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)

Who was the golden man from ancient Emona?

This specimen is known as "the Emonian". With a height of 1.45 m it is an almost life-size,  gold-plated statue that was found on a cemetery to the north of the Roman city of Emona, modern Ljubljana in Slovenia. Probably it was originally poised on top of a pillar.

The original statue is on display in the Narodni Muzej or National Museum of Ljubljana, a copy, elevated on a high statue, may be found on Zvezdni Trg, the Star Square, in the old centre of the city.

The identity of the depicted person is not known as no inscription has been found with the statue. Various noble families of equestrian rank are attested in Emona that had close ties to the ancient port of Aquileia further west, at the Adriatic Sea: One of them may have been able to afford a grave monument of such splendour.

In our novel series "Romanike" we have for narrative purposes attributed the Emonian to the noble House of Caesernii that is attested in Emona by several contemporary inscriptions (Charis is serving them as a kitchen-maiden). Some of the most prominent members of this equestrian family included the brothers Caesernius Macedo and Caesernius Statianus who were councellors of emperor Hadrian. For that reason, the Caesernii may plausibly have been wealthy enough to commission a statue like the Emonian.