Pollentia

This article is about the Roman town in Italy. For the Roman town in Majorca, see Alcúdia.

Church of San Vittore at Pollenzo.

Pollentia was an ancient city the left bank of the Tanaro, known today as Pollenzo, a frazione of Bra in the Province of Cuneo, Piedmont, northern Italy.

In antiquity Pollentia was in the territory of the Ligurian Statielli, Augusta Bagiennorum (modern Roncaglia in the Commune of Bene Vagienna) being 16 km to the south. Its position on the road from Augusta Taurinorum (modern Turin) to the coast at Vada Sabatia (modern Vado Ligure, near Savona), at the point of divergence of a road to Hasta (modern Asti) gave it military importance. Decimus Brutus managed to occupy it an hour before Mark Antony in 43 BC. Here Stilicho on April 6, 402 fought the Battle of Pollentia with Alaric I which though undecided led the Goths to evacuate Italy.

The place was famous for its brown wool, and for its pottery. Today it is home to the University of Gastronomic Sciences which offers undergraduate, graduate and masters programs focused on gastronomy and food tourism. website

According to the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica considerable remains of ancient buildings, including an amphitheater, a theater and a temple were still in existence, although the so-called temple of Diana was more probably a tomb.

A work of 18 scholars, specialist in different disciplines, has been made, after a large archaeologichal inspection and many works of rastauration, in the book edited by Giuseppe Carità, Pollenzo - una città romana per una "real villeggiatura" romantica, Savigliano 2004. The book is also edited on http://www.comune.bra.cn.it/citta/pollenzo/index.htm , with an introduction in Italian, English, French and German.

Further reading

• Pollentia: la Pollenzo romana (Italian), from the website of the Commune of Bra, gives a short history of Pollentia, covering both the Roman town and its subsequent history.

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.