Emona (early ) or Aemona (short for ) was a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

castrum ''Castra'' () is a Latin language, Latin term used during the Roman Republic and Roman Empire for a military 'camp', and ''castrum'' () for a 'Fortification, fort'. Either could refer to a building or plot of land, used as a fortified milita ...

, located in the area where the navigable

Nauportus Nauportus ''(Navport, Navportus)'' (), was an ancient Roman town in Pannonia Superior (later 10th Italian region) on the road from Aquileia to Emona with a port at the Nauportus river, now the Ljubljanica River, Slovenia. Strabo wrote that near ...

River came closest to Castle Hill,Exhibition catalogue Emona: myth and reality
; Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana 2010 serving the trade between the city's settlers – colonists from the northern part of

Roman Italy Roman Italy is the period of ancient Italian history going from the founding of Rome, founding and Roman expansion in Italy, rise of ancient Rome, Rome to the decline and fall of the Western Roman Empire; the Latin name of the Italian peninsula ...

– and the rest of the empire. Emona was the region's easternmost city,Šašel Kos, M. (2002
"The boundary stone between Aquileia and Emona"
Arheološki Vestnik 53, pp. 373–382. although it was assumed formerly that it was part of the

Pannonia Pannonia (, ) was a Roman province, province of the Roman Empire bounded on the north and east by the Danube, on the west by Noricum and upper Roman Italy, Italy, and on the southward by Dalmatia (Roman province), Dalmatia and upper Moesia. It ...

or Illyricum, but archaeological findings from 2008 proved otherwise. From the late 4th to the late 6th century, Emona was the seat of a bishopric that had intensive contacts with the ecclesiastical circle of

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

, reflected in the architecture of the early Christian complex along

Erjavec Street Erjavec is a South Slavic surname, occurring mainly in Slovenia and Croatia. Notable people with the surname include: * Davor Erjavec (born 1970), German water polo player * Karl Erjavec (born 1960), Slovenian lawyer and politician *Mladen Erjave ...

in present-day

Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...

. The

Visigoths The Visigoths (; ) were a Germanic people united under the rule of a king and living within the Roman Empire during late antiquity. The Visigoths first appeared in the Balkans, as a Roman-allied Barbarian kingdoms, barbarian military group unite ...

camped by Emona in the winter of 408/9, the

Huns The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th centuries AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was par ...

attacked it during their campaign of 452, the

Langobards The Lombards () or Longobards () were a Germanic people who conquered most of the Italian Peninsula between 568 and 774. The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the ''History of the Lombards'' (written between 787 and 796) th ...

passed through on their way to Italy in 568, and then came incursions by the Avars and Slavs. The ancient cemetery in Dravlje indicates that the original inhabitants and invaders were able to live peacefully side by side for several decades. After the first half of the 6th century, there was no life left in Emona. The 18th-century Ljubljana

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

elite shared the interest in Antiquity with the rest of Europe, attributing the founding of Ljubljana to the mythical

Jason Jason ( ; ) was an ancient Greek mythological hero and leader of the Argonauts, whose quest for the Golden Fleece is featured in Greek literature. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcos. He was married to the sorceress Med ...

and the

Argonauts The Argonauts ( ; ) were a band of heroes in Greek mythology, who in the years before the Trojan War (around 1300 BC) accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest to find the Golden Fleece. Their name comes from their ship, ''Argo'', named after it ...

. Other ancient Roman towns located in present-day

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

include

(now

Vrhnika Vrhnika (; ;''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 120. ) is a town in Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Vrhnika. It is locat ...

Celeia Celje (, , ) is the third-largest city in Slovenia. It is a regional center of the traditional Slovenian region of Styria and the administrative seat of the City Municipality of Celje. The town is located below Upper Celje Castle at the confl ...

(now

Celje Celje (, , ) is the List of cities and towns in Slovenia, third-largest city in Slovenia. It is a regional center of the traditional Slovenian region of Styria (Slovenia), Styria and the administrative seat of the City Municipality of Celje. Th ...

), Neviodunum (now the village of

Drnovo Drnovo ( or ; Poetovio (now

Ptuj Ptuj (; , ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Slovenia, eighth-largest town of Slovenia, located in the traditional region of Styria (Slovenia), Styria (northeastern Slovenia). It is the seat of the City Municipality of Ptuj, Municipality of Pt ...

History

During the 1st century BC a Roman military stronghold was built on the site of the present Ljubljana, below Castle hill. Construction of the Roman settlement of Emona, fortified with strong walls, followed in

AD 14 __NOTOC__ AD 14 (Roman numerals, XIV) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Sextus Pompeius (consul 14), Pompeius and Sextus Appuleius, Appuleius (or, less frequen ...

. It had a population of 5,000 to 6,000 people, mostly merchants and craftsmen. The town had its own goddess, Equrna, and was also an important Early Christian centre. Emona's administrative territory or ''ager'' stretched from Atrans (

Trojane Trojane (; , ''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 22.) is a settlement in the Municipality of Lukovica in central Slovenia. It lies in the ...

) along the

Karawanks The Karawanks or Karavankas or Karavanks (; , ) are a mountain range of the Southern Limestone Alps on the border between Slovenia to the south and Austria to the north. With a total length of in an east–west direction, the Karawanks chain is o ...

mountains towards the north, near

Višnja Gora Višnja Gora (; ,''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, pp. 96, 99. also ''Weichselburg'', ''Weichselberg'') is a town in the Municipality of ...

to the east, along the

Kolpa River The Kupa () or Kolpa ( or ; from in Roman times; ) river, a right tributary of the Sava, forms a natural border between north-west Croatia and southeast Slovenia. It is long, with a length of serving as the border between Croatia and Slovenia ...

in the south, and bordered to the west with the territory of

Aquileia Aquileia is an ancient Roman city in Italy, at the head of the Adriatic at the edge of the lagoons, about from the sea, on the river Natiso (modern Natisone), the course of which has changed somewhat since Roman times. Today, the city is small ( ...

at the village of Bevke. According to

Ammianus Marcellinus Ammianus Marcellinus, occasionally anglicized as Ammian ( Greek: Αμμιανός Μαρκελλίνος; born , died 400), was a Greek and Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from antiquit ...

, one of the reasons for the war between

Licinius Valerius Licinianus Licinius (; Ancient Greek, Greek: Λικίνιος; c. 265 – 325) was Roman emperor from 308 to 324. For most of his reign, he was the colleague and rival of Constantine I, with whom he co-authored the Edict of Milan that ...

and

Constantine the Great Constantine I (27 February 27222 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was a Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337 and the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He played a Constantine the Great and Christianity, pivotal ro ...

was that Licinius destroyed the busts and statues of Constantine at Emona. After few months of occupation in 388, the citizens of Emona saluted Emperor

Theodosius I Theodosius I ( ; 11 January 347 – 17 January 395), also known as Theodosius the Great, was Roman emperor from 379 to 395. He won two civil wars and was instrumental in establishing the Nicene Creed as the orthodox doctrine for Nicene C ...

entering the liberated city after the victorious

Battle of the Save The Battle of Poetovio was fought in 388 between the forces of Western Roman Emperor Magnus Maximus and the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius I. Magnus Maximus's army was defeated and Maximus was later captured and executed at Aquileia. Backgr ...

, where

defeated the army of the

Roman usurper Roman usurpers were individuals or groups of individuals who obtained or tried to obtain power by force and without legitimate legal authority. Usurpation was endemic during the Roman imperial era, especially from the crisis of the third centu ...

Magnus Maximus Magnus Maximus (; died 28 August 388) was Roman emperor in the West from 383 to 388. He usurped the throne from emperor Gratian. Born in Gallaecia, he served as an officer in Britain under Theodosius the Elder during the Great Conspiracy ...

Historical descriptions

According to

Herodotus Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...

, Emona was founded by

, when he travelled through the country with the

, and named by him in honour of his

Thessalia Thessaly ( ; ; ancient Aeolic Greek#Thessalian, Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic regions of Greece, geographic and modern administrative regions of Greece, administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient Thessaly, a ...

n homeland.

Sozomen Salamanes Hermias Sozomenos (; ; c. 400 – c. 450 AD), also known as Sozomen, was a Roman lawyer and historian of the Christian Church. Family and home Sozoman was born around 400 in Bethelia, a small town near Gaza, into a wealthy Christia ...

wrote that when the Argonauts left from the Aeetes, they returned from a different route, crossed the sea of

Scythia Scythia (, ) or Scythica (, ) was a geographic region defined in the ancient Graeco-Roman world that encompassed the Pontic steppe. It was inhabited by Scythians, an ancient Eastern Iranian equestrian nomadic people. Etymology The names ...

, sailed through some of the rivers there, and when they were near the shores of Italy, they built a city in order to stay at the winter, which they called Emona.

Zosimus Zosimus, Zosimos, Zosima or Zosimas may refer to: People * * Rufus and Zosimus (died 107), Christian saints * Zosimus (martyr) (died 110), Christian martyr who was executed in Umbria, Italy * Zosimos of Panopolis, also known as ''Zosimus Alch ...

wrote that after they left from the Aeetes, they arrived at the mouth of the Ister River which it discharges itself into the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

and they went up that river against the stream, by the help of oars and convenient gales of wind. After they managed to do it, they built the city of Emona as a memorial of their arrival there. According to the 18th-century historian

Johann Gregor Thalnitscher Johann Gregor Thalnitscher von Thalberg (;Petrovich, Michael B. 1963. "The rise of modern Slovenian historiography." ''Journal of Central European Affairs'' 22(4): 440–467, p. 456. 10 March 1655 – 3 October 1719)Smolnik, Marijan, & Emilijan Ce ...

, the original predecessor of Emona was founded c. 1222 BC. (The date, although based on legend and poetic

speculation In finance, speculation is the purchase of an asset (a commodity, good (economics), goods, or real estate) with the hope that it will become more valuable in a brief amount of time. It can also refer to short sales in which the speculator hope ...

, actually fits in both with Herodotus' account and the date of the earliest archaeological remains found so far) According to 1938 article by the historian Balduin Saria, Emona was founded in late AD 14 or early AD 15, on the site of the

Legio XV Apollinaris Legio XV Apollinaris ("Apollo's Fifteenth Legion") was a legion of the Imperial Roman army. It was recruited by Octavian in 41/40 BC. The emblem of this legion was probably a picture of Apollo, or of one of his holy animals. XV ''Apollinaris ...

, after it left for

Carnuntum Carnuntum ( according to Ptolemy) was a Roman legionary fortress () and headquarters of the Roman navy, Pannonian fleet from 50 AD. After the 1st century, it was capital of the Pannonia Superior province. It also became a large city of app ...

, by a decree of Emperor

Augustus Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in A ...

and completed by his successor, Emperor

Tiberius Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus ( ; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was Roman emperor from AD 14 until 37. He succeeded his stepfather Augustus, the first Roman emperor. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC to Roman politician Tiberius Cl ...

. Later archaeological findings have not rejected nor clearly confirmed this hypothesis and it is currently () most widely accepted.

Location and layout

The location of Emona overlaps with the southwest part of the old nucleus of the modern city of

Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...

. In a rectangle with a central square or forum and a system of rectangular intersecting streets, Emona was laid out as a typical Roman town. According to Roman custom, there were cemeteries along the northern, western, and eastern thoroughfares into the city – from the directions of Celeia, Aquileia, and Neviodunum. The wider area surrounding the town saw the development of typical Roman countryside: villages, hamlets, estates, and brickworks.

Archaeological findings

Emona in the Roman Province of Italy - Map 2

Archaeological findings have been found in every construction project in the center of Ljubljana. Intensive archaeological research on Emona dates back 100 years, although it was the Roman town was portrayed from the 17th century onward. Numerous remains have been excavated there, such as parts of the Roman wall, residential houses, statues, tombstones, several mosaics, and parts of the

early Christian Early Christianity, otherwise called the Early Church or Paleo-Christianity, describes the historical era of the Christian religion up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Christianity spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and be ...

baptistery In Church architecture, Christian architecture the baptistery or baptistry (Old French ''baptisterie''; Latin ''baptisterium''; Greek language, Greek , 'bathing-place, baptistery', from , baptízein, 'to baptize') is the separate centrally planned ...

, which can be still seen today. Regarding its location within Roman Italy, in 2001 a boundary stone between

and Emona was discovered in the vicinity of Bevke in the bed of the

Ljubljanica River The Ljubljanica (), known in the Middle Ages as the ''Leybach'', is a river in the southern part of the Ljubljana Basin in Slovenia. The capital of Slovenia, Ljubljana, lies on the river. The Ljubljanica rises south of the town of Vrhnika and ...

. The stone is made of

Aurisina Aurisina (until 1923 ''Nabresina'', ) is a town in the karst part of the comune of Duino-Aurisina (Slovene: ) near Trieste, Italy, in a region of Slovene minority. It lies 15 kilometres northwest of Trieste, and according to the 2003 census had a ...

limestone. Because similar stones were only used to demarcate two communities belonging to the same Roman province and because it is not disputed that Aquileia belonged to Roman Italy, this means that both towns belonged to Italy and that Emona was never part of Illyricum (or, later, of the province of Pannonia).

Archaeological parks and preserving of the heritage

The architect

Jože Plečnik Jože Plečnik () (23 January 1872 – 7 January 1957) was a Slovenian architect who had a major impact on the modern architecture of Vienna, Prague and of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, most notably by designing the iconic Triple Bridge a ...

redesigned the remains of the Roman walls: he cut two new passages to create a link to Snežnik Street () and Murnik Street (), and behind the walls he arranged a park displaying architectural elements from Antiquity, with a stone monument collection in the

Emona city gate Emona (early ) or Aemona (short for ) was a Roman castrum, located in the area where the navigable Nauportus River came closest to Castle Hill,

Bishopric

There was a Christian

bishopric In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

named Aemona, whose bishop Maximus participated in the

Council of Aquileia, 381 The Council of Aquileia in 381 AD was a church synod which was part of the struggle between Arian and orthodox ideas in Christianity. It was one of five councils of Aquileia. The council was held in September 381 AD and summoned by Gratian, t ...

, which condemned

Arianism Arianism (, ) is a Christology, Christological doctrine which rejects the traditional notion of the Trinity and considers Jesus to be a creation of God, and therefore distinct from God. It is named after its major proponent, Arius (). It is co ...

. After the destruction of Aemona in the 7th century, the bishop's seat was transferred to Novigrad (). In

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

the name ''Aemona'' continued to be used for the diocese. Originally a

suffragan A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Catholic Church, a suffragan bishop leads a diocese within an ecclesiastical province other than the principal diocese, the metropolitan archdiocese; the diocese led ...

of the

Patriarchate of Aquileia The Patriarchate of Aquileia was an episcopal see and ecclesiastical province in northeastern Italy, originally centered in the ancient city of Aquileia, situated near the northern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It emerged in the 4th century as a m ...

, in 1272 it was attached instead to the ecclesiastical province and

patriarchate of Grado The Patriarchate of Grado, also known as the Patriarchate of New Aquileia, was an episcopal see and ecclesiastical province in northeastern Italy, centered in Grado, on the northern coasts of the Adriatic Sea. It was created as a result of an in ...

, a patriarchate that in 1451 passed to

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

. In 1828

Pope Leo XII Pope Leo XII (; born Annibale Francesco Clemente Melchiorre Girolamo Nicola della Genga; 2 August 1760 – 10 February 1829) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 28 September 1823 to his death in February 1829. ...

abolished the see as a residential diocese with effect from the death of Bishop Teodoro Lauretano Balbi on 23 May 1831. Its territory then passed to the diocese of Trieste-Capodistria. The

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

brought about a change of political borders and in 1977 what had been the territory of the diocese of Aemona or Cittanova became part of the

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

n diocese of Poreč and Pula. No longer a residential bishopric, Aemona or Cittanova is today listed by the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

as a

titular see A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbi ...

. Because of the connection of this Aemona with

Istria Istria ( ; Croatian language, Croatian and Slovene language, Slovene: ; Italian language, Italian and Venetian language, Venetian: ; ; Istro-Romanian language, Istro-Romanian: ; ; ) is the largest peninsula within the Adriatic Sea. Located at th ...

, some have questioned whether the episcopal see is to be identified with the Emona or Aemona, whose site is now occupied by Ljubljana. It has even been argued that there were in fact three cities called by the same or similar names, the one that

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...

speaks of as a '' colonia'' in the province of

; another in the province of

Noricum Noricum () is the Latin name for the kingdom or federation of tribes that included most of modern Austria and part of Slovenia. In the first century AD, it became a province of the Roman Empire. Its borders were the Danube to the north, R ...

; and a third in Istria.

Emona in literary fiction

* Emona is the setting of a 1978 novel ''Tujec v Emoni'' (Stranger in Emona) by Mira Mihelič. * Emona is mentioned in Elizabeth Kostova's debut novel ''The Historian''. * The four volumes of the 2014 series ''Rimljani na naših tleh'' (Romans on our soil) by Ivan Sivec describe Emona in various epochs. * Several chapters of the novel series ''Romanike'' are set in Emona.The Romanike Series
, by Codex Regius (2006-2014)

Gallery

File:Emona.png, True to scale 1st century AD Emona with insulas, wall, gates and towers. Note high level of modern streets and walls still overlapping File:Emona v Ljubljani (6).jpg, South Emona's wall with information panel. This location is one of the spots on a footpath, connecting the locations of ten ancient sites in present-day Ljubljana. Suggested starting point: City Museum of Ljubljana. File:Emona3.JPG, Excavations at the building site of the planned new

National and University Library of Slovenia The National and University Library (, ), established in 1774, is one of the most important national educational and cultural institutions of Slovenia. It is located in the centre of Ljubljana, between Auersperg Street (), Gentry Street (), and ...

. One of the discoveries was the ancient Roman public bath house.Bernarda Županek (2010
"Emona, Legacy of a Roman City"
Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana, Ljubljana. File:Argonauts building Emona Valvasor XIII 9.jpg, A depiction of the Argonauts building Emona, published in the '' Glory of the Duchy of Carniola'' (1689) by

Johann Weikhard von Valvasor Johann Weikhard Freiherr von Valvasor or Johann Weichard Freiherr von Valvasor (, ) or simply Valvasor (baptised on 28 May 1641 – September or October 1693) was a natural historian and polymath from Carniola, present-day Slovenia, and a Li ...

File:ZgodnjekrscanskiCenter-Ljubljana.JPG, Early Christian centre in Emona

References

External links

{{commons category
Bernarda Županek: Emona: mesto v imperiju/Emona: A City of the Empire (Slovene, English)

Interactive archaeological map of Emona on top of map of Ljubljana
Geopedia.si.

3D images. Burger.si.
Panoramic virtual tour of the ancient wall of Emona
* Culture.si articles about the city
Roman EmonaEmona, Legacy of a Roman City

A day in Emona
short movie about life in Roman settlement Roman towns and cities in Slovenia Coloniae (Roman) History of Ljubljana Aemona Ancient Greek geography Argonautica Roman fortifications in Slovenia