The story of origins OF Poppi is still obscure and based on assumptions rather than documented references and certain facts.
If we want to believe what was written by Giovanni Villani, the Florentine historian and author of the “Cronica”, Poppi would be a Roman creature. In fact, Villani recounts that, at the time of Julius Caesar, in 63 BC, while the consuls Cicero and Macrinus were destroying Fiesole with their army, the Roman Senate, at the request of Caesar himself, had sent a colony of those soldiers to live in Poppi. Even today you can see, under the arcades, on the sides of a shop, where Porta Ancherona used to be, on one side the symbol of Caesar (i.e. a winged dragon that throws a lily from its mouth), on the other a lion running with its jaws wide open and its tongue sticking out, a possible reference to the ancient founder. Repetti also lets us know that in the space of twenty-five years Cesare founded 28 colonies and it is probable that one of these was sent to the hill, located in a strategic position in the center of the Casentino valley, where perhaps the members of the “gens” Pompilia or, perhaps, Pupia.