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Mediolanum

From Wikipedia, in a visual modern way
This article is about Roman Milan. For other uses, see Mediolanum (disambiguation).
A section of Roman wall (11 m high) with a 24-sided tower
A section of Roman wall (11 m high) with a 24-sided tower

Mediolanum, the ancient city where Milan now stands, was originally an Insubrian city, but afterwards became an important Roman city in northern Italy. The city was settled by the Insubres around 600 BC, conquered by the Romans in 222 BC, and developed into a key centre of Western Christianity and informal capital of the Western Roman Empire. It declined under the ravages of the Gothic War, its capture by the Lombards in 569, and their decision to make Ticinum the capital of their Kingdom of Italy.

During the Principate the population was 40,000 in AD 200; when the city became capital of the Western Roman Empire under emperor Maximian (r. 286–305), the population rose to 100,000 people and thus Milan became one of the largest cities in Roman Italy.[1][2][3]

Discover more about Mediolanum related topics

Milan

Milan

Milan is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city has 3.26 million inhabitants. Its continuously built-up urban area is the fourth largest in the EU with 5.27 million inhabitants. According to national sources, the population within the wider Milan metropolitan area, is estimated between 8.2 million and 12.5 million making it by far the largest metropolitan area in Italy and one of the largest in the EU.

Insubres

Insubres

The Insubres or Insubri were an ancient Celtic population settled in Insubria, in what is now the Italian region of Lombardy. They were the founders of Mediolanum (Milan). Though completely Gaulish at the time of Roman conquest, they were the result of the fusion of pre-existing Ligurian and Celtic population with Gaulish tribes.

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome

In modern historiography, Ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom, Roman Republic and Roman Empire until the fall of the western empire.

Western Roman Empire

Western Roman Empire

The Western Roman Empire comprised the western provinces of the Roman Empire at any time during which they were administered by a separate independent Imperial court; in particular, this term is used in historiography to describe the period from 395 to 476, where there were separate coequal courts dividing the governance of the empire in the Western and the Eastern provinces, with a distinct imperial succession in the separate courts. The terms Western Roman Empire and Eastern Roman Empire were coined in modern times to describe political entities that were de facto independent; contemporary Romans did not consider the Empire to have been split into two empires but viewed it as a single polity governed by two imperial courts as an administrative expediency. The Western Roman Empire collapsed in 476, and the Western imperial court in Ravenna was formally dissolved by Justinian in 554. The Eastern imperial court survived until 1453.

Lombards

Lombards

The Lombards or Langobards were a Germanic people who ruled most of the Italian Peninsula from 568 to 774.

Ticinum

Ticinum

Ticinum was an ancient city of Gallia Transpadana, founded on the banks of the river of the same name a little way above its confluence with the Padus (Po).

Principate

Principate

The Principate is the name sometimes given to the first period of the Roman Empire from the beginning of the reign of Augustus in 27 BC to the end of the Crisis of the Third Century in AD 284, after which it evolved into the so-called Dominate.

Maximian

Maximian

Maximian, nicknamed Herculius, was Roman emperor from 286 to 305. He was Caesar from 285 to 286, then Augustus from 286 to 305. He shared the latter title with his co-emperor and superior, Diocletian, whose political brain complemented Maximian's military brawn. Maximian established his residence at Trier but spent most of his time on campaign. In late 285, he suppressed rebels in Gaul known as the Bagaudae. From 285 to 288, he fought against Germanic tribes along the Rhine frontier. Together with Diocletian, he launched a scorched earth campaign deep into Alamannic territory in 288, refortifying the frontier.

Roman Italy

Roman Italy

Italia was the homeland of the ancient Romans. According to Roman mythology, Italy was the ancestral home promised by Jupiter to Aeneas of Troy and his descendants, Romulus and Remus, who were the founders of Rome. Aside from the legendary accounts, Rome was an Italic city-state that changed its form of government from Kingdom to Republic and then grew within the context of a peninsula dominated by the Gauls, Ligures, Veneti, Camunni and Histri in the North, the Etruscans, Latins, Falisci, Picentes and Umbri tribes in the Centre, and the Iapygian tribes, the Oscan tribes and Greek colonies in the South.

History

Ruins of the Emperor's palace .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}45°27′54.43″N 09°10′50.15″E / 45.4651194°N 9.1805972°E / 45.4651194; 9.1805972 in Milan. Here Constantine and Licinius issued the Edict of Milan.
Ruins of the Emperor's palace 45°27′54.43″N 09°10′50.15″E / 45.4651194°N 9.1805972°E / 45.4651194; 9.1805972 in Milan. Here Constantine and Licinius issued the Edict of Milan.
Arcadius solidus, from the Mediolanum mint, c 395–408.
Arcadius solidus, from the Mediolanum mint, c 395–408.
Arena games: ivory cup depicting staged hunts and chariot races, found in Milan, 4th-5th century.
Arena games: ivory cup depicting staged hunts and chariot races, found in Milan, 4th-5th century.
Colonne di San Lorenzo in front of Basilica di San Lorenzo
Colonne di San Lorenzo in front of Basilica di San Lorenzo

Mediolanum appears to have been founded around 390 BC by the Celtic Insubres, after whom this region of northern Italy was called Insubria. According to the legend reported by Livy, the Gaulish king Ambicatus sent his nephew Bellovesus into northern Italy at the head of a party drawn from various Gaulish tribes; this Bellovesus was said to have founded Mediolanum (in the time of Tarquinius Priscus, according to this legend).[4] The Romans, led by consul Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus, fought the Insubres and captured the city in 222 BC; the chief of the Insubres submitted to Rome, giving the Romans control of the city.[5] They eventually conquered the entirety of the region, calling the new province Cisalpine Gaul – "Gaul this side of the Alps" – and may have given the site its Latinized Celtic name: in Gaulish *medio – meant "middle, center" and the name element -lanon is the Celtic equivalent of Latin -planum "plain", thus *Mediolanon (Latinized as Mediolānum) meant "(settlement) in the midst of the plain."[6][7]

Mediolanum was important for its location as a hub in the road network of northern Italy. Polybius describes the country as abounding in wine, and every kind of grain, and in fine wool. Herds of swine, both for public and private supply, were bred in its forests, and the people were well known for their generosity.[8]

During the Augustan age Mediolanum was famous for its schools; it possessed a theater and an amphitheatre (129.5 X 109.3 m[9]). A large stone wall encircled the city in Caesar's time, and later was expanded in the late third century AD, by Maximian. Mediolanum was made the seat of the prefect of Liguria (Praefectus Liguriae) by Hadrian, and Constantine made it the seat of the vicar of Italy (Vicarius Italiae). In the third century Mediolanum possessed a mint,[10] a horreum and imperial mausoleum. In 259, Roman legions under the command of Emperor Gallienus soundly defeated the Alemanni in the Battle of Mediolanum.

In 286, Diocletian moved the capital of the Western Roman Empire from Rome to Mediolanum. He chose to reside at Nicomedia in the Eastern Empire, leaving his colleague Maximian at Mediolanum. Maximian built several gigantic monuments, the large circus (470 x 85 metres), the thermae or "Baths of Hercules", a large complex of imperial palaces and other services and buildings of which fewer visible traces remain. Maximian increased the city area surrounded by a new, larger stone wall (about 4.5 km long) encompassing an area of 375 acres with many 24-sided towers. The monumental area had twin towers; one that was included in the convent of San Maurizio Maggiore remains 16,60 m high.

It was from Mediolanum that the Emperor Constantine issued what is now known as the Edict of Milan in AD 313, granting tolerance to all religions within the Empire, thus paving the way for Christianity to become the dominant religion of the Empire. Constantine was in Mediolanum to celebrate the wedding of his sister to the Eastern Emperor, Licinius. There were Christian communities in Mediolanum, which contributed its share of martyrs during the persecutions,[11] but the first bishop of Milan who has a firm historical presence is Merocles, who was at the Council of Rome of 313. In the mid-fourth century, the Arian controversy divided the Christians of Mediolanum; Constantius supported Arian bishops and at times there were rival bishops. Auxentius of Milan (died 374) was a respected Arian theologian.

At the time of the bishop St. Ambrose (bishop 374–397), who quelled the Arians, and emperor Theodosius I, Mediolanum reached the height of its ancient power.[12]

The city also possessed a number of basilicas, added in the late fourth century AD. These are San Simpliciano, San Nazaro, San Lorenzo and the chapel of San Vittore, located in the basilica of Sant'Ambrogio. In general, the Late Empire encouraged the development of the applied arts in Mediolanum, with ivory and silver work being common in public building projects. In the crypt of the Duomo survive ruins of the ancient church of Saint Tecla and the baptistry where St. Augustine of Hippo was baptized.

In 402, the city was besieged by the Goths and the imperial residence was moved to Ravenna. In 452, it was besieged again by Attila, but the real break with its imperial past came in 538, during the Gothic War, when Mediolanum was laid to waste by Uraia, a nephew of Vitiges, King of the Goths, with great loss of life.[13] The Lombards took Ticinum as their capital (renaming it ‘Papia’, hence the modern Pavia), and Early Medieval Milan was left to be governed by its archbishops.

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Licinius

Licinius

Valerius Licinianus Licinius was Roman emperor from 308 to 324. For most of his reign he was the colleague and rival of Constantine I, with whom he co-authored the Edict of Milan, AD 313, that granted official toleration to Christians in the Roman Empire. He was finally defeated at the Battle of Chrysopolis, and was later executed on the orders of Constantine I.

Edict of Milan

Edict of Milan

The Edict of Milan was the February 313 AD agreement to treat Christians benevolently within the Roman Empire. Western Roman Emperor Constantine I and Emperor Licinius, who controlled the Balkans, met in Mediolanum and, among other things, agreed to change policies towards Christians following the edict of toleration issued by Emperor Galerius two years earlier in Serdica. The Edict of Milan gave Christianity legal status and a reprieve from persecution but did not make it the state church of the Roman Empire. That occurred in AD 380 with the Edict of Thessalonica.

Arcadius

Arcadius

Arcadius was Roman emperor from 383 to 408. He was the eldest son of the Augustus Theodosius I and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla, and the brother of Honorius. Arcadius ruled the eastern half of the empire from 395, when their father died, while Honorius ruled the west. A weak ruler, his reign was dominated by a series of powerful ministers and by his wife, Aelia Eudoxia.

Colonne di San Lorenzo

Colonne di San Lorenzo

The Colonne di San Lorenzo or Columns of San Lorenzo is a group of ancient Roman ruins, located in front of the Basilica of San Lorenzo in central Milan, region of Lombardy, northern Italy.

Insubres

Insubres

The Insubres or Insubri were an ancient Celtic population settled in Insubria, in what is now the Italian region of Lombardy. They were the founders of Mediolanum (Milan). Though completely Gaulish at the time of Roman conquest, they were the result of the fusion of pre-existing Ligurian and Celtic population with Gaulish tribes.

Insubria

Insubria

Insubria is a historical-geographical region which corresponds to the area inhabited in Classical antiquity by the Insubres; the name can also refer to the Duchy of Milan (1395–1810). For several centuries this name stood for an area stretching approximately between the Adda river in the east and the Sesia river in the west, and between the San Gottardo Pass in the north and the Po river in the south, thus it was a synonym of the Milan region and the surrounding countryside corresponding with Lombardy in modern Italy.

Gaul

Gaul

Gaul was a region of Western Europe first clearly described by the Romans, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and parts of Switzerland, Germany, and Northern Italy. It covered an area of 494,000 km2 (191,000 sq mi). According to Julius Caesar, who took control of the region on behalf of the Roman Republic, Gaul was divided into three parts: Gallia Celtica, Belgica, and Aquitania.

Ambicatus

Ambicatus

Ambicatus or Ambigatus is a legendary Gallic king of the Bituriges, said to have lived ca. 600 BC. According to a legend recounted by Livy, he sent his sister's sons Bellovesus and Segovesus in search of new lands to settle because of overpopulation in their homeland. Segovesus headed towards the Hercynian Forest, while Bellovesus is said to have led the Gallic invasion of the Po Valley during the legendary reign of the fifth king of Rome, Tarquinius Priscus, where he allegedly conquered the Etruscans and founded the city of Mediolanum (Milan).

Bellovesus

Bellovesus

Bellovesus is a legendary Gallic chief of the Bituriges, said to have lived ca. 600 BC. According to a legend recounted by Livy, the king Ambigatus sent his sister's sons Bellovesus and Segovesus in search of new lands to settle because of overpopulation in their homeland. While Segovesus headed towards the Hercynian Forest, Bellovesus is said to have led the Gallic invasion of the Po Valley during the legendary reign of the fifth king of Rome, Tarquinius Priscus, where he allegedly conquered the Etruscans and founded the city of Mediolanum (Milan).

Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus

Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus

Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus was a Roman general and statesman during the third century BC. He played a major part in the Second Punic War establishing Roman Rule in the east of the Iberian Peninsula and tying up several Carthaginian armies keeping them from reinforcing Hannibal.

Cisalpine Gaul

Cisalpine Gaul

Cisalpine Gaul was the cisalpine land inhabited by Celts (Gauls) during the 4th and 3rd centuries BC.

Latinisation of names

Latinisation of names

Latinisation of names, also known as onomastic Latinisation, is the practice of rendering a non-Latin name in a Latin style. It is commonly found with historical proper names, including personal names and toponyms, and in the standard binomial nomenclature of the life sciences. It goes further than romanisation, which is the transliteration of a word to the Latin alphabet from another script. For authors writing in Latin, this change allows the name to function grammatically in a sentence through declension.

Extant structures

Some of the monuments of the Roman Mediolanum still to be seen in Milan:

  • in the basilica of S. Ambrogio:
    • the Chapel of S. Vittore, with Late Antique mosaics
    • the so‑called "Tomb of Stilicho", assembled from a Roman sarcophagus and other material.
    • a large collection of inscriptions.
  • the Colonne di San Lorenzo, a colonnade in front of the church of S. Lorenzo.
  • Roman lapidary material in the Archi di Porta Nuova.
  • the scant remains of a large amphitheatre, now in an archaeological park dedicated to their preservation.
  • a tower (16.6 m high) of the circus, now inside the Convento di San Maurizio Maggiore.
  • a bit of moenia (walls) and a tower with 24 sides (Maximian, 3rd century)
  • the church of San Lorenzo (IV-V sec.) and the San Aquilino chapel.
  • ruins of the imperial palace.
  • some ruins from the Baths of Hercules; further remains of ceilings and floors are in the archaeological museum.
  • the body of St. Ambrose (d. 397) and those possibly of SS. Gervasius and Protasius — or at any rate, of earlier men, found in St. Ambrose's time, are still seen in the crypt of the church of S. Ambrogio.
  • crypt of San Giovanni in Conca
  • a bit of the moenia and some remnants of pavements in piazza Missori and in the namesake station of Milan Metro.

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Stilicho

Stilicho

Stilicho was a military commander in the Roman army who, for a time, became the most powerful man in the Western Roman Empire. He was of Vandal origins and married to Serena, the niece of emperor Theodosius I. He became guardian for the underage Honorius. After nine years of struggle against barbarian and Roman enemies, political and military disasters finally allowed his enemies in the court of Honorius to remove him from power. His fall culminated in his arrest and execution in 408.

Colonne di San Lorenzo

Colonne di San Lorenzo

The Colonne di San Lorenzo or Columns of San Lorenzo is a group of ancient Roman ruins, located in front of the Basilica of San Lorenzo in central Milan, region of Lombardy, northern Italy.

Amphitheatre

Amphitheatre

An amphitheatre or amphitheater is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ἀμφιθέατρον, from ἀμφί, meaning "on both sides" or "around" and θέατρον, meaning "place for viewing".

Milan Metro

Milan Metro

The Milan Metro is the rapid transit system serving Milan, Italy, operated by Azienda Trasporti Milanesi. The network consists of 5 lines, identified by different numbers and colours, with a total network length of 101.6 kilometres (63.1 mi), and a total of 119 stations, mostly underground. It has a daily ridership of about 1.4 million on weekdays.

Legacy

The ancient city name is commemorated in the Mediolanum Forum at Assago and the Mediolanum Corporate University, Milan.

Source: "Mediolanum", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, March 6th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediolanum.

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Further Reading

Ab urbe condita

Diocletian

Tetrarchy

Outline of ancient Rome

Maximian

Ticinum

Taurini

Cisalpine Gaul

Sirmium

Roman Italy

Basilica of San Lorenzo, Milan

Constitution of the Late Roman Empire

Milan amphitheatre

History of Milan

Civil wars of the Tetrarchy

Early Christian churches in Milan

Roman–Gallic wars
See also
Notes
  1. ^ Morley, Neville (19 December 2002). Metropolis and Hinterland: The City of Rome and the Italian Economy, 200 BC-AD 200. Cambridge University Press. p. 182. ISBN 9780521893312.
  2. ^ A Companion to Latin Studies. CUP Archive. 1963. p. 356.
  3. ^ Macadam, Alta; Rossiter, Stuart; Blanchard, Paul; Muirhead, Findlay; Bertarelli, Luigi Vittorio (1971). Northern Italy, from Alps to Florence. A & C Black.
  4. ^ Livius, Ab Urbe condita 5.34-35.3.
  5. ^ Polybius, Histories
  6. ^ Delamarre, Xavier (2003). Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise (in French) (2nd ed.). Paris: Errance. pp. 221–222. ISBN 2-87772-237-6.
  7. ^ Compare G. Quintela and V. Marco '"Celtic Elements in Northwestern Spain in Pre-Roman times" e-Keltoi: Journal of Interdisciplinary Celtic Studies, 2005, referring to "a toponym, clearly in the second part of the composite Medio-lanum (=Milan), meaning 'plain' or flat area..."
  8. ^ Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898): "Gallia Cisalpina"
  9. ^ Benario, Herbert W. (1981). "Amphitheatres of the Roman World". The Classical Journal. 76 (3): 255–258. JSTOR 3297328. Measurements as given p. 257; it was not, as is sometimes claimed, the third largest in the world after the Flavian Amphitheatre in Rome and the vast amphitheatre in Capua.
  10. ^ Though Trajan Decius may have struck coinage at Mediolanum, the sequence begins with Gallienus, c 258; the mint at Mediolanum, transferred to Ticinum by Aurelian, ranked with Rome and Siscia (modern Sisak in Croatia) as one of the three great mints of the Empire. Mattingly, H. (1921). "The Mints of the Empire: Vespasian to Diocletian". Journal of Roman Studies. 11: 254–264 [p. 259]. doi:10.2307/295905. JSTOR 295905.
  11. ^ There were Milanese cults of Saints Gervasius and Protasius, St. Victor Maurus (304), Sts. Nabor and Felix, and Sts. Nazarius and Celsus and the legendary Saint Sebastian.
  12. ^ The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites (eds. Richard Stillwell, William L. MacDonald, Marian Holland McAllister)
  13. ^ According to Procopius, the losses at Milan amounted to 300,000 men.
References
External links
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