CIVITAVECCHIA. – The Roman Centumcellae, where Trajan around the year 106 AD created an artificial port, garrisoned alternately by detachments of the fleets of Misenum and Ravenna, as attested by sepulchral inscriptions (CIL, XI, 3520 sgg.). Rutilius Namatianus describes, at the beginning of the 5th century, the city and its port (Itinerarium de reditu suo, I, nn. 237-60). Pope Cornelius was exiled to C. (251-53).
In the 4th century AD it was an episcopal see; Epictetus I is from 314, Epictetus II from the mid-4th century, then Pascasinus in 487, Molensis from 495-99, Carosus in 531. In the year 554 the city was contested between the Goths and the Byzantines, who, in the time of Gregory the Great (590-604), had as governor of the city the comes Theophanes (Gregorii I Dialog., IV, 27). The bishop of C., Laurence, is mentioned in a letter of Pelagius I (556-61); Bishop Dominic subscribed to the acts of the Roman synods of the years 505 and 601. Gregory III (731-41) in the year 740 enclosed the city with walls (Lib. Pont., I, p. 421). The city was taken and burned by the Saracens in the year 813 and most of the citizens fled to the woods on the nearby mountains. Paschal I (817-24) enriched the church of St Peter with gifts (Lib. Pont., II, p. 59). In the year 821 the bishop of C., Peter, was legate of Paschal I to the emperor Louis and took part in the year 826 in the Council of Eugenius II. In that same year Bishop Leo succeeded him; in 836 Bishop Peter is recorded. In the time of Leo IV (847-55) the inhabitants of C. were still wandering in the mountains of Tolfa (Lib. Pont., II, p. 131).
The Pope then founded a new city about 12 km from the ancient one, in the locality now called La Farnesiana. It was solemnly dedicated in 854. Its remains were studied by Lauer; Marucchi published a monumental tetrastichic inscription preceded by the monogram of Pope Leo IV, now in the Civic Museum. Leo IV also built the churches of St Peter and St Leo, to which he offered gifts (Lib. Pont., II, pp. 132-33). In 1871 the alignment of the streets of Leopoli, its towers and walls, and the remains of buildings could still be seen on the ground (A. Guglielmotti, Storia della marina pontificia, I, Rome 1871, p. 67). In the years 856-61 Dominic was bishop of C.
After the victory of Pope John VIII over the Saracens near Cape Circeo in 877 the inhabitants began to return to the shore and among the ruins of the ancient city what was called Civitas Vetus, Vecia, Veggia, Vecchia, C., was rebuilt in 889, where the population definitively settled on 15 August of that year. But it was rather a fortified castrum near the port. Between 940-50 Valentine was its bishop; in 963 Adalbert, son of King Berengar, landed there. Disputes then arose over the possession of C. between the monastery of Farfa and the Roman monastery of SS. Cosmas and Damian (P. Fedele, Le carte del monastero dei SS. Cosma e Damiano, in Archivio della Società romana di storia patria, 21 [1898], pp. 459 sgg.; 22 [1900], p. 25 sg.; 383 sgg.); they were decided in favour of Farfa at the Lateran in 1072 under Alexander II. Meanwhile Bishop Azzo of C. had taken part in the Roman synods of the years 1037 and 1050. An inscription of 1093 records a Richard, bishop of Tuscania, Centocelle and Bieda (S. Campanari, Tuscania e i suoi monumenti, II, Rome 1856, p. 25). A bitter struggle then arose for the possession of C. between Guido, bishop of Tuscania, and Alberic, bishop of Sutri. Innocent II (1130-43) granted C. in benefice to Petrus Latronis. In 1167 C. was attacked by the army of Frederick under the command of the chancellor Rainald, archbishop of Cologne, and Petrus Latronis took its defence. Celestine III in 1192 united C., Tuscania and Bieda to the see of Viterbo. On 9 December 1224 the people of C. offered to Honorius III full jurisdiction over the city. Clement IV in 1265 granted the castrum to Giovanni di Vico, prefect of Rome. But Nicholas IV in 1291 placed C. directly under the Apostolic Chamber. Eugenius IV in 1434 resided in the fortress and issued in favour of the city two constitutions in the years 1432-41 granting tax exemptions and promoting agriculture. Nicholas V (1447-55) had the fortress restored and in 1451 declared C. a free commune with its own statutes (C. Calisse, Statuti della città di C., in Studi e documenti di storia e diritto, 6 [1885], pp. 109-37).
In the time of Pius II (1458-64), in May 1462, the Paduan Giovanni de Castro discovered at Tolfa a rich alum mine (Pastor, II, pp. 224-25); by 1463 already 8,000 workers were employed there: it is reckoned that the discovery ensured the papal treasury an annual income of 100,000 ducats (G. Zippel, L'allume di Tolfa e il suo commercio, in Archivio della Soc. rom. di st. patria, 30 (1907), pp. 5 sg., 389 sgg.).
Pius II had further restorations carried out on the fortress between 1461-63; others were also completed on the port under Sixtus IV (1481). Julius II in 1508 laid the first stone for the new fortress designed by Bramante, later continued by G. Leno and A. da Sangallo and completed by Michelangelo. Sixtus V (1585-90) had an aqueduct built by G. Fontana; Clement VIII (1592-1605) restored the port and the antimural, works commemorated on a medal of 1604; Paul V (1605-21) had warehouses built; Urban VIII (1623-44), after new works on the port, the walls and the aqueduct, established in 1630 the port franchises. Innocent XII (1691-1700) repaired the aqueduct, restored the office of governor of the city with a municipal administration; Benedict XIV (1740-58) had further works carried out on the port.
The French occupied the city, reconstituted the commune in 1802, but in 1807 it was reoccupied militarily.
In 1814 the papal government was restored; Leo XII on 20 December 1825 reconstituted the diocese, uniting it with Porto and S. Rufina; on 28 January 1828 the seminary was founded. Gregory XVI (1831-46) enlarged the city walls; in 1849 the landing of French troops took place. In 1850 it was connected to Rome by “the iron road”; on 23 July 1854 Pope Pius IX detached the diocese of C. from Porto and S. Rufina and united it to Corneto Tarquinia. On 16 September 1870 the city was occupied by the Italian army and C. was annexed to the kingdom of Italy. The martyrs Verianus, Marcellianus and Secondianus are said, according to legend, to be from Tuscania (BHL, 7550; Martyr. Hieronymianum, p. 430); another text makes them martyrs of C. (Acta SS. Augusti, II, Paris 1867, pp. 401-407). The patron saint of the city is St Firmina.
Besides the group of Christian inscriptions recorded in CIL, XI, 3567-71, one of 516 and one of 557, others were found in 1919 in the district called “Polveriera” belonging to an open-air cemetery area (R. Mengarelli, Iscrizioni etrusche e latine rinvenute nel territorio di C., in Notizie degli scavi, 1919, pp. 216-231; the Christian inscriptions are nos. 263, 264, 267, 269, 273). A Jewish inscription was found in the