Pisa 's
origins are unknown. The city lies at the junction of two rivers, Arno and
Auser (now disappeared) in the Ligurian Sea forming a laguna area. The
Pelasgi, the Greeks, the Etruscans and the Ligurians have variously been
proposed as founders of the city. Archeological remains from the 5th
century BC confirm the existence of a city at the sea, trading with Greeks
and Gauls. The presence of an Etruscan necropolis was discovered during
excavations in the Arena Garibaldi in 1991. Also ancient Roman
authors referred to Pisa as an old city. Servius wrote that the Teuti, or
Pelopes, the king of the Pisei, founded the town thirteen centuries before
the birth of Christ. Strabo referred Pisa 's origins to the mythical Nestor,
king of Pylos, after the fall of Troy. Virgil in his
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Aeneid states that
Pisa was already a great and developed centre by the times described;
foundation of the city in the 'Etruscan lands' credited to settlers from
Alpheus coast. The maritime role of Pisa
should have been already prominent if the ancient authorities ascribed to
it the invention of the rostrum: it took advantage of being the only port
along the coast, from Genoa, then a small village, to Ostia. Pisa served
as a base for Roman naval expeditions against Ligurians, Gauls and
Carthaginians. In 180 BC it became a Roman colony under Roman law, as Portus
Pisanus. In 89 BC, Portus Pisanus became a municipium. Emperor
Augustus fortified the colony into an important port and changed the name
in Colonia Iulia obsequens. From 313 it became the seat of a
bishopric.
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