Veii
Veio | |
Alternative name | Veius |
---|---|
Location | Isola Farnese, Province of Rome, Lazio, Italy |
Region | Latium |
Coordinates | 42°01′24″N 12°23′23″E / 42.02333°N 12.38972°E |
Type | Settlement |
Area | 190 ha (470 acres) |
History | |
Events | Battle of Veii |
Site notes | |
Condition | Ruined |
Ownership | Public |
Management | Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici dell'Etruria Meridionale |
Public access | Yes |
Website | Area archeologica di Veio (in Italian) |
Veii (also Veius;
Veii was the richest city of the Etruscan League. It was alternately at war and in alliance with the Roman Kingdom and later Republic for over 300 years. It eventually fell in the Battle of Veii to Roman general Camillus's army in 396 BC. Veii continued to be occupied after its capture by the Romans.
The site is now a protected area, part of the Parco di Veio established by the regional authority of Lazio in 1997.[1]
Site
City of Veii
The city of Veii lies mainly on a tuff plateau 190 hectares (470 acres) in area.[2]
The Valchetta flows a few miles eastward to join the
Its proximity to the Tiber and the trade route to the interior, which became the Via Flaminia, augmented its prosperity. The Veiians were known to trade with nearby Greece, as well as with the Phoenicians that made up the Levant region. Many Grecian pottery shards have been found throughout the site, dating from as far back as the 8th century BC.[3] Although the river brought wealth and affluence to Veii, it also placed it in competition with Rome for the domination of Latium.
The temple of Juno was the greatest and most honoured in the city.[4]
The largest visible monument is the
The impressive thermal baths and the forum built under Augustus have been partially excavated in recent years.
Many rich Tumuli and chamber tombs have been found. The most famous is the Grotta Campana uncovered in 1843, a chamber tomb with the oldest known Etruscan frescoes.
There are also long tunnels leading into the plateau of the city, which may corroborate Livy's account of the Roman victory in the Battle of Veii.
The walls of Veii, of which small sections remain, bordered the two intersecting streams using the streambeds as a ditch, with a wall across the plateau closing the triangle.[5]
Piazza d'Armi
Every Etruscan stronghold was built on an elevation, and Veii was no exception. Its arx, or citadel, was placed on a bluff delineated by cliffs within the angle of confluence of the two streams, nearly separated from the main ridge by a gully, through which ran a road in the Roman period. An archaeological site, Piazza d'Armi ("military square"), marks the location today.
Etruscan League
Despite the many mysteries surrounding the Etruscan League, it is well documented that the league was one of the most influential organizations in the Mediterranean. Because the Etruscan civilization was split into a federation of city-states, the league allowed the leaders of each to come together and discuss a variety of topics. Like Congress or the United Nations, the statesmen would discuss issues regarding laws, taxes, and territorial disputes. Although little is known about the league itself, scholars have found that the city-states shared a common religion, as well as different variations of the same language. The leaders met on a yearly basis at the Fanum Volumnae Sanctuary near Orvieto.[3]
Art
Veii's sculptures and statues were made of terracotta. Most ceramic vessels were decorated with intricate details. Depictions of the everyday life of Etruscans were very common.[6] Many uncovered vases and bowls portray images of farmers harvesting crops and raising animals, as well as blacksmiths in the midst of working in a raging fire. Battle victories, as well as other accomplishments, were very popular subjects in funerary ceramics.
As population and wealth flourished within the city, the use of bronze became more and more common. The people of Veii first used metal for horse harnesses, weapons, fans, jewelry, and mirrors.
Burial practices
The use of burial and cremation altered depending on the stability of the settlement. In the early years, most citizens were cremated. As affluence increased, individuals were freer to bury their loved ones close by in order to visit them regularly. Burial sites dating back to the 9th century BC have been uncovered. As inhumation became more and more popular, the sarcophagi became more and more intricate. Through the use of terracotta, local sculptors began using their talents to add adornments around the coffins, creating detailed accounts of the deceased's life, as well as the deities that meant the most to them. Tombs were commonly decorated with sentimental objects, as well as items they may need in the afterlife.
During times of war or economic difficulty, the use of cremation rose. Unlike their ancestors, however, the people of Veii continued the tradition of burial by keeping the urns of their loved ones in miniature tombs. Like the sarcophagi, the urns were made of terracotta and depicted varying scenes important to the diseased individual. Items were still placed in the small tombs; however, the value of the objects steadily dropped as times of financial crisis continued.
Etruscan language
Over 10,000 Etruscan written pieces are known. Varying examples of Etruscan script have been uncovered all over the ancient world.
History
Early history
The earliest evidence of occupation by demographic analysis, including that of the cemeteries, dates from the 10th century BC in the Late Bronze Age.
The population of the early Veii practiced both inhumation and cremation within the same family. The proportion was 50% in the 9th century BC, after a predomination of cremation (90%) earlier. In the 8th century, inhumation rose to 70%, which may be attributable to an influence from Latium, where inhumation prevailed in the 9th century BC.
During the 9th and 8th centuries BC, the population density and grave goods were on the increase: more and wealthier people and also more of a disparity in wealth: the rise of a wealthier class. In the 8th century BC, both the potter's wheel and writing were introduced from Greece. During the entire period, the settlements translocated around the plateau; however, a settlement (Casale del Fosso) maintained a cemetery to the north of the plateau continuously from the late 9th century BC to the early 6th century BC.
Conflict with Rome
The documented history of Veii, like that of all Italian cities in their early centuries, is sparse and unreliable.
According to Livy (writing 700 years later) the
Plutarch (writing even later in the 1st C. AD)[8] says of them:
The first (to oppose Romulus) were the Veientes, a people of Tuscany (the site is now in Lazio), who had large possessions, and dwelt in a spacious city; they took occasion to commence a war, by claiming Fidenae as belonging to them....[9]
Fidenae and Veii were said to have again been
In the 6th century BC Rome's sixth king
In 509 BC, after the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, the family of Tarquinius Superbus went into exile in
In the 5th century BC, the Fabians, an aristocratic Roman family, moved into an Etruscan town just outside of Fidenae. Due to the sudden increase of wealth in the community, many Etruscan citizens began to worry about the impending fall of the economy. Soon, battles broke out on both sides, eventually leading to war. The sequence of events following the initial conflicts is widely considered to be a legend; it is said that the Veiian warriors murdered 300 Fabii, leaving all but one dead in order to incite fear in the rest of the community. [13]
The most famous king of Veii was
In 406 BC, Rome declared war against Veii, still powerful and well-fortified, and her allies Falerii and Capena which required the Romans to commence a siege lasting many years.[4] As Plutarch says:
Veii had been the capital of Etruria, not inferior to Rome, either in number of arms or multitude of soldiers, so that relying on her wealth and luxury, and priding herself upon her refinement and sumptuousness, she had engaged in many honourable contests with the Romans for glory and empire .......... as the city was furnished with all sorts of weapons, offensive and defensive, likewise with corn and all manner of provisions, they cheerfully endured a siege
After ten years, in 396 BC, the Romans appointed Camillus as dictator. After defeating both Falerii and Capena at Nepete, Camillus commanded the final strike against Veii (Battle of Veii). He dug into the soft tuff rock below the walls whilst distracting the Veiians with attacks on the walls and infiltrated the city's drainage system to emerge in the citadel, leading to their defeat.[16] Not interested in surrender but only in Veii's complete destruction, the Romans slaughtered the entire adult male population and made slaves of all the women and children. The plunder was very rich and extensive including the statue of Juno taken to Rome.
Camillus supported the patricians in opposing the plebeian plan to populate Veii with half of the city of Rome designed to resolve poverty and space issues. Camillus deliberately protracted the project until its abandonment.[17]
Roman and later history
The city was soon assimilated under Roman control and is termed "Roman Veii" as opposed to "Etruscan Veii" by scholarly literature. Under the empire the Romans called the city the Municipium Augustum Veiens. The city never recovered its former wealth or its population after the Roman conquest. Nevertheless, after Rome's defeat in the battle of the Allia, many Roman soldiers fled there, and a project was proposed for abandoning Rome for Veii; this project was successfully opposed by Camillus.[16]
The Romans built wealthy villas in the region and
Veii was eventually abandoned after Roman times, and everything of value or utility was removed by anyone with access to the site. Finally it was filled and smoothed for ploughland and was forgotten until its rediscovery in the 17th century by the antiquarian Raffaello Fabretti.
Ager Veientanus
The territory of a city-state anywhere within the Roman domain was, in Roman legal terminology, an ager. The law made a number of fine distinctions, but by ager it meant primarily ager publicus, "public territory", the land belonging to the state, which in those times was primarily agricultural (ager is "field").[18] The ager Veientanus (i.e. of Veii) covered the entire region between the right bank of the lower
The ager Veiantanus remained for the most part agrarian until it became evident after World War II that the city of Rome was going to expand into and develop that area as a suburb. Moreover, a new method of ploughing was turning over the soil a metre deep, destroying all surface evidence. John Bryan Ward-Perkins, then Director of the British School at Rome, set into motion the South Etruria Survey (1954–1968), which cataloged all the visible antiquities in the ager Veientanus. It was published in 1968.[20]
Nearly 30 years later, in 1997, the Italian government moved to protect a part of that area, creating the Veio Regional Natural Park of 14,984 hectares (37,030 acres) between the Via Cassia on the west, the Via Flaminia on the east, the Via Campagnanese on the north and the city of Rome on the south.[21] Within the park are the comuni of Campagnano di Roma, Castelnuovo di Porto, Formello, Magliano Romano, Mazzano Romano, Morlupo, Riano, Sacrofano and Municipio XX of the city of Rome.
See also
- Apollo of Veii
- Etruscan Civilization
- Lars Tolumnius
- Portonaccio (Veio)
- Roman Republic
- Silva Ciminia
- Roman-Etruscan Wars
- Weshesh
References
- ^ "Parco di Veio". Nature, History and Archaeology in the Heart of Rome. Retrieved 14 January 2012.
- ^ ISBN 978-87-7289-412-6.
- ^ a b c "Veii".
- ^ a b Plutarch: Camillus
- ISBN 978-87-7876-177-4.
- ^ "Etruscan Art | Essay | the Metropolitan Museum of Art | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History".
- Ab urbe condita, 1:14-15
- ^ Plutarch: Romulus
- Rape of the Sabine Women
- Ab urbe condita1.42
- Ab urbe condita, 2.6-7
- Ab urbe condita2.8
- ^ "Veii and the Etruscans | UNRV.com Roman History". www.unrv.com. Retrieved 9 April 2023.
- ISBN 978-0-521-85692-8, pp. 161 ff
- ^ Livy, iv. 17
- ^ a b Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 969.
- ^ Boatwright, Mary (2006). A Brief History of the Romans. Oxford University Press.
- ^ William Smith, ed. (2009) [1875]. "Ager". A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. London, Chicago: John Murray, University of Chicago.
- ISBN 978-0-415-08223-5.
- ^ Kahane, Anne; Threipland, Leslie Murray; Ward-Perkins, John Bryan (1968). The Ager Veientanus, North and East of Rome. the British School at Rome.
- ^ "Veio Regional Natural Park". Parks and Protected Areas in the Lazio Region. agrinet. Archived from the original on 1 July 2002. Retrieved 15 June 2009.
Bibliography
- Dennis, George (2009) [1848]. "Chapter I Veii — The City". The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria. London, Chicago: John Murray, LacusCurtius.
- "The Park of Veio: Our concern" (PDF). Parco Regionale di Veio. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 July 2011. Retrieved 15 June 2009.
- Hemphill, Patricial (Winter 1970). "An Archaeological Survey of Southern Etruria" (PDF). Expedition. Retrieved 18 June 2009.
- Quilici, L., S. Quilici Gigli, R. Talbert, T. Elliott, S. Gillies (3 May 2021). "Places: 423116 (Veii)". Pleiades. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
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Further reading
- Boitani, Francesca, and Ugo Fusco. 2015. "A New Mithraic Relief from Veii." Archeologia Classica 66: 519–546.
- Cascino, Roberta, Helga Di Giuseppe, and Helen L. Patterson, eds. 2012. Veii: The Historical Topography of the Ancient City: A Restudy of John Ward-Perkins’s Survey. Archaeological Monographs of the British School at Rome 19. London: British School at Rome.
- Neils, Jenifer. 2008. "Niobe (?) on the Portonaccio Temple at Veii." Etruscan Studies 11, no. 1: 35–48.
- Potter, T. W. 1979. The Changing Landscape of South Etruria. London: Paul Elek.
- Saviano, Giovanna, Luciana Drago, Ferdinando Felli, and Maurizio Violo. 2002. "Architectural Decorations, Ceramics and Terracottas from Veii (Etruria): A Preliminary Study." Periodico Di Mineralogia 71: 203–215.
- Scullard, H. H. 1967. The Etruscan Cities and Rome. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press.
- Ward-Perkins, John Bryan. 1961. "Veii: The Historical Topography of the Ancient City." Papers of the British School at Rome 29, no. 16: 1–123.
External links
- Official website Archived 11 April 2022 at the Wayback Machine (in Italian)
- Parco di Veio (in Italian)