CAESENA
(Cesena) Emilia-Romagna, Italy.
A Roman municipium ca. 19 km from Forlì and on the
Via Aemilia not far from its intersection with the road
that leads through the Valley of the Savio to Ravenna.
The centuriation of the territory has the same orientation
as that of the colony of Ariminum. The origin of the
place name is pre-Roman. There is no important mention
of the site in the sources during Republican or Imperial
times. The city did play a part in the Gothic war at the
time of Justinian. It was the seat of a bishopric, but probably not until the middle of the 6th c. A.D.
The epithet of a curve that accompanies the name of
the city in the
Antonine Itinerary is explained by the
spur of the Garampo hill and by the route of that section
of the Via Aemilia that follows the slopes of the hill to
reach the ancient bridge over the Savio. The rest of the
topography of the city is unknown; and it is only a
hypothesis that its location was on the hill. The few
remains that have been found were discovered in the
level zone at the foot of the Garampo. They include
strata containing ceramics of Republican age and two
mosaic pavements belonging to a building of the 3d c.
A.D. Inscriptions mention measures taken in favor of
Caesena by Hadrian and Aurelian, baths, and cult centers.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
G. A. Mansuelli,
Caesena, Forum Popili, Forum Livi (1949)
MPI; Solari, “Curva Caesena,”
Boll.Comm.Arch.Com. Roma (1928) 138; G. C. Susini,
“La liberalitas di Adriano a Cesena,”
Atti e Mem. Deputazione di Storia patria per le Romagne 10 (1958-59)
281;
Cesena, il Museo storico dell'antichità (1969).
G. A. MANSUELLI
