The Romans founded the colony of Mutina (later Modena); The historian Livy recounts the founding of Mutina (Modena). It was 183 BC (571 AD after the founding of Rome) when three magistrates (the triumvirs) were tasked by the Roman Senate with founding two cities in the territory recently reclaimed from the Boii Gauls. The cities were Modena and Parma; Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, Titus Aebutius Carus, and Lucius Quinctius Crispinus were entrusted with assigning the land to 2,000 settlers, who each received 5 iugera of land (corresponding to a hectare and a quarter); these first settlers most likely settled on the plain south of the city; the remains of the Roman city lie buried under an alluvial layer ranging from 3 to 7-8 meters deep; as there was no continuous settlement, we know little about the urban layout of the colony, and what little we do know comes from archaeological data; The Via Emilia served as the decumanus maximus, which, together with the cardo maximus (a street perpendicular to it), constituted the core of the city’s layout; the forum was located here; a public area belonging to the Mutina forum has been identified at the corner of Rua Pioppa and Via Gallucci.
