L’esondazione del torrente Parma nel V secolo d.C.: la trasformazione della città e del territorio

Parma risentì nel V secolo delle mutate condizioni politiche, economiche e sociali, e subì un impoverimento generale come attestato dalle recenti scoperte archeologiche nel quartiere sud-occidentale del centro cittadino, luogo di ferventicome attestato dalle recenti scoperte archeologiche nel quartiere sud-occidentale del centro cittadino, luogo di ferventi attività artigianali dall’età repubblicana al IV secolo d.C., caduto in abbandono nel V secolo e relegato prima ai margini della città e poi definitivamente escluso dal “nuovo” perimetro urbano, ristretto nel VI secolo. I recenti scavi condotti presso il Tribunale di Parma e la rilettura dei dati degli scavi eseguiti nel corso del XX secolo hanno permesso di ricostruire dettagliatamente l’evoluzione della colonia romana in continua espansione fino alla prima metà del V secolo d.C., quando fu segnata da una potente alluvione del torrente Parma che causò l’abbandono di interi quartieri cittadini, in modo particolare quelli meridionali, con la conseguente ripresa dell’incolto anche all’interno delle aree urbane. Il drammatico evento, unitamente alle continue minacce esterne, rese necessaria la costruzione di una nuova cinta difensiva con evidente funzione di barriera contro le continue esondazioni del torrente. The flooding of the Parma creek in the 5th century AD: the trasformation of the city and the territory Parma was affected in the 5th century AD by the changed, economic and social conditions, and underwent a general impoverishment as evidenced by the recent archaeological discoveries in the south-western quarter of the city, a place of fervent craft activities from the Republican age to the 4th century AD, which fell into abandonment in the 5th century AD and relegated first on the edge of the city an then definitively excluded from the “new” urban perimeter, restricted in the 6th century AD. The recent excavations carried out at the Tribunale of Parma and the rereading of the data of the excavations carried out during the 20th century have made possible to reconstruct the evolution of the Roman colony, in continuous expansion until the 5th century AD, when it was marked by a powerful flood of the Parma creek that caused the abandonment of entire city districts, especially the southern ones. The dramatic event, together with the continuous external threats, made it necessary to built a new urban walls with evident function also of protection of the town against the flooding of the creek. The paper concerns the inscription CIL V, 8280 found in Aquileia and now preserved in Vienna, at the Kunsthistorisches Museum. The deceased, who died at the age of 40, is indicated with the formula VRL that we want to loose as venerabilis. His military service in the numerus Saliorum and the indication of the 11th indiction lead to attribute the stay in Aquileia after the defeat of the Goths and before the arrival of the Lombards, so they probably date his death to the year 563. We believe that Paulus, more than a simple soldier of solid Christian faith, was a sort of military chaplain, a figure to whom the name of serbus Dei contained in the epigraph would fit. Given the close link between the complex of the Great Baths and the door on the ancient kardo, joined by a road built ex novo by a gutting in the Byzantine period, we assume that both the military (with troops) and the civil administration was located in that building in the Byzantine age.