REGIUM LEPIDI
(Reggio Emilia) Italy.
Founded in 187 or in 175 B.C. by M. Aemilius Lepidus
along the Via Aemilia between Modena and Parma (
It.
Ant. 127, 283, 287;
It. Hieros. 616;
Tab. Peut.). A road
leaves Reggio for Brescello and Cremona (
It. Ant. 283).
The urban street plan, along straight axes, is substantially preserved in the streets of the modern city: Via Emilia corresponds to the decumanus maximus and the alignment of Via Roma - Via San Carlo corresponds to
the cardo maximus.
Reggio was a municipium (Plin.
HN 3.116) and
flourished particularly in the 1st c. A.D. as is shown by
numerous mosaic pavements and by a noteworthy funerary monument in the suburbs to San Maurizio. The city was served by an aqueduct that came from Villa San Pellegrino.
An exceptional example of the goldsmith's art in a
mingling of Roman and barbarian styles was discovered
here and is preserved in the Museo Civico together with
pre-Roman and Roman artifacts.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CIL XI, pp. 171ff; M. Degani,
Il tesoro
romano barbarico di Reggio Emilia (1959);
EAA
6 (1965) 646f (N. Alfieri & M. Degani);
NSc (1961)
42-44 (G. Susini); (1964) 1-11 (M. Degani); (1965)
54-58 (M. Degani); G. Susini, “I Veleiati di Plinio e
l'origine di Regium Lepidi,”
Atti III Convegno Studi
Velleiati (1969) 173-78; M. Degani, “Regium Lepidi,”
Quaderni di archeologia reggiana 2 (1973).
N. ALFIERI
