Road station
Ortona
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Ortona, which still bears its ancient name, was the harbour of the Frentani on the Adriatic coast. The Greek geographer Strabo adds a strange note: nearby, he says, robbers held a rocky height, built their homes from the timbers of wrecked ships and lived like wild beasts, a sentence many editors believe a later scribe slipped in. In 538 AD, during the war against the Goths, a Byzantine commander named John seized the town.