Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/319

 ]IEDIOLANU:r, difficult to see where Mediolanum should bo. The next position to Jlediolanum on the road to Cologne is Sublones ; which is also uncertain. 4. Mediolanum was the chief town of the Aulerci Eburovices (Ptol. ii. 8. § 11), or Mediolanium, as it is in Ptolemy's text. The name occurs in the An- tonine Itin. and in the Table. In the Notitia of the Gallic provinces it is named Civitas Ebroicorum; and in the middle ages it was called Ebroas, whence the modern name Evreux, a town in the French department of Eure. Ammianus Marcellinus (xv. 11) mentions Medio- lanum as one of the chief cities of Secunda Lugdu- nensis. There was a Roman town a few miles south-east of Evreux, at a place called Vieil Evreux. There are the remains of a large theatre here, the foundations of a building which is supposed to have been a temple, and remains of baths. A great number of amphorae, household utensils, articles of luxury, and imperial medals have been dug up hero, and deposited in the Museum of Evreux. This Vieil Evreux may be the site of Mediolanum. 5. Mediolanum was the chief town of the S;uitones or Santoni, now Saintes, in the French department of Ckarente Inferieure. Strabo (iv. p. 190) writes the name Mediolanium, and also Ptolemy (ii. 7. § 7). Marcellinus (xv. 11) speaks of this place under the name of Santones, from which it apjjears that in his time the name of the people had. as in many in- stances, been transferred to the iowa. There is no doubt about the site of this Mediolanum, which is Saintes on the Ckarente. It was once a considerable Roman town. There is an arch in honour of Ger- manicus Caesar, which appears to be built on the middle of the bridge over the Ckarente, which joins the town to the faubourg, but the arch rests on the bed of the river, and the bridge has been built to it from each batdi. The most probable explanation of this singular circumstance is that the arch stood originally on one bank of the river, and that the river changed its course. The bridge, of course, must have been built after this supposed change. The amphitheatre is outside of the town, at the bottom of a valley. It is an ellipse, about 436 feet long and about 354 feet wide. Water was brought to the town from a source several miles to the north by an aqueduct, of which there are still some remains. In one of the valleys which it crossed there are traces of 25 arches, of which three are standing. One of them is nearly 50 feet high. [G.L.] MEDIOLA'NUM (MeSidAavoj', Pul. ; MeSioAaciov, Strab., Ptol. : Eth. Jlediolanensis : Milano, Milan'), the chief city of the Insubres in Cisalpine Gaul, and for a long period the capital of Cisalpine Gaul itself. It was situated about midway between the rivers Ticinus and Addua, in a broad and fertile plain, about 28 miles from the foot of the Alps at Comum, and the same distance from the Padus near Ticinum (^Pavia). All ancient writers concur in ascribing its foundation to the Gauls, at the time when that people first established themselves in the plains of Northern Italy. Livy, who has given the most de- tailed account of the settlement of the Cisalpine Gauls, tells us it was founded by the Insubres, who called it after a village of the same name in their native settlements in Transalpine Gaul (Liv. v. 34 ; Strab. V. p. 213 ; Plin. iii. 17. s. 21; Justin, xx. 5.) There can be little doubt that Strabo is correct in saying that, previous to the Roman conquest, it %V!us rather a village than a town, as were indeed all the other Gaulish settlements. It was nevertheless MEDIOLANUM. 303 the chief place of the Insubres, and is mentioned as such sevei-al times in the history of the wars of that people with the Romans. Thus, in the campaign of B.C. 222, after the battle of Clastidium, it Was attacked and taken by the Roman consuls Claudius Marcellus and Cn. Scipio. (Pol. ii. 34; Eutrop. iii. 6 ; Oros. iv. 13.) On this occasion it was taken by assault with apparently but little difficulty, and this confirms the statement of Strabo that it was an open town. Again, in b. c. 194, a battle was fought near it, between the Roman proconsul L. Valerius Flac- cus and the combined forces of the Insubrians and Boians, under a chief named Doiylacus, in which the Gauls are said to have lost 10,000 men. (Liv. xxxiv. 46.) No other mention of Mediolanum occurs previous to the Roman conquest, nor have we any precise account of the time at which it passed under the Roman yoke, or that at which it was admitted to the Roman " civitas." We can only infer that it must have sub- mitted, together with the rest of the Insubres, about 190 B.C.: its citizens doubtless received the Latin franchise, together with the other Transpadane Gauls, in B. c. 89, and the full Roman franchise in b. c. 49. [Gallia Cisalpina, Vol. I. p. 945.] Mediolanum thus passed into the condition of a Roman munici- pium, but it did not as yet enjoy that degree of im- portance which it subsequently attained. Strabo calls it in his time a considerable city (ttoAis o|i(5- A070S, V. p. 213), and Tacitus reckons it among the "firmissima Transpadanae regionis municipia;" but neither he nor Pliny give any indication of its possessing any marked superiority over the other municipal towns with which they associate its name. (Plin. iii. 17. s. 21; Ptol. iii. 1. §33; Tac. Bist. i. 70.) It is evident, however, that under the Roman Empire it increased rapidly in prosperity, and became not only the chief town of the Insubres, but the most important city in Northern Italy. AVe learn from the younger Pliny that it was a place where litera- ture flourished, and young men from the neigh- bouring towns were sent for their education. (Plin Ep. iv. 13.) It was the native place of the emperor Didius Julianus, as well as of Septimius Geta. (Dion Cass. Ixxiii. 1 1 ; Spartian. Bid. Jul. 1, Get. 3.) At a later period, A. D. 268, it was there that the usurper Aureolus took refuge after his defeat by Gal- lienus on the Addua, and was for some time besieged by the emperor, till a sedition in his own camp ended in the death of Gallienus, and his brother Valerianus. (Eutrop. ix. 11 ; Treb. Poll. Gall. 14 ; Vict. Caes. 33, Epit. 33.) Shortly after Aureolus was com- pelled to surrender the city to Claudius, who had been elected to succeed Gallienus, and was put to death by order of the new emperor. (Treb. Poll. Clawl. 5.) But it was the establishment of the imperial resi- dence at Mediolanum that raised that city to the highest pitch of prosperity. Its central position, which rendered it a peculiarly suitable head-quarters from which to watch the movements of the barba- rians, and the progress of the wars with them, whether in Ganl, Germany, or Pannonia, was un- doubtedly the cause of its selection for this purpose. Augustus himself is said to have sometimes repaired to Jlediolanum with the same view (Snet. Aug. 20); and the constantly increa.sing dangers from these quarters led subsequent emperors from time to time to follow his example ; but Masimian appears to have been the tir.st of the Roman emperors who perma- nently fixed his residence there (about A. v. 303)