Road station
Cremona
Listen to the story
Cremona was founded in 218 BC as Rome's first colony north of the Po, a bridgehead against the Gauls and against Hannibal, who was crossing the Alps that very year. In 41 BC its land was confiscated for the veterans of Octavian, and in 69 AD, having backed the losing emperor Vitellius, it was sacked by the Flavian army and never regained its old importance. On the map the name was squeezed in after the rivers and roads, and its last syllable had to drop below the line.