page_title: Cosa
section_title: Forum
hierarchical_section_title: Cosa / Forum
caption_attribution_description: Cosa, Ansedonia, Orbetello, Toscana, Italia
context_page_description: Cosa was a Latin colony founded in southwestern Tuscany in 273 BC, on land confiscated from the Etruscans, to solidify the control of the Romans and offer the Republic a protected port.
  The Etruscan site may have been where modern Orbetello stands; a fortification wall in polygonal masonry at Orbetello's lagoon may be in phase with the walls of Cosa. The position of Cosa is distinct, rising some 113 metres above sea level and is sited 140 km northwest of Rome on the Tyrrhenian Sea coast, on a hill near the small town of Ansedonia. The town experienced a hard life and was never truly a prosperous Roman city, although it has assumed a position of prominence in Roman archaeology owing to the circumstances of its excavation. After the foundation, wars of the 3rd century BC affected the town. New colonists arrived in 197 BC. Cosa seems to have prospered until it was sacked in the 60s BC, perhaps by pirates - although an earthquake and unrest related to the Catilinarian Conspiracy have also been cited as reasons. This led to a re-foundation under Augustus and then life continued until the 3rd century.
context_section_description: The forum was the public square of the city and was the site of many important structures, included a basilica and a curia-comitium complex, as well as buildings Brown termed atria publica, which have now been shown to be houses.  The forum of Cosa is fairly complex in archaeological terms and many of the Republican structures were later built over with constructions of the Imperial period.
  Important buildings in the forum area included: Temple B, a possible mall, a Comitium, a Curia, a Basilica, and included one of Italy's oldest monumental arches that allowed entrance into the forum.
caption: Basilica in the forum.
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