Claterna
- a fortress in Gallia Cisalpina, near Bononia, on the river Guaderna, Cic. Fam. 12, 5, 2; id. Phil. 8, 2, 6; Plin. 3, 15, 20, § 116.
CLATERNA (Κλάτερνα: Quaderna), a town of Gallia Cispadana, situated on the Via Aemilia, between Bononia and Forum Cornelii. The Itineraries place it 10 M. P. from the former and 13 from the latter city. (Itin. Ant. p. 287; Itin. Hier. p. 616; Tab. Peut.) It is mentioned in history during the operations which preceded the battle of Mutina B.C. 43, on which occasion it was occupied with a garrison by Antonius, but this was afterwards expelled, and the place taken by Hirtius. (Cic. Phil. 8.2, ad Fam. 12.5.) Under the Roman empire it appears to have been a considerable municipal town, and as late as the 4th century is still mentioned in the Jerusalem Itinerary as a civitas.( Strab. 5. p. 216; Plin. Nat. 3.15. s. 20; Ptol. 3.1.46; Itin. Hier. . l. c. St. Ambrose however speaks of it as much decayed in his time (Epist. 39.3). The period of its final decline or destruction is unknown, but it is almost the only town on the Aemilian Way which has not preserved its existence as such in modern times: the name (slightly altered into Quaderna) is however retained by a small stream which crosses the road about 9 miles from Bologna, and an old church with a few houses adjoining it, about a mile to the N. of the road, is still called Sta Maria di Quaderna. The ancient town was however certainly situated on the high road. [E.H.B],
A Roman municipium on the Via Aemilia to the E of Bononia, on the Quaderna. The site is in the Maggio section of the present town.
Excavations undertaken N and S of the Via Aemilia have brought to light mostly private buildings from the Late Republican and Early Imperial ages. Probably a vast area of cobblestone pavement discovered in connection with the Via Aemilia was the forum of the city, which seems to have had a regular plan.
BIBLIOGRAPHYBrizio, “Claterna,” NSc (1892) 133-45PI; Solari, “Claterna,” RivFC (1930) 349; Aurigemma, “Mosaici di Claterna,” Il Comune di Bologna (1934) I.
G. A. MANSUELLI