Tarvisium
TARVI´SIUM (Ταρβίσιον: Eth. Tarvisianus: Treviso), a town of Northern Italy, in the province of Venetia, situated on the left bank of the river Silis (Sele), about 15 miles from its mouth. The name is not mentioned by any of the geographers, though Pliny speaks of the Silis as flowing ex montibus Tarvisanis,i n a manner that would lead us to suppose it to have been a municipal town (Plin. Nat. 3.18. s. 22), and this is confirmed by an inscription given by Muratori (Inscr. p. 328). After the fall of the Western Empire it appears as a considerable city, and is repeatedly noticed by Procopius during the Gothic Wars, as well as by Cassiodorus and Paulus Diaconus. (Cassiod. Var. 10.27; Procop. B. G. 2.29, 3.1, 2; P. Diac. Hist. Lang. 2.12, 4.3, 5.28, &c.) It retained this consideration throughout the middle ages, and is still a flouishing city under the name of Treviso.
[E.H.B]Now Treviso; a town of Venetia in the north of Italy, on the river Silis, which became the seat of a bishopric, and a place of importance in the Middle Ages.
The site is in the plain of the Silis river, a short distance from the ancient Via Claudia Augusta. There have been finds in the area and in surrounding zones from the prehistoric and early Venetic periods. The name is probably of Celtic derivation. The written documentation (Plin. HN 3.126,130; Paul. Diac. 2.12-13; 3.26; CIL V, 201ff) is scarce and late. A municipium of the tenth Augustan region, perhaps by 49 B.C. it was at the center of an agricultural area with indication of centuriation and traces of roads. Inscriptions attest to several structures including a quadrivium, walls, a crypt, and a templum. The small finds (funerary stelai, portraits, minor objects) are preserved in the local Museo Civico, along with other material of various provenance collected between 1873 and 1932.
BIBLIOGRAPHYFluss, “Tarvisium,” PW 4A (1931) 2452-53; G. Traversari, Arte antica e moderna (1964) 117ff, 249ff, 382ff; G. Pilla, “Nota preliminare sul rilevamento della centuriazione trevigiana,” AttiVen 74 (1965-66) 405-10; L. Beschi, “Treviso,” EAA 7 (1966) 980-81.
L. BESCHI