Osimo

Osimo (anc. Vetus Auximum) is a town and comune of the Marche, Italy, in the province of Ancona, 15 kilometres (9 mi) south of that town by rail. It is on a hill near the Adriatic Sea.

Silk-spinning and the raising of cocoons are carried on.

History

Vetus Auximum was founded by the same Greek colonists of Ancona; later it was contested by the Gauls and the Piceni, until conquered by the Romans, who used it as a fortress for their northern Picenum settlement starting from 174 BC. The walls were made of large rectangular stones which are still visible in some locations. It was a colony until 157 BC. The family of Pompey were its protectors and resisted Caesar in 49 BC. Inscriptions and monuments in its town square attest to the importance of Osimo during imperial times.

In the 6th century it was besieged twice in the course of the Gothic War, by Belisarius and Totila; the Byzantine historian Procopius said it was the leading town of Picenum.

Osimo was a free commune by 1100 A.D. It was later returned to the Pope by Cardinal Gil de Albornoz. In 1399–1430 it was a fief of the Malatesta family, who built a rocca, or "castle", which is no longer intact. Osimo was again made a part of the Papal States, and remained so until the unification of Italy in 1861.