BONONIA
(Bologna) Emilia-Romagna, Italy.
A Latin colony founded in 189 B.C. where the earlier
Etruscan city of Felsina had stood. In 187 it was connected to Ariminum and Placentia by the Via Aemilia
Lepidi, and with Arretium by a Via Flaminia never again
recorded. At the end of the Republic the community of
Bononia was under the patronage of the Antonii. The
city was involved, seemingly without injury in the bellum
Mutinense in 43 B.C. It was recolonized by Antony and
later by Octavian in 32 B.C. It acknowledged the title of
parens later when it had become Augustan. Destroyed by
fire in A.D. 53, it was restored and enlarged under Claudius as the result of intercession on the part of young
Nero. In the Imperial age, it was recorded among the
major cities of Italy. In a state of crisis during the Late
Empire, the city nevertheless resisted the Visigoths of
Alaric in A.D. 410. It was included in the kingdom of
Theodoric, and later became part of the Byzantine exarchy, falling to the Lombards in 727. Bononia was a
diocesan seat from at least the beginning of the 4th c.
The pre-urban antecedents of Bononia go back to the
Iron Age. Huts were concentrated on the plateau at the
foot of the mountains between the Aposa and the Ravone
rivers, and in the surrounding territory from the Santerno
to the Panaro there was a network of sparsely populated
settlements. Clearly, the site was favorable for agriculture and even more so for trade, as it was at the intersection of numerous channels of communication. From Pliny (
HN 3.5) the name Felsina is known, and its function as the capital of the area. The continuity of life at the
site from the Iron Age until the 4th c. B.C. has been verified by the peripheral extension of the necropoleis. The
plan of the Latin colony of 189, implemented by a force
of 3000 men, was orthogonal and had perhaps a square
perimeter. The successive form of the city, was rectangular. The city had as axis the principal E-W avenue,
which was not entirely straight. Probably Bononia never
had a circuit wall. Its development indicates dense settlement of the suburban area, with both dwellings and productive establishments. The median depth of the Roman level is only ca. 3 m. Thus continual building from the
mediaeval period to the present has destroyed the major
part of the Roman stratum and also lower strata. Little
remains of public and private buildings except mosaics
and architectural elements. It appears that the basilica
may be identified with remains under the N wing of the
municipal building, where Imperial portraits have also
been found. Of the bath buildings constructed under
Augustus, only epigraphical mention remains. A sanctuary to the Egyptian divinities existed, probably under the
group of buildings making up S. Stefano, which in Roman times was in the suburban area. In this zone architectural fragments were used in later construction. Mosaics permit insight into the building history of the city
from the end of the Republic to the 3d c. A.D. In Roman
times Bononia lacked the dimensions of a great city but
was the capital of a vast territory, still largely centuriated,
with some later roads as well. It was a center of predominately agricultural and artisan activity, with indications
of animal husbandry and metal working. Since many
funerary markers were made here, there is opportunity
for the study of workshops producing both inscriptions
and sculpture.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. Grenier,
Bologne villanovienne et
étrusque (1912)
MPI; P. Ducati,
Storia di Bologna, I:
tempi antichi (1928)
MPI; E. Andreoli, “Bologna nell'Antichità,”
MemPontAcc 3, 6 (1946) 143-82
MPI; E.
Andreoli & A. Negrioli,
Carta arch. d'Italia, foglio 87
(1949)
MP;
EAA 2 (1959) 125-28 (P. E. Arias)
MP;
G. C. Susini,
Il lapidario greco e romano di Bologna
(1960)
I; id., “Culta Bononia,”
Strenna stor. bolognese 7 (1957) 109, 133; id., “Testimonianze dei culti precristiani nel bolognese,” ibid. 5 (1955) 139-51; G. A. Mansuelli et al., “Lo sviluppo urbano di Bologna,”
Bologna
centro storico (1970) 21- 36
MPI; G. Gualandi, “Problemi urbanistici e cronologici di Felsina,”
Atti e mem.
Deputaz. di Storia patria Rom. NS 20 (1969) 47-67; F.
Bergoazoni, “Un contributo alla conoscenza di Bologna
romana,” ibid. 125- 36
MPI; D. Scagliarini, “L'insediamento residenziale e produttivo nel suburbio di Bologna
romana,” ibid. 137- 92
MPI.
G. A. MANSUELLI
