Veleia
VELEIA( Eth. Veleias, ātis: Ru. near Montepolo), a town of Liguria, situated on the frontiers of Gallia Cisalpina, about 20 miles S. of Placentia ( Piacenza), in the hills which form the lower slopes of the Apennines. The Veleiates are mentioned by Pliny among the Ligurian tribes; and in another passage he speaks of oppidum Veleiatium,which was remarkable for the longevity of some of its inhabitants (7.49. s. 50). He there describes it as situated circa Placentiam in collibus,but its precise site was unknown until its remains were discovered in 1760. From the mode in which these are buried, it seems certain that the town was overwhelmed by a vast landslip from the neighbouring mountain. Systematic excavations on the spot, which have been carried on since 1760, have brought to light several buildings of the ancient city, including the amphitheatre, a basilica, the forum, and several temples: and the great number of bronze ornaments and implements of a domestic kind, as well as statues, busts, &c., which have been discovered on the spot, have given celebrity to Veleia as the Pompeii of Northern Italy. Unfortunately the great weight of the superincumbent mass has crushed in the buildings, so that all the upper part of them is destroyed, and the larger statues have suffered severely from the same cause. The inscriptions found there attest that Veleia was a flourishing municipal town in the first centuries of the Roman Empire. One of these is of peculiar interest as containing a detailed account of the investment of a large sum of money by the emperor Trajan in the purchase of lands for the main tenance of a number of poor children of both sexes. This remarkable document contains the names of numerous farms and villages in the neighbourhood of Veleia, and shows that that town was the capital of an extensive territory (probably the same once held by the Ligurian tribe of the Veleiates) which was divided into a number of Pagi, or rural districts. The names both of these and of the various fundior farms noticed are almost uniformly of Roman origin,--thus affording a remarkable proof how completely this district had been Romanised before the period in question. The Tabula Alimentaria Trajana, as it is commonly called, has been repeatedly published, and illustrated with a profusion of learning, especially by De Lama. ( Tavola Alimentaria Veleiate detta Trajana, 4to. Parma, 1819.) A description of the ruins and antiquities has been published by Antolini ( Le Rovine di Veleja, Milano, 1819). The coins found at Veleia are very numerous, but none of them later than the time of Probus: whence it is reasonably inferred that the catastrophe which buried the city occurred in the reign of that emperor.
[E.H.B]The Notitia Dignitatum, the Antonine Itinerary, and the Ravenna Cosmographer note this oppidum, 11 km from modern Vitoria. It forms a triangular area enclosed by walls, and had a native Iberian population, for which a Roman one was substituted on the occasion of the Cantabrian wars. The site flourished in the 2d c., from which the chief remains date; it was abandoned towards the 4th c., although its walls survived into the 5th. Finds include specimens of terra sigillata, column shafts and bases, and glass. The most outstanding remains are a torso armed with breastplate, now in the museum of Vitoria, and an unidentified female statue.
BIBLIOGRAPHYG. Nieto Gallo, El oppidum de Iruiña (Alava) (1958).
J. ARCEA city between Parma and Genoa, some 30 km S of Piacenza (Placentia). Its location on the Roman road from the Po valley near Placentia to the sea at Luna made it an important center of agricultural trade from the later 2d c. B.C. until its destruction in the 4th c. A.D.—probably by barbarian invaders, to judge from the burned and confused state of the ruins. The name probably comes from the local Ligurian tribe Eleates. The town became a Latin colony in 89 B.C. and in 49 B.C. attained full Roman citizenship as part of the Tribus Galeria. It prospered most from the 1st c. A.D. into the 3d. Fragments of the Lex Rubria found on the site indicate that its administration included duoviri, praefecti iure dicundo, quatuorviri aedilicia potestate, and seven augustales (in charge of celebrations in honor of the imperial family).
Excavations in the 18th c. revealed much of the forum and adjacent structures and some notable statues, with additional finds in various later explorations. It is an attractive site today.
The forum is one of the best preserved in Italy, with its pavement of sandstone (provided by Lucius Lucilius at his own expense) almost wholly intact and its drainage system still complete. It is oriented precisely, its N-S dimension being twice that of the E-W (32.75 x 17.25 m) rather than the Vitruvian norm of 3 to 2. Until the 2d c. A.D. it was a bit smaller than this, as the border construction shows. The adjacent area on the E and S is somewhat higher, owing to the slope there, with private houses on the elevated terracing. At the middle of the N and S ends are bases for equestrian statues: the S one of Claudius, the other seemingly of Vespasian. A third, larger base toward the NE corner is without extant identifying evidence. In the very middle a small base of red Verona stone probably carried a dedicatory inscription to the numen Augusti. Tuscan columns on the E, N, W sides formed a framing portico, the rounded brick pillars spaced at intervals of 6 m. Midway in these colonnades on the E and W sides are matching tables of colored marble, probably for banking use or for official measures.
The whole S end of the forum is closed, on a higher ground level, by the basilica (34.85 x 11.70 m). Its single nave has access at each end from inside the E or W portico, by way of a few steps. A rectangular room flanks the hall at each end, with connecting doorways. At the back wall opposite the forum there stood, on a raised platform, a notable series of marble statues of the Julio-Claudian family. Twelve survive. Among these, Livia, Drusus the Elder, Drusus the Younger, Claudius are identifiable.
At the N end of the forum stood a small temple (9.55 x 7.25 m) with a tetrastyle pronaos. The square building just E of it was probably the curia; that to the W, the Hall of Magistrates. The W side of the forum had a row of offices, including a chalcidicum (here probably used as a cloth market); on the E side were tabernae.
On a raised level to the SW of the forum are the baths: separate accommodations for men and for women. Much of their substructure survives. The amphitheater is SE of the forum area (54.85 x 44.10 m). Little of it remains, though its location and plan are clear.
Numerous imported bronze statuettes have been found in the ruins, many of them quite fine. Some are in the little museum on the site; the rest, along with other art finds at Veleia, are in the Parma museum.
The most notable epigraphic discovery is the Tabula Alimentaria of the time of Trajan (CIL XI, 1147), found by accident in the basilica area in 1747. This bronze plaque records the deposit by Trajan of 1,116,000 sesterces to promote agricultural development in Veleia, with the interest from it (at 5 percent) to provide food for 300 poor children of the town. Many details of economic, topographical, and administrative arrangements are also included. Another bronze tablet preserves part of the text of the Lax Rubria de Gallia Cisalpina on judicial administration followed here.
BIBLIOGRAPHYG. Antolini, Le Ruine di Velleia Misurate e Disegnate (1822 and 1831); G. Mariotti, “Gli Scavi di Velleia,” NSc (1877) 157-192; R. Andreotti, Velleia (1934); S. Aurigemma, Velleia (1940) PI; EAA 7 (1966) 1116-17 (G. Mansuelli).
R. V. SCHODER