ichest") cities of Italy. Although fire damaged the city during the reign of Claudius, the Roman Emperor Nero rebuilt it in the 1st century AD. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Bologna fell under the power of Odoacer, Theoderic the Great (493–526), Byzantium and finally the Lombards, who used it mostly as a military centre. In 774, the city fell to Charlemagne, who gave it to Pope Adrian I. Middle Ages[edit]

aminia minor and to Aquileia through the Via Aemilia Altinate.
In 88 BC, the city became a municipium: it had a rectilinear street plan with six cardi and eight decumani (intersecting streets) which are still discernible today. During the Roman era, its population varied between c. 12,000 to c. 30,000. At its peak, it was the second city of Italy, and one of the most important of all the Empire, with various temples and baths, a theatre, and an arena. Pomponius Mela included Bononia among the five opulentissimae ("richest") cities of Italy. Although fire damaged the city during the reign of Claudius, the Roman Emperor Nero rebuilt it in the 1st century AD. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Bologna fell under the power of Odoacer, Theoderic the Great (493–526), Byzantium and finally the Lombards, who used it mostly as a military centre. In 774, the city fell to Charlemagne, who gave it to Pope Adrian I.
Middle Ages[edit]


Porta Maggiore, one of the twelve medieval city gates of Bologna.


Depiction of a 14th-century fight between the militias of the Guelf and Ghibelline factions in Bologna, from the Croniche of Giovanni Sercambi of Lucca.
After a long decline, Bologna was reborn in the 5th century under Bishop Petronius. According to legend, St. Petronius built the church of S. Stefano. After the fall of Rome, Bologna was a frontier stronghold of the Exarchate of Ravenna in the Po plain, and was defended by a line of walls which did not enclose most of the ancient ruined Roman city. In 728, the city was captured by the Lombard king Liutprand, becoming part of the Lombard Kingdom. The Germanic conquerors formed a district called "addizione longobarda" near the complex of S. Stefano. Charlemagne stayed in this district in 786.
In the 11th century, under the Holy Roman Empire, Bologna began to aspire to being a free commune, which it was able to do when Matilda of Tuscany died, in 1115, and the following year the city obtained many judicial and economic concessions from Emperor Henry V. Bologna joined the Lombard League against Frederick Barbarossa in 1164 which ended with the Peace of Constance in 1183; after which, the city began to expand rapidly (this is the period in which its famous towers were built) and it became one of the main commercial trade centres thanks to a system of canals that allowed large ships to come and go.
Traditionally said to be founded in 1088, the University of Bologna is widely considered to be the first university.[5][6] The university originated as an international centre of study of medieval Roman law under major glossators, including Irnerius. It numbered Dante, Boccaccio and Petrarca a

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