, the classical '''Tibur''', is an ancient
Italian town in
Lazio , some 20 km from
Rome , at the falls of the
Aniene river, where it issues from the Sabine hills. There are spectacular views out over the Roman Campagna.
Gaius Julius Solinus cites
Cato The Elder 's lost ''Origines'' for the story that the city was founded by Catillus the Arcadian, a son of
Amphiaraus , who came there having escaped the slaughter at
Thebes . Catillus and his three sons Tiburtus, Coras, and Catillus drove out the
Siculi from the Aniene plateau and founded a city they named Tibur in honor of Tiburtus. According to a more historical account, Tibur was instead a colony of
Alba Longa . Historical traces of settlement in the area dates back to the
13th Century BC .
Virgil in his ''
Aeneid '' makes Coras and the younger Catillus twin brothers and the leaders of military forces from Tibur aiding
Turnus .
From Etruscan times Tibur, a
Sabine city, was the seat of the Tiburtine Sibyl. There are two small temples above the falls, the rotunda traditionally associated with
Vesta and the rectangular one with the Sibyl of Tibur, whom
Varro calls '
Albunea ', the water nymph who was worshipped on the banks of the Anio as a tenth Sibyl added to the nine mentioned by the Greek writers. In the nearby woods,
Faunus had a sacred grove. During the
Roman Age Tibur maintained a certain importance, being on the way (the
Via Tiburtina , extended as the
Via Valeria ) that Romans had to follow to cross the mountain regions of the
Apennines towards the
Abruzzo , the region where lived some of its fiercest enemies such as
Volsci ,
Sabini and
Samnites .
At first an independent ally of and
Statius all mention Tibur in their poems. In
273 AD ,
Zenobia , the captive queen of
Palmyra , was assigned a residence here by the Emperor
Aurelian . The 2nd-century temples of Hercules Victor is currently in the process of being excavated. The present Diazza del Duomo occupies the Roman forum.
The name of the city came to be used in diminutive form as ''Tiburi'' instead of ''Tibur'' and so transformed through ''Tibori'' to ''Tiboli'' and finally to ''Tivoli''. But its inhabitants are still called ''Tiburtini'' and not ''Tivolesi''.
In
547 , in the course of the
Gothic War , the city was fortified by the Byzantine general
Belisarius , but was later destroyed by
Totila 's army. After the end of the war it became a Byzantine duchy, later absorbed into the
Patrimony Of St. Peter . After Italy was conquered by
Charlemagne Tivoli was under the authority of a count, representing the emperor.
From the
10th Century onwards Tivoli, as an independent commune governed by its elected consuls, was the fiercest rival of Rome in the struggle for the control over the impoverished central Lazio. Emperor
Otto III conquered it in
1001 , and Tivoli fell under the
Papal control. Tivoli however managed to keep a variable level of independence until the
15th Century : symbols of the city's strength were the Palace of Arengo, the ''Torre del Comune'' and the church of St. Michael, all built in this period, as well as the new line of walls (authorized in 1155), needed to house the increasing population. Reminders of the internal turbulence of communal life are the tower houses that may be seen in Vicolo dei Ferri, Via Postera, Via del Seminario and Via del Colle.
In the
13th Century the Senate of Rome succeeded in imposing a tribute on the city, and arrogated to itself the right of appointing a count to govern it in conjunction with the local consuls. In the
14th Century Tivoli sided with the
Guelph s and strongly supported
Urban VI against
Antipope Clement VII . King
Ladislaus Of Sicily was twice repulsed from the city, as well as the famous
Condottiero Braccio Da Montone .
During the
Renaissance popes and cardinals did not limit their embellishment program to Rome, and erected several buildings in Tivoli also. In
1461 Pope Pius II built the massive Rocca Pia to control the always riotous population, and as a symbol of the permanence of papal temporal power here.
From the
16th Centuries the environs of the city saw further villa construction. The most famous of these is the
Villa D'Este , begun in
1549 by
Pirro Ligorio for Cardinal
Ippolito D'Este and richly decorated with an ambitious program of
Fresco es by the
Zuccari brothers and other. In
1527 Tivoli was sacked by bands of the supporters of the
Emperor and the
Colonna , important archives being destroyed during the attack. In
1547 it was again occupied, by the
Duke Of Alba in a war against
Paul IV , and in
1744 by the
Austrians .
In
1835 Pope Gregory XVI added the
Villa Gregoriana , a leisure park pivoting around the Aniene's falls. These were created through a tunnel in the Monte Catillo, to give an outlet to the waters of the Aniene sufficient to preserve the city from inundations like the devastating one of
1826 .
In
1944 Tivoli suffered heavy damage under an
Allied bombing, which totally destroyed the
Jesuit Church of Jesus.
Tivoli's long-standing reputation as a stylish resort has inspired other sites named
Tivoli .
Recently uncovered ruins under Hadrian's villa have revealed what appears to be a headless sphinx and many other invaluable find. According to a Yahoo news article the site will be open some time in Spring 2007.
Tivoli's quarries are the most important center for the production of
Travertine , a particular white
Calcium Carbonate rock used in building most Roman monuments. The water power of the beautiful falls is utilised in various industries and supplies the electric current that lights Rome. The slopes of the neighbouring hills are covered with olives, vineyards and gardens; the most important local industry is the manufacture of paper.
