Editing Pisa (section)

===Ancient times===
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Most believe the hypothesis that the origin of the name Pisa comes from [[Etruscan language|Etruscan]] and means 'mouth', as Pisa is at the mouth of the Arno river.<ref>{{Cite web|date=May 11, 2018|title=STORIA DI PISA DALLA NASCITA AD OGGI|url=https://pisa.unicusano.it/studiare-a-pisa/storia-di-pisa/|access-date=January 21, 2022}}</ref>

Although throughout history there have been several uncertainties about the origin of the city of Pisa, excavations made in the 1980s and 1990s found numerous archaeological remains, including the fifth century BC tomb of an Etruscan prince, proving the [[Etruscan civilization|Etruscan]] origin of the city, and its role as a maritime city, showing that it also maintained trade relations with other Mediterranean civilizations.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Paribeni|first=Emanuela|title=La necropoli villanoviana di Pisa, Porta a Lucca/via Marche, in Cavalieri etruschi dalle valli al Po. Tra Reno e Panaro, la valle del Samoggia nell'VIII e VII secolo a.C.|publisher=Edizioni Aspasia|pages=258–263|language=it}}</ref>

[[Ancient Rome|Ancient Roman]] authors referred to Pisa as an old city. [[Virgil]], in his ''[[Aeneid]]'', states that Pisa was already a great center by the times described; and gives the epithet of ''Alphēae'' to the city because it was said to have been founded by colonists from [[Pisa, Greece|Pisa]] in [[Elis]], near which the [[Alfeios|Alpheius river]] flowed.<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0064:entry=alpheius-geo Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), alpheius] {{source-attribution}}</ref> The Virgilian commentator [[Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius]] wrote that the Teuti founded the town 13 centuries before the start of the common era.

The maritime role of Pisa should have been already prominent if the ancient authorities ascribed to it the invention of the [[ram bow|naval ram]]. Pisa took advantage of being the only port along the western coast between [[Genoa]] (then a small village) and [[Ostia Antica (archaeological site)|Ostia]]. Pisa served as a base for Roman naval expeditions against [[Liguri]]ans and [[Gauls]]. In 180 BC, it became a Roman colony under Roman law, as {{lang|la|Portus Pisanus}}. In 89 BC, {{lang|la|Portus Pisanus}} became a ''[[municipium]]''. Emperor [[Caesar Augustus|Augustus]] fortified the colony into an important port and changed the name to {{lang|la|Colonia Iulia obsequens}}.

Pisa supposedly was founded on the shore, but due to the alluvial sediments from the Arno and the Serchio, whose mouth lies about {{convert|7|mi|km|order=flip|abbr=on}} north of the Arno's, the shore moved west. Strabo states that the city was {{convert|2.5|mi|km|order=flip|abbr=on}} away from the coast. Currently, it is located {{convert|6|mi|km|order=flip|abbr=on}} from the coast. However, it was a maritime city, with ships sailing up the Arno.<ref>{{cite book|last=William Heywood|title=A History of Pisa: Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries|year=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9781108010139|page=1}}</ref> In the 90s AD, a [[Baths of Nero (Pisa)|baths complex]] was built in the city.