Note 2902 — PORTUS ITIUS

Desjardins also finds it necessary to explain why the name Gesoriacum was succeeded by Bononia. His explanation (Géogr. de la Gaule rom., i, 373) is that the port of Gesoriacum was different from the port of Bononia. Remarking that, according to Eumenius (Paneg. Constantii, c. vi), the port of Gesoriacum was blocked by the emperor Constantius Chlorus, in order to prevent the escape of Carausias, he says that ‘sans doute’ this port was then abandoned for the new (and hypothetical) port of Bononia, ‘aux Tintelleries,’ further down the Liane. This, he says, explains why the name Bononia was alone used (except in the itineraries) after the time of Constantine. I have noticed that Desjardins uses the words ‘sans doute’ when there is a doubt which he is unable to remove. As he insists that the ports of Bononia and Gesoriacum were different, he must, I think, have been off his guard when he quoted, in support of his contention, an anonymous writer, who mentions the arrival of Constantine at ‘Bononia, which the Gauls originally called Gesoriacum’ (Bononiam, quam Galli prius Gesoriacum vocabant [M. Bouquet, Recueil des hist. des Gaules, i, 1738, p. 563B]). And in his own edition of the Peutinger Table (p. 13, col. 2) I find the words Gesogiaco quod nunc Bononia.