| Colonia Iulia Aemona | |
|---|---|
 Location of Emona in modern Ljubljana | |
  Location within Slovenia | |
| Alternative name(s) | Emona, Aemona |
| Type | Castrum,Colonia (after 43 AD) |
| Place in the Roman world | |
| Province | Italia |
| Administrative unit | Venetia et Histria |
| Limes | Claustra Alpium Iuliarum |
| Directly connected to | |
| Structure | |
| — Stone structure — | |
| Built during the reign of | Second Triumvirate,Gaius Calvisius Sabinus,Lucius Marcius Censorinus |
| Built | 35 BC |
| Size and area | 540 m × 430 m (23.2ha) |
| Shape | Rectangular |
| Stationed military units | |
| —Legions — | |
| |
| Events | 35 BC -AD 43, Colonia AD 43 - 452 |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 46°2′51.7″N14°30′3.32″E / 46.047694°N 14.5009222°E /46.047694; 14.5009222 |
| Place name | Ljubljana |
| Town | Ljubljana |
| County | City Municipality of Ljubljana |
| Country | Slovenia |
| Site notes | |
| Condition | Ruined |
| Exhibitions | City Museum of Ljubljana |
| Website | www |
Emona (earlyMedieval Greek:Ἤμονα)[1] orAemona (short forColonia Iulia Aemona) was aRomancastrum, located in the area where the navigableNauportus[2] River came closest toCastle Hill,[3] serving the trade between the city's settlers – colonists from the northern part ofRoman Italy – and the rest of the empire. Emona was the region's easternmost city,[4] although it was assumed formerly that it was part of thePannonia orIllyricum, but archaeological findings from 2008 proved otherwise.
TheVisigoths camped by Emona in the winter of 408/9, theHuns attacked it during their campaign of 452, theLangobards passed through on their way to Italy in 568, and then came incursions by theAvars and Slavs. The ancient cemetery in Dravlje indicates that the original inhabitants and invaders were able to live peacefully side by side for several decades. After the first half of the 6th century, there was no life left in Emona.[3] The 18th-century LjubljanaRenaissance elite shared the interest in Antiquity with the rest of Europe, attributing the founding of Ljubljana to the mythicalJason and theArgonauts.[3] Other ancient Roman towns located in present-daySlovenia includeNauportus (nowVrhnika),Celeia (nowCelje), Neviodunum (now the village ofDrnovo) andPoetovio (nowPtuj).
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During the 1st century BC a Roman military stronghold was built on the site of the present Ljubljana, belowCastle hill. Construction of the Roman settlement of Emona, fortified with strong walls, followed inAD 14. It had a population of 5,000 to 6,000 people, mostly merchants and craftsmen. The town had its own goddess,Equrna, and was also an important Early Christian centre. Emona's administrative territory orager stretched from Atrans (Trojane) along theKarawanks mountains towards the north, nearVišnja Gora to the east, along theKolpa River in the south, and bordered to the west with the territory ofAquileia at the village ofBevke.
According toAmmianus Marcellinus, one of the reasons for the war betweenLicinius andConstantine the Great was that Licinius destroyed the busts and statues of Constantine at Emona.[8]
After few months of occupation in 388, the citizens of Emona saluted EmperorTheodosius I entering the liberated city after the victoriousBattle of the Save, whereTheodosius I defeated the army of theRoman usurperMagnus Maximus.
According toHerodotus, Emona was founded byJason, when he travelled through the country with theArgonauts, and named by him in honour of hisThessalian homeland.Sozomen wrote that when the Argonauts left from theAeetes, they returned from a different route, crossed the sea ofScythia, sailed through some of the rivers there, and when they were near the shores of Italy, they built a city in order to stay at the winter, which they called Emona.[1]Zosimus wrote that after they left from the Aeetes, they arrived at the mouth of theIster River which it discharges itself into theBlack Sea and they went up that river against the stream, by the help of oars and convenient gales of wind. After they managed to do it, they built the city of Emona as a memorial of their arrival there.[9]
According to the 18th-century historianJohann Gregor Thalnitscher, the original predecessor of Emona was founded c. 1222 BC. (The date, although based on legend and poeticspeculation, actually fits in both with Herodotus' account and the date of the earliest archaeological remains found so far)[citation needed]
According to 1938 article by the historianBalduin Saria, Emona was founded in late AD 14 or early AD 15, on the site of theLegio XV Apollinaris, after it left forCarnuntum, by a decree of EmperorAugustus and completed by his successor, EmperorTiberius. Later archaeological findings have not rejected nor clearly confirmed this hypothesis and it is currently (as of 2014[update]) most widely accepted.[10]
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| This sectionneeds expansion with:[6][7][11]. You can help byadding missing information.(October 2012) |
The location of Emona overlaps with the southwest part of the old nucleus of the modern city ofLjubljana. In a rectangle with a central square or forum and a system of rectangular intersecting streets, Emona was laid out as a typical Roman town. According to Roman custom, there were cemeteries along the northern, western, and eastern thoroughfares into the city – from the directions of Celeia, Aquileia, and Neviodunum.[12] The wider area surrounding the town saw the development of typical Roman countryside: villages, hamlets, estates, and brickworks.[3]
Archaeological findings have been found in every construction project in the center of Ljubljana. Intensive archaeological research on Emona dates back 100 years, although it was the Roman town was portrayed from the 17th century onward. Numerous remains have been excavated there, such as parts of the Roman wall, residential houses, statues, tombstones, several mosaics, and parts of theearly Christianbaptistery, which can be still seen today.[10]
Regarding its location within Roman Italy, in 2001 a boundary stone betweenAquileia and Emona was discovered in the vicinity ofBevke in the bed of theLjubljanica River. The stone is made ofAurisina limestone. Because similar stones were only used to demarcate two communities belonging to the same Roman province and because it is not disputed that Aquileia belonged to Roman Italy, this means that both towns belonged to Italy and that Emona was never part of Illyricum (or, later, of the province of Pannonia).[4]
The architectJože Plečnik redesigned the remains of the Roman walls: he cut two new passages to create a link to Snežnik Street (Slovene:Snežniška ulica) and Murnik Street (Slovene:Murnikova ulica), and behind the walls he arranged a park displaying architectural elements from Antiquity, with a stone monument collection in theEmona city gate. Above the passageway to Murnik Street he set up a pyramid, which he covered with turf. After the Second World War, attempts were made to embed references to Emona grid into modern Ljubljana, with the Roman forum becoming part of the Ferant Park apartment blocks and an echo of the rotunda located along Slovenia Street (Slovene:Slovenska cesta).[3]
A Christiandiocese of Aemona was originally based in the city, from the late 4th to the late 6th century.
Its bishop Maximus participated in theCouncil of Aquileia, 381, which condemnedArianism.
It had intensive contacts with the ecclesiastical circle ofMilan, reflected in the architecture of the early Christian complex alongErjavec Street in present-dayLjubljana.
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![Excavations at the building site of the planned new National and University Library of Slovenia. One of the discoveries was the ancient Roman public bath house.[14]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aEmona3.JPG)
