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Rimini's History
To understand Rimini's history it's necessary to first consider where the city is situated geographically. Tucked into the south-eastern corner of Romagna, sandwiched between the Adriatic sea and the Appenine mountains, Rimini has always offered a valuable and strategic foothold for traders, colonists, and armies travelling from the South to North.
Our guide to the history of Rimini is broken up into the following rough chronological periods
Pre-Roman Rimini
Many guides start with the Roman founding of the city of Ariminum in 268 BC, but this leaves the obvious question - but this doesn't tell the whole story. Before the Roman established their colony, the region had been populated by different groups of peoples: Villanovan, Umbrians, Greeks, Etruscans and Celts
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Ariminum - Roman Rimini
Rimini played a vital role in Roman expansion into Northern Italy, and the beginings of the Roman Empire. Julius Caesar is reputed to have famously cast his die in the town's fora - a moment that changed history. The town prospered under Emporors such as Augustus, Tiberius, and Hadrian, with the construction of monuments that remain to the current day.
Goths, Byzantines, and Pepin the Younger
The start of the fifth century saw Rome besieged and ransacked by the Goths, and an end to the pax romana which had seen Rimini prosper. Northern Italy descended into warfare, with towns falling in and out of the hands of the Goths, Byzantines, and Lombards. Rimini was no exception, being besieged, for example by the Goths in 493, or being subsumed into the Pentapolis by the Byzantines in 553. In 756 Rimini, along with the rest of the Pentapolis was wrested from the Lombards and given over to the Holy See, under the 'Donation of Pepin'.