Colonia Iulia Emona

This is the Roman precursor of modern Ljubljana, the capital of the state of Slovenia. Emona was a colony of Roman veterans founded in 14 A.D. by Tiberius and the first major town on Italian soil that you would enter when you came from the east. Its location at the amber road and its firm control of itinerary roads arriving from the Noricum, Pannonia, and Aquileia made it a prosperous town that soon outshone its earlier competitor Nauportum, located further west, and continued thriving until it was routed by Attila in 452 A.D. and fell entirely desolate.

Emona and some of its attested inhabitants play significant roles in our series of historical novels, "Romanike", that's why we (my wife and I) have studied its well researched layout.

This digitised parchment sketch was inspired by an animated reconstruction of the Colonia Iulia Emona.

Reconstruction of the Roman Colonia Iulia Emona (now Ljubljana, Slovenia)