HOSTI´LIA a small town of Cisalpine Gaul, situated on the N. bank of the Padus, about 10 miles below the confluence of the Mincius: it is still called Ostiglia. Pliny (Plin. Nat. 21.12. s. 43) calls it only a village (vicus); and we learn from Tacitus that it was dependent on Verona ( vicus Veronensium,Hist. 3.9). But in the civil war between Vitellius and Vespasian it was occupied by Caecina, the lieutenant of the former, as a military post of importance, commanding the passage of the Padus, and secured on its flank by the extensive marshes of the Tartarus. (Id. Hist. 2.100, 3.9, 14, 21, 40.) It is again mentioned by Cassiodorus in the 6th century ( Var. 2.31), and was probably a considerable place in ancient as well as modern times, though it did not enjoy municipal privileges. The Itinerary correctly places it 30 M. P. from Verona on the road to Bononia ( Itin. Ant. p. 282), while the Table gives 33 ( Tab. Pent. ).
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