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Remains of city walls of Emona

Emona, Roman city settlement

Emona or Aemona, short for Colonia Iulia (A)emona, was a Roman castrum founded in 14-15 AD, possibly by the Legio XV Apollinaris (theory proposed by the noted historian and epigraphy expert Balduin Saria), on a territory already populated by ancient settlers of uncertain origin. Its location overlaps with the SW part of the old nucleus of the modern city of Ljubljana, capital of Slovenia, where numerous remains of Emona can still be seen today (substantial parts of the ancient city walls, most of which were destroyed^{[citation needed]} in 1963, several mosaics, parts of the paleochristian baptistry, residential houses, statues, tombstones etc.).

(A)emona was, along with Nauportus, Celeia and Poetovio, one of the main cities on the eastern coast of the Adriatic. Formerly, it was assumed to have been a part of the Roman province of Pannonia. However, recent research seems to indicate that Aemona was actually the easternmost city of the Roman administrative area of Italy.^[1]

After few months of occupation in 388, citizens of Emona saluted Emperor Theodosius I entering the liberated city after the victorious Battle of the Save where Theodosius I defeated army of Roman usurper Magnus Maximus.

In 452, (A)emona was virtually destroyed by the Huns, led by Attila. Its remaining inhabitants fled the city; some of them made it to the coast of Istria where they founded a "second Emona", Aemonia, now the town of Novigrad^{[citation needed]} (meaning "New City"), in Croatia.

Founding [link]

Roman campaigns in Illyricum from C.E. 6 to 9 involved a series of arduous campaigns. Land was commonly given to veterans on completion of service. Augustus had made many large-scale land grants in Italy forcing the government to look to frontier provinces for compensation to military veterans. Emona was likely a colony founded by veterans of the Illyricum campaigns.^[2] The soldiers were not happy with the quality of these non-Italian land payments and rebelled shortly after the founding of the colony in 14 AD.^[3]

Legend or history? [link]

According to Herodotus, Emona was founded by Jason, when he travelled through the country with the Argonauts, and named by him, in honour of his Thessalian homeland.

According to the 18th century historian Janez Gregor Dolničar, the original predecessor of Emona was founded cca 1222 BC. (The date, although based on legend and poetic speculation, actually fits in both with Herodotus' account and the date of the earliest archeological remains found so far.)

Emona in literature [link]

Emona is the setting of a popular novel by Mira Mihelič, Tujec v Emoni, Ljubljana, 1978..

Emona is also the city that Elizabeth Kostova's protagonist first travels to in the 2005 novel The Historian.

References [link]

• Ljudmila Plesničar Gec, Urbanizem Emone / The Urbanism of Emona, City Museum of Ljubljana, The Research Institute of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Ljubljana 1999.

See also [link]

• A map of Emona. Geopedia.si. Accessed 28 February 2011.
• Panoramic virtual tour of the ancient wall of Emona

Coordinates: 46°03′05″N 14°30′21″E / 46.05139°N 14.50583°E / 46.05139; 14.50583