AUGUSTA TAURINORUM was a colony near the Po and Dora rivers, founded probably ca. 25 B.C., about the time that the capital of the Salassi was founded. Both reflect Roman strategic needs and tactical initiatives in the area W of the Po valley. The Romans also needed new centers for veterans and for those incolae whom the Lex Pompeia de Gallia Citeriore had Romanized. All these sites were presumably brought into being according to a perfectly regulated and predetermined plan of the Roman land surveyors. The plan of the center of the city at Torino is unequivocally Roman in origin, connected with the geometric format of the castra metatio. Enclosed within a powerful defensive square, its area (ca. 800 x 700 m) is quite close to the canonical measurements fixed by Hyginus for the foundation of a fortified city.
The inner city was divided into four sections by the intersection of the cardo and the decumanus; the blocks were further divided by cardines and decumani minores. The perfect unity of the plan is evidenced by the position of the towers at the ends of the principal streets, where four gates, according to tradition, opened to meet the cardo and the principal decumanus.
The Porta Palatina, considered one of the most beautiful examples of an urban gate, has two vaulted openings to permit the passage of vehicles and a smaller one at either side for pedestrians. The architects of this gate knew well how to harmonize the solidity of a defensive structure with the refined elegance of a palace facade. The chronology of this gate is still under discussion, though its unity with the Augustan circuit wall would seem to obviate attribution to the Flavian and Trajanic periods.
The characteristics of the Porta Palatina are repeated in two other gates in the city: the marble Principalis Dextra, destroyed in 1635, recorded in a sketch by Giuliano da Sangallo; and the Porta Decumana, whose remains are still visible in the facade of the Palazzo Madama.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
C. Promis, Torino Antica (1865); G. Bandinelli, Torino Romana (1929); P. Barocelli, “Appunti sopra le Mura Romane di cinta di Torino,” Atti della Società Piemontese di Archeologia e Belle Arti (1933); C. Carducci, “L'Architettura in Piemonte nella antichità,” Atti del X Congresso di Storia dell'Architettura (1957); S. Finocchi, “I nuovi scavi del Teatro Romano di Torino,” Bollettino della Società Piemontese di Archeologia e Belle Arti (1962-63) 142ff; id., BdA 49.4 (1964).
The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites. Stillwell, Richard. MacDonald, William L. McAlister, Marian Holland. Princeton, N.J. Princeton University Press. 1976.
The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.
Non è dato sapere il momento in cui venne dedotta la provincia romana della Gallia Cisalpina. La storiografia moderna oscilla fra la fine del II secolo a.C. e l'età sillana. Vero è che all'89 a.C. risale la legge di Pompeo Strabone ("Lex Pompeia de Gallia Citeriore") che conferì alla città di Mediolanum, e ad altre, la dignità di colonia latina.
Nel dicembre del 49 a.C., dice Cassio Dione, Cesare con la Lex Roscia concesse la cittadinanza romana agli abitanti della provincia e nel 42 a.C. venne abolita la provincia, facendo della Gallia Cisalpina parte integrante dell'Italia romana. Nel periodo in cui fu provincia, la Gallia Cisalpina venne amministrata da un proconsole.
