TANE´TUM
TANE´TUM or
TANNE´TUM (
Τάνητον, Ptol.: Eth.
Tanetanus, Plin.: S. Ilario), a small town of Gallia Cispadana, on the Via Aemilia, between Regium Lepidum and Parma, and distant 10 miles from the former and 8 from the latter city. (
Itin. Ant. p. 287;
Itin. Hier. p. 616;
Tab. Peut.) It is mentioned in history before the Roman conquest of this part of Italy, as a Gaulish village, to which the praetor L. Manlius retired after his defeat by the Boii in B.C. 218, and where he was surrounded and besieged by that people. (Pol. 3.40;
Liv. 21.25.) Its name is not again noticed in history, but it is mentioned both by Pliny and Ptolemy as a municipal town of Gallia Cispadana, though it appears to have never risen to be a place of importance. (
Plin. Nat. 3.15. s. 20;
Ptol. 3.1.46; Phlegon,
Macrob. 1.) Livy calls the Gaulish town “vicus Pado propinquus,” an expression which would lead to an erroneous idea of its position; for we learn from the Itineraries that it certainly stood on the Via Aemilia, at a distance of more than 10 miles from the Padus.
The site is still occupied by a large village, which is now called, from the name of its principal church,
Sant‘ Ilario; but a hamlet or village about half a mile to the N. still retains the name of
Taneto. It is distant about 2 miles from the river
Enza, the Nicia of Pliny (
3.16. s. 20), which flows into the
Po, about 12 miles from the point where it crosses the Aemilian Way.
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E.H.B]
