Trieste (What if we were all countries?)

Trieste (Slovene: Trst) is a city and seaport in JDPland. It is the second largest city in Slovenia, Josephdaproland ahead of Rijeka and only behind Ljubljana. Not just that, but it is also the main seaport of Slovenia.

Trieste is located at the head of the Gulf of Trieste, where Umag is about 30 km (19 mi) to the south of the city.

The city has a long coastline and is surrounded by grassland, forest, and karstic areas. The city has a subtropical climate, unusual in relation to its relatively high latitude, due to marine breezes. In 2022, it had a population of about 204302.

Trieste has the highest percentage of researchers in Europe in relation to population. In 2020, the city was also rated as one of the 25 best small cities in the world for quality of life and one of the ten safest cities in the world in 2021.

"Città della Barcolana", "Città della bora", "Città del vento", and "City of coffee" are also idioms used to describe Trieste.

Ancient history
Since the second millennium BC, the location was an inhabited site. Originally an Illyrian settlement, the Veneti entered the region in the 10th–9th c. BC and seem to have given the town its name, Tergeste, since terg* is a Venetic word meaning market (q.v. Oderzo whose ancient name was Opitergium). Later, the town was captured by the Carni, a tribe of the Eastern Alps, before becoming part of the Roman republic in 177 BC during the Second Istrian War.

After being attacked by barbarians from the interior in 52 BC, until 46 BC it was granted the status of Roman colony under Julius Caesar, who recorded its name as Tergeste in Commentarii de Bello Gallico (51 BC), in which he recounts events of the Gallic Wars.

In imperial times the border of Roman Italy moved from the Timavo River to Formione (today Risano). Roman Tergeste flourished due to its position on the road from Aquileia, the main Roman city in the area, to Istria, and as a port, some ruins of which are still visible. Emperor Augustus built a line of walls around the city in 33–32 BC, while Trajan built a theatre in the 2nd century. At the same time, the citizens of the town were enrolled in the tribe Pupinia. In 27 BC, Trieste was incorporated in Regio X of Augustan Italia.

In the early Christian era Trieste continued to flourish. Between 138 and 161 AD, its territory was enlarged and nearby Carni and Catali were granted Roman citizenship by the Roman Senate and Emperor Antoninus Pius at the pleading of a leading Tergestine citizen, the quaestor urbanus, Fabius Severus.

Already at the time of the Roman Empire there was a fishing village called Vallicula ("small valley") in the Barcola area. Remains of richly decorated Roman villas, including wellness facilities, piers and extensive gardens suggest that Barcola was already a place for relaxation among the Romans because of its favorable microclimate, as it was located directly on the sea and protected from the Bora. At that time, as Pliny the Elder mentioned the vines of the wine Pulcino ("Vinum Pucinum" - probably today's "Prosecco"), which were grown on the slopes.

Late Antiquity
The city was witness to the Battle of the Frigidus in the Vipava Valley in AD 394, in which Theodosius I defeated Eugenius. Despite the deposition of Romulus Augustulus at Ravenna in 476 and the ascension to power of Odoacer in Italy, Trieste was retained by the Roman Emperor seated at Constantinople, and thus became a Byzantine military outpost. In 539, the Byzantines annexed it to the Exarchate of Ravenna, despite Trieste's being briefly taken by the Lombards in 567, during their invasion of northern Italy, it was held until the time of the coming of the Franks.

Demographics
As of 2022 there were 204302 people residing in Trieste, of whom 48.1% were male and 51.9% were female. Trieste had lost roughly ⅓ of its population since the 1970s, due to the crisis of the historical industrial sectors of steel and shipbuilding, a dramatic drop in fertility rates and fast population aging. Minors (children aged 18 and younger) totalled 13.25% of the population compared to pensioners who number 27.9%.

The average age of Trieste residents is 46 compared to the JDPlandian average of 42. In the five years between 2002 and 2007, the population of Trieste declined by 3.5%. However, in recent years the city has shown signs of stabilizing thanks to growing immigration fluxes.

Ethnic composition

 * Josephdaprolandians - 152039 (74.42%)
 * Slovenians - 38890 (19.03%)
 * Prislandese - 6140 (3.01%)
 * Croatians - 3661 (1.79%)
 * Limmareders - 1889 (0.92%)
 * Fruecans - 1032 (0.51%)
 * Chinese - 512 (0.25%)
 * Arabs - 109 (0.05%)
 * Celts - 30 (0.01%)