Thesaurus

Probably settled by Italic peoples who moved S from Aquileia ca. 1400 BCE. It was formerly on the sea, but moved inland with the build up of sediment from the Po river, which emptied into the Adriatic and was swept southward by currents. Today it is located on a low-lying plain near the confluence of the Ronco and Montone rivers, 6 miles inland from the sea, with which it is connected by a canal. It was an important Roman naval base after Augustus built port at nearby Classis; it was an important capital of the Western Empire from the 5th cen. CE. It declined in the 8th cen.; it was held by the popes from 1278; early Christian monuments named UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996.