Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/320

 304 .MEDIOLANUM. and thus at once raised it to the dignity of the capital of Nortliern Itily. From this period thu emperors of the West made it their hal/itual abode (Eutrop. ix. 27 ; Zosim. ii. 10, 17, &c.), until the increasing fear of the barbarians induced Honorius, in A. u. 404, to take refuge in the inaccessible marshes of Ravenna. ^laximian is said to have adorned the city witii many splendid public buildings (Vict. Ccm. 39); and.it w;is doubtless at this period that it rose to the splendour and magnificence which, about the middle of the fourth century, excited the .admiration of the poet Ausonius, who assigns it the sixth place among the cities of the empire. The houses are described by him as nu- merous and elegantly built, corresponding to the cultivated manners and cheerful character of the in- habitants. It was surrounded with a double range of walls, enclosing an ample space for the buildings of the city. Among thccie were conspicuous a circus, a theatre, many temples, the palace or residence of the emperor, a mint ; and baths, which bore the name of Herculean, in honour of their founder Masi- inianus, and were so important as to give name to a whole quarter of the city. The numerous porticoes which were attached to these and other public buildings were adorned with marble statues ; and the whole aspect of the city, if we may believe the poet, did not suffer by comparison with Home. (Auson. Clar. Urh. 5.) The transference of the imperial court and resi- dence to Ravenna must have given a considerable sliock to the prosperity of Mediolanum, though it continued to be still regarded as the capital of Li- guria (as Gallia Transpadana was now called), and was the residence of the Consularis or Vicarius Italiae, to whose jurisdiction the whole of Northern Italy was subject. (^Libell. Procinc. p. 62; BiJcking, ml Not. Dit/n, ii. p. 442.) 15ut a much more severe blow n-as inflicted on the city in A. i>. 452, when it was taken and plundered by Attila, who after the fall of Aquileia caiTied his arms, almost without oppo- sition, through the whole region N. of the Po. (.Jornand. Get. 42 ; Hist, liiscell. xv. p. 549.) Kotwithstanding this disaster, Mediolanum seems to have retained much of its former importance. It was still regarded as the metropolis of Northern Italy, and after the fall of the Western Empire, in A. D. 476, became the royal residence of the Gothic kings Odoacer and Theddoric. Procopius indeed speaks of it in the sixth century as surpassing all the other cities of the West in size and population, and Inferior to Rome alone. (Procop. B. G. ii. 8.) It was recovered with little difficulty by Belisarius, but immediately besieged by the Goths under Uraia, the brother of Vitiges, who, after a long siege, made himself again master of the city (a. d. 539), which he is said to have utterly destroyed, putting all the male inhabitants, to the number of 300,000, to the sword, and reducing the women to slavery. (Id. ib. 21.) It is evident, however, that the expressions of Procopius on this occasion must be gieatly exag- gerated, for, at the time of the invasion of the Lom- bards under Alboin (a. d. 568), Mediolanum already reappears in little less than its former importance It was still the acknowledged capital of Liguria (P. Diac. IPist. Lang. ii. 15, 25); and, as the me- tropolitan see, appears to have retained this dignity under the Lombard kings, though those monarchs transl'erred their royal residence to Ticinum or Pai'la. In the middle ages it rapidly rose again to pros- j)erity; and, though a second time destroyed by the MEDIOLANUM, emperor Frederic Barbarossa in 1162, quickly re- covered, and has continued down to the present day to be one of tlie most important and flourishing cities of Italy. The position of Milan, almost in the centre of the great plain of Northern Italy, just about midway between the Alps and the Padus, appears to have marked it in all .ages as the natural capital of that extensive and fertile region. Its ready communi- cations with the Ticinus on the one side, and the Addua on the other, in great measure supply the want which would otherwise have arisen from its not being situated on a navigable river ; and the fertile plain between these two rivers is watered by the minor but still considerable streams of the Lamhro and Olona. The latter, which is not no- ticed by any ancient writer, flows under the walls of Milan. The modern city contains few vestiges of its ancient splendour. Of all the public buildings which excited the admiration of Ausonius (see above), the only remains are the columns of a por- tico, 16 in number, and of the Corinthian order, now attached to the church of S. Lorenzo, and sup- posed, with some probability, to have been originally connected with the Thermae or baths erected by the emperor Maximian. A single antique column, now standing in front of the ancient basilica of Sant' Ambrogio, has been removed from some other site, and does not indicate the existence of an ancient building on the spot. Numerous inscriptions have, however, been discovered, and are still preserved in the museum at Milan. These fully confirm the municipal importance of Mediolanum under the eai-ly Roman Empire; while from one of them we learn the fact that the city, notwithstanding its flourish- ing condition, received a colony under Hadrian, and assumed, in honour of that emperor, the titles of Colonia Aelia Augusta. (Orell. Liscr. 1702, 1909, 3942, 4000, 4060, &c.; Zumpt, de Colon, p. 409.) Mediolanum was the central point from which all the highroads of Italy N. of the Padus may be considered as radiating. The first and principal of these was that which led by Laus Pompeia to Placentia, where it joined the Via Aemilia, and thus became the direct line of route from Milan to Ra- venna and Rome. Another main line was that by Novaria and Vercellae to Eporedia and Augusta Praetoria, which must have been the principal line of communication between Milan and Trans- alpine Gaul. A third road led in a southerly direc- tion to Ticinum {Pavia'), from which there were two lines ; the one proceeding by Laumellum ti) Augusta Taurinorum, and thence over the Cotti.tn Alps into the southern provinces of Gaul; the other crossing the Padus to Dertona, and thence across the Apennines to Genoa. A fourth line was that to Comum, from whence there was a much fre- quented pass by the Lacus Larius, and across the Rhaetian Alps into the valley of the Inn, thus open- ing a direct and speedy communication with the Danube. Lastly, a great line of highway led from Milan to Aquileia, passing through Bergomum, Brixia, Verona, Vicentia, Patavium, Altinum, and Concordia. The details of all these routes are giver. in the Antonine Itiueraiy and the Tabula Peutin- geriana. [Vj. H. B.] JIEDIOLA'NUM {Itin. Ant. ; U^lioKaviov, Ptnl. ii. 3. § 18), a town of the Ordovices in Brit.ain. It occurs in the Itin. Ant., between Deva {Ches- ter), and Uriconium (^Wroxeter), two towns, the sites of which are well authenticated ; and in the