FORUM GALLORUM
FORUM GALLORUM (
Ἀγορὰ Κελτῶν, Appian), a village on the Via Aemilia, between Mutina and Bononia.
It is remarkable only as the scene of the first battle between M. Antonius and the con suls Hirtius and Pansa, who were attempting to raise the siege of Mutina.
The forces of Pansa, which were first engaged with those of Antonius, were worsted in the encounter, though not defeated, and the consul himself mortally wounded: but Hirtius, having unexpectedly fallen upon the rear of Antonius, when he was withdrawing to reoccupy Forum Gallorum, completely routed his forces and compelled him to retreat to his camp before Mutina.
This battle (which was fought on the 15th of April, B.C. 43, twelve days before the more decisive action of Mutina) is described in detail by Serv. Sulpicius Galba, in a letter to Cicero: from his account we learn that the place called Forum Gallorum was a mere village (vicus) and that it was situated on the Aemilian Way, which here, as through great part of its course, was a raised causeway, with low, marshy ground on each side. (
Cic. Fam. 10.3. 0; Appian,
App. BC 3.66-
70;
D. C. 46.37; Frontin.
Strat. 2.5.39.) Nor did it ever rise to the dignity of a town: and though its name is again found in the Tabula Peutingeriana, its omission from all the other Itineraries shows that it was still only a village.
The distances there given (8 miles from Mutina and 17 from Bononia) show that it must have occupied nearly the site of the modern
Castel Franco. [
E.H.B]
