| 1. From the Beginnings to the Roman Period |
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 The recent archaeological excavations in Piazza della Signoria
have furnished evidence that present day Florence was already
occupied in prehistoric times. Other signs document the presence
of a village in the early iron age and in Etruscan times. But the
real foundation of the city dates to Roman times and the oldest
part of the city with its network of streets in an orthogonal
pattern bears the imprint of these Roman origins. What the
earliest chronicles had to say about the origins of the city,
albeit in fable form, seems therefore to be based on fact. When
it originated as one of Caesar's colonies, the operations
involved in founding the castrum and the division of the land
into centuriae began in the spring of 59 B.C., at the time of the
ludi florales (the probable source of the name Florentia). The colony was laid down following the axis of
the consular Via Cassia, which ran along the northern edge of the
Florentine basin. For the sake of defense, the city was set at
the confluence of two streams (the Arno and the Mugnone) where
the oldest populations had previously been located.
Rectangular in plan, it was enclosed in a wall about 1800 meters
long. The built-up area, like all the cities founded by the
Romans, was characterized by straight roads which crossed at
right angles. The two main roads led to four towered gates. The
decumanus maximus (at present the streets of the Corso, Speziali
and Strozzi) and the cardo maximus (Piazza San Giovanni, Via Roma
and Via Calimala) converged on a central square, the forum urbis
(now Piazza della Repubblica) where the Curia and the Temple
dedicated to the Capitoline Triad (Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva)
were later to rise. The topography of the city differed in its
orientation from that established by the division of the
surrounding land into centuriae, whose axis was, as mentioned,
the Via Cassia. The castrum, on the other hand, adhered to the
classical ritual of an orientation based on the cardinal points.
Archaeological finds, many of which came to light during the
course of works which "gave new life", to the old city
center, have made it possible to locate and identify the remains
of various important public works: the Capitoline Baths, the
Baths of Capaccio, so-called from the point of arrival of the
aqueduct from Monte Morello: "Caput aquae" (head of the
waters = Capaccio), the sewage system, the pavement of the
streets, the Temple of Isis (in the Piazza San Firenze) and other
lesser temples, the Theater (now the area is occupied by the back
of the Palazzo Vecchio and by
the Palazzo Gondo) and the Amphitheater, whose perimeter is still
to be seen in the curve of various streets: Via Torta, Via
Bentaccordi, Piazza Peruzzi. Some of these buildings were outside
the walls (the Theater and the Amphitheater, for example) which
testifies to the urban development of the original settlement,
probably as early as the 1st century B.C. The Arno was also
outside the walls (the city developed on the right banks), with a
river port that constituted an important infrastructure for the
city, for in Roman times the river was navigable from its mouth
up to its confluence with the Affrico, upstream from Florence.
The location of the city at a spot where it was relatively easy
to cross the Arno had not been left to chance and was typical of
the centers that originated as potential bridgeheads. In fact a
bridge was built here probably around the 1st century B.C., the
first bridge in Florentine history, in all likelihood somewhat
upstream from today's Ponte Vecchio. In the overall picture of
the Roman territorial organization Florentia was the focal point
of a district in which its function as a city balanced its status
of thoroughfare, with the bridge over the Arno keeping the
communication routes in the hills to the south in touch with
those of the Appenine crossings.
The city developed rapidly thanks to its favorable position and
the role it played in the ambit of the territorial organization
in the region. It soon superceded Arezzo as the leading center in
northern Etruria and was chosen as the seat of one of the
correctores Italiae.
Economic power was the driving force behind the urban growth of
the young colony. Commercial activity and trade thrived thanks to
the fact that important communications routes (land and water)
intersected at Florentia and offer an explanation for the
presence of those oriental merchants, probably on their way from
Pisa, who first introduced the cult of Isis and then (2nd
century) Christianity.
The earliest indications of the Christian religion are bound to
the cults of the deacon Lorenzo and the Palestinian saint,
Felicita. Both first arose in the suburbs, the districts which
had risen outside the walls along the consular roads which left
the city. It was there that the oldest Florentine churches were
built: San Lorenzo
consecrated in 393, the first diocese, and Santa Felicita, whose
origins go back to the 4th 5th centuries. According to legend,
Saint Miniato one of the members of the first Christian
community, also came from the east. Together with eight of his
companions he was martyred in the year 250 during the
persecutions ordered by Decius.A little church on a hill-top
overlooking Florence was built for him. The Florentines do not
however seem to have had a bishop prior to the late 3rd century.
The first one recorded is San Felice who participated in a Roman
synod in 313. It is interesting to note that contacts with the
East continued. The most famous of the early Florentine bishops,
San Zenobius, who lived in the early 5th century, also had an
oriental name and, as early as the 7th century, Reparata, another
Palestinian saint, was worshipped.
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