Cremona

Sister cities

• Krasnoyarsk
• Alaquàs
• Adeje
• Füssen

History

Cremona is first mentioned in history as a settlement of the Cenomani, a Gallic (Celtic) tribe that arrived in the Po valley around 400 BC. However, the name Cremona most likely dates back to earlier settlers and puzzled the ancients, who gave many fanciful interpretations. In 218 BC, the Romans established on that spot their first military outpost (a ) north of the Po river, and kept the old name. Cremona and nearby Placentia (modern Piacenza, on the south bank of the Po) were founded in the same year, as bases for penetration into what became the Roman Province of Gallia Cisalpina (Cisalpine Gaul). Due to the trade importance of the town, from it started the Via Brixiana a Roman road which connected Brixia (Brescia) to Cremona. Cremona quickly grew into one of the largest towns in northern Italy, as it was on the main road connecting Genoa to Aquileia, the Via Postumia. It supplied troops to Julius Caesar and benefited from his rule, but later supported Marcus Junius Brutus and the Senate in their conflict with Augustus, who, having won, in 40 BC confiscated Cremona's land and redistributed it to his men. The famous poet Virgil, who went to school in Cremona, had to forfeit his ancestral farm ("too close to wretched Cremona"), but later regained it. The city's prosperity continued to increase until 69 AD, when it was sacked and destroyed in the Second Battle of Bedriacum by the troops of Vespasian under command of Marcus Antonius Primus, fighting to install him as Emperor against his rival Vitellius. The sacking was described by Tacitus in his Histories. Cremona was rebuilt with the help of the new emperor Vespasian, but it seems to have failed to regain its former prosperity as it disappeared from history. In the 6th century, it resurfaced as a military outpost…