Send Gift Baskets to Piacenza, Italy

Before the Roman settlement, the area had been inhabited by other peoples; most recently, the Ananes or Anamari, a tribe of Cisalpine Gauls, had occupied the right bank of the Po between the Trebbia and the Taro. Before the Gauls took the entire Po Valley from the Etruscans, these plains were inhabited by Etruscans, according to Polybius.

The Romans founded Piacenza and Cremona in May 218 BC as military colonies. Following the Roman victory over the Gauls in 219 BC, they planned to construct them. After declaring war on Carthage in 218 BC, the Senate decided to accelerate the foundation and gave the colonists 30 days to claim their lands. 6,000 Roman citizens would settle in each city, but they would receive Latin Rights, which means they would have the same legal status as the numerous colonies Rome and Latium had co-founded.

Colonialists were driven off the lands by the Gauls who lived in the region. Mutina was sent for military assistance after Mutina took refuge there. The area was prevented from being reached by a small force under Lucius Manlius. A legion under Gaius Aurelius was sent by the Senate. A castra of 480 square meters (0.12 acres) was constructed in Piacenza and Cremona to support the city’s building with the help of Manlius and the colonists. During the Battle of Trebia in December, Piacenza’s walls were already in place, so the walls must have been constructed immediately. However, the site would have been obliterated by construction since there is no textual or archaeological evidence of a prior settlement there. After the foundation of Rome, Piacenza was the 53rd colony to be established, and the Po valley Gauls were the first to show this city.

Hannibal controlled the countryside after the Battle of Trebbia, so a port (Emporium) was built to supply it by boat. The city was under siege by Hasdrubal Barca in 209 BC, but he could not capture it and withdrew. The Gauls sacked and burned it in 200 BC, and its inhabitants were sold as enslaved people. As a result, 2000 citizens could return to the city after the Romans recaptured the city. A combined force of Gauls and Ligurians plundered the entire region in 198 BC. Since the people had never recovered from slavery, they complained to the Senate about underpopulation in 190 BC; the Senate responded by sending 3000 new settlers. Due to the Via Aemilia’s construction in the 180s, the city was easily accessible from the Adriatic ports, which improved trade and defense prospects.