FORUM CORNELII(Φόρον Κορνήλιον, Strab.; Φόρον Κορνηλίου, Ptol.; Κορνηλίου ἀγορά. Dio Cass.: Eth. Forocorneliensis: Imola), a considerable town of Gallia Cispadana, situated on the Via Aemilia, and distant 23 miles from Bononia and 10 from Faventia. It stood on the W. bank of the river Vatrenus, now called the Santerno. (Strab. 5. p. 216; Plin. Nat. 3.15, s. 20; Ptol. 3.1.46; Itin. Ant. pp. 100, 127, 287; Itin. Hier. p. 616.) It is said to have derived its name from its foundation by the dictator Sulla (prudent. Peristeph. 9, init.), and appears to have been already a place of some importance at the death of Caesar; as, in the civil war which followed, it was occupied by Octavian, who established his winter-quarters there. (Cic. ad Fam. 12.5; Dio Cass..) It is afterwards noticed by Martial, who appears to have composed the third book of his epigrams during a residence in this town (3.50.4), and continued under the Roman empire to be a flourishing municipal town. (Gruter, Inscr. p. 518. 4, &c.) Its name is again mentioned during the Gothic Wars, and as late as the seventh century P. Diaconus ranks it among the locupletes urbesof the province of Aemilia. He tells us that it had a citadel (castrum), which was called Imolas, from whence the modern town has derived the name of Imola. (Procop. B. G. 2.19; P. Diac. 2.18.)
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