Bene Vagienna in the context of Magliano Alpi

Pollentia, known today as Pollenzo (Piedmontese: Polèns), was an ancient city on the left bank of the Tanaro. It is now a frazione (parish) of Bra in the Province of Cuneo, Piedmont, northern Italy.

In antiquity Pollentia belonged to the Ligurian Statielli, Augusta Bagiennorum (modern Roncaglia in the Comune of Bene Vagienna) being 16 km to the south. Its position on the road from Augusta Taurinorum (modern Turin) to the coast at Vada Sabatia (modern Vado Ligure, near Savona), at the point of divergence of a road to Hasta (modern Asti), gave it military importance. Decimus Brutus managed to occupy it an hour before Mark Antony in 43 BC. Here Stilicho on April 6, 402, fought the Battle of Pollentia with Alaric I, which though undecided led the Goths to evacuate Italy.

Augusta Bagiennorum was the chief town of the Ligurian tribe of the Bagienni. It was located in what is now the commune of Bene Vagienna, in the province of Cuneo (northern Italy), on the upper course of the Tanaro, about 35 miles (56 km) due south of Turin. The town retained its position as a tribal centre in the reorganization of Roman Emperor Octavian, whose title Augustus is part of its name as a colony, and was erected on a systematic plan.

Considerable remains of public buildings, constructed in concrete faced with small stones with bands of brick at intervals, an amphitheatre with a major axis of c. 120 m and a minor axis of c. 900 m, a theatre with a stage 40 m in length, and near it the foundations of what was probably a basilica, an open space (no doubt the forum), an aqueduct, baths, have been discovered by recent excavations, and also one of the city gates, flanked by two towers.