IMPERIUM ROMANUM

Provinces · The later western provinces

LW-31 Aemilia

The empire around 400 CE. The broad colours represent prefectural groupings, while…
The empire around 400 CE. The broad colours represent prefectural groupings, while regional names, major cities, and symbols for selected state industries show the larger administrative and logistical setting. These groupings contained many individual provinces; a region labelled on this map is not necessarily one province.

Aemilia’s late provincial identity formalized a region long integrated into Italy. Agricultural wealth, surveyed countryside, roads, towns, and markets supported a densely connected landscape. The great road was both a communications route and the axis around which many civic territories were organized.

Late military movement repeatedly crossed the plain. Gothic rule and the wars of reconquest affected its towns and rural resources, followed by the competing authorities created by Lombard expansion. The province’s legacy persisted through municipal and ecclesiastical centres, while its former status within one Italian administrative system gave way to a more divided political geography.