Placentia
Placentia, known today as Piacenza, is a historic city located in northern Italy on the west bank of the Trebia River, near its confluence with the Po River. The area has a rich history that dates back to Etruscan settlements, followed by Gaulish occupation around 400 BC. In 218 BC, Placentia was established as a Latin colony during the Second Punic War, despite initial resistance from local tribes. The city played a significant role throughout various conflicts, including the civil wars of the late Roman Republic, where it served as a base for military operations and was pivotal in the events surrounding prominent figures like Julius Caesar and Pompey.
Placentia became a municipium around 90/89 BC and was later elevated to the status of a Roman colony by Augustus. The city's strategic location made it an important terminal of the Via Aemilia, facilitating connections across the region. Throughout its history, Placentia faced multiple threats, including attacks from the Boii and Ligurians, yet it managed to endure and rebuild. Noteworthy is the mention by Pliny the Elder regarding the longevity of its inhabitants. The ancient remnants of Placentia are now covered in alluvial mud, highlighting the passage of time and the city’s evolving landscape.
Subject Terms
Placentia
(Piacenza)
A city of Cisalpine Gaul (northern Italy) on the west bank of the river Trebia (Trebbia), near its confluence with the Padus (Po). Finds suggest Etruscan settlement, on what had formerly been a native habitation site. After c 400 BC the place was occupied by the Gauls (Anares, Boii) who gave their name to Gallia Cisalpina. The outset of the Second Punic War (218) witnessed the establishment of a Latin colony, despite opposition from the Boii (who captured the colonial commissioners and handed them over to Hannibal). After the defeat of the Roman army at the Trebia in the same year, the new colony sheltered its refugees. Subsequently the morale of the Placentians cracked, and some of them fled. Yet in 207 they successfully resisted the Carthaginian relieving force of Hasdrubal.
Ravaged by the Boii in 200, and menaced by Ligurians who reached its walls in 195, the town was rebuilt in the following year and received new colonists in 190, although the dramatist Plautus described it as a dangerously exposed outpost. It possessed a river harbor, and became the first terminal of the Via Aemilia (187) from Ariminum (Rimini), which opened up the region. In 154 Placentia served Quintus Opimius as a base for his military operations against the Ligurians. In 90/89, like other Italian cities, it became a municipium, and seven years later, during the civil war between Sulla and the Marians, its citizens successfully withstood a Marian blockade until Sulla's supporter, Marcus Licinius Lucullus, beat off the besiegers. In 48, during another civil war, in which Julius Caesar confronted Pompey the Great, Placentia momentarily took the center of the historical stage when four of Caesar's legions, who were stationed there, threatened to mutiny, but his prompt action dissuaded them from this action.
Raised to the rank of a Roman colony by Augustus (31 BC–AD 14)—possibly as a sequel to a slightly earlier conferment of the same status—the city again played an important part in the civil war between Otho and Vitellius (AD 69), when the latter's general Caecina, after delivering a formidable assault, failed to take the stronghold by storm. The subsequent suicide of Otho caused many members of the garrison to follow his example. Nevertheless, its inhabitants, according to Pliny the Elder, were generally famous for their longevity. Orestes, the father of the last western emperor to rule in Italy, Romulus Augustulus, was executed at Placentia in 476. The remains of the ancient city lie deep in alluvial mud.