Mediolanum

Mediolanum superimposed on modern Milan. The lighter rectangle in the centre, slightly to the right, represents the modern Cathedral Square, while the modern Castle Sforzesco is located at the top left, just outside the route of the Roman walls
Wooden model preserved at the Civic Archaeological Museum of Milan showing a reconstruction of the imperial Mediolanum
A section of Roman wall (11 m high) with a 24-sided tower

Mediolanum, the ancient city where Milan now stands, was originally an Insubrian city, but afterwards became an important Roman city in Northern Italy.

The city was settled by a Celtic tribe belonging to the Insubres group and belonging to the Golasecca culture under the name Medhelanon[1] around 590 BC,[2] conquered by the Romans in 222 BC, who Latinized the name of the city into Mediolanum, and developed into a key centre of Western Christianity and informal capital of the Western Roman Empire. It declined under the ravages of the Gothic War, its capture by the Lombards in 569, and their decision to make Ticinum the capital of their Kingdom of Italy.

During the Principate the population was 40,000 in AD 200; when the city became capital of the Western Roman Empire under emperor Maximian (r. 286–305), the population rose to 100,000 people and thus Milan became one of the largest cities in Roman Italy.[3][4][5]

  1. ^ Tellier, Luc-Normand (2009). Urban World History. Québec: Press de l'Université du Québec. p. 274. ISBN 978-2-7605-1588-8.
  2. ^ "Cronologia di Milano dalla fondazione fino al 150 d.C." (in Italian). Retrieved 11 July 2018.
  3. ^ Morley, Neville (19 December 2002). Metropolis and Hinterland: The City of Rome and the Italian Economy, 200 BC-AD 200. Cambridge University Press. p. 182. ISBN 9780521893312.
  4. ^ A Companion to Latin Studies. CUP Archive. 1963. p. 356.
  5. ^ Macadam, Alta; Rossiter, Stuart; Blanchard, Paul; Muirhead, Findlay; Bertarelli, Luigi Vittorio (1971). Northern Italy, from Alps to Florence. A & C Black.