Cosa was a Latin colonia founded under Roman influence in southwestern Tuscany in 273 B.C., perhaps on land confiscated from the Etruscans (Velleius Paterculus 1.14.7; Livy Periochae 14; Strabo 5.2.8). The Etruscan site may have been where modern Orbetello stands; a fortification wall in polygonal masonry at Orbetello's lagoon may be in phase with the walls of Cosa. The position of Cosa is distinct, rising some 113 meters above sea level and is sited 139 km. northwest of Rome on the Tyrrhenian Sea coast. The town experienced a hard life and was never truly a prosperous Roman city, although it has assumed a position of dominance in Roman archaeology owing to the circumstances of its excavation (cf. Dyson 2005, below). After the foundation, wars of the 3rd c. B.C. affected the town (Livy 22.11.6; 27.10.8-9; 32.2.7; 33.24.8-9). Cosa seems to have prospered until it was sacked in the 60s B.C., perhaps by pirates. This led to a re-foundation under Augustus and then life continued until the 3rd c. A.D. Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... The Roman Forum was the central area around which ancient Rome developed. ... A poppy field in Tuscany Tuscany (Italian Toscana) is a region in central Italy, bordering on Latium to the south, Umbria and Marche to the east, Emilia-Romagna and Liguria to the north, and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west. ... The Etruscan civilization existed in Etruria and the Po valley in the northern part of what is now Italy, prior to the formation of the Roman Republic. ... Marcus Velleius Paterculus (c. ... A portrait of Titus Livius made long after his death. ... Strabo (squinty) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. ... Map showing the extent of the Etruscan civilization and the twelve Etruscan League cities. ... Grosseto is a town and comune in the central Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of the Grosseto province. ... City motto: Senatus Populusque Romanus – SPQR (The Senate and the People of Rome) Founded 21 April 753 BC mythical, 1st millennium BC Region Latium Mayor Walter Veltroni (Left-Wing Democrats) Area  - City Proper  1285 km² Population  - City (2004)  - Metropolitan  - Density (city proper) 2,553,873 almost 4,300,000 1. ... Tyrrhenian Sea. ... A portrait of Titus Livius made long after his death. ... Caesar Augustus (Latin:Imperator Caesari Divi Filius Augustus) ¹ (23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), known to modern historians as Octavian for the period of his life prior to 27 BC, was the first and one of the most important Roman Emperors, though he downplayed his own position by...

Archaeology at Cosa

In the 20th century, Cosa was the site of excavations carried out under the auspices of the American Academy in Rome, initially under the direction of the archaeologist Frank Edward Brown. Excavations (1948-54, 1965-72) have traced the city plan, the principal buildings, the port, and have uncovered the Arx, the forum, and a number of houses. Unexcavated buildings include a bathing establishment, but no trace of a theater or an amphitheater has been found. In the 1990s a limited series of excavations were carried out under the direction of Elizabeth Fentress, then associated with the American Academy in Rome. This latter campaign aimed at understanding the history of the site between the imperial period and the middle agest. Sample excavations took place over the whole site, with larger excavations on the Arx, the Eastern Height and around the Forum. The American Academy in Rome is an arts institution, founded in the late 19th century by American composer Edward MacDowell and others. ... Frank Edward Brown (b. ... The Forum of Cosa, in Italy. ... The American Academy in Rome is an arts institution, founded in the late 19th century by American composer Edward MacDowell and others. ...

The urban layout

Within the city walls the urban area was divided into an orthogonal plan, with space allotted for civic, sacred, and private architecture. The plan represents a subtle adaptation of an orthogonal plan to the complicated topography of the hill.The forum was found on a saddle between two heights, with the sacred area, with the Capitolium, linked to it by a broad street. Recent excavations have suggested that the original layout provided for ca. 220 houses, of which 20 were intended for the decurions, and were double the size of the houses of the ordinary citizens. The larger houses were found on the forum and the main processional streets. In mathematics, orthogonal is synonymous with perpendicular when used as a simple adjective that is not part of any longer phrase with a standard definition. ...

The Capitolium

The arx or citadel of Cosa received some of the first serious treatment by Frank E. Brown and his team when they began the Cosa excavations in 1948. The citadel was a fortified hill on which were built several temples, including the so-called capitolium of Cosa.

Brown also discovered a pit (mundus) that he thought was connected to the first rituals of foundation carried out at Cosa in 273 B.C.

The city walls and gates

The Forum

The forum was the public square of the city and was the site of many important structures, included a basilica and a curia-comitium complex. The Forum of Cosa, in Italy. ... St. ...

Private houses

The site has played an important role in the interpretation of Roman colonization during the Middle Republican period. The housing has been the subject of two extensive publications, that of R. T. Scott (1993), which deals with a series of small houses in the Western part of the site. These occupy street frontages of around 8 metres, with open courtyard spaces and gardens in the rear. They bear a strong resemblance to similar houses of the second century B.C. at Pompeii. On the forum, the House of Diana was excavated and restored between 1995 and 1999. It was published in full by E. Fentress (2004), and a detailed report on the stratigraphy is available on the web (http://www.press.umich.edu/webhome/cosa/home.html) This was a much larger house, on a standard atrium plan, very similar to that of the House of Sallust in Pompeii. Built around 170 b.C., it was entirely rebuilt in the Augustan period, from which we have a fine series of frescoes and mosaics. In the 50s A.D. it seems to have become the house of Lucius Titinius Glaucus Lucretianus, and a small sanctuary to the goddess Diana was added in the rear garden.

Settefinestre

A large villa complex in the Ager Cosanus at Settefinestre was excavated by Andrea Carandini in the 1970s. Villa Settefinistre in the comune of Orbetello, Tusany, Orbetello, Tuscany(?), is the site of a late Republican Roman slave-run villa owned by the senatorial family of the Volusii, built in the first century BCE and enlarged in the first century AD with a large The villa was fortified at... Andrea Carandini (b. ...

Further study

• For "Port of Cosa", Amphora Industry:
  • See Fish sauce, garum produced by Fish farming.
• See Pozzolana mortar, for the marine concrete in the Port Cosa harbor.

Amphoræ on display in Bodrum Castle, Turkey An amphora is a type of ceramic vase with two handles, used for the transportation and storage of perishable goods and more rarely as containers for the ashes of the dead or as prize awards. ... Fish sauce is a condiment derived from fish that have been allowed to ferment. ... A demonstration aquaculture facility Fish farming is the principal form of aquaculture. ... Pozzolana is a fine sandy volcanic ash, originally discovered and dug at Pozzuoli in the region around Vesuvius, but later at a number of other sites. ...

Bibliography

FINAL PUBLICATIONS

1. Brown, F.E., Richardson E. H. and Richardson, L. jr. "Cosa I, History and Topography." MAAR 20, 1951, 5-113.
2. Brown, F.E. Cosa II, the Temples of the Arx. MAAR 26, 1960.
3. Dyson, Stephen L. Cosa: The Utilitarian Pottery MAAR 33, 1976.
4. Brown, F. E. Cosa, the Making of a Roman Town Ann Arbor 1980.
5. Brown, F.E., Richardson E. H. and Richardson, L. jr. Cosa III, The Buildings of the Forum. MAAR 37, Rome 1993.
6. Bruno, V. J. and Scott., R. T. Cosa IV, The Houses. MAAR 38, Rome 1993
7. Collins Clinton, J. A Late Antique Shrine of Liber Pater at Cosa, (Etudes préliminaires aux religions orientales dans l'empire romain, vol 64), Leiden, 1977.
8. McCann, A. M., J. Bourgeois, E.K. Gazda, J.P. Oleson, and E.L. Will. The Roman Port and Fishery of Cosa: a Center of Ancient Trade, Princeton, 1987.
9. Fentress, E. et al. Cosa V: An Intermittent Town, Excavations 1991-1997 Ann Arbor, 2004.

MATERIALS

1. Brendel, O. "A Ganymede Group from Cosa," AJA 73, 1969, 232.
2. Buttrey, T.V. "Cosa: The Coins" MAAR 34, 1980, 11-153.
3. Fitch, C.R. and Goldman, N., The Lamps, MAAR 39, 1994.
4. Hobart, M.: 'Ceramica invetriata di Cosa (Ansedonia - Orbetello)' in L. Paroli, ed., La ceramica invetriata tardoantica e altomedievale in Italia, Florence, 1990, 304-309.
5. Hobart, M. 'La Maiolica arcaica di Cosa (Orbetello)' in Atti del XXIV convegno interna-zionale della ceramica, Albissola, 1991, 71-89.
6. Marabini Moevs, M. T. The Roman Thin Walled Pottery from Cosa (1948-1954), MAAR 32, 1973.
7. Marabini Moevs, M. T. "Italo-Megarian Ware at Cosa," MAAR 34, 1980, 161-227.
8. Marabini Moevs, M. T. "Aco in Northern Etruria: the workshop of Cusonius at Cosa," MAAR 34, 1980, 231-280.
9. Scott, R. T. "A New Inscription of the Emperor Maximinus at Cosa" Chiron 11, 1981, 309-314.
10. Scott, R. T. "A new fragment of "serpent ware" from Cosa," JGS 34(1992) 158-159.
11. Taylor, D. M. "Cosa, Black-Glaze Pottery," MAAR 25, 1957, 65-193.
12. Tondo, L. "Monete medievale da Ansedonia," ArchMed IV, 1977, 300-305.
13. Tongue, W. "The Brick Stamps of Cosa," AJA 54, 1950, 263.
14. Will, E. Lyding "Ambiguity in Horace, Odes 1.4," CP 77 (1982), 240-245.
15. Will, E. Lyding. "Defining the "Regna Vini" of the Sestii," in Goldman, N.W., ed. NEW LIGHT FROM ANCIENT COSA: STUDIES IN HONOR OF CLEO RICKMAN FITCH. New York, 2000, 35-47.
16. Will, E. Lyding "The Roman Amphoras," in McCann, A.M., J. Bourgeois, E.K. Gazda, J.P. Oleson, and E.L. Will, THE ROMAN PORT AND FISHERY OF COSA: A CENTER OF ANCIENT TRADE, Princeton, 1987, 170-220.
17. Will, E. Lyding "The Sestius Amphoras. A Reappraisal," JFA 6, 1979, 339-350

EPIGRAPHY

1. Babcock, C. "An inscription of Trajan Decius at Cosa," AJP 83, 1962, 147-158.
2. Manacorda, D. "Considerazioni sull'epigrafia della regione di Cosa," Athenaeum 57, 1979, 73-92
3. Saladino, V. "Iscrizioni del territorio di Cosa," Epigraphica 39, 1977, 142-151.
4. Scott, R. T. "A New Inscription of the Emperor Maximinus at Cosa," Chiron 11, 1981, 309-314.

STUDIES

1. Brown, F.E., Zancani Montuoro, P. "Il faro di Cosa in ex-voto a Vulci?," RIA 2, 1979, 5-29.
2. Fentress, E., Richardson Jr. L., Scott, R.: "Excavations at Cosa: the First Fifty Years"
3. Gerkan, A. von "Zur Datierung der Kolonie Cosa," in Scritti in Onore di Guido Libertini, Florence 1958, 149-156.
4. Hesberg, H. von. "Coloniae Maritimae," RM 92, 1985, 127-150.
5. Manacorda, D. "The Ager Cosanus and the production of the amphorae of Sestius: New evidence and a reassessment," JRS 68, 1978, 122-131.
6. Richardson Jr., L. "Cosa and Rome, Comitium and Curia," Archaeology 10, 1957, 49-55.
7. Scott, R. T. "The decorations in terracotta from the temples of Cosa," In La coroplastica templare etrusca fra il IV e il II secolo a.C. Florence 1992, 91-128.
8. Scott, R. T. "The Latin colony of Cosa," DialArch 6, 1988, 73-77
9. Taylor, Rabun. "Temples and Terracottas at Cosa," AJA 106.1 (2002) 59-84.
10. Dyson, Stephen L. "Success and failures at Cosa (Roman and American)." Journal of Roman Archaeology 18 (2005) 615-20.

INTERIM REPORTS

1. Brown, F. E. "Scavi a Cosa - Ansedonia 1965-6," BdA 52, 1967, 37-41
2. Brown, F. E. "The Northwest Gate of Cosa and its Environs," Studi di antichità in onore de G. Maetzke, Rome 1984, 493-498
3. Ciampoltrini, G. "Orbetello (Grosseto) Località Ansedonia. Ricerche sui monumenti d'età traianea e adreanea del suburbio orientale di Cosa," BA 11-12 1991
4. Ciampoltrini, G. "Orbetello (Grosseto) La necropoli di Cosa. Ricerche e recuperi 1985-1991," BA 7, 1991, 59-73.
5. Fentress, E., Hobart, M., Clay, T., Webb, M. "Late Roman and Medieval Cosa I: The Arx and the Structure near the Eastern Height," PBSR 59, 1991, 197-230.
6. Fentress, E. "Cosa in the empire: the unmaking of a Roman town," JRA 7, 1994, 208-222.
7. Fentress, E., and Celuzza, M.G. "La Toscana centro-meridionale: i casi di Cosa - Ansedonia e Roselle." In R. Francovich and G.Noyé eds., La Storia dell'Alto Medioevo Florence 1994, 601-613
8. Fentress, E., and Rabinowitz, A. "Excavations at Cosa 1995: Atrium Building V and a new Republican Temple," MAAR 41, 1996.
9. Hobart, M. "Cosa - Ansedonia (Orbetello) in età medievale: da una città romana ad un insediamento medievale sparso," ArchMed 22, 1995, 569-583.
10. Scott, R. "The Arx of Cosa (1965-1970)," AJA 73, 1969, 245

THE TERRITORY OF COSA AND THE LOWER ALBEGNA VALLEY IN THE ROMAN PERIOD

1. Attolini, I. et al. "Political geography and productive geography between the valleys of the Albegna and the Fiora in northern Etruria," In G. Barker and J. Lloyd, eds, Roman Landscapes, London, 142-153.
2. Bisconti, F. "Tarda antichità ed alto medioevo nel territorio orbetellano. Primo bilancio critico," Atti del VI congresso nazionale di archeologia cristiana, Florence 1986, 63-77.
3. Bronson, R., Uggieri, G. "Isola del Giglio, Isola di Giannutri, Monte Argentario, Laguna di Orbetello," SE 38, 1970, 201-230.
4. Cambi, F., Fentress, E. "Villas to Castles: first millennium A.D. Demography in the Albegna Valley." In K. Randsborg, ed., The Birth of Europe, Rome, 1989, 74-86.
5. Carandini, A. "Il vigneto e la villa del fondo di Settefinestre nel Cosano. Un caso di produzione per il mercato trasmarino," MAAR 36, 1980, 1-10.
6. Carandini, A. ed. La romanizzazione dell'Etruria: il territorio di Vulci (catalogue of the exhibition at Orbetello, 1985), Florence 1985
7. Carandini, A., Ricci, A. eds. Settefinestre: una villa schiavistica nell'Etruria romana, Modena 1985.
8. Carandini, A., Settis, S. eds. Schiavi e padroni nell'Etruria romana Bari 1979
9. Carandini, A., Cambi, F., Celuzza M.G. and Fentress, E., eds. Paesaggi d'Etruria : Valle dell'Albegna, Valle d'Oro, Valle del Chiarone, Valle del Tafone : progetto di ricerca italo-britannico seguito allo scavo di Settefinestre Roma : Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 2002.
10. Carlsen, J. "Considerations on Cosa and the Ager Cosanus," AnalRom 13, 1984, 49-58.
11. Castagnoli, F. "La centuriazione di Cosa," MAAR 25, 1957, 149-165.
12. Celuzza, M.G., Regoli, E. "La Valle d'Oro nel territorio di Cosa. Ager Cosanus and Ager Veientanus a confronto," DdA 1, 31-62.
13. Ciampoltrini, G. "Un insediamento tardo-repubblicano ad Albinia," Rassegna di Archeologia 4 1984, 149-180.
14. Ciampoltrini, G. "Una statua ritratto di età imperiale dalla foce dell'Albegna," Prospettiva 43, 1985, 43-47.
15. Ciampoltrini, G., Rendini, P. "L'agro Cosano fra tarda antichità e alto medioevo. Segnalazione e contributi," ArchMed 15, 1988, 519-534.
16. Del Chiaro, M. "A new late republican-early imperial villa at Campo della Chiesa, Tuscany," JRA 2, 1989, 111-117.
17. Dyson, S. "Settlement Patterns in the Ager Cosanus. The Wesleyan University Survey," Journal of Field Archaeology 5, 1978, 251-263.
18. Fentress, E. 1984. "Via Aurelia - Via Aemilia," PBSR 52, 1984, 72-77.
19. Manacorda, D. "Produzione agricola, produzione ceramica e proprietari nell'ager Cosanus nel I sec. a.C." In Società romana e produzione schiavistica Bari 1981, 3-54.
20. Pasquinucci, M. 1982. "Contributo allo studio dell 'ager cosanus: la villa dei muraci a Porto Santo Stefano," SCO 32, 1982, 141 -149
21. Quilici-Gigli, S., Quilici L. "Ville dell'agro cosano con fronte a torrette," RIA 1 1978, 11-64.
22. Quilici-Gigli, S. "Portus Cosanus. Da monumento archeologico a spiaggia di Ansedonia," BstorArt 36, 1993, 57-63.
23. Peacock, D.: 1977. "Recent Discoveries of Amphora Kilns in Italy," AntJ 57, 1977, 262ff.
24. Rathbone, D. "The development of agriculture in the Ager Cosanus during the Roman Republic. Problems of evidence and interpretation," JRS 71 1981, 10-23.
25. Uggeri, G. "Il popolamento del territorio cosano nell'antichità." In Aspetti e problemi di storia dello Stato dei presidi in Maremma, Grosseto 1981, 37-53.