Main article: Republic of Pisa Hypothetical map of Pisa in the 11th century AD In 970, they gave also strong support to Otto I's expedition, defeating a Byzantine fleet in front of Calabrese coasts. In 871, they took part in the defence of Salerno from the Saracens. In 828, Pisan ships assaulted the coast of North Africa. From the naval point of view, since the ninth century, the emergence of the Saracen pirates urged the city to expand its fleet in the following years, this fleet gave the town an opportunity for more expansion. In 1003, Pisa was the protagonist of the first communal war in Italy, against Lucca. Lucca was the capital but Pisa was the most important city, as in the middle of tenth century Liutprand of Cremona, bishop of Cremona, called Pisa Tusciae provinciae caput ("capital of the province of Tuscia"), and a century later, the marquis of Tuscia was commonly referred to as "marquis of Pisa". In 930, Pisa became the county centre (status it maintained until the arrival of Otto I) within the mark of Tuscia. In 860, Pisa was captured by vikings led by Björn Ironside. ![]() Politically, it became part of the duchy of Lucca. Pisa began in this way its rise to the role of main port of the Upper Tyrrhenian Sea and became the main trading centre between Tuscany and Corsica, Sardinia, and the southern coasts of France and Spain.Īfter Charlemagne had defeated the Lombards under the command of Desiderius in 774, Pisa went through a crisis, but soon recovered. In the seventh century, Pisa helped Pope Gregory I by supplying numerous ships in his military expedition against the Byzantines of Ravenna: Pisa was the sole Byzantine centre of Tuscia to fall peacefully in Lombard hands, through assimilation with the neighbouring region where their trading interests were prevalent. Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages Hypothetical map of Pisa in the fifth century ADĭuring the last years of the Western Roman Empire, Pisa did not decline as much as the other cities of Italy, probably due to the complexity of its river system and its consequent ease of defence. In the 90s AD, a baths complex was built in the city. However, it was a maritime city, with ships sailing up the Arno. Currently, it is located 9.7 km (6 mi) from the coast. Strabo states that the city was 4.0 km (2.5 mi) away from the coast. Pisa supposedly was founded on the shore, but due to the alluvial sediments from the Arno and the Serchio, whose mouth lies about 11 km (7 mi) north of the Arno's, the shore moved west. Emperor Augustus fortified the colony into an important port and changed the name to Colonia Iulia obsequens. In 89 BC, Portus Pisanus became a municipium. In 180 BC, it became a Roman colony under Roman law, as Portus Pisanus. Pisa served as a base for Roman naval expeditions against Ligurians and Gauls. Pisa took advantage of being the only port along the western coast between Genoa (then a small village) and Ostia. The maritime role of Pisa should have been already prominent if the ancient authorities ascribed to it the invention of the naval ram. The Virgilian commentator Servius wrote that the Teuti founded the town 13 centuries before the start of the common era. Virgil, in his Aeneid, states that Pisa was already a great center by the times described and gives the epithet of Alphēae to the city because it was said to have been founded by colonists from Pisa in Elis, near which the Alpheius river flowed. Īncient Roman authors referred to Pisa as an old city. ![]() Īlthough throughout history there have been several uncertainties about the origin of the city of Pisa, excavations made in the 1980s and 1990s found numerous archaeological remains, including the fifth century BC tomb of an Etruscan prince, proving the Etruscan origin of the city, and its role as a maritime city, showing that it also maintained trade relations with other Mediterranean civilizations. The most believed hypothesis is that the origin of the name Pisa comes from Etruscan and means 'mouth', as Pisa is at the mouth of the Arno river. For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Pisa.
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