Venetia et Histria

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Regio X — Venetia et Histria
Region of Roman Italy
7 AD–292 AD
Shepherd Map of Ancient Italy, Northern Part.jpg
Capital Aquileia
Historical era Antiquity
 Created by Augustus
7 AD
 Renamed in Diocletian's administrative reforms
292 AD
Today part ofFlag of Italy.svg  Italy
Flag of Croatia.svg  Croatia
Flag of Slovenia.svg  Slovenia

Venetia et Histria (Latin: Regio X Venetia et Histria) was an administrative subdivision in the northeast of Roman Italy. It was originally created by Augustus as the tenth regio in 7 AD alongside the nine other regiones. The region had been one of the last regions of Italy to be incorporated into the Roman Empire. [1] It was later renamed by Diocletian the VIII provincia Venetia et Histria in the third century. Its capital was at Aquileia, and it stretched geographically from the Arsia River in the east in what is now Croatia to the Abdua in the current Italian region of Lombardy and from the Alps to the Adriatic Sea. [2]

Contents

Etymology

The name Venetia et Histria was used for the region was in part because of the "early and unwavering" loyalty of the local Veneti people to the Roman state. [3] This name was also preferred to using the name of a more rebellious group like the Celtic Cenomani because of the Roman belief in a shared descent with the Veneti from the Trojans. [4]

History

Pliny the Elder was the only Roman writer to discuss the Augustan subdivision of Italy into regiones directly and did so in his Natural History. [5] The region's new borders did not cleave directly to pre-existing regional identities. Verona which had traditionally been seen as part of Transpadana as it was north of the Po was not incorporated into the region with that name, regio XI but was made part of regio X. [6]

Neratius Pansa, a Roman senator of the late first century AD, is believed, on the basis of epigraphic evidence, to have led a census here under the reign of the Emperor Vespasian in 73–74. [7]

Geography

Modern map of regio X X - VENETIA ET ISTRIA.svg
Modern map of regio X

We now come to the tenth region of Italy, situated on the Adriatic Sea. In this district are Venetia, the river Silis, rising in the Tarvisanian mountains, the town of Altinum, the river Liquentia rising in the mountains of Opitergium, and a port with the same name, the colony of Concordia; the rivers and harbours of Romatinum, the greater and lesser Tiliaventum, the Anaxum, into which the Varamus flows, the Alsa, and the Natiso with the Turrus, which flow past the colony of Aquileia at a distance of fifteen miles from the sea. This is the country of the Carni, and adjoining to it is that of the lapydes, the river Timavus, the fortress of Pucinum, famous for its wines, the Gulf of Tergeste, and the colony of that name, thirty-three miles from Aquileia.

Pliny the Elder, Natural History, Perseus Project Nat.3.22

In the late first century AD, Pliny identified 36 cities in the region, while Strabo identified 12 in the same area. The CIL has identified 16 separate settlements using epigraphic evidence, and other historians have argued that "the density of cities for the region is not high compared to the rest of Italy". [8]

While the capital of the region, Aquileia, was a major centre for commerce, transport, and public life in northeastern Italy, with an amphitheater that could hold more than 27,000 and a position at the centre of a wide network of roads, other cities like Concordia, Tergeste, and Altinum were also substantial regional hubs. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aquileia</span> Comune in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy

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The Veneti were an Indo-European people who inhabited northeastern Italy, in an area corresponding to the modern-day region of Veneto, from the middle of the 2nd millennium BC and developing their own original civilization along the 1st millennium BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cisalpine Gaul</span> Roman province

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Italy</span> Italy during the Ancient Rome

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Altinum</span> Ancient town of the Veneti

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Cadore is a historical region in the Italian region of Veneto, in the northernmost part of the province of Belluno bordering on Austria, the Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol and Friuli Venezia Giulia. It is watered by the Piave River which has its source in the Carnic Alps. Once an undeveloped and poor district, the former contado (countship) of Cadore now has a thriving economy based on tourism and a small manufacturing industry, specialising in the production of glasses.

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Oderzo is a comune, with a population of 20,003, in the province of Treviso, in the Italian region of Veneto. It lies in the heart of the Venetian plain, about 66 kilometres to the northeast of Venice. Oderzo is crossed by the Monticano river, a tributary of the Livenza.

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The Via Annia was the Roman road in Venetia in north-eastern Italy. It run on the low plains of the lower River Po and of the lower Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia regions, an area which had many rivers and large marsh areas and bordered the coastal lagoons. It linked Atria to Aquileia, passing through Patavium. Then it got to the mainland coast of the Lagoon of Venice near today's Mestre and passed through Altinum. After this, it went through Iulia Concordia, which was further inland. It was paved only through the main towns. The rest was gravelled. It was six to eighteen metre wide. It played an important part in the Romanization of the region.

Venetia may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rhaetian people</span> Historic ethnic confederation of Alpine tribes

The Raeti were a confederation of Alpine tribes, whose language and culture was related to those of the Etruscans. Before the Roman conquest, they inhabited present-day Tyrol in Austria, eastern Switzerland and the Alpine regions of northeastern Italy. After the Roman conquest, the province of Raetia was formed, which included parts of present-day Germany south of the Danube.

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The Raša in Croatian Istria is a major river of Croatia's Istria County. It is 23 kilometres (14 mi) long, and its basin covers an area of 279 km2 (108 sq mi). Its mouth is in the long ria of Raša Bay, which is a drowned river valley scoured out when world sea levels fell, then drowned by the rising waters of the post-glacial era. The Raša rises in springs near Pićan and flows south through a steep-sided valley before opening into the head of the Adriatic Sea. The river, although short in length, has an ancient history as a border.

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References

  1. BISPHAM, EDWARD (2007). "Pliny the Elder's Italy". Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies (100): 46. JSTOR   43767660 . Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  2. Berto, Luigi (2013). ""Venetia (Venice)": Its Formation and Meaning in the Middle Ages" (PDF). NeMLA Italian Studies. 35: 1–2. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  3. BISPHAM, EDWARD (2007). "Pliny the Elder's Italy". Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies (100): 48–49. JSTOR   43767660 . Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  4. Roncaglia, Carolynn Elizabeth (2009). State Impact in Imperial northern Italy (PhD). UC Berkeley. p. 61. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.824.7724 .
  5. POCCETTI, PAOLO (2016). "THE AUGUSTAN PLANNING OF ITALY: REAL AND FICTITIOUS IDENTITIES" (PDF). Bollettino della Società Geografica Italiana. 9 (8): 2. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  6. Roncaglia, Carolynn Elizabeth (2009). State Impact in Imperial northern Italy (PhD). UC Berkeley. p. 61. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.824.7724 .
  7. Syme, Ronald (1985). "Transpadana Italia". Athenaeum. 63: 30. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  8. BISPHAM, EDWARD (2007). "Pliny the Elder's Italy". Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies (100): 58. JSTOR   43767660 . Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  9. Roncaglia, Carolynn Elizabeth (2009). State Impact in Imperial northern Italy (PhD). UC Berkeley. p. 44. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.824.7724 .