Clastidium
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Clastidii Proper-name noun: neuter genitive singular of Clastidium
- A fortress in Gallia Cisalpina, near the Padus, now Chiasteggio, Cic. Tusc. 4, 22, 49; Nep. Hann. 4, 1; Liv. 21, 48, 9.—
- II The name of a fragment of Naevius, Varr. L. L. 7, 107; 9, 78.
CLASTI´DIUM (Κλαστίδιον: Casteggio), a town of Cisalpine Gaul, situated on the borders of Liguria, about 7 miles S. of the Padus. It was on the high road from Placentia to Dertona, about 18 miles from the latter city (Strab. 5. p. 217). Its name is chiefly celebrated on account of the victory gained under its walls in B.C. 222 by Marcellus over the Insubrians and their allies the Gaesatae, in which Virdomarus, king of the latter tribe, was slain by the Roman consull with his own hand. (Plb. 2.34; Plut. Marc. 6; Val. Max.; Cic. Tusc. 4.2. 2) On this occasion the Gauls had laid siege to Clastidium, which thus appears to have been already a place of strength and importance. At the commencement of the Second Punic War it was selected by the Romans as a fortress in which they deposited large stores of corn, but the commander of the garrison, a native of Brundusium, betrayed it into the hands of Hannibal, who made it his place of arms for his operations on the Trebia. (Plb. 3.69; Liv. 21.48.) Its name is afterwards repeatedly mentioned during the wars of the Romans with the Cispadane Gauls and their Ligurian allies, and appears to have been one of the most considerable places in this part of Italy. (Liv. 32.29, 31.) In one passage Livy terms it a Ligurian city, but it seems certain that it was properly a Gaulish one: Polybius tells us that it was in the territory of the Andri (2.34), but this name is probably a corruption of Anamari or Ananes. (Schweigh. ad loc.) After the Roman conquest it seems to have fallen into insignificance, and though noticed by Strabo as still existing in his time, is not mentioned by any later writer, and is not found in the Itineraries. There can however be no doubt that the modern town of Casteggio or Chiasteggio retains the ancient site as well as name.
[E.H.B]A fortified town of the Ananes, in Gallia Cispadana, not far from the Padus (Po).
About 60 km S of Milan and 11 km S of the Po, it controls the route across the Po to Ticinum (Pavia) on the other side. It is famous as the town of the Celtic Anamares where the Republican general M. Claudius Marcellus won the spolia opima in 222 B.C. by slaying Virdumarus, the king of the Insubrian Gauls, in hand-to-hand combat. Shortly afterwards the poet Naevius celebrated Marcellus' feat in an historical play entitled Clastidium. After Marcellus' victory the Romans planned to use Clastidium as one of their chief bases for the conquest of the neighboring parts of Liguria and Cispadane Gaul, but they had to wait until after the second Punic war (218-201 B.C.) before they could carry out their program since at the very beginning of that struggle the town was betrayed into the hands of Hannibal (Polyb. 3.69 and Livy 21.48; 32.29,31). When the Romans finally brought Clastidium under control after 200 B.C., they made it a dependency of Placentia.
The Roman town was in the part of Casteggio known locally as Pisternile, but no Roman monuments have survived there. There are, however, remains of Roman bridges over two neighboring creeks, the Rile and the Coppa, and there is also a large block of ancient masonry at nearby Masone, the so-called Fontana di Annibale. Roman inscriptions, coins, pottery, glass, and architectural fragments have been found at Casteggio in some quantity. The Municipio houses a few of the finds, but most have been sent to the museum of antiquities in the Castello Visconteo at Pavia, 20 km to the N.
The great Roman highway from Dertona to Placentia, the Via Postumia, served Clastidium; remains of its road station were found on the E outskirts of the modern town.
BIBLIOGRAPHYG. Giulietti, Casteggio: Notizie Storiche (1890); M. Baratta, Clastidium (1931).
E. T. SALMON