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127-571: It is situated on the main road and rail link from Pisa to Genova , just north of Viareggio . The town has Roman origins and part of the Roman wall still exists. The medieval town was founded in 1255 upon the pre-existing "Rocca di Sala" fortress of the Lombards by Luca Guiscardo da Pietrasanta, from whom it got its name. Pietrasanta was at its height a part of the Republic of Genoa (1316–1328). The town

254-415: A maritime nation began to grow and reached its apex in the 11th century, when it acquired traditional fame as one of the four main historical maritime republics of Italy ( Repubbliche Marinare ). At that time, the city was a very important commercial centre and controlled a significant Mediterranean merchant fleet and navy. It expanded its powers in 1005 through the sack of Reggio Calabria in

381-462: A Trojan prince, was chosen to be the cupbearer to her husband, Jupiter —replacing Juno's daughter, Hebe . Juno proceeds to Aeolus , King of the Winds, and asks that he release the winds to stir up a storm in exchange for a bribe ( Deiopea , the loveliest of all her sea nymphs, as a wife). Aeolus agrees to carry out Juno's orders (line 77, "My task is / To fulfill your commands"); the storm then devastates

508-524: A climax, has been detected in the poem. The Aeneid is full of prophecies about the future of Rome, the deeds of Augustus, his ancestors, and famous Romans, and the Carthaginian Wars ; the shield of Aeneas even depicts Augustus' victory at Actium in 31 BC. A further focus of study is the character of Aeneas. As the protagonist of the poem, Aeneas seems to constantly waver between his emotions and commitment to his prophetic duty to found Rome; critics note

635-498: A combined fleet of Pisan and Sicilian ships, led by the emperor's son Enzo , attacked a Genoese convoy carrying prelates from northern Italy and France, next to the isle of Giglio ( Battle of Giglio ), in front of Tuscany ; the Genoese lost 25 ships, while about a thousand sailors, two cardinals, and one bishop were taken prisoner. After this major victory, the council in Rome failed, but Pisa

762-567: A deal with Venus, Aeneas' mother, with the intention of distracting Aeneas from his destiny of founding a city in Italy. Aeneas is inclined to return Dido's love, and during a hunting expedition, a storm drives them into a small cave in which Aeneas and Dido make love, after which Juno presides over what Dido considers a marriage ceremony. Fama (the personification of rumour) spreads the news of Aeneas and Dido's marriage, which eventually reaches king Iarbas . Iarbas, who also sought relations with Dido but

889-536: A dominant position in the markets of southern France. The war began in 1165 on the Rhône , when an attack on a convoy, directed to some Pisan trade centres on the river, by the Genoese and their ally, the count of Toulouse , failed. Pisa, though, was allied to Provence. The war continued until 1175 without significant victories. Another point of attrition was Sicily , where both the cities had privileges granted by Henry VI . In 1192, Pisa managed to conquer Messina. This episode

1016-575: 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. The Virgilian commentator Servius wrote that the Teuti founded the town 13 centuries before the start of the common era. The maritime role of Pisa should have been already prominent if the ancient authorities ascribed to it

1143-536: A maritime city, with ships sailing up the Arno. In the 90s AD, a baths complex was built in the city. During 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 seventh century, Pisa helped Pope Gregory I by supplying numerous ships in his military expedition against

1270-477: A military capacity. For instance, as he and his followers leave Troy, Aeneas swears that he will "take up/ The combat once again. We shall not all/ Die this day unavenged." Aeneas is a symbol of pietas in all of its forms, serving as a moral paragon to whom a Roman should aspire. One of the most recurring themes in the Aeneid is that of divine intervention . Throughout the poem, the gods are constantly influencing

1397-519: A particular matter of debate; some see the poem as ultimately pessimistic and politically subversive to the Augustan regime, while others view it as a celebration of the new imperial dynasty. Virgil makes use of the symbolism of the Augustan regime, and some scholars see strong associations between Augustus and Aeneas, the one as founder and the other as re-founder of Rome. A strong teleology , or drive towards

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1524-548: A personage of no fixed characteristics other than a scrupulous pietas , and fashioned the Aeneid into a compelling founding myth or national epic that tied Rome to the legends of Troy, explained the Punic Wars , glorified traditional Roman virtues, and legitimised the Julio-Claudian dynasty as descendants of the founders, heroes, and gods of Rome and Troy. The Aeneid is widely regarded as Virgil's masterpiece and one of

1651-399: A rock, and Aeneas' spear goes through his thigh. As Turnus is on his knees, begging for his life, the epic ends with Aeneas initially tempted to obey Turnus' pleas to spare his life, but then killing him in rage when he sees that Turnus is wearing Aeneas' friend Pallas' belt over his shoulder as a trophy. Critics of the Aeneid focus on a variety of issues. The tone of the poem as a whole is

1778-514: A short break in which the funeral ceremony for Pallas takes place, the war continues. Another notable native, Camilla , an Amazon character and virgin devoted to Diana , fights bravely but is killed, poisoned by the coward Arruns, who in turn is struck dead by Diana's sentinel Opis . Single combat is proposed between Aeneas and Turnus, but Aeneas is so obviously superior to Turnus that the Rutuli, urged on by Turnus' divine sister, Juturna —who in turn

1905-454: Is a Latin epic poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas , a Trojan who fled the fall of Troy and travelled to Italy , where he became the ancestor of the Romans . Written by the Roman poet Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, the Aeneid comprises 9,896 lines in dactylic hexameter . The first six of the poem's twelve books tell the story of Aeneas' wanderings from Troy to Italy, and

2032-481: Is actually the gods who inspired the love, as Juno plots: Dido and the Trojan captain [will come] To one same cavern. I shall be on hand, And if I can be certain you are willing, There I shall marry them and call her his. A wedding, this will be. Juno is speaking to Venus, making an agreement and influencing the lives and emotions of both Dido and Aeneas. Later in the same book, Jupiter steps in and restores what

2159-496: Is based on a driverless "horizontal funicular " that travels the distance in 5 minutes, with a 5-minute frequency, having an intermediate stop at parking station San Giusto/Aurelia. Consorzio Pisano Trasporti , also known as CPT , was a Società consortile a responsabilità limitata (Scarl) that operated since 2005 the local public transport in Pisa and in the province . Became subsidiary of Compagnia Toscana Trasporti Nord in 2012 and

2286-415: Is characterized by cool to mild winters and hot summers. This transitional climate allows Pisa to have summers with moderate rainfall . Rainfall peaks in autumn. Snow is rare. The highest officially recorded temperature was 39.5 °C (103.1 °F) on 22 August 2011 and the lowest was −13.8 °C (7.2 °F) on 12 January 1985. In Pisa there was a festival and game fr:Gioco del Ponte (Game of

2413-610: Is first mentioned in 1331 in records of Genoa, when it became a part of the Lucca along with the river port of Motrone, and was held until 1430. At that time it passed back to Genoa until 1484, when it was annexed to the Medici held seigniory of Florence . In 1494, Charles VIII of France took control of the town. It remained a Luccan town again until Pope Leo X , a member of the Medici family, gave Pietrasanta back to his family. The town then became

2540-430: Is important and that he does not leave of his own volition, but Dido is not satisfied. Ultimately, her heart broken, Dido commits suicide by stabbing herself upon a pyre with Aeneas' sword. Before dying, she predicts eternal strife between Aeneas' people and hers; "rise up from my bones, avenging spirit" (4.625, trans. Fitzgerald) is a possible invocation to Hannibal . Looking back from the deck of his ship, Aeneas sees

2667-434: Is instigated by Juno—break the truce. Aeneas is injured by an arrow but is soon healed with the help of his mother Venus and returns to the battle. Turnus and Aeneas dominate the battle on opposite wings, but when Aeneas makes a daring attack at the city of Latium (causing the queen of Latium to hang herself in despair), he forces Turnus into single combat once more. In the duel, Turnus' strength deserts him as he tries to hurl

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2794-511: Is not the place for them; the Strophades , where they encounter the Harpy Celaeno , who tells them to leave her island and to look for Italy, though, she prophesies, they will not find it until hunger forces them to eat their tables; and Buthrotum . This last city had been built in an attempt to replicate Troy. In Buthrotum, Aeneas meets Andromache , the widow of Hector . She is still lamenting

2921-549: Is still home to over 50 marble workshops and bronze foundries. Pietrasanta is twinned with Pisa Pisa ( / ˈ p iː z ə / PEE -zə ; Italian: [ˈpiːza] or [ˈpiːsa] ) is a city and comune (municipality) in Tuscany , central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea . It is the capital city of

3048-582: Is still the seat of an archbishopric . Besides its educational institutions, it has become a light industrial centre and a railway hub. It suffered repeated destruction during World War II . Since the early 1950s, the US Army has maintained Camp Darby just outside Pisa, which is used by many US military personnel as a base for vacations in the area. Pisa has a borderline humid subtropical climate ( Köppen climate classification : Cfa ) and Mediterranean climate ( Köppen climate classification : Csa ). The city

3175-464: Is the main railway station and is located along the Tyrrhenic railway line . It connects Pisa directly with several other important Italian cities such as Rome , Florence , Genoa , Turin , Naples , Livorno , and Grosseto . Pisa San Rossore links the city with Lucca (20 minutes north-east of Pisa) and Viareggio and is also reachable from Pisa Centrale . It is a minor railway station located near

3302-419: Is the true fate and path for Aeneas, sending Mercury down to Aeneas' dreams, telling him that he must travel to Italy and leave his new-found lover. As Aeneas later pleads with Dido: The gods' interpreter, sent by Jove himself – I swear it by your head and mine – has brought Commands down through the racing winds!... I sail for Italy not of my own free will. Several of the gods try to intervene against

3429-472: Is when Aeneas is reminded of his fate through Jupiter and Mercury while he is falling in love with Dido. Mercury urges, "Think of your expectations of your heir,/ Iulus, to whom the whole Italian realm, the land/ Of Rome, are due." Mercury is referring to Aeneas' preordained fate to found Rome, as well as Rome's preordained fate to rule the world: He was to be ruler of Italy, Potential empire, armorer of war; To father men from Teucer's noble blood And bring

3556-628: Is written in dactylic hexameters : each line consists of six metrical feet made up of dactyls (one long syllable followed by two short syllables) and spondees (two long syllables). This epic consists of twelve books, and the narrative is broken up into three sections of four books each, respectively addressing Dido; the Trojans' arrival in Italy; and the war with the Latins. Each book has roughly 700–900 lines. The Aeneid comes to an abrupt ending, and scholars have speculated that Virgil died before he could finish

3683-556: The Campo Santo (the monumental cemetery). The medieval complex includes the above-mentioned four sacred buildings, the hospital and few palaces. All the complex is kept by the Opera (fabrica ecclesiae) della Primaziale Pisana , an old non profit foundation that has operated since the building of the Cathedral in 1063 to maintain the sacred buildings. The area is framed by medieval walls kept by

3810-500: The gens Julia , the family of Julius Caesar, and many other great imperial descendants as part of the prophecy given to him in the Underworld. (The meter shows that the name "Iulus" is pronounced as three syllables, not as "Julus".) The perceived deficiency of any account of Aeneas' marriage to Lavinia or his founding of the Roman race led some writers, such as the 15th-century Italian poet Maffeo Vegio (through his Thirteenth Book of

3937-422: The Aeneid to be published with as few editorial changes as possible. As a result, the existing text of the Aeneid may contain faults which Virgil was planning to correct before publication. However, the only obvious imperfections are a few lines of verse that are metrically unfinished (i.e., not a complete line of dactylic hexameter ). Other alleged "imperfections" are subject to scholarly debate. The Aeneid

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4064-552: The Aeneid was published. Because it was composed and preserved in writing rather than orally, the text exhibits less variation than other classical epics. As with other classical Latin poetry, the meter is based on the length of syllables rather than the stress, though the interplay of meter and stress is also important. Virgil also incorporated such poetic devices as alliteration , onomatopoeia , synecdoche , and assonance . Furthermore, he uses personification , metaphor , and simile in his work, usually to add drama and tension to

4191-551: The Aeneid . After meeting Augustus in Athens and deciding to return home, Virgil caught a fever while visiting a town near Megara . Virgil crossed to Italy by ship, weakened with disease, and died in Brundisium harbour on 21 September 19 BC, leaving a wish that the manuscript of the Aeneid was to be burned. Augustus ordered Virgil's literary executors, Lucius Varius Rufus and Plotius Tucca , to disregard that wish, instead ordering

4318-593: The Byzantine Emperor Alexius I Comnenus granted them special mooring and trading rights. In all these cities, the Pisans were granted privileges and immunity from taxation, but had to contribute to the defence in case of attack. In the 12th century, the Pisan quarter in the eastern part of Constantinople had grown to 1,000 people. For some years of that century, Pisa was the most prominent commercial and military ally of

4445-677: The Byzantines of Ravenna (what "military expedition by Pope Gregory against the Byzantine Empire" ): 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. 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

4572-520: The Iliad ' s warfare themes. This is, however, a rough correspondence, the limitations of which should be borne in mind. Although the definitive story of Aeneas escaping the fallen Troy and finding a new home in Italy, thus eventually becoming the ancestor of the Romans, was codified by Virgil, the myth of Aeneas' post-Troy adventures predates him by centuries. As Greek settlements began to expand starting in

4699-559: The Province of Pisa . Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower , the city contains more than twenty other historic churches, several medieval palaces, and bridges across the Arno. Much of the city's architecture was financed from its history as one of the Italian maritime republics . The city is also home to the University of Pisa , which has a history going back to the 12th century,

4826-517: The Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa , founded by Napoleon in 1810, and its offshoot, the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies . Most believe the hypothesis that the origin of the name Pisa comes from Etruscan and means 'mouth', as Pisa is at the mouth of the Arno river. Although throughout history there have been several uncertainties about the origin of the city of Pisa, excavations made in

4953-551: The Sibyl in Cumae . Heading into the open sea, Aeneas leaves Buthrotum, rounds the south eastern tip of Italy and makes his way towards Sicily (Trinacria). There, they are caught in the whirlpool of Charybdis and driven out to sea. Soon they come ashore at the land of the Cyclopes . There they meet a Greek, Achaemenides , one of Ulysses' men, who has been left behind when his comrades escaped

5080-586: The Tyrrhenian Sea . When the Pisans subsequently ousted the Genoese from Sardinia, a new conflict and rivalry was born between these major marine republics. Between 1030 and 1035, Pisa went on to defeat several rival towns in Sicily and conquer Carthage in North Africa . In 1051–1052, the admiral Jacopo Ciurini conquered Corsica , provoking more resentment from the Genoese. In 1063, Admiral Giovanni Orlandi, coming to

5207-559: The bell tower of the cathedral , known as "the leaning Tower of Pisa", is the most famous image of the city, it is one of many works of art and architecture in the city's Piazza del Duomo , also known, since the 20th century, as Piazza dei Miracoli (Square of Miracles), to the north of the old town center. The Piazza del Duomo also houses the Duomo (the Cathedral), the Baptistry and

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5334-647: The 15th century, access to the sea became more difficult, as the port was silting up and was cut off from the sea. When in 1494, Charles VIII of France invaded the Italian states to claim the Kingdom of Naples , Pisa reclaimed its independence as the Second Pisan Republic. The new freedom did not last long; 15 years of battles and sieges by the Florentine troops led by Antonio da Filicaja , Averardo Salviati and Niccolò Capponi were made, but they failed to conquer

5461-449: 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. Ancient Roman authors referred to Pisa as an old city. Virgil , in his Aeneid , states that Pisa was already

5588-520: The 1980s and the 1990s, featuring several world-class players such as Diego Simeone , Christian Vieri and Dunga during this time. The club play at the Arena Garibaldi – Stadio Romeo Anconetani , opened in 1919 and with a capacity of 25,000. Shooting was one of the first sports to have their own association in Pisa. The Società del Tiro a Segno di Pisa was founded on July 9, 1862. In 1885, they acquired their own training field. The shooting range

5715-530: The Aeneid widely printed in the Renaissance ), Pier Candido Decembrio (whose attempt was never completed), Claudio Salvucci (in his 1994 epic poem The Laviniad ), and Ursula K. Le Guin (in her 2008 novel Lavinia ) to compose their own supplements. Despite the polished and complex nature of the Aeneid (legend stating that Virgil wrote only three lines of the poem each day), the number of half-complete lines and

5842-507: The Bridge) which was celebrated (in some form) in Pisa from perhaps the 1200s down to 1807. From the end of the 1400s the game took the form of a mock battle fought upon Pisa's central bridge ( Ponte di Mezzo ). The participants wore quilted armor and the only offensive weapon allowed was the targone , a shield-shaped, stout board with precisely specified dimensions. Hitting below the belt was not allowed. Two opposing teams started at opposite ends of

5969-564: The Byzantine Empire, overcoming Venice itself. In 1113, Pisa and Pope Paschal II set up, together with the count of Barcelona and other contingents from Provence and Italy (Genoese excluded), a war to free the Balearic Islands from the Moors ; the queen and the king of Majorca were brought in chains to Tuscany. Though the Almoravides soon reconquered the island, the booty taken helped

6096-489: The Genoese attacked several galleys on their way home to the motherland, and lasted until 1133. The two cities fought each other on land and at sea, but hostilities were limited to raids and pirate-like assaults. In June 1135, Bernard of Clairvaux took a leading part in the Council of Pisa , asserting the claims of Pope Innocent II against those of Pope Anacletus II , who had been elected pope in 1130 with Norman support, but

6223-668: The Genoese predominance in the southern Tyrrhenian Sea, Pisa strengthened its relationship with its traditional Spanish and French bases (Marseille, Narbonne , Barcelona , etc.) and tried to defy the Venetian rule of the Adriatic Sea . In 1180, the two cities agreed to a nonaggression treaty in the Tyrrhenian and the Adriatic, but the death of Emperor Manuel Comnenus in Constantinople changed

6350-621: The Greek colonists in Magna Graecia and Sicily who wished to link their new homelands with themselves, and the Etruscans, who would have adopted the story of Aeneas in Italy first, and quickly became associated with him. Greek vases as early as the sixth century BC provide evidence for these early Greek mythological accounts of Aeneas founding a new home in Etruria predating Virgil by a wide margin, and he

6477-423: The Greek plot and urged the horse's destruction, but his protests fell on deaf ears, so he hurled his spear at the horse. Then, in what would be seen by the Trojans as punishment from the gods, two serpents emerged from the sea and devoured Laocoön, along with his two sons. The Trojans then took the horse inside the fortified walls, and after nightfall the armed Greeks emerged from it, opening the city's gates to allow

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6604-648: The Leaning Tower zone. There was another station called Pisa Aeroporto situated next to the Airport with services to Pisa Centrale and Florence . It was closed on December 15, 2013, for the realization of a people mover . Pisa is connected to Autostrada A11 from Florence and to Autostrada A12 linking Genoa - Rosignano with exit Pisa Nord and Pisa Centro – Airport . Aeneid The Aeneid ( / ɪ ˈ n iː ɪ d / ih- NEE -id ; Latin : Aenēĭs [ae̯ˈneːɪs] or [ˈae̯neɪs] )

6731-480: The Mediterranean and the prominence of the merchant class urged a modification in the city's institutes. The system with consuls was abandoned, and in 1230, the new city rulers named a capitano del popolo ("people's chieftain") as civil and military leader. Despite these reforms, the conquered lands and the city itself were harassed by the rivalry between the two families of Della Gherardesca and Visconti . In 1237

6858-793: The Pisan crusaders were led by their archbishop Daibert , the future patriarch of Jerusalem . Pisa and the other Repubbliche Marinare took advantage of the crusade to establish trading posts and colonies in the Eastern coastal cities of the Levant . In particular, the Pisans founded colonies in Antiochia , Acre, Jaffa , Tripoli , Tyre , Latakia , and Accone. They also had other possessions in Jerusalem and Caesarea , plus smaller colonies (with lesser autonomy) in Cairo , Alexandria , and of course Constantinople , where

6985-756: The Pisans in their magnificent programme of buildings, especially the cathedral , and Pisa gained a role of pre-eminence in the Western Mediterranean . In the following years, the powerful Pisan fleet, led by archbishop Pietro Moriconi , drove away the Saracens after ferocious battles. Though short-lived, this Pisan success in Spain increased the rivalry with Genoa. Pisa's trade with Languedoc , Provence ( Noli , Savona , Fréjus , and Montpellier ) were an obstacle to Genoese interests in cities such as Hyères , Fos , Antibes , and Marseille . The war began in 1119 when

7112-544: The Pisans violated it by blockading the port of Brindisi in Apulia . In the following naval battle, they were defeated by the Venetians. The war that followed ended in 1206 with a treaty in which Pisa gave up all its hopes to expand in the Adriatic, though it maintained the trading posts it had established in the area. From that point on, the two cities were united against the rising power of Genoa and sometimes collaborated to increase

7239-569: The Queen of Latium and the wife of Latinus, to demand that Lavinia be married to noble Turnus , brings forth anger in Turnus which spurs him to war with the Trojans, and causes Ascanius to wound a revered deer during a hunt. Hence, although Aeneas wishes to avoid a war, hostilities break out. The book closes with a catalogue of Italic warriors. Given the impending war, Aeneas seeks help from the Tuscans, enemies of

7366-432: The Roman people—following the war against King Pyrrhus of Epirus in 280 BC, as Troy offered a way to insert Rome into Greek historical tradition as good as the one it had in the past for Greeks to link themselves to their new lands. Virgil begins his poem with a statement of his theme ( Arma virumque cano  ... , "Of arms and the man I sing ...") and an invocation to the Muse , falling some seven lines after

7493-415: The Rutuli, after having been encouraged to do so in a dream by Tiberinus . At the place where Rome will be, he meets a friendly Greek, King Evander of Arcadia . His son Pallas agrees to join Aeneas and lead troops against the Rutuli. Venus urges her spouse Vulcan to create weapons for Aeneas, which she then presents to Aeneas as a gift. On the shield , the future history of Rome is depicted. Meanwhile,

7620-407: The Trojan camp is attacked by Turnus—spurred on by Juno , who informs him that Aeneas is away from his camp—and a midnight raid by the Trojans Nisus and Euryalus on Turnus' camp leads to their death. The next day, Turnus manages to breach the gates but is forced to retreat by jumping into the Tiber . A council of the gods is held, in which Venus and Juno speak before Jupiter, and Aeneas returns to

7747-468: The Trojan fleet in the eastern Mediterranean , heading in the direction of Italy. The fleet, led by Aeneas , is on a voyage to find a second home. It has been foretold that in Italy he will give rise to a race both noble and courageous, a race which will become known to all nations. Juno is wrathful, because she had not been chosen in the judgment of Paris , and because her favourite city, Carthage , will be destroyed by Aeneas' descendants. Also, Ganymede ,

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7874-417: The Trojan women to burn the fleet and prevent the Trojans from ever reaching Italy, but her plan is thwarted when Ascanius and Aeneas intervene. Aeneas prays to Jupiter to quench the fires, which the god does with a torrential rainstorm. An anxious Aeneas is comforted by a vision of his father, who tells him to go to the underworld to receive a vision of his and Rome's future. In return for safe passage to Italy,

8001-431: The Trojans to settle in Latium , where King Latinus received oracles pointing towards the arrival of strangers and bidding him to marry his daughter Lavinia to the foreigners, and not to Turnus , the ruler of another native people, the Rutuli . Juno, unhappy with the Trojans' favourable situation, summons the fury Alecto from the underworld to stir up a war between the Trojans and the locals. Alecto incites Amata ,

8128-431: The Visconti family from Milan and eventually to Florence again. Livorno took over the role of the main port of Tuscany. Pisa acquired a mainly cultural role spurred by the presence of the University of Pisa , created in 1343, and later reinforced by the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (1810) and Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies (1987). Pisa was the birthplace of the important early physicist Galileo Galilei . It

8255-638: The abrupt ending are generally seen as evidence that Virgil died before he could finish the work. Some legends state that Virgil, fearing that he would die before he had properly revised the poem, gave instructions to friends (including the current emperor, Augustus ) that the Aeneid should be burned upon his death, owing to its unfinished state and because he had come to dislike one of the sequences in Book VIII, in which Venus and Vulcan made love, for its nonconformity to Roman moral virtues. The friends did not comply with Virgil's wishes and Augustus himself ordered that they be disregarded. After minor modifications,

8382-436: The aid of the Norman Roger I , took Palermo from the Saracen pirates. The gold treasure taken from the Saracens in Palermo allowed the Pisans to start the building of their cathedral and the other monuments which constitute the famous Piazza del Duomo . In 1060, Pisa engaged in its first battle with Genoa . The Pisan victory helped to consolidate its position in the Mediterranean. Pope Gregory VII recognised in 1077

8509-489: The apex of Pisa's power, but also spurred the resentment of other cities such as Lucca , Massa , Volterra , and Florence , thwarting their aim to expand towards the sea. The clash with Lucca also concerned the possession of the castle of Montignoso and mainly the control of the Via Francigena , the main trade route between Rome and France. Last, but not least, such a sudden and large increase of power by Pisa could only lead to another war with Genoa. Genoa had acquired

8636-429: The archbishop and the Emperor Frederick II intervened to reconcile the two rivals, but the strains continued. In 1254, the people rebelled and imposed 12 Anziani del Popolo ("People's Elders") as their political representatives in the commune. They also supplemented the legislative councils, formed of noblemen, with new People's Councils, composed by the main guilds and by the chiefs of the People's Companies. These had

8763-436: The besieged Trojan camp accompanied by his new Arcadian and Tuscan allies. In the ensuing battle many are slain—notably Pallas, whom Evander has entrusted to Aeneas but who is killed by Turnus. Mezentius , Turnus' close associate, allows his son Lausus to be killed by Aeneas while he himself flees. He reproaches himself and faces Aeneas in single combat —an honourable but essentially futile endeavour leading to his death. After

8890-511: The breakdown of Aeneas' emotional control in the last sections of the poem where the "pious" and "righteous" Aeneas mercilessly slaughters the Latin warrior Turnus. The Aeneid appears to have been a great success. Virgil is said to have recited Books 2, 4 and 6 to Augustus; the mention of her son, Marcellus , in book 6 apparently caused Augustus' sister Octavia to faint. The poem was unfinished when Virgil died in 19 BC. According to tradition, Virgil traveled to Greece around 19 BC to revise

9017-461: The bridge fight there. The fighters arrived fully armored, wearing helmets, each carrying their banner, which was planted at both ends of the bridge, which is quite wide and long. The battle is fought with certain wooden implements made for this purpose, which they wear over their arms and are attached to them, with which they pummel each other so intensely that I saw several of them carried away with bloody and crushed heads. Victory consists of capturing

9144-568: The bridge, in the same way as the fistfights in Venice between the it:Castellani and the Nicolotti ." In 1927 the tradition was revived by college students as an elaborate costume parade. In 1935 Vittorio Emanuele III with the royal family witnessed the first revival of a modern version of the game, which has been pursued in the 20th and 21st centuries with some interruptions and varying degrees of enthusiasm by Pisans and their civic institutions. While

9271-569: The bridge. The object of the two opposing teams was to penetrate, drive back, and disperse the opponents' ranks and to thereby drive them backwards off the bridge. The struggle was limited to forty-five minutes. Victory or defeat was immensely important to the team players and their partisans, but sometimes the game was fought to a draw and both sides celebrated. In 1677 the battle was witnessed by Dutch travelling artist Cornelis de Bruijn . He wrote: "While I stayed in Livorno , I went to Pisa to witness

9398-480: The capital of the Capitanato di Pietrasanta (Captaincy of Pietrasanta), which included all the main settlements of the historical heart of Versilia. The town suffered a long period of decline during the 17th and 18th centuries, partially due to malaria . In 1841, Grand Duke Leopold II of Tuscany promoted several reconstruction projects (including the building of schools specially created to teach carving skills, and

9525-415: The cave of Polyphemus . They take Achaemenides on board and narrowly escape Polyphemus. Shortly after, at Drepanum , Aeneas' father Anchises dies of old age. Aeneas heads on (towards Italy) and gets deflected to Carthage (by the storm described in book 1). Here, Aeneas ends his account of his wanderings to Dido. Dido realises that she has fallen in love with Aeneas. Juno seizes upon this opportunity to make

9652-453: The city. Vitellozzo Vitelli with his brother Paolo were the only ones who actually managed to break the strong defences of Pisa and make a breach in the Stampace bastion in the southern west part of the walls, but he did not enter the city. For that, they were suspected of treachery and Paolo was put to death. However, the resources of Pisa were getting low, and at the end, the city was sold to

9779-454: The command of Uguccione della Faggiuola . Eventually, however, after a long siege, Pisa was occupied by Florentines in 1405. Florentines corrupted the capitano del popolo ("people's chieftain"), Giovanni Gambacorta, who at night opened the city gate of San Marco. Pisa was never conquered by an army. In 1409, Pisa was the seat of a council trying to set the question of the Great Schism . In

9906-529: The end came when the Arno started to change course, preventing the galleys from reaching the city's port up the river. The nearby area also likely became infested with malaria . The true end came in 1324, when Sardinia was entirely lost to the Aragonese . Always Ghibelline, Pisa tried to build up its power in the course of the 14th century, and even managed to defeat Florence in the Battle of Montecatini (1315), under

10033-452: The father of the Roman people. For instance, in Book 2 Aeneas describes how he carried his father Anchises from the burning city of Troy: "No help/ Or hope of help existed./ So I resigned myself, picked up my father,/ And turned my face toward the mountain range." Furthermore, Aeneas ventures into the underworld, thereby fulfilling Anchises' wishes. His father's gratitude is presented in the text by

10160-506: The fleet. Neptune takes notice: although he himself is no friend of the Trojans, he is infuriated by Juno's intrusion into his domain, and stills the winds and calms the waters, after making sure that the winds would not bother the Trojans again, lest they be punished more harshly than they were this time. The fleet takes shelter on the coast of Africa, where Aeneas rouses the spirits of his men, reassuring them that they have been through worse situations before. There, Aeneas' mother, Venus, in

10287-554: The following lines: "Have you at last come, has that loyalty/ Your father counted on conquered the journey?" However, Aeneas' pietas extends beyond his devotion to his father: we also see several examples of his religious fervour. Aeneas is consistently subservient to the gods, even in actions opposed to his own desires, as he responds to one such divine command, "I sail to Italy not of my own free will." In addition to his religious and familial pietas , Aeneas also displays fervent patriotism and devotion to his people, particularly in

10414-596: The form of a huntress very similar to the goddess Diana , encourages him and recounts to him the history of Carthage. Eventually, Aeneas ventures into the city, and in the temple of Juno he seeks and gains the favour of Dido , queen of the city. The city has only recently been founded by refugees from Tyre and will later become a great imperial rival and enemy to Rome. Meanwhile, Venus has her own plans. She goes to her son, Aeneas' half-brother Cupid , and tells him to imitate Ascanius (the son of Aeneas and his first wife Creusa). Thus disguised, Cupid goes to Dido and offers

10541-508: The gifts expected from a guest. As Dido cradles the boy during a banquet given in honour of the Trojans , Cupid secretly weakens her sworn fidelity to the soul of her late husband Sychaeus , who was murdered by her brother Pygmalion back in Tyre, by inciting fresh love for Aeneas. In books 2 and 3, Aeneas recounts to Dido the events that occasioned the Trojans' arrival. He begins the tale shortly after

10668-475: The gods, by order of Jupiter, will receive one of Aeneas' men as a sacrifice: Palinurus , who steers Aeneas' ship by night, is put to sleep by Somnus and falls overboard. Aeneas, with the guidance of the Cumaean Sibyl , descends into the underworld . They pass by crowds of the dead by the banks of the river Acheron and are ferried across by Charon before passing by Cerberus , the three-headed guardian of

10795-571: The greatest works of Latin literature . The Aeneid can be divided into halves based on the disparate subject matter of Books 1–6 (Aeneas' journey to Latium in Italy), commonly associated with Homer's Odyssey , and Books 7–12 (the war in Latium), mirroring the Iliad . These two halves are commonly regarded as reflecting Virgil's ambition to rival Homer by treating both the Odyssey ' s wandering theme and

10922-442: The invention of the naval ram . Pisa took advantage of being the only port along the western coast between Genoa (then a small village) and Ostia . Pisa served as a base for Roman naval expeditions against Ligurians and Gauls . In 180 BC, it became a Roman colony under Roman law, as Portus Pisanus . In 89 BC, Portus Pisanus became a municipium . Emperor Augustus fortified the colony into an important port and changed

11049-443: The jurisdiction over the Pisan countryside, the Pisans were granted freedom of trade in the whole empire, the coast from Civitavecchia to Portovenere , a half of Palermo , Messina , Salerno and Naples , the whole of Gaeta , Mazara , and Trapani , and a street with houses for its merchants in every city of the Kingdom of Sicily . Some of these grants were later confirmed by Henry VI , Otto IV , and Frederick II . They marked

11176-427: The loss of her valiant husband and beloved child. There, too, Aeneas sees and meets Helenus, one of Priam 's sons, who has the gift of prophecy. Through him, Aeneas learns the destiny laid out for him: he is divinely advised to seek out the land of Italy (also known as Ausonia or Hesperia ), where his descendants will not only prosper, but in time rule the entire known world. In addition, Helenus also bids him to go to

11303-556: The main characters and trying to change and impact the outcome, regardless of the fate that they all know will occur. For example, Juno comes down and acts as a phantom Aeneas to drive Turnus away from the real Aeneas and all of his rage from the death of Pallas. Even though Juno knows in the end that Aeneas will triumph over Turnus, she does all she can to delay and avoid this outcome. Divine intervention occurs multiple times, in Book 4 especially. Aeneas falls in love with Dido, delaying his ultimate fate of travelling to Italy. However, it

11430-508: The maritime power of Pisa and the town never fully recovered; in 1290, the Genoese destroyed forever the Porto Pisano (Pisa's port), and covered the land with salt . The region around Pisa did not permit the city to recover from the loss of thousands of sailors from the Meloria, while Liguria guaranteed enough sailors to Genoa. Goods, however, continued to be traded, albeit in reduced quantity, but

11557-408: The men—a boat race, a foot race, a boxing match, and an archery contest. In all those contests, Aeneas is careful to reward winners and losers, showing his leadership qualities by not allowing antagonism even after foul play. Each of these contests comments on past events or prefigures future events: the boxing match, for instance, is "a preview of the final encounter of Aeneas and Turnus", and the dove,

11684-500: The municipal administration. Other sights include: San Pietro in Vinculis . Known as San Pierino , it is an 11th-century church with a crypt and a cosmatesque mosaic on the floor of the main nave. Football is the main sport in Pisa; the local team, A.C. Pisa , currently plays in the Serie B (the second highest football division in Italy), and has had a top flight history throughout

11811-449: The name to Colonia Iulia obsequens . 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. Strabo states that the city was 4.0 km (2.5 mi) away from the coast. Currently, it is located 9.7 km (6 mi) from the coast. However, it was

11938-407: The new "Laws and customs of the sea" instituted by the Pisans, and emperor Henry IV granted them the right to name their own consuls, advised by a council of elders. This was simply a confirmation of the present situation, because in those years, the marquis had already been excluded from power. In 1092, Pope Urban II awarded Pisa the supremacy over Corsica and Sardinia, and at the same time raising

12065-510: The ninth century, the emergence of the Saracen pirates prompted the city to expand its fleet. In the following years, this fleet gave the town an opportunity for more expansion. In 828, Pisan ships assaulted the coast of North Africa . In 871, they took part in the defence of Salerno from the Saracens. In 970, they gave also strong support to Otto I's expedition, defeating a Byzantine fleet in front of Calabrese coasts. The power of Pisa as

12192-457: The occurrence of various omens (Ascanius' head catching fire without his being harmed, a clap of thunder and a shooting star). At the city gates, they notice that they have lost Creusa, and Aeneas has to re-enter the city in order to look for her. To his sorrow, he encounters only her ghost, who tells him that his destiny is to reach Hesperia , where kingship and a royal spouse await him. Aeneas continues his account to Dido by telling how, rallying

12319-474: The other survivors, he built a fleet of ships and made landfall at various locations in the Mediterranean: Thrace , where they find the last remains of a fellow Trojan, Polydorus ; Delos , where Apollo tells them to leave and to find the land of their forefathers; Crete , which they believe to be that land, and where they build their city ( Pergamea ) and promptly desert it after a plague proves this

12446-520: The poem's inception ( Musa, mihi causas memora  ... , "O Muse, recount to me the causes ..."). He then explains the reason for the principal conflict in the story: the resentment held by the goddess Juno against the Trojan people. This is consistent with her role throughout the Homeric epics . Also in the manner of Homer , the story proper begins in medias res (into the middle of things), with

12573-506: The poem's second half tells of the Trojans' ultimately victorious war upon the Latins , under whose name Aeneas and his Trojan followers are destined to be subsumed. The hero Aeneas was already known to Greco-Roman legend and myth, having been a character in the Iliad . Virgil took the disconnected tales of Aeneas' wanderings, his vague association with the foundation of Rome and his description as

12700-466: The poem. The Roman ideal of pietas ("piety, dutiful respect"), which can be loosely translated from the Latin as a selfless sense of duty toward one's filial, religious, and societal obligations, was a crux of ancient Roman morality. Throughout the Aeneid , Aeneas serves as the embodiment of pietas , with the phrase "pious Aeneas" occurring 20 times throughout the poem, thereby fulfilling his capacity as

12827-516: The port, assaulted the castles in the surrounding areas, and drove back an army sent by Roger from Aversa . This victory brought Pisa to the peak of its power and to a standing equal to Venice. Two years later, its soldiers sacked Salerno . In the following years, Pisa was one of the staunchest supporters of the Ghibelline party. This was much appreciated by Frederick I . He issued in 1162 and 1165 two important documents, with these grants: Apart from

12954-512: The power to ratify the laws of the Major General Council and the Senate. The decline is said to have begun on August 6, 1284, when the numerically superior fleet of Pisa, under the command of Albertino Morosini , was defeated by the brilliant tactics of the Genoese fleet, under the command of Benedetto Zaccaria and Oberto Doria , in the dramatic naval Battle of Meloria . This defeat ended

13081-422: The powers of fate, even though they know what the eventual outcome will be. The interventions are really just distractions to continue the conflict and postpone the inevitable. If the gods represent humans, just as the human characters engage in conflicts and power struggles, so too do the gods. Fate , described as a preordained destiny that men and gods have to follow, is a major theme in the Aeneid . One example

13208-441: The reopening of the once famous quarries). The area, like most of Tuscany in general, has long enjoyed the patronage of artists. Pietrasanta grew to importance during the 15th century, mainly due to its connection with marble . Michelangelo was the first sculptor to recognize the beauty of the local stone. It has continued to attract many artists including Fernando Botero , Joan Miró , Henry Moore , and Damien Hirst . The town

13335-607: The returned Greek army to slaughter the Trojans. In a dream, Hector , the fallen Trojan prince, advised Aeneas to flee with his family. Aeneas awoke and saw with horror what was happening to his beloved city. At first he tried to fight the enemy, but soon he lost his comrades and was left alone to fend off the Greeks. He witnessed the murder of Priam by Achilles' son Pyrrhus . His mother, Venus, appeared to him and led him back to his house. Aeneas tells of his escape with his son, Ascanius , his wife Creusa , and his father, Anchises , after

13462-511: The scene. An example of a simile can be found in book II when Aeneas is compared to a shepherd who stood on the high top of a rock unaware of what is going on around him. It can be seen that just as the shepherd is a protector of his sheep, so too is Aeneas to his people. As was the rule in classical antiquity, an author's style was seen as an expression of his personality and character. Virgil's Latin has been praised for its evenness, subtlety and dignity. The Aeneid , like other classical epics,

13589-459: The situation. Soon, attacks on Venetian convoys were made. Pisa signed trade and political pacts with Ancona , Pula , Zara , Split , and Brindisi ; in 1195, a Pisan fleet reached Pola to defend its independence from Venice, but the Serenissima soon reconquered the rebel sea town. One year later, the two cities signed a peace treaty, which resulted in favourable conditions for Pisa, but in 1199,

13716-472: The sixth century BC, Greek colonists would often try to connect their new homes, and the native people they found there, to their pre-existing mythology; the Odyssey containing Odysseus's travels in many far away lands already provided such a link. Aeneas's story reflects not just Roman, but rather a combination of various Greek, Etruscan, Latin and Roman elements. Troy provided for a very suitable narrative for

13843-464: The smoke of Dido's funeral pyre, and although he does not understand the exact reason behind it, he understands it as a bad omen, considering the angry madness of her love. Hindered by bad weather from reaching Italy, the Trojans return to where they started at the beginning of book 1. Book 5 then takes place on Sicily and centres on the funeral games that Aeneas organises for the anniversary of his father's death. Aeneas organises celebratory games for

13970-538: The south of Italy. Pisa was in continuous conflict with some ' Saracens ' - a medieval term to refer to Arab Muslims - who had their bases in Corsica, for control of the Mediterranean. In 1017, Sardinian Giudicati were militarily supported by Pisa, in alliance with Genoa, to defeat the Saracen King Mugahid, who had settled a logistic base in the north of Sardinia the year before. This victory gave Pisa supremacy in

14097-477: The southern coasts of France and Spain. After Charlemagne had defeated the Lombards under the command of Desiderius in 774, Pisa went through a crisis, but soon recovered. Politically, it became part of the duchy of Lucca . In 860, Pisa was captured by vikings led by Björn Ironside . In 930, Pisa became the county centre (status it maintained until the arrival of Otto I ) within the mark of Tuscia . Lucca

14224-460: The target during the archery contest, is connected to the deaths of Polites and King Priam in Book 2 and that of Camilla in Book 11. Afterwards, Ascanius leads the boys in a military parade and mock battle, the Lusus Troiae —a tradition he will teach the Latins while building the walls of Alba Longa. During these events, Juno, via her messenger Iris, who disguises herself as an old woman, incites

14351-597: The town to the rank of archbishopric. Pisa sacked the Tunisian city of Mahdia in 1088. Four years later, Pisan and Genoese ships helped Alfonso VI of Castilla to push El Cid out of Valencia . A Pisan fleet of 120 ships also took part in the First Crusade , and the Pisans were instrumental in the taking of Jerusalem in 1099. On their way to the Holy Land , the ships did not miss the occasion to sack some Byzantine islands;

14478-585: The trading benefits in Constantinople. In 1209 in Lerici , two councils for a final resolution of the rivalry with Genoa were held. A 20-year peace treaty was signed, but when in 1220, the emperor Frederick II confirmed his supremacy over the Tyrrhenian coast from Civitavecchia to Portovenere , the Genoese and Tuscan resentment against Pisa grew again. In the following years, Pisa clashed with Lucca in Garfagnana and

14605-505: The underworld. Then Aeneas is shown the fates of the wicked in Tartarus and is warned by the Sibyl to bow to the justice of the gods. He also meets the shade of Dido, who remains irreconcilable. He is then brought to green fields of Elysium . There he speaks with the spirit of his father and is offered a prophetic vision of the destiny of Rome. Upon returning to the land of the living, Aeneas leads

14732-426: The war described in the Iliad . Cunning Ulysses devised a way for Greek warriors to gain entry into the walled city of Troy by hiding in a large wooden horse . The Greeks pretended to sail away, leaving a warrior, Sinon , to mislead the Trojans into believing that the horse was an offering and that if it were taken into the city, the Trojans would be able to conquer Greece. The Trojan priest Laocoön saw through

14859-597: Was almost completely destroyed during World War II. Pisa has an international airport known as Pisa International Airport or normally Galileo Galilei located in San Giusto neighbourhood in Pisa. It is served by twenty-one airlines connecting eleven domestic and sixty-one international destinations (seasonal included). The airport is connected to Pisa Centrale railway station by a people mover system 2 km (1.2 mi) long, called Pisamover inaugurated in March 2017. It

14986-696: Was defeated by the Florentines at Castel del Bosco. The strong Ghibelline position of Pisa brought this town diametrically against the Pope, who was in a dispute with the Holy Roman Empire , and indeed the pope tried to deprive Pisa of its dominions in northern Sardinia . In 1238, Pope Gregory IX formed an alliance between Genoa and Venice against the empire, and consequently against Pisa, too. One year later, he excommunicated Frederick II and called for an anti-Empire council to be held in Rome in 1241. On May 3, 1241,

15113-503: Was excommunicated. This extreme measure was only removed in 1257. Anyway, the Tuscan city tried to take advantage of the favourable situation to conquer the Corsican city of Aleria and even lay siege to Genoa itself in 1243. The Ligurian republic of Genoa, however, recovered fast from this blow and won back Lerici , conquered by the Pisans some years earlier, in 1256. The great expansion in

15240-500: Was followed by a series of battles culminating in the Genoese conquest of Syracuse in 1204. Later, the trading posts in Sicily were lost when the new Pope Innocent III , though removing the excommunication cast over Pisa by his predecessor Celestine III , allied himself with the Guelph League of Tuscany, led by Florence. Soon, he stipulated a pact with Genoa, too, further weakening the Pisan presence in southern Italy. To counter

15367-617: Was known to have been worshipped in Lavinium , the city he founded. The discovery of thirteen large altars in Lavinium indicates early Greek influence, dating to the sixth through fourth century BC. In the following centuries, the Romans would come in contact with Greek colonies, conquer them and subsume the legend of Aeneas into their own mythological narratives. It is most likely that they fully became interested in Greek myths—and their incorporation into their own foundation legends concerning Rome and

15494-400: Was not recognised outside Rome. Innocent II resolved the conflict with Genoa, establishing Pisan and Genoese spheres of influence. Pisa could then, unhindered by Genoa, participate in the conflict of Innocent II against king Roger II of Sicily . Amalfi , one of the maritime republics (though already declining under Norman rule), was conquered on August 6, 1136; the Pisans destroyed the ships in

15621-509: Was one the companies of the consortium ONE Scarl to accomplish the contract stipulated with the Regione Toscana for the public transport in the 2018-2019 period. The fleet consisted of 70 urban, 15 suburban and 260 intercity buses. Since 1 November 2021 the public local transport is managed by Autolinee Toscane . The city is served by two railway stations available for passengers: Pisa Centrale and Pisa San Rossore . Pisa Centrale

15748-504: Was rejected, angrily prays to his father Jupiter to express his feeling that his worship of Jupiter has not earned him the rewards he deserves. As a result, Jupiter sends Mercury to remind Aeneas of his duty, leaving him no choice but to depart. When Aeneas attempts to leave clandestinely at the behest of Mercury, Dido discovers Aeneas' intentions. Enraged and heartbroken, she accuses Aeneas of infidelity while also imploring him to stay. Aeneas responds by attempting to explain that his duty

15875-442: Was seen as reflecting this aim, by depicting the heroic Aeneas as a man devoted and loyal to his country and its prominence, rather than his own personal gains. In addition, the Aeneid gives mythic legitimisation to the rule of Julius Caesar and, by extension, to his adopted son Augustus, by immortalising the tradition that renamed Aeneas' son, Ascanius (called Ilus from Ilium , meaning Troy), Iulus , thus making him an ancestor of

16002-426: 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 1003, Pisa was the protagonist of the first communal war in Italy, against Lucca. From the naval point of view, since

16129-534: Was written in a time of major political and social change in Rome, with the fall of the Republic and the Final War of the Roman Republic having torn through society and many Romans' faith in the "Greatness of Rome" severely faltering. However, the new emperor, Augustus Caesar , began to institute a new era of prosperity and peace, specifically through the re-introduction of traditional Roman moral values. The Aeneid

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