FIDE´NTIA
FIDE´NTIA (
Φιδεντία: Eth.
Fidentinus:
Borgo S. Donnino), a town of Gallia Cispadana, situated on the Via Aemilia, between Parma and Placentia, and distant 15 miles from the former city. (
Plin. Nat. 3.15. s. 20;
Ptol. 3.1.46;
Itin. Ant. p. 288.) Its name is only mentioned in history during the civil wars between Marius and Sulla, when M. Lucullus, one of the generals of Sulla, was besieged within its walls by the lieutenants of Carbo, but by a sudden sally defeated them with great loss. (
Plut. Sull. 27; Veil. Pat. 2.28; Liv.
Epit. lxxxviii.)
It seems to have been at this time a place of consideration: but though noticed by Pliny and Ptolemy as a municipal town, it appears to have subsequently declined, and is called in the Itineraries in more than one passage “Fidentiola vicus,” while still later the Jerusalem Itinerary terms it merely a “mansio.” (
Itin. Ant. pp. 99, 127;
Itin. Hier. p. 616.)
The modern
Borgo S. Donnino derives its name from St. Domninus, who, according to ecclesiastical traditions, suffered martyrdom at a place called Julia, in the territory of Parma. Its distance from the latter city proves that it occupied the actual site of the ancient Fidentia, which has sometimes been erroneously transferred to
Fiorenzuola (Florentia).
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E.H.B]
