City
Polentia
Porto Recanati · S. Maria a Potenza (Pt)
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Polentia, marked with the usual pair of towers, carries a slip: the town was really called Potentia, and the map's form seems to be a confusion with the Pollentini, a community named by the Roman writer Pliny. Potentia means 'power', and naming colonies after such ideals was common when Rome founded this one in 184 BC, giving each settler six iugera of land. Its site is sought near the abbey of Santa Maria a Potenza at Porto Recanati, where the river still bears the name. After the town was destroyed, probably in the fifth century, survivors built a hilltop settlement, called Potenza Picena since 1862.