Did you know that Milan, the city we know today as the “capital” of fashion, design and finance, was once actually a capital? And certainly not just any capital! You have to imagine Milan as the capital of the Roman Empire! That’s right, because when in 286 A.D. Emperor Diocletian decided to divide the Roman Empire into two administrative sectors and entrust the western portion to Maximian, the latter chose the very provincial municipium of Mediolanum (as the Latins called it) as his imperial seat: then the city acquired the splendor and important political-economic role that it was able to maintain in the following centuries, albeit amid the ups and downs of history.
Even today, almost two thousand years later, walking through the streets of the Lombard capital we can unearth the remains of this glorious past, hidden among the skyscrapers and under the buildings of one of Italy’s most modern capitals. After all, Milan’s life as the capital of the Roman Empire lasted more than a hundred years, along a period that saw major urban interventions aimed at adapting the city to its new role as an imperial seat, from the construction of a wider circle of walls to the creation of a circus designed for horse races and, more rarely, gladiatorial ludiatories. Even today, strolling through Milan, one glimpses here and there the remains of the monuments of the Roman city, which must have looked splendid: imposing city walls and gates, the forum, the imperial palace and mausoleum, the circus and theater, the oldest early Christian basilicas and the gigantic amphitheater, already built in the first century A.D. and probably structured, just like the Colosseum in Rome, on three superimposed orders… to accommodate, you think, more than 20,000 spectators!
To trace the evidence of this glorious past, there is also another invaluable resource, right in the city center: the Civico Museo Archeologico, in Corso Magenta 15, recounts the times of Milan’s capital thanks to a rich selection of artworks and archaeological finds belonging to that period, including even a portrait of Maximian himself!
Immerse yourself in the atmosphere of Milan, capital of the Roman Empire, between Corso Magenta and the basilica of Sant’Ambrogio
A guided tour of the Civic Archaeological Museum is certainly an important opportunity to learn more about the ancient origins of the Roman Milan, not only by admiring up close the evidence of artistic and monumental production, but also by discovering the lifestyle of our ancestors, explored in depth in the section entitled Living in Mediolanum.
To the museum complex in Corso Magenta also belongs the best-preserved part of a very special building: the circus, commissioned by Maximian himself. We are talking about the carceres, the gates from which the quadrigas departed during the shows, well preserved because in medieval times they were used as the bell tower of the church of St. Maurice at the Major Monastery.
The remaining parts of the circus that we are still fortunate enough to be able to observe today are located at 9 Circo Street and Vigna Street: the original building must have stretched a full 470 meters in length, from Porta Vercellina to near Porta Ticinese. A curiosity? The Milan circus was the only circus in northern Italy besides the one in Aquileia, a fact that allows us to understand the importance acquired by Milan in the late imperial age, when even outside Italy there were few cities that had their own circus.
The circus was connected to one of the most important buildings in the capital Milan of the Roman Empire: the palatium, or Imperial Palace. It was an important residence not only because of its function, but also because of its huge size: it is thought to have occupied a large part of the western quarter of the city, between today’s Corso Magenta, Via santa Maria della Port and Via Torino.
To this day, part of the foundations of the reception rooms are clearly visible on Brisa Street, thanks to excavations that brought them to light in the 1950s.
The center of Milan, capital of the Empire: the forum
But the real political, commercial and religious center of every Roman city was undoubtedly its Forum, the main square, where all the city’s most important institutions and activities were located: indeed, there could be found the curia, the seat of the local senate, the basilica, where among other things justice was administered, the Capitolium, a temple dedicated to the Capitoline triad, the Mint, the various urban stores and places for dining. The forum was, in short, the beating heart of the city! The Forum of Mediolanum was located, like most forums, at the intersection of the main roads, between the cardo and decumanus, that is, at the area on which today stand the Ambrosian Picture Gallery and the church of San Sepolcro.
In fact, right under the ancient cellars of the Ambrosiana at the end of the last century, the most significant archaeological remains of the Roman forum were rediscovered: the Verona stone slabs that were part of the paving, some steps (probably access steps to the stores) and the remains of a drainage channel for rainwater.
But these Verona stone slabs can also be observed in another place not far away, an unmissable stop for those curious to unearth all the traces of ancient Mediolanum in the Milan Underground of today: the crypt of the Church of San Sepolcro. Below the church documented from around 1030, the fascinating crypt, recently restored, still has the original flooring made with large salvaged slabs taken right from the nearby Roman forum. The thousand-year history of this place, from its late antique foundations to the devotion of St. Charles Borromeo, lives again today in a new tour curated by NEIADE Tour & Events in collaboration with Dramatrà: an itinerary with acting forays made to listen to the voices of the Crypt of San Sepolcro throughout the centuries!
The Basilica of Sant’Eustorgio: the church of the Three Kings
But the Church of St. Sepulchre is not the only one with roots in the Roman past… immediately after theConstantinian edict of 313 A.D.(issued in Milan itself, sanctioning the permissibility of Christianity among the religions allowed in the Roman Empire) numerous early Christian basilicas sprang up in various parts of the city. In addition to Santa Maria Maggiore and Santa Tecla (“ancestors” of the Milan Cathedral!), Saint Ambrose or San Lorenzo, we like to remember the Basilica of Sant’Eustorgio. It too boasts very ancient origins, dating back to the period when Milan was a capital of the Empire!
Tradition has it that the church was built around 344 A.D. by the Bishop of Milan Eustorgio to contain the relics of the Magi that had been given to him by Emperor Constant I, son of Constantine. In fact, the basilica would rise on the exact spot where the oxen, carrying the relics from Constantinople, supposedly collapsed, exhausted after their long journey. But what are the origins of this legend? They are most likely motivated by an inscription on a marble ring that was inside the church, which read Sepulcrum Trium Magorum.
Although today the prevailing appearance in the church is that of the 12th-13th centuries, the late Roman origins of the basilica are evidenced by the numerous traces of a necropolis datable to the 4th century found below the nave: many of the funerary inscriptions discovered there can now be observed inside the basilica’s museum, which tells the earliest history of this important place of worship in imperial Milan.
