City
Lunae
Luni
Listen to the story
Luna carried the name of the moon, and the Greeks called it the harbour and city of Selene. Founded as a Roman colony in 177 BC, it survives as the ruins of Luni near Sarzana in Italy. The Greek geographer Strabo found the town small but its harbour huge and excellent, and the nearby quarries of what is now Carrara marble led the poet Silius to praise its gleaming white walls. The map, however, draws only the usual pair of towers and no harbour at all, although the port is attested again and again.