From the Argonauts to Barbarossa the pirate

Diodorus Siculus talks about Elba, telling us that "The Argonauts, after seizing the Golden Fleece, sailing through the Tyrrhenian Sea, arrived at an island called Aethalia, where they built an excellent harbor for their ships, calling it Argon after the name of their ship." Also, a verse from the Aeneid is dedicated to our island, telling us that three hundred young war experts participated in the Trojan War, and their weapons were forged with iron extracted from the Elban mines.

Infoelba recommends: discover the legend of the Argonauts and the Island of Elba

Since the Bronze Age, due to the richness of its subsoil, the island has been contested over the centuries, starting with its first inhabitants, a Liguria population, then the Etruscans, and in the Iron Age, also the Greeks (6th century B.C.), who called it Αἱθαλία (Aithalia, Aethalia), the sooty one, due to the fires that burned day and night.

The dominion of the Etruscans lasted for a long time, and numerous archaeological findings prove this. The Romans took control of it starting from 450 B.C., renaming it Ilva, from Ilvates, the name of the Ligurian populations that inhabited it. Besides iron, the Romans also exploited the marble and granite quarries in the western part of the island. Of interest are the remains of the Roman villa of the Grotte, located in front of the Portoferraio bay, built between the 1st century B.C. and the 1st century A.D.

At the center of important sea routes, Elba has always been contested over time for the shelters its coasts offered, but also looted and devastated by pirate hordes from the seas. In the "Dialogues" of Pope Gregory the Great, the name Elba appears for the first time; here it is said that the bishop of Populonia, Saint Cerbone, was forced by the Lombards to retreat in exile on the island; today, a hermitage bearing his name still exists near Marciana.

Subsequently, the Lombard dukes ruled the island until the decline of Lombard power. In the 9th and 10th centuries, with Sicily already conquered by the Arabs and Sardinia and Corsica used as strategic bases for Muslim naval hegemony, the entire Tyrrhenian coast became depopulated. Pisa, forced to defend itself from the continuous attacks of the Muslim pirates, developed its naval art and became one of the main coastal strongholds of Tuscany.

Important fortresses and watchtowers were built by the Pisans on the island after their victory against the fierce Mughehid in the early decades of the 10th century: at Palmaiola, Capraia, Gorgona, and also at San Giovanni in Campo. Impressive castellated works were also built, such as the impregnable Castello del Volterraio and the Luceri fortress on Colle Reciso, possibly over previous Roman or even Etruscan fortified structures.