An Italian episcopal town, in the province of Rome; native place of Pope Boniface VIII. On September 7, 1303, Nogaret and Sciarra Colonna, emissaries of Philip the Fair of France, at the head of several hundred soldiers, invaded the town where Boniface was then residing, plundered the papal palace, and offered all sorts of indignities to the pontiff who refused to abdicate or to convoke a general council. On September 9, the inhabitants drove away the sacrilegious invaders.