Everything about Emona totally explained
Emona or
Aemona, short for Colonia Iulia (A)emona, was a
Roman castrum founded in
14/15 AD, possibly by the
XV Legio Apollinaris (theory proposed by the noted historian and
epigraphy expert
Balduin Saria), on a territory already populated by ancient settlers of uncertain origin. Its location overlaps with the SW part of the old nucleus of the modern city of
Ljubljana, capital of
Slovenia, where numerous remains of Emona can still be seen today (substantial parts of the ancient city
walls, most of which were destroyed in
1963, several
mosaics, parts of the
paleochristian baptistry, residential houses,
statues,
tombstones etc.).
(A)emona was, along with
Nauportus,
Celeia and
Poetovio, one of the main cities on the eastern coast of the
Adriatic. Formerly, it was assumed to have been a part of the Roman
province of
Pannonia. However, recent research seems to indicate that Aemona was actually the easternmost city of the Roman empire proper.
After few months of occupation in
388, citizens of Emona saluted Emperor
Theodosius I entering the liberated city after the victorious
Battle of the Save where
Theodosius I defeated army of
Roman usurper Magnus Maximus.
In
452, (A)emona was virtually destroyed by the
Huns, led by
Attila. Its remaining inhabitants fled the city; some of them made it to the coast of
Istria where they founded a "second Emona",
Aemonia, now the town of
Novigrad (meaning "New City"), in
Croatia.
Legend or history?
According to
Herodotus, Aemona was founded by
Jason and named by him, in honour of his
Thessalian homeland.
According to the
18th century historian
Janez Gregor Dolničar, the original predecessor of (A)emona/Ljubljana was founded cca
1222 BC. (The date, although based on legend and poetic
speculation, actually fits in both with Herodotus' account and the date of the earliest archeological remains found so far.)
Emona in literature
Emona is the setting of a popular novel by
Mira Mihelič,
Tujec v Emoni, Ljubljana, 1978..
Emona is also the city that
Elizabeth Kostova's protagonist first travels to in the 2005 novel
The Historian.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Emona'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://emona.totallyexplained.com">Emona Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
