Coordinates: 46251.7N 14303.

32E

Emona
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Emona or Aemona (short for Colonia Iulia Aemona)

was a Roman castrum, settled by colonists from the
northern part of Roman Italy. Emona itself was the

Colonia Iulia Aemona

region's easternmost city,[1] although it was assumed

formerly that it was part of the Pannonia or Illyricum, but
archaeological findings from 2008 proved otherwise. It
was located in the area where the navigable Ljubljanica
came closest to Castle Hill.[2] The river played an
important role as a transport route for the trade between
the city and the rest of Roman empire. From the late 4th
to the late 6th century, Emona was the seat of a bishopric
that had intensive contacts with the ecclesiastical circle of
Milan, reflected in the architecture of the early Christian
complex along Erjavec Street in present-day Ljubljana.

Location of Emona in modern Ljubljana

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.[2] The 18thcentury Ljubljana Renaissance elite shared the interest in
Antiquity with the rest of Europe, founding the Ljubljana
Argonauts.[2]

creation myth on image of Jason and the

In
2014, it is the 2000-year anniversary of the first written
mention of Emona. Other ancient Roman towns located in
present-day Slovenia include Nauportus (now Vrhnika),
Celeia (now Celje), Neviodunum (now the village of
Drnovo) and Poetovio (now Ptuj).

Location within Slovenia

Alternative
name(s)

Emona, Aemona

Type

Castrum, Colonia (after 43 AD)

Place in the Roman world

Province

Italia

Administrative Venetia et Histria

unit

Contents
1 History

Limes

Claustra Alpium Iuliarum

Directly
connected to

Poetovio Siscia Aquileia (via

Nauportus)
Structure

2 Historical descriptions
3 Location and layout
4 Archaeological findings
4.1 Archaeological parks and preserving of
the heritage

Stone structure
Built during
the reign of

Second Triumvirate, Gaius

Calvisius Sabinus, Lucius Marcius
Censorinus

Built

35 BC

Size and area

540 m x 430 m (23.2 ha)

5 Bishopric

Shape

Rectangular
Stationed military units

6 Emona in literary fiction

Legions

7 Gallery
8 References

XIII Gemina (35 BC - 14 AD)

XV Apollinaris (14 AD - 43 AD)

9 Further reading
10 External links

Location
Place name

Ljubljana

History

Town

Ljubljana

County

City Municipality of Ljubljana

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, and was also an important Early
Christian centre with its own goddess, Equrna. Emonas
administrative territory or ager stretched from Atrans
(Trojane) along the Karawanks mountains towards the
north, near Vinja 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.

Country

Slovenia
Site notes

Condition

Ruined

Exhibitions

City Museum of Ljubljana

Website

City Museum of Ljubljana

(http://www.mgml.si/en/citymuseum-of-ljubljana377/archaeological-park-emona/)

Media related to Colonia Iulia Aemona at

Wikimedia Commons

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.
In 452, Emona was virtually destroyed by the Huns, led by Attila. Its remaining inhabitants fled the city;
some of them made it to the coast of Istria, where they founded a "second Emona", Aemonia, now the town
of Novigrad (meaning "New City"), in Croatia.

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.
According to the 18th-century historian Johann Gregor Thalnitscher, the original predecessor of Emona was
founded ca. 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 (as of 2014) most widely accepted.[6]

Location and layout

Reconstructed inscription (presumably

talking about building town walls), dated in
time between autumn AD 14 and spring of
AD 15. The inscription has the names of
emperors Augustus and Tiberius. The grey
part was discovered in 1887, and the rest is
a reconstruction. Presumably, this artifact
was built into the wall above one of the
town gates. From the collection of the
National Museum of Slovenia in
Ljubljana.[5]

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.[2]

Archaeological findings
Archaeological findings have been found in every construction
project in the center of Ljubljana. Intensive archaeological
research on Emona
dates back 100 years,
although it was the
Roman town was
portrayed from the 17th
century onward.
Numerous remains have
been excavated there,
such as parts of the
Location within Roman Italy.
Roman wall, residential
houses, statues,
tombstones, several mosaics, and parts of the early Christian
baptistery, which can be still seen today.[6]

Regarding its location within Roman Italy, in 2001 a boundary stone

between Aquileia and Emona was discovered in the vicinity of
Bevke in the bed of the Ljubljanica River. The stone is made of
Aurisina limestone. Because similar stones were only used to
demarcate two communities belonging to the same Roman province
and because it is not disputed that Aquileia belonged to Roman Italy,
this means that both towns belonged to Italy and that Emona was never part of Illyricum (or, later, of the
Roman cup of multicolored glass,
made with the millefiori technique. It
was discovered in one of the graves of
Emona.

province of Pannonia).[1]

Archaeological parks and preserving of the heritage

The architect Joe Plenik redesigned the remains of the Roman walls: he cut two new passages to create a
link to Snenik Street (Slovene: Snenika ulica) and Murnik Street (Slovene: Murnikova ulica), and behind
the walls he arranged a park displaying architectural elements from Antiquity, with a stone monument
collection in the Emona city gate. Above the passageway to Murnik Street he set up a pyramid, which he
covered with turf. After the Second World War, attempts were made to embed references to Emona grid into
modern Ljubljana, with the Roman forum becoming part of the Ferant Park apartment blocks and an echo of
the rotunda located along Slovenia Street (Slovene: Slovenska cesta).[2]

Bishopric
There was a Christian bishopric named Aemona, whose bishop Maximus participated in the Council of
Aquileia, 381, which condemned Arianism. After the destruction of Aemona in the 7th century, the bishop's
seat was transferred to Novigrad (Italian: Cittanova). In Latin the name Aemona continued to be used for the
diocese. Originally a suffragan of the Patriarchate of Aquileia, in 1272 it was attached instead to the
ecclesiastical province and patriarchate of Grado, a patriarchate that in 1451 passed to Venice. In 1828 Pope
Leo XII abolished the see as a residential diocese with effect from the death of Bishop Teodoro Lauretano
Balbi on 23 May 1831. Its territory then passed to the diocese of Trieste-Capodistria. The Second World War
brought about a change of political borders and in 1977 what had been the territory of the diocese of
Aemona or Cittanova became part of the Croatian diocese of Pore and Pula.[8][9][10]
No longer a residential bishopric, Aemona or Cittanova is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular
see.[11]
Because of the connection of this Aemona with Istria, some have questioned whether the episcopal see is to
be identified with the Emona or Aemona, whose site is now occupied by Ljubljana. It has even been argued
that there were in fact three cities called by the same or similar names, the one that Pliny the Elder speaks of
as a colonia in the province of Pannonia;[12] another in the province of Noricum;[13] and a third in Istria.[14]

Emona in literary fiction

Emona is the setting of a 1978 novel Tujec v Emoni (Stranger in Emona) by Mira Miheli.
Emona is mentioned in Elizabeth Kostova's debut novel The Historian.
The four volumes of the 2014 series Rimljani na naih tleh (Romans on our soil) by Ivan Sivec
describe Emona in various epochs.
Several chapters of the novel series Romanike are set in Emona.[15]

Gallery

South Emona's wall

with information panel.
This location is one of
the spots on a 2 km
footpath, connecting the
locations of ten ancient
sites in present-day
Ljubljana. Suggested
starting point: City
Museum of Ljubljana.

Excavations at the
building site of the
planned new National
and University Library
of Slovenia. One of the
discoveries was the
ancient Roman public

A depiction of the
Early Christian centre
Argonauts building
in Emona
Emona, published in the
Glory of the Duchy of
Carniola (1689) by
Johann Weikhard von
Valvasor

bath house.[16]

References
1. ael Kos, M. (2002) "The boundary stone between Aquileia and Emona" (http://av.zrcsazu.si/En/53/SaselKos53.html), Arheoloki Vestnik 53, pp. 373382.
2. Exhibition catalogue Emona: myth and reality (http://www.mgml.si/media/katalog_9_5.pdf); Museum and Galleries
of Ljubljana 2010
3. "Roman Emona". Culture.si. Ministry of culture of the republic of Slovenia. Retrieved 15 October 2012.
4. "Emona, Legacy of a Roman City". Culture.si. Ministry of culture of the republic of Slovenia. Retrieved 15 October
2012.
5. Template:Navedi splet
6. ael Kos, Marjeta (September 2012). "2000 let Emone? Kaj bomo praznovali?" [2000 Years of Emona? What Will
We Celebrate?] (PDF). Ljubljana: glasilo Mestne obine Ljubljana [Ljubljana: Bulletin of the City Municipality of
Ljubljana] (in Slovenian) 17 (7): 2829. ISSN 1318-797X. External link in |work= (help)
7. "Emonski vodovod". DEDI. Ministry of higher education, science and technology of the republic of Slovenia.
Retrieved 15 October 2012.
8. Konrad Eubel, Hierarchia Catholica Medii Aevi, vol. 1 (http://sul-derivatives.stanford.edu/derivative?
CSNID=00002716&mediaType=application/pdf), p. 74; vol. 2 (http://sul-derivatives.stanford.edu/derivative?
CSNID=00002717&mediaType=application/pdf), pp. XII, 81; vol. 3 (http://sul-derivatives.stanford.edu/derivative?
CSNID=00002718&mediaType=application/pdf), p. 96; vol. 4 (http://sul-derivatives.stanford.edu/derivative?
CSNID=00002719&mediaType=application/pdf), p. 70; vol. 5
(http://www.archive.org/stream/hierarchiacathol05eubeuoft#page/70/mode/1up), pp. 70-71; vol. 6
(http://www.archive.org/stream/hierarchiacathol06eubeuoft#page/68/mode/1up), p. 68
9. Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae (http://www.wbc.poznan.pl/dlibra/doccontent?
id=65154&dirids=1), Leipzig 1931, p. 770-771
10. La Diffusione del Cristianesimo e le diocesi in Istria (http://www.istrianet.org/istria/religion/history/christiansita.htm)
11. Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 838
12. "Ad septemtriones Pannonia vergit: finitur inde Danubio, In ea coloniae, Aemona, Sisca" (Natural History Book III,
chapter 25 (28) (http://books.google.ie/books?id=Slh2bLEec00C&pg=RA1-PA101&lpg=RA1PA101&dq=%22Rhaetis+iunguntur+Norici%22&source=bl&ots=7uhRAj3OZY&sig=CmQYhH3COoQIi8PZlz8Fp
hJOhEM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Mi0PVPHLBu7o7Aaj7YDYDA&ved=0CCEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Rhaetis
%20iunguntur%20Norici%22&f=false)

13. In accordance with one reading of the preceding chapter of Pliny

14. Stankovic, Delle tre Emone (Venice 1835) (http://books.google.com/books?id=D5VAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Pietro+Stankovic&hl=en&sa=X&ei=2DEPVMWcOerG7AaN6YDoCw&
redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Pietro%20Stankovic&f=falsePietro)
15. The Romanike Series (http://www.corpus-sacrum.de), by Codex Regius (2006-2014)
16. Bernarda upanek (2010) "Emona, Legacy of a Roman City"
(http://www.culture.si/en/Emona,_Legacy_of_a_Roman_City), Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana, Ljubljana.

Further reading
Ljudmila Plesniar 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
(http://www.academia.edu/1163021/Emona_was_in_Italy_not_in_Pannonia)

External links
Bernarda upanek: Emona: mesto v imperiju/Emona: A City of the Empire (Slovene, English)
(http://www.academia.edu/8253832/Emona_a_City_of_the_Empire)
Interactive archaeological map of Emona on top of map of Ljubljana (http://www.geopedia.si/lite.jsp?
locale=en&params=T1513_x461784_y100467_s17_b2#T1513_x461784_y100467_s17_b4).
Geopedia.si.
Early Christian Centre of Emona
(http://www.burger.si/MuzejiInGalerije/MestniMuzejLjubljana/Emona/Seznam2.html). 3D images.
Burger.si.
Panoramic virtual tour of the ancient wall of Emona
(http://www.360travelguide.com/360VirtualTour.asp?iCode=lju09)
Culture.si articles about the city: Roman Emona (http://www.culture.si/en/Roman_Emona), Emona,
Legacy of a Roman City (http://www.culture.si/en/Emona,_Legacy_of_a_Roman_City)
A day in Emona (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YrqEQs0PRg&feature=youtu.be), short movie
about life in Roman settlement
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