Locus Gromae

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Gromae Locus
Via Emilia San Pietro
Reggio Emilia, May 2024

“Locus Gromae is the point of intersection of the generating axes of the Roman city: the decumanus and the cardo. In the case of Reggio Emilia, the decumanus is represented by the Via Emilia, while the cardo is the axis followed by today's Via Roma. The historian Titus Livius reports that the consul Marcus Aemilius Lepidus in 187 BC, after having defeated the Ligurian tribes settled on the Apennines, provided for the construction of a road connecting the cities of Arimium and Placentia, which took the name of Aemilia from him. Although the sources do not explicitly mention it, undoubtedly the same person is responsible for the construction of the inhabited nucleus of Reggio that maintained its memory in the same topographical denomination. It can therefore be said that Reggio Emilia was truly born with the Via Emilia. The great consular road, in fact, was also the decumanus maximus of Roman Reggio, while the cardo was today's Via Roma. Even today at the intersection of these two roads (in the heart of Reggio) a plaque is visible that recalls ‘the groma’: an ancient Roman measuring instrument that indicated the point of intersection between the two great roads and marked the place from which to begin founding a city.” (Via Emilia, giraReggio)