This book shows how a military colony became a large, impressive and prosperous city. Legendary for its walls and port, it was able to play a basic role in the great strategy of ancient Rome between the Po and the Danube, spanning the centuries from its foundation (181 BC) to the fateful days of blood and violence of its fall (AD 452).
Based on a study of ancient sources, contemporary literature and the latest archaeological research, and written in a fast-paced and accessible style, the book provides a portrait of Aquileia in a diachronic key, under various aspects; it sets the city in the complex societal and political system of the time, gives a thorough account of the great events of which it was a protagonist or victim and offers detailed portraits of key figures, whether famous or less well-known, and analyses of epic battles.
Combining academic scholarship with storytelling, biographies of important personalities and stories of political intrigue, assassinations and full-scale warfare which narrate the evocative epic of the rise, decline and disappearance of ancient cities, the volume highlights a significant topic in Roman political, social, economic, religious and military history, but one which has been inexplicably neglected in the Anglo-Saxon world until now.
Table of Contents
Abbreviations
Preface
Introduction: The background
1. The northernmost stronghold
2. Caesar’s seat for Illyrian affairs
3. The capital of the Regio X-Venetia et Histria
4. A portrait of a Roman city in the Early Empire
5. In the whirlwind of the Marcomannic Wars
6. Aquileia’s War
7. The Great Constantinian Aquileia
8. A residence of emperors and an evangelizing Church
9. Aquileia in the sunset of the Empire
10. Aquileia’s fall
Appendix: The Roman expansion in northern Italy
Chronology
Contemporary references
Further reading
