PISAURUM (mod.

See also:

• PESARO (anc. Pisaurum, q.v.)

Pesaro, q.v.)  , an ancient town of Umbria on the Via Flaminia, 26 m. from Ariminum and 8 from Fanum Fortunae . A Roman colony was founded here in the territory of the Galli Senones in 184 B.C., at the mouth of the river Pisaurus (mod . Foglia; the sea has since then receded about half a mile) . Whether it took the place of an earlier town or not, is not known: an important Gaulish cemetery has been discovered near the village of Novilara between Pisaurum and Fanum, but to which of these centres (if either) it belonged is uncertain (E . Brizio in Monumenti dei Lincei [1895], v . 85 sqq.) . In 174 B.C. we hear that the censors built a temple of Jupiter here and paved a road . T . Accius, the counsel who opposed Cicero in the case when he defended Cluentius in a still extant speech, was a native of Pisaurum . Catullus refers to the town as decadent or unhealthy, but this may be merely malicious, and does not seem to be borne out by facts: for it is not infrequently mentioned by classical authors . It was occupied by Caesar in 49 B.C., and was made a colony under the second triumvirate . Hence it bears the name Colonia Julia Felix .

We hear little of it under the

empire . It was destroyed by the Goths in 539, and restored by Belisarius in 545 . From the inscriptions, nearly 200 in number, an idea of the importance of the town may be gained . Among them are a group of cippi found on the site of a sacred grove of the matrons of Pisaurum, bearing dedications to various deities, and belonging probably to the date of the foundation of the colony . There are some remains of the town walls, and an ancient bridge over the Foglia . It was, like Ariminum, 'a considerable place for the manufacture of bricks and pottery, though the factories cannot always be precisely localized .