Minturno

Minturno is a city and comune in the southern Lazio, Italy, situated on the north west bank of the Liris (also known as the Garigliano), with a suburb on the opposite bank about 18 kilometres (11 mi) from its mouth, at the point where the Via Appia crossed it by the bridge called Pons Tiretius.

It has a station on the Rome-Naples main railway line.

History

The ancient Minturnae (41.241973,13.768185) was one of the three towns of the Ausones which made war against Rome in 314 BC, the other two being called Ausona (modern Sessa Aurunca) and Vescia; and the Via Appia was made two years later.

It became a colony in 296 BC.

In 88 BC, Gaius Marius hid himself in the marshes of Minturnae in his flight from Sulla.

The city was probably destroyed in 883 by the Saracens, who in the following years held the surrounding plain. Its low site was increasingly abandoned by the population in favour of that of the modern town of Minturno (known as Traetto until the 19th century), 140 metres (460 ft) above sea-level.