Luna

History

Towards the end of the 3rd century BC the Apuani Ligurians took over the plain of the Lunigiana and the land at the mouth of the river Macra (now Magra), and pressed southward against the territory of the Etruscan city of Pisa which was included within the region fully conquered by the Romans around the middle of the 3rd century BC.

After numerous battles with Rome from the 230s BC, in 193 BC a large Ligurian force attacked Pisa but the consul Quintus Minucius Thermus drove it back.

Liguria was made a Roman consular province by 188 BC with 2 legions stationed there for campaigns. The Apuani were the object of a major offensive in 187 BC by the consuls Gaius Flaminius and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. Further campaigns followed: in 186 BC the consul Quintus Marcius Philippus was ambushed in Apuani country and lost some 4,000 men and in 185 BC the consul Sempronius forced a passage through to the Magra.

In 180 BC the proconsuls Publius Cornelius Cethegus and Marcus Baebius Tamphilus, whose command in Liguria had been prorogued, received the surrender of about 12,000 Apuani and resettled them on public land in Samnium, judging this the only way to bring the Ligurian war to an end. About 40,000 free persons with women and children were also transferred at public expense.

Luni derived much importance from its harbour, which was on both the Gulf of La Spezia and the estuary of the Magra. The harbour was used as a landing place for commercial ships by both the Etruscans and the Greeks. Nearby an large Ligurian necropolis has been excavated, dating to the 4th and early 3rd century BC, probably attributable to a maritime settlement whose inhabitants had commercial relations with the ships that stopped in the estuary. The harbour is mentioned by Ennius, who sailed from there to Sardinia in 215 BC under Manlius Torquatus. The Romans used the harbour perhaps as early as the end of the 3rd century BC and certainly from the beginning of the 2nd, as a base for the fleets heading to Spain and for the campaigns against the Ligurians.

Under the Romans the port grew to national and not merely local importance. …

Archaeology

Luni was excavated in the 1970s and many of the material brought to light is now housed in the adjacent museum. Archeological evidence suggests that the Roman forum had been abandoned as a public space by the end of the sixth century CE, its buildings fell to ruin or were demolished and decorative marbles removed. Remains of small wooden houses were found in the space previously occupied by the forum.

A theatre and an amphitheatre may still be distinguished on the site. No Etruscan remains have come to light. Cuntz's investigations seem to lead to the conclusion that an ancient road crossed the Apennines from it, following the line of the modern road (more or less that of the modern railway from Sarzana to Parma), and dividing near Pontremoli, one branch going to Borgotaro, Veleia and Placentia, and the other over the Cisa pass to Forum Novum (Fornovo) and Parma.