Piacenza

(anc. Placentia ). A city of Northern Italy, in the province of the same name, on the right bank of the Po, 2 miles below the confluence of the Trebbia. It is of an oblong form, surrounded by ancient walls and ditches, and defended by a citadel, which was garrisoned by the Austrians till 1859. Piacenza is first mentioned in 219 B.C. , when a Roman colony was settled there. In 200 B.C. it was plundered and burned by the Gauls, but rapidly recovered its prosperity, and was long an important military station. It was the western terminus of the great Æmilian road, which began at Ariminum on the Adriatic. In later history, it plays an important part as one of the independent Lombard cities.