Sinuessa

Sinuessa (Greek: Σινούεσσα or Σινόεσσα) was a city of Latium, in the more extended sense of the name, situated on the Tyrrhenian Sea, about 10 km north of the mouth of the Volturno River (the ancient Vulturnus). It was on the line of the Via Appia, and was the last place where that great highroad touched on the sea-coast. The ruins of the city are located in the modern-day municipality of Mondragone, Campania, Italy.

It is certain that Sinuessa was not an ancient city; indeed there is no trace of the existence of an Italic town on the spot before the foundation of the Roman colony. Some authors mention an obscure tradition that there had previously been a Greek city on the spot called "Sinope"; but little value can be attached to this statement. It is certain that if it ever existed, it had wholly disappeared, and the site was included in the territory of the Ausonian city of Vescia, when the Romans determined to establish simultaneously the two colonies of Minturnae and Sinuessa on the Tyrrhenian Sea. The name of Sinuessa was derived, according to Strabo, from its situation on the spacious gulf (Latin: sinus), now called the Gulf of Gaeta. The object of establishing these colonies was chiefly for the purpose of securing the neighboring fertile tract of country from the ravages of the Samnites, who had already repeatedly overrun the district. But for this very reason the plebeians at Rome hesitated to give their assent, and there was some difficulty found in carrying out the colony, which was, however, settled in the following year, 296 BCE.

Sinuessa seems to have rapidly risen into a place of importance; but its territory was severely ravaged in 217 BCE by Hannibal, whose cavalry carried their devastations up to the very gates of the town. It subsequently endeavored, in common with Minturnae and other coloniae maritimae, to establish its exemption from furnishing military levies; but this was overruled, while there was an enemy with an army in Italy. At a later period (191 BCE) Sinuessa again attempted, but with equal ill success, to procure a similar exemption from the naval service. Its position on the Appian Way doubtless contributed greatly to the prosperity of Sinuessa; for the same reason it is frequently incidentally mentioned by Cicero, and we learn that Julius Caesar halted there for a night on his way from Brundisium to Rome, in 49 BCE. It is noticed also by Horace on his journey to Brundusium, as the place where he met with his friends Varius and Virgil.

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