roman roads, consular roads of ancient rome: the roman via emilia
emilia, the ancient road convenient for the roman army.
the ancient roman road through emilia romagna allowed the roman army to move quickly and reach the city of placentia.
the via emilia originated in ancient rome as a roman road. built between 189 and 187 B.C. by consul Marcus Aemilius Lepidus.
the street, was built to directly connect rimini with piacenza at a time when “placentia” was surrounded by the boi Gauls who even though defeated by the romans had refused to sign peace with rome and threatened revolts. rome, therefore, decided to build a convenient road to get the army quickly up to placentia ready to suppress any form of revolt by the Boii Gauls.
later, several years later, the road was extended from piacenza to milan.
the most important cities crossed by the via emilia of Roman foundation and those refounded by the Romans are: caesena (cesena), forum popili (forlimpopoli), forum livii (forli), faventia (faenza), forum cornelii (imola), bononia (bologna), mutina (modena), regium lepidi (reggio emilia), tannetum (sant’ilario d’enza), fidentia (fidenza), parma, placentia (piacenza).
the via emilia joined together two very important Roman roads: the via emilia, which started from rome and reached rimini (a colony founded in 268 bc) and the via postumia, which ran from piacenza to aquileia.
even today, the via emilia romana is the main artery of emilia romagna (the region named after the road). the via emilia is a wide and convenient, mostly straight road, a typical feature of Roman roads. the Romans began building long, straight roads for military, commercial and political purposes; they were necessary for the growth of their empire because they allowed the Roman army to move quickly.