LAUS POMPEIA
LAUS POMPEIA sometimes also called simply LAUS (Eth.
Laudensis:
Lodi Vecchio), a city of Gallia Transpadana, situated 16 miles to the SE. of
Milan, on the highroad from that city to Placentia. (
Itin. Ant. pp. 98, 127.)
According to Pliny it was an ancient Gaulish city founded by the Boians soon after they crossed the Alps. (
Plin. Nat. 3.17. s. 21.)
It afterwards became a Roman municipal town, and probably assumed the epithet of Pompeia in compliment to Pompeius Strabo, who conferred the rights of Latin citizens upon the municipalities of Transpadane Gaul; but we find no special mention of the fact. Nor does any historical notice of Laus occur under the Roman Empire: though it seems to have been at that period a considerable town, and is termed in the Itineraries “Laude civitas,” and by P. Diaconus “Laudensis civitas.” (
Itin. Ant. p. 98;
Itin. Hier. p. 617; P. Diac. 5.2.)
In the middle ages
Lodi became an important city, and an independent republic; but was taken and destroyed in A.D. 1112 by the Milanese, and in 1158 the emperor Frederic Barbarossa having undertaken to restore it, transferred the new city to the site of the modern
Lodi, on the right bank of the
Adda. The ancient site is still occupied by a large village called
Lodi Vecchio, about 5 miles due W. of the modern city.
It is correctly placed by the Itineraries 16 M. P. from Mediolanum, and 24 from Placentia. (
Itin. Ant. p. 98.)
[
E.H.B]
