Mediolanum

thumb|333x333px|Mediolanum superimposed on modern Milan. The lighter rectangle in the centre, slightly to the right, represents the modern Piazza del Duomo, Milan|Cathedral Square, while the modern Castle Sforzesco is located at the top left, just outside the route of the Roman walls thumb|Wooden model preserved at the Civic Archaeological Museum of Milan showing a reconstruction of the imperial Mediolanum thumb|250px|A section of Roman wall (11 m high) with a 24-sided tower Mediolanum, the ancient city where Milan now stands, was originally an Insubrian city, but afterwards became an important Roman city in Northern Italy.

The city was settled by a Celtic tribe belonging to the Insubres group and belonging to the Golasecca culture under the name Medhelanon around 590 BC, conquered by the Romans in 222 BC, who Latinized the name of the city into Mediolanum, and developed into a key centre of Western Christianity and informal capital of the Western Roman Empire. It declined under the ravages of the Gothic War, its capture by the Lombards in 569, and their decision to make Ticinum the capital of their Kingdom of Italy.