CLATERNA
CLATERNA (
Κλάτερνα:
Quaderna), a town of Gallia Cispadana, situated on the Via Aemilia, between Bononia and Forum Cornelii. The Itineraries place it 10 M. P. from the former and 13 from the latter city. (Itin. Ant. p. 287; Itin. Hier. p. 616; Tab. Peut.)
It is mentioned in history during the operations which preceded the battle of Mutina B.C. 43, on which occasion it was occupied with a garrison by Antonius, but this was afterwards expelled, and the place taken by Hirtius. (
Cic. Phil. 8.2,
ad Fam. 12.5.) Under the Roman empire it appears to have been a considerable municipal town, and as late as the 4th century is still mentioned in the Jerusalem Itinerary as a “civitas.” (
Strab. v. p.216;
Plin. Nat. 3.15. s. 20;
Ptol. 3.1.46; Itin. Hier. .
l.c. St. Ambrose however speaks of it as much decayed in his time (
Epist. 39.3).
The period of its final decline or destruction is unknown, but it is almost the only town on the Aemilian Way which has not preserved its existence as such in modern times: the name (slightly altered into
Quaderna) is however retained by a small stream which crosses the road about 9 miles from
Bologna, and an old church with a few houses adjoining it, about a mile to the N. of the road, is still called
Sta Maria di Quaderna. The ancient town was however certainly situated on the high road. [
E.H.B],
