 Hunting in the Pontine Marshes The Pontine Marshes (Agri Pontini; Agro Pontino in Italian) is a former marsh zone in the Latium Region of Central Italy, southeast of Rome, that forms a low tract of land varying in breadth between the Voiscian Mountains and the sea from 10 to 16 miles, and extending northwest to southeast from from Velletri to Terracina by the Tyrrhenian Sea, from which they are separated by sand dunes. The area amounts to approximately 775 km². The Roman Via Appia crosses the marshes. Image File history File links Huntingpontinemarshes. ...
Image File history File links Huntingpontinemarshes. ...
Freshwater marsh in Florida In geography, a marsh is a type of wetland, featuring grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, and other herbaceous plants (possibly with low-growing woody plants) in a context of shallow water. ...
Latium (Lazio in Italian) is a region of central Italy, bordered by Tuscany, Umbria, Abruzzo, Molise, Campania and the Tyrrhenian Sea. ...
City motto: Senatus Populusque Romanus – SPQR (The Senate and the People of Rome) Founded 21 April 753 BC (mythical), early 1st millennium BC (archaeological) Region Latium Area - City Proper 1285 km² Population - City (2004) - Metropolitan - Density (city proper) 2,553,873 almost 4,300,000 1. ...
Velletri (ancient Velitrae) is a commune in the province of Rome, in Lazio (Latium) It is bounded by other communes of Rocca di Papa Lariano, Cisterna di Latina, Artena, Aprilia, Nemi, Genzano di Roma, Lanuvio. ...
Terracina is a comune and episcopal see of the province of Latina - (until 1934 of the province of Rome), Italy, 76 km SE of Rome by rail (56 km by the Via Appia). ...
Tyrrhenian Sea. ...
Remains of the Appian Way in Rome, Italy The Appian Way (Latin: Via Appia) is a famous road built by the Romans. ...
History
Roman times In ancient days this low tract was fertile and well-cultivated, and contained several prosperous cities—Suessa Pometia, Ulubrae perhaps the modern Cisterna, and others[1]). Pliny reports that the Volsci created a blossoming landscape there around 500 BCE. In 367 BCE, the Romans successfully defeated the Volsci, but they lost the fruitful area in the following centuries. Because of the large need for wood for ship-building, as well as for kilns and the Roman water-heating systems, the trees on the mountain slopes were systematically cut down, with resultant erosion. A cisterna (plural cisternae) comprises a flattened membrane disk which makes up the Golgi apparatus. ...
There are two famous persons named Pliny: Pliny the Elder, a Roman nobleman, scientist and historian who died in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD The great-nephew of the former, Pliny the Younger, a statesman, orator, and writer who lived between 62 AD and 113 AD. This...
The Volsci were an ancient Italic people, well known in the history of the first century of the Roman Republic. ...
Charcoal Kilns, California Gold Kiln, Victoria, Australia Hop kiln. ...
The three rivers Sisto, Uffente and Amazone changed their beds continuously and each storm surge from the sea accumulated water, so that the rivers flowed backwards into the interior. In the south the country was below sea level by up to 40cm. The tropical Anopheles mosquito, carrier of malaria, transferred its blood parasite to the local mosquito species Anopheles messeae; the district far beyond the actual moorland became deadly by the end of the Republican period. Red blood cell infected with Malaria, derived from mala aria (Medieval Italian for bad air) and formerly called ague or marsh fever in English, is an infectious disease which causes about 350-500 million infections with humans and approximately 1. ...
Attempts to drain the marshes were made by Appius Claudius Caecus in 312 BC, when he constructed the Via Appia through them (the road having previously followed a devious course at the foot of the Volscian mountains); further attempts at draining the marshes were made at various times during the Roman period. All plans assumed that the water from the deepest part of the moorland had to be collected, in order to let it flow off to sea. Since no sufficient pumping capacities were available at that time, the plans proved technologiically impossible. A canal ran through the Pontine Marshes parallel to the road, and for some reason that is not altogether clear it was used in preference to the road during the Augustan period. The Roman Emperor Trajan and the Ostrogoth Theodoric attempted drainage projects to render the land workable, but failed. Trajan repaired the Via Appia, and Theodoric did the same some four hundred years later, but in the middle ages it had fallen into disrepair. Appius Claudius Caecus (Appius Claudius the Blind, c. ...
Remains of the Appian Way in Rome, Italy The Appian Way (Latin: Via Appia) is a famous road built by the Romans. ...
Marble statue of Trajan at Xanten (Colonia Ulpia Traiana) Marcus Ulpius Nerva Traianus (September 18, 53 – August 9, 117), Roman Emperor (98-117), commonly called Trajan, was the second of the Five Good Emperors of the Roman Empire. ...
The Ostrogoths (Gleaming Goths), in distinction to the Visigoths (Noble Goths), were a Germanic tribe that influenced political events of the late Roman Empire. ...
Theodoric was a first name frequently encountered in medieval European history. ...
Popes Boniface VIII, Martin V, Sixtus V, and Pius VI all attempted to solve the problem, the last-named reconstructing the road. The difficulty arises from the lack of declivity in the soil: some parts that are no less than 10 miles from the coast are barely above sea-level, though they are separated from the sea by a series of sand-hill former dunes, now covered with forest, which rise at some points over 100 feet above sea-level. Springs also rise in the district, and the problem is further complicated by the flood-water and solid matter brought down by the mountain torrents, which choke the channels made. Boniface VIII, né Benedict Gaetano ( 1235 - October 11, 1303) was Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 1294 to 1303. ...
Martin V, né Otto di Colonna (1368 - February 20, 1431), pope from 1417 to 1431, was elected on St Martins day at the Council of Constance by a conclave consisting of twenty-three cardinals and thirty delegates of the council, which after deposing John XXIII, had long experienced much...
Sixtus V, né Felice Peretti (December 13, 1521 - August 27, 1590) was pope from 1585 to 1590. ...
Pius VI, born as Giovanni Angelo Braschi, (December 27, 1717 - August 29, 1799), pope from 1775 to 1799, was born at Cesena. ...
In 1561 Pope Pius IV employed the services of the mathematician Rafael Bombelli, who had gained a reputation as a hydraulic engineer in reclaiming marshland in the Val di Chiana in the Tuscan Appenines, but the project also came to naught [1]. The ambitious Sixtus V too made unsuccessful attempts at reclamation of the area, and died of malaria after a visit to the Pontine Marshes.
18th century On February 17, 1787, Goethe visited the region with his painter-friend Tischbein. He reports in his book, "The Italian Journey," that they "have never seen so bad an appearance as this in Rome." Goethe became interested in the dewatering attempts, after observing that it is "a large and extensive task." He probably used this image in this scene in his "Faust II", Act V: "A marsh extends along the mountain-chain, That poisons what so far I’ve been achieving; Were I that noisome pool to drain, 'Twould be the highest, last achieving. Thus space to many millions I will give. Where, though not safe, yet free and active they may live." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (pronounced [gø tə]) (August 28, 1749–March 22, 1832) was a German writer, politician, humanist, scientist, and philosopher. ...
19th century Near the end of the 19th Century, a Prussian officer, Major Fedor Maria von Donat (1847–1919) had an idea; he would build a channel that followed mountains at their base, cutting a sand dune at the level of Terracina. This would collect the water flowing from the mountain before it reached the bottom. The water collected with the canal system would then be pumped into the Mediterranean. The electricity needed to power the canal system would be collected through dams in the mountains with hydro-electric power plants. The German patent office patented the project under the number 17,120. He wanted to dry out the marshes within a 5 year time span.
Donat published his idea in Rome and Berlin, and succeeded in gaining the attention of Emil Rathenau, the general manager of AEG in Berlin. Rathenau saw market potential for electric investments, so he and some industrials in Berlin as well as private financeers created the "Pontine Syndicate Ltd." in 1900. 70 million gold marks were set aside for the project. One of the conditions was that the Italians would have to spend a similar amount of money on the project. Emil Moritz Rathenau was born on 11 December 1838 in Berlin, died 20 June 1915. ...
In 1898, Fedor von Donat parted from his position as Bataillionscommander and moved to Rome with his family. There he lobbied the government for his project, four large landowners, financial circles and the Vatican. He leased 240 acres of marsh near Terracina and put out the model farm, "Tenuta Ponte Maggiore." With the help of ancient Egyptian-type waterwheels pulled by three oxen, he was able to prove that the moorland had a high soil quality of over 70 points, and this proved that three harvests per year were possible. He protected his 80 workers from malaria with a daily dose of chinin. He invited Roman correspondents to a press conference on his property. In 1902, in large German newspapers, as well as foreign papers, long articles about the project were written. They often carried a sense of national pride about the development project. (see Bierbaum , Otto Julius, "Eine empfindsame Reise mit dem Automobil", Berlin 1903, page 194). Donat argued above all for the extermination of malaria in the surrounding countryside of the capital. Malaria prevented the expansion of Rome to south, which would lead to a new province for Italy without a colonial war. The urbanization of the marshes could prevent 200,000 Italians from emigration. Around the year 1900, one could count less than 1000 inhabitants for a coastal region larger than 700km². By a law passed in 1899, the proprietors are bound to arrange for the safe outlet of the water from the mountains, keep the existing canals open, and reclaim the district exposed to inundation, within a period of twenty-four years. The sum of 280,000 has been granted towards the expense by the government. Donat’s plan failed. This time it was not the technical inadequacy as with the predecessors, but political deliberations stood in the way of the project. The liberal government hesitated and gave the north preference, where in the Po-area large marshes needed to be dried out. The violent resistance of the four large property owners resulted from the necessary expropriation and leasing of a large part of their marsh country to the German syndicate. The co-financer, the Banca Commerciale in Milan delayed to start the task on the swamp. Donat, who’s lobbying had operated on his own funds, exhausted his wife’s fortune of 75,000 gold marks by 1903. Unsuccessful, he returned to Germany. The Pontine Syndicate was dissolved on September 4, 1914. With it, a premature but bold attempt at a transnational investment to gain more land ended.
20th century The Pontine Marshes were finally drained and reclaimed in works begun in 1928 under the responsibility of the Consorzio della Bonifica di Latina, a semi-governmental corporation of the Fascist government of Benito Mussolini. The government drained the marshes, cleared vegetation, and settled several hundred families in standardized 2-story podere of blue stucco with tile roofs. Each settler was assigned such a farmhouse, an oven, a plough, a stable, a horse and 40 hectares of land. The project, constantly referred to in terms of battle, was a huge public relations boost for Mussolini, fulfilling his long-term belief in the “rural vocation of the Italian people” and triumphing over nature, an epitome of the Fascist conception of progress. Mussolini used the ten year operation (similarly to what Adolf Hitler was doing at the same time with the construction of the Autobahn) for propagandistic purposes. Mussolini was often photographed between workers shirtless with a shovel in hand. Fascism (in Italian, fascismo), capitalized, was the authoritarian political movement which ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943 under the leadership of Benito Mussolini. ...
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (July 29, 1883 – April 28, 1945) led Italy from 1922 to 1943. ...
(April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945) was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 and Führer (Leader) of Germany from 1934 until his death. ...
The German and Austrian autobahn sign The Swiss autobahn sign Autobahn (pronounced in IPA) is the German word for a major high-speed road confined to motor vehicles and having full control of access, similar to a motorway or freeway in English-speaking countries. ...
Because Mussolini’s engineers used plans closely related to Donat’s, Mussolini named a street in the new city Pontina after him. At that time, the cities Littoria (now Latina), Sabaudia and Pontinis (now Pontina), Aprilia and Pomezia were created in 1932, 1934, 1935, 1937 and 1939 respectively. Latina may refer to one of the following: The female gender of the noun Latino in reference to Latin-American immigrants and their descendants. ...
At the northernmost end of the marshes, the beachhead at Anzio (ancient Antium) was the site chosen for the famous World War II amphibious landing of January 22, 1944. The treeless Pontine Marshes' irrigated fields interlaced with an intricate network of drainage ditches, offered scant cover for troops, and during the rainy season the fields were impassable to most heavy equipment. German sabotage of the pumping stations of the drainage system during World War II demonstrated how swiftly the area would become waterlogged without constant supervision. But the last of the malaria was conquered in the 1950s, with the aid of DDT. Combatants Allies: Poland, British Commonwealth, France/Free France, Soviet Union, United States, China, and others Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan, and others Casualties Military dead: 17 million Civilian dead: 33 million Total dead: 50 million Military dead: 8 million Civilian dead: 4 million Total dead: 12 million World War II...
Combatants Allies: Poland, British Commonwealth, France/Free France, Soviet Union, United States, China, and others Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan, and others Casualties Military dead: 17 million Civilian dead: 33 million Total dead: 50 million Military dead: 8 million Civilian dead: 4 million Total dead: 12 million World War II...
DDT was the first modern pesticide and is arguably the most well known organic pesticide. ...
Today a duct system runs through the dried-out area. Wheat, fruit and wine are cultivated in the Pontine region. The "Agro Pontino" is a flowering landscape with modern cities from the post-war period. By the year 2000, about 520,000 inhabitants live in the formerly deserted region.
Notes - ^ Livy delivers the names of thirty-three cities with the rich capital named Suessa Pometia.
A portrait of Titus Livius made long after his death. ...
References - This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
- T. Berti, Paludi pontine (Rome, 1884)
- R. de Ia Blanchre, Un Chapitre d'hisioire pontine (Paris, 1889). (T. As.)
- Donat, Fedor, "Le Paludi Pontine", Roma 1886"Die Pontinische Suempfe", Berlin 1892 and Cassel 1898
- Der Grosse Brockhaus, Leipzig 1908, Bd.13, page 270
- Graf Hutten Hutten-Czapski, Bogdan, "60 Jahre Politik und Gesellschaft", Berlin 1936
Encyclopædia Britannica, the 11th edition The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is perhaps the most famous edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. ...
The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...
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