement thrived. The Etruscan necropolis of Mattonara, not far from the Molinari factory, is almost certainly from the 7th–6th century BC and was most likely connected with the nearby necropolis of Scaglia. An ancient port formed by small parallel basins capable of accommodating single vessels was still visible at the end of the 19th century near Forte Michelangelo.
An Etruscan settlement on the hill of Ficoncella can still be seen. The first baths of the settlement were built there before 70 BC, and known by the Romans as Aquae Tauri.
Roman era[edit]
The nearby monumental baths at Terme Taurine were built originally in the Roman Republican era, possibly by Titus Statilius Taurus, prefect of Rome.
The harbour was greatly enlarged by the Emperor Trajan at the beginning of the 2nd century and became known as Centum Cellae, probably due to the many vaulted "cells" forming the harbour wall, some of which can still be seen. The first occurrence of the name Centum Cellae is from a letter by Pliny the Younger in AD 107. It has been suggested that the name could instead refer to the centum ("hundred") halls of the extensive villa of Trajan which was nearby. The harbour was probably built by Trajan's favourite architect, Apollodorus of Damascus (who also built the harbour of Ancona). The town was also known as Centum Cellae and was developed from the same time. Trajan's sumptuous villa pulcherrima (most beautiful, according to Pliny) must have been built at the same time but traces have yet to be found, although the Terme Taurine baths and the large cistern nearby are likely to have been included. Pliny was summoned by Trajan to his villa there for an exceptional meeting there of the consilium principis (advisory council) which normally took place in Rome, and which indicates the status of the villa as an imperial residence. The villa was also used later by the young Marcus Aurelius, probably in the years 140-145 who built a vivarium there and also in 173 by Commodus.
Inscriptions from between the 2nd and 3rd centuries from a cemetery near the Roman harbour prove the presence of classiari, sailors from the navy, and also of a noble class. They also tell of the number and type of ships which were detachments of the fleets of Ravenna and of Misenum.
In 251 Pope Cornelius was imprisoned in Centumcellae during the persecutions of Decius and his successor Trebonianus Gallus and died there in 253.
In the 4th and 5th centuries the city and port became even more prosperous and busy, as Rutilius Namatianus described it in 414 as it became an important port of Rome due to the silting of Ostia.
In the 530s, Centumcellae was a Byzantine stronghold and until 553 the city suffered in the wars between the Goths and the Byzantines.
Later history[edit]
It became part of the Papal States in 728 and Pope Gregory III refortified Centumcellae. As the port was raided by the Saracens in 813–814, 828, 846 and finally in 876, a new settlement in a more secure place was therefore built by order of Pope Leo IV as soon as 854. In the meantime, however, the inhabitants returned to the old town by the shore in 889 and rebuilt it, giving it the name Civitas Vetus. The Popes gave the settlement as a fief to several local lords, including the Count Ranieri of Civitacastellana and the Abbey of Farfa, and the Di Vico, who held Centumcellae in 1431. In that year, pope Eugene IV sent an army under cardinal Giovanni Vitelleschi and several condottieri (Niccolò Fortebraccio, Ranuccio Farnese and Menicuccio dell'Aquila among them) to recapture the place, which, after the payment of 4,000 florins, became thenceforth a full Papal possession, led by a vicar and a treasurer.[citation needed]
The place became a free port under Pope Innocent XII in 1696 and by the modern era was the main port of Rome. The French Empire occupied it in 1806.[citation needed]
The French novelist Stendhal served as consul for a time in Civitavecchia.[citation needed]
On 16 April 1859, the Rome and Civitavecchia railway was opened for service.[citation needed]
The Papal troops opened the gates of the fortress to the Italian general Nino Bixio in 1870. This permanently removed the port from Papal control.[citation needed]
During World War II, the Allies launched several bombing raids against Civitavecchia, which damaged the city and inflicted several civilian casualties. On June 27, 1944, two American soldiers from the 379th Port Battalion, Fred A. McMurray and Louis Till, allegedly raped two Italian women in Civitavecchia and murdered a third. McMurray and Till were subsequently both executed by the United States Army by hanging five months later.
