Editing Pavia (section)

=== Early history ===
{{main|Ticinum}}
[[File:Josse Lieferinxe - Saint Sebastian Interceding for the Plague Stricken - Walters 371995.jpg|left|thumb|This painting by [[Josse Lieferinxe]] depicts an outbreak of the plague in seventh-century Pavia (then under the [[Lombard Kingdom]]).<ref>{{cite web |publisher= [[The Walters Art Museum]]
 |url= http://art.thewalters.org/detail/6193
 |title= Saint Sebastian Interceding for the Plague Stricken}}</ref> The Walters Art Museum.]]Dating back to pre-Roman times, the town of Pavia was said by [[Pliny the Elder]] to have been founded by the [[Laevi]] and [[Marici (Ligures)|Marici]], two [[Ligures|Ligurian]], or Celto-Ligurian, tribes, while [[Ptolemy]] attributes it to the [[Insubres]], a [[Celts|Celtic]] population. The Roman city, known as [[Ticinum]], was a municipality and an important military site (a [[castrum]]) under the [[Roman Empire]]. It most likely began as a small military camp built by the [[consul]] [[Publius Cornelius Scipio (consul 218 BC)|Publius Cornelius Scipio]] in 218 BCE to guard a wooden bridge he had built over the river Ticinum, on his way to search for [[Hannibal]], who was rumoured to have managed to lead an army over the [[Alps]] and into Italy. The forces of Rome and [[Carthage]] ran into each other soon thereafter, and the Romans suffered the first of many crushing defeats at the hands of Hannibal, with the consul himself almost losing his life. The bridge was destroyed, but the fortified camp, which at the time was the most forward Roman military outpost in the [[Po Valley]], somehow survived the long [[Second Punic War]], and gradually evolved into a garrison town.

Its importance grew with the extension of the [[Via Aemilia]] from [[Ariminum]] (Rimini) to the river [[Po (river)|Po]] (187 BCE), which it crossed at Placentia ([[Piacenza]]) and there forked, one branch going to [[Mediolanum]] ([[Milan]]) and the other to Ticinum, and thence to [[Laumellum]] where it divided once more, one branch going to [[Vercellae]] – and thence to [[Eporedia]] and [[Augusta Praetoria]] – and the other to Valentia – and thence to [[Augusta Taurinorum]] ([[Turin]]).
[[File:IMG E2796 (2).jpg|thumb|Aerial photo of the historic center of Pavia; the urban plan of the Roman age is evident.]]
The town was built on flatted ground with square blocks. The "[[Cardo|cardo Maximus]]" road corresponded to the current Strada Nuova up to the Roman bridge while the "[[Decumanus Maximus|decumanus]]" road corresponded to corso Cavour-corso Mazzini. Under most of the streets of the historic center there are still the brick ducts of the Roman sewer system which continued to function throughout the Middle Ages and the modern age without interruption, until about 1970.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.paviaedintorni.it/temi/arteearchitettura_file/artearchitettura_varie_file/descrizioni_fognatureromaneapavia.htm|title=Rete fognaria nel sottosuolo di Pavia|work=Pavia e dintorni| access-date=5 August 2022}}</ref> [[File:Fogne.jpg|left|thumb|One of the sections of the Roman sewer that passes under the streets of the historic center of Pavia]]Pavia was important as a Military site ([[Battle of Pavia (271)|near the city]], in 271, the emperor [[Aurelian]] defeated the [[Juthungi]]) because of the easy access to water communications (through the rivers [[Ticino (river)|Ticino]] and [[Po (river)|Po]]) up to the [[Adriatic Sea]] and because of its defence structures.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.monasteriimperialipavia.it/pavia-citta-regia/?lang=en|title=Pavia Royal town|work=Monasteri Imperiali Pavia|access-date=29 July 2022}}</ref>
In 325 [[Martin of Tours]] came to Pavia as a child following his father, a Roman officer.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.monasteriimperialipavia.it/pavia-citta-regia/?lang=en|title=Pavia Royal town|work=Monasteri Imperiali Pavia|access-date=29 July 2022}}</ref> Pavia was the seat of an important Roman mint between 273 and 326.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.aeternitas-numismatics.com/single-post/roman-imperial-mints-ticinum|title=Knowing the Roman imperial mints: IV- Ticinum|work=Aeternitas Numismatics|date=6 May 2017 |access-date=29 July 2022}}</ref>
The reign of [[Romulus Augustulus]] (r. 475–476), the last emperor of the [[Western Roman Empire]] ended at Pavia in 476 CE, and Roman rule thereby ceased in Italy.<ref>{{cite book|last=Thompson|title=Romans and Barbarians|pages=[https://archive.org/details/romansbarbarians00thom/page/61 61–63]}}</ref> Romulus Augustulus, while considered the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire, was actually a usurper of the imperial [[throne]]; his father [[Flavius Orestes]] dethroned the previous emperor, [[Julius Nepos]], and raised the young Romulus Augustulus to the imperial throne at [[Ravenna]] in 475.<ref>{{cite book|last=Thompson|title=Romans and Barbarians|pages=61–63}}</ref> Though being the emperor, Romulus Augustulus was simply the mouthpiece for his father Orestes, who was the person who actually exercised power and governed Italy during Romulus Augustulus' short reign.<ref>{{cite book|last=Thompson |title=Romans and Barbarians|pages=61–63}}</ref> Ten months after Romulus Augustulus's reign began, Orestes's soldiers under the command of one of his officers named [[Odoacer]], rebelled and killed Orestes in the city of Pavia in 476.<ref>{{cite book|last=Thompson|title=Romans and Barbarians|pages=64}}</ref> The rioting that took place as part of Odoacer's uprising against Orestes sparked fires that burnt much of Pavia to the point that Odoacer, as the new king of Italy, had to suspend the [[taxes]] for the city for five years so that it could finance its recovery.<ref>{{cite book|last=Thompson|title=Romans and Barbarians|pages=64}}</ref> Without his father, Romulus Augustulus was powerless. Instead of killing Romulus Augustulus, Odoacer pensioned him off at 6,000 solidi a year before declaring the end of the Western Roman Empire and himself king of the new Kingdom of Italy.<ref>{{cite book|last=Thompson |title=Romans and Barbarians|pages=64}}</ref>

Odoacer's reign as king of Italy did not last long, because in 488 the [[Ostrogothic]] peoples led by their [[king]] [[Theodoric the Great|Theoderic]] invaded Italy and waged war against Odoacer.<ref>{{cite book|last=Moorhead |title=Theoderic |pages=19}}</ref> After fighting for 5 years, Theoderic defeated Odoacer and on March 15, 493, assassinated Odoacer at a banquet meant to negotiate a peace between the two rulers.<ref>{{cite book |last=Moorhead|title=Theoderic |pages=26}}</ref> With the establishment of the Ostrogoth kingdom based in northern Italy, Theoderic began his vast program of public building. Pavia was among several cities that Theodoric chose to restore and expand.<ref>{{cite book|last=Moorhead|title=Theoderic|pages=42}}</ref> He began the construction of the vast palace complex that would eventually become the residence of Lombard monarchs several decades later.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wickham|title=Early Medieval Italy|pages=38}}</ref> Theoderic also commissioned the building of the Roman-styled [[amphitheatre]] and bath complex in Pavia;<ref>{{cite book|last=Moorhead|title=Theoderic|pages=42}}</ref> in the seventh century these would be among the few still functioning bath complexes in Europe outside of the [[Eastern Roman Empire]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Wickham|title=Early Medieval Italy|pages=38}}</ref> Near the end of Theoderic's reign the Christian [[philosopher]] [[Boethius]] was imprisoned in one of Pavia's churches from 522 to 525 before his execution for treason.<ref>{{cite book|last=Moorhead |title=Theoderic|pages=219–222}}</ref> It was during Boethius's captivity in Pavia that he wrote his seminal work the ''Consolation of Philosophy''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Moorhead|title=Theoderic|pages=223–225}}</ref>
[[File:Musei civici6.jpg|thumb|left|[[Ostrogoths|Ostrogothic]] belt buckle, [[Pavia Civic Museums|Civic Museums]]]]
Pavia played an important role in the war between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Ostrogoths that began in 535.<ref>{{cite book|last=Thompson|title=Romans and Barbarians|pages=95}}</ref> After the Eastern Roman general [[Belisarius]]'s victory over the Ostrogothic leader [[Wittigis]] in 540 and the loss of most of the Ostrogoth lands in Italy, Pavia was among the last centres of Ostrogothic resistance that continued the war and opposed Eastern Roman rule.<ref>{{cite book|last=Thompson|title=Romans and Barbarians|pages=95–96}}</ref> After the capitulation of the Ostrogothic leadership in 540 more than a thousand men remained garrisoned in Pavia and [[Verona]] dedicated to opposing Eastern Roman rule.<ref>{{cite book|last=Thompson|title=Romans and Barbarians|pages=96}}</ref> Since 540 Pavia became the permanent capital of the [[Ostrogothic Kingdom]], stable site of the court and the royal treasury.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.monasteriimperialipavia.it/pavia-citta-regia/?lang=en|title=Pavia Royal town|work=Monasteri Imperiali Pavia|access-date=29 July 2022}}</ref> The resilience of Ostrogoth strongholds like Pavia against invading forces allowed pockets of Ostrogothic rule to limp along until finally being defeated in 561.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wickham|title=Early Medieval Italy|pages=ix}}</ref>
[[File:Ponte Coperto al tramonto con i suoi riflessi.jpg|thumb|[[Ponte Coperto]]]]

Pavia and the peninsula of Italy did not remain long under the rule of the Eastern Roman Empire, for in 568 CE a new people invaded Italy: the [[Lombards]] (otherwise called the Longobards).<ref>{{cite book|last=Christie|title=The Lombards|page=xxii}}</ref> In their invasion of Italy in 568, the Lombards were led by their king [[Alboin]] (r. 560–572), who would become the first Lombard king of Italy.<ref>{{cite book|last=Christie|title=The Lombards|page=xxv }}</ref> Alboin captured much of northern Italy in 568 but his progress was halted in 569 by the fortified city of Pavia.<ref>{{cite book|last=Christie |title=The Lombards|pages=79}}</ref> [[Paul the Deacon]]'s History of the Lombards written more than a hundred years after the Siege of Ticinum provides one of the few records of this period: "The city of Ticinum (Pavia) at this time held out bravely, withstanding a siege more than three years, while the army of the Langobards remained close at hand on the western side. Meanwhile, Alboin, after driving out the soldiers, took possession of everything as far as Tuscany except Rome and [[Ravenna]] and some other fortified places which were situated on the shore of the sea."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Paul the Deacon |title=History of the Lombards|year=2003|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |location=Philadelphia |pages=80|author2=William Dudley Foulke |editor=Edward Peters}}</ref> The Siege of Ticinum finally ended with the Lombards capturing the city of Pavia in 572.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hodgkin|first=Thomas|title=Italy and Her Invaders 553 Volume V The Lombard Invasion |year=1895|publisher=Clarendon Press|location=Oxford |pages=162–163}}</ref> Pavia's strategic location and the Ostrogoth palaces located within it would make Pavia by the 620s the main capital of the Lombards' Kingdom of Pavia<ref>{{cite book|last=Arnaldi |title=Italy and Its Invaders|pages=31}}</ref> and the main residence for the Lombard rulers.<ref>{{cite book|last=Christie|title=The Lombards|pages=147}}</ref>