Emona (early ) (or Aemona [short for ]) was a Roman castrum, located in the area where the navigable Nauportus River came closest to Castle Hill, serving the trade between the city's settlers – colonists from the northern part of Roman Italy – and the rest of the empire.

Emona was the region's easternmost city, although it was assumed formerly that it was part of the Pannonia or Illyricum, but archaeological findings from 2008 proved otherwise.

The Visigoths camped by Emona in the winter of 408/9, the Huns attacked it during their campaign of 452, the Langobards passed through on their way to Italy in 568, and then came incursions by the Avars and Slavs. The ancient cemetery in Dravlje indicates that the original inhabitants and invaders were able to live peacefully side by side for several decades. After the first half of the 6th century, there was no life left in Emona.]]

During the 1st century BC a Roman military stronghold was built on the site of the present Ljubljana, below Castle hill. Construction of the Roman settlement of Emona, fortified with strong walls, followed in AD 14. It had a population of 5,000 to 6,000 people, mostly merchants and craftsmen. The town had its own goddess, Equrna, and was also an important Early Christian centre. Emona's administrative territory or ager stretched from Atrans (Trojane) along the Karawanks mountains towards the north, near Višnja Gora to the east, along the Kolpa River in the south, and bordered to the west with the territory of Aquileia at the village of Bevke.

According to Ammianus Marcellinus, one of the reasons for the war between Licinius and Constantine the Great was that Licinius destroyed the busts and statues of Constantine at Emona.

After few months of occupation in 388, the citizens of Emona saluted Emperor Theodosius I entering the liberated city after the victorious Battle of the Save, where Theodosius I defeated the army of the Roman usurper Magnus Maximus.

Historical descriptions

According to Herodotus, Emona was founded by Jason, when he travelled through the country with the Argonauts, and named by him in honour of his Thessalian homeland.

Sozomen wrote that when the Argonauts left from the Aeetes, they returned from a different route, crossed the sea of Scythia, sailed through some of the rivers there, and when they were near the shores of Italy, they built a city in order to stay at the winter, which they called Emona.

According to the 18th-century historian Johann Gregor Thalnitscher, the original predecessor of Emona was founded c. 1222 BC. (The date, although based on legend and poetic speculation, actually fits in both with Herodotus' account and the date of the earliest archaeological remains found so far).

According to 1938 article by the historian Balduin Saria, Emona was founded in late AD 14 or early AD 15, on the site of the Legio XV Apollinaris, after it left for Carnuntum, by a decree of Emperor Augustus and completed by his successor, Emperor Tiberius. Later archaeological findings have not rejected nor clearly confirmed this hypothesis and it is currently () most widely accepted.

Location and layout

thumbnail|left|Roman cup of multicolored glass, made with the millefiori technique. It was discovered in one of the graves of Emona.

The location of Emona overlaps with the southwest part of the old nucleus of the modern city of Ljubljana. In a rectangle with a central square or forum and a system of rectangular intersecting streets, Emona was laid out as a typical Roman town. According to Roman custom, there were cemeteries along the northern, western, and eastern thoroughfares into the city – from the directions of Celeia, Aquileia, and Neviodunum. The wider area surrounding the town saw the development of typical Roman countryside: villages, hamlets, estates, and brickworks.

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File:Emona.png|True to scale 1st century AD Emona with insulas, wall, gates and towers. Note high level of modern streets and walls still overlapping

File:Emona v Ljubljani (6).jpg|South Emona's wall with information panel. This location is one of the spots on a footpath, connecting the locations of ten ancient sites in present-day Ljubljana. Suggested starting point: City Museum of Ljubljana.

File:Emona3.JPG|Excavations at the building site of the planned new National and University Library of Slovenia. One of the discoveries was the ancient Roman public bath house.

File:Argonauts building Emona Valvasor XIII 9.jpg|A depiction of the Argonauts building Emona, published in the Glory of the Duchy of Carniola (1689) by Johann Weikhard von Valvasor

File:ZgodnjekrscanskiCenter-Ljubljana.JPG|Early Christian centre in Emona

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References

Further reading

  • Ljudmila Plesničar Gec. Urbanizem Emone / The Urbanism of Emona. City Museum of Ljubljana; The Research Institute of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. Ljubljana, 1999.
  • MS Kos. Emona was in Italy not Pannonia. 2003
  • Map of Emona. Geopedia.si.
  • A day in Emona, short movie about life in Roman settlement
  • Bernarda Županek: Emona: mesto v imperiju/Emona: A City of the Empire (Slovene, English)
  • Early Christian Centre of Emona. 3D images. Burger.si.
  • Panoramic virtual tour of the ancient wall of Emona
  • Culture.si articles about the city: Roman Emona, Emona, Legacy of a Roman City