CIVITAVECCHIA. - The Centumcellae of the Romans, where Trajan around the year 106 A.D. created an artificial port, garrisoned alternately by detachments of the Misenate and Ravennate fleets, as the sepulchral inscriptions attest (CIL, XI, 3520 ff.). Rutilius Namatianus describes, at the beginning of the 5th century, the city and its port (Itinerarium de reditu suo, I, nos. 237-60). Pope Cornelius (251-53) was exiled to C.
In the 4th century A.D. it was an episcopal see; Epictetus I is attested from 314, Epictetus II from the middle of the 4th century, then Pascasinus in 487, Molensis in 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 head of the city the comes Theophanes (Gregorii I Dialog., IV, 27). The bishop of C., Lawrence, is remembered in a letter of Pelagius I (556-61); the bishop Dominic subscribed the acts of the Roman Synods of the years 505 and 601. Gregory III (731-41) in the year 740 encircled the city with walls (Lib. Pont., I, p. 421). The city was taken and burned by the Saracens in the year 813, and the citizens for the most part fled into the woods on the neighboring 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 participated in the year 826 in the Council of Eugene II. In that same year the bishop Leo succeeded; in the year 836 there is the bishop Peter. 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 old one, in the locality called today la Farnesiana. It was solemnly dedicated in 854. Its remains were studied by Lauer; Marucchi published a monumental inscription in four tetrastichic metrical lines preceded by the monogram of Pope Leo IV, later in the Museo Civico. Leo IV also built there 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, of its towers and encircling walls, and the vestiges of buildings could still be recognized on the ground (A. Guglielmotti, Storia della marina pontificia, I, Rome 1871, p. 67). In the years 856-61 Dominic was bishop of C.
During the Saracen destruction the monastery of S. Maria al Mignone was also ruined, which was owned by the abbey of Farfa (Regest. Farf., no. 49), and later rebuilt by the abbot Ratfredus between the years 930-36.
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 there was rebuilt in 889 what was called Civitas Vetus, Vecla, Veggia, Vecchia, C., where the population definitively reestablished itself on the 15th and following days of that year. But it was rather a fortified castrum near the port. Between 940-50 Valentinus 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 Sts. Cosmas and Damian (P. Fedele, Le carte del monastero dei SS. Cosma e Damiano, in Archivio della Società romana di storia patria, 21 [1898], p. 459 ff.; 22 [1899], p. 25 f.; 383 f.); these were decided in favor of Farfa at the Lateran in 1072 under Alexander II. Meanwhile the bishop Azzo of C. had participated in the Roman Synods of the years 1037 and 1050. An inscription of 1093 commemorates 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. as a 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 assumed its defense. Celestine III in 1192 united C., Tuscania and Bieda to the see of Viterbo. On 9 Dec. 1224 the people of C. offered to Honorius III the full jurisdiction of the city. Clement IV in 1265 granted the castrum to Giovanni di Vico, prefect of Rome. But Nicholas IV in 1291 placed C. under the direct dependence of the Apostolic Camera. Eugene IV in 1434 resided in the fortress, and issued in favor of the city two constitutions of the years 1432-41 granting exemptions from taxes 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 8,000 workers were already working there: it is calculated that the discovery assured the pontifical 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 f., 389 ff.).
Pius II had other restorations carried out at the fortress between 1461-63; others also at the port were carried out under Sixtus IV (1481). Julius II in 1508 laid the first stone for the new fortress on a design by Bramante, later continued by G. Leno and by A. da Sangallo and completed by Michelangelo. Sixtus V (1585-90) had the aqueduct built by G. Fontana; Clement VIII (1592-1605) restored the port and the outer wall, works commemorated in the medal of the year 1604; Paul V (1605-21) had warehouses built; Urban VIII (1623-44), after new works at the port, in the walls and in the aqueduct, instituted in 1630 the port franchises. Innocent XII (1691-1700) repaired the aqueduct, reestablished the office of governor of the city with a municipal administration; Benedict XIV (1740-58) had other works carried out at the port.
The French occupy the city, reconstitute the commune in 1802, but in 1807 it is reoccupied militarily.
In 1814 the papal government is restored; Leo XII on 20 Dec. 1825 reconstitutes the diocese, uniting it with Porto and S. Rufina; on 28 Jan. 1828 the seminary is founded. Gregory XVI (1831-46) enlarged the city walls; in 1849 the landing of the French troops takes place. In 1850 it is connected by "the iron way" to Rome; on 23 July 1854 Pope Pius IX detaches the diocese of C. from Porto and S. Rufina and unites it with Corneto Tarquinia. On 16 Sept. 1870 the city is occupied by the Italian army and C. is annexed to the kingdom of Italy. The martyrs Verianus, Marcellianus and Secondianus according to the legend would be from Tuscania (BHL, 7550; Martyr. Hieronymianum, p. 430); another text has them as martyrs of C. (Acta SS. Augusti, II, Paris 1867, pp. 401-407). The patroness of the city is St. Firmina.
Besides the group of Christian inscriptions reported in CIL, XI, 3567-71, one of which is from 516 and one from 557, others were found in 1919 in the district of the "Polveriera" belonging to a cemetery area, in the open air (R. Mengarelli, Iscrizioni etrusche e latine rinvenute nel territorio di C., in Notizie degli scavi, 1919, pp. 216-231; the Christian inscriptions are at nos. 263, 264, 267, 269, 273). A Jewish inscription was found in the Roman burial ground along the via Aurelia in the district of "Pozzolano" (ibid., p. 225, n. 281). From C. come Father A. Guglielmotti (1812-93) and C. Calisse (1859-1945).
For the data of the diocese: v. TARQUINIA.