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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. [1] It linked Atria (modern Adria) to Aquileia, passing through Patavium (modern Padua). 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 (modern Concordia Sagittaria), which was further inland. It was paved only through the main towns. The rest was gravelled. It was six to eighteen metre wide. [2] It played an important part in the Romanization of the region.
This road was built in the second half of the second century BCE by a magistrate who belonged to the gens Annia, either Titus Annius Luscus, consul in 153 BCE, who led the second column of soldiers to the colony of Aquileia or Titus Annius Rufus, praetor in 131 BCE. Besides the chronologic discrepancy, attributing the construction of the road to one or the other informs what conjecture is chosen for its southern end, Bononia (modern Bologna) for the former or Atria (modern Adria) for the latter. The second hypothesis maintains that the road was an extension of the Via Popilia (which connected Ariminum (modern Rimini) to Atria, linking it to Aquileia via Patavium and Altinum. This conjecture is based on archaeological traces and the Agna toponym. However, the Atria-to-Patavium tract is not mentioned in the 3rd and 4th century Roman itineraries, perhaps because its importance was a secondary one. Three itineraries indicate the staging posts (mansiones, plural of mansio ) between Patavium and Aquileia. [3] After Patavium the road reached the mansio of Ad Duodecimum, which has been identified with Sambruson (in the municipality of Dolo) and then followed the mainland coast of the Lagoon of Venice with the mansiones of Ad Duodecimum, Ad Portum and Ad Nonum. [4]
The road then reached the port town of Altinum, where there was a branch of the Via Claudia Augusta, which crossed the Alps and reached the limes on the River Danube in southern Germany. It then continued in parallel with the coastline and passed through Iulia Concordia where it intersected the Via Postumia. The Itinerarium Burdigalense indicated two staging posts after this town, mutatio Apicilia and Ad Undecimu. Some military milestones with inscriptions which referred to the Via Annia have been found along this tract. [4] The Road ended at Aquileia, which originated as a fortress town to defend northern Italy from invasions from the northeast and the east. [5] and developed into a trading town with an important fluvial port and which connected eastern Venetia with Istria, Iulia Emona (modern Ljubljana) and Noricum . [4]
The mansiones between Patavium and Altinum could be reached through a route along the River Brenta. According to some scholars it was along the right bank, while others think that it was along the left bank. This disagreement is due to differences in the distances given between Padua and Altino along the Via Annia. Four milestones have been found in this tract of the road. They were set up by emperors over time, long after the road was built. More have been found in Stanga, in the outskirts of Padua, Sambruson, just before the Lagoon of Venice, Campalto, by the lagoon, and near Altinum. Many emperors and their armies travelled along this road in the 6th century CE to defend the eastern boundary of the Empire. Their names were recorded on five milestones found along the Musile di Piave–Ceggia tract, to the east of Altinum, which crossed an ancient branch of the River Piave. The foundations of a three-arched-Roman bridge can still be seen where the road crossed an ancient branch of the Piave. Two piers and a number of three-arched sandstone bridgeheads that crossed a now extinct tract Canalat or Old Piavon River can be seen south of Ceggia. Further east the road crossed the River Livenza at Santa Anastasia where the ruins of a bridge became visible in the last century. To reach Iulia Concordia, the road had to cross a marsh as the town at the time was an island in this marsh at the northern extremity o the Lagoon of Caorle. [6] [7] [2]
The road needed frequent maintenance because of flooding, the marshy environments and the ever–changing coastal hydrography. The stretch from Porto Menai, Altinum and to south of Musile di Piave was on raised land because the area was prone to floods. The road was on causeways raised above the level of the marshes through stretches of marshland in the lower valley of the Po. The abutments of several stone bridges have been found. One passed over the Grassaga canal and was discovered in 1922. Another passed over the former riverbed of the Bidoggia. Some sections of the road never fell out of use. Others became so thoroughly lost they have only been precisely identified with the development of aerial photography. One such stretch of the Via Annia is that passing through San Donà di Piave. [6] [2]
The road was abandoned because of the accumulation of alluvial deposits and the expansion of marshes covered the road in various tracts and because of a population decrease in the area due to the Barbarian invasions. [2]
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Roman roads were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. They provided efficient means for the overland movement of armies, officials, civilians, inland carriage of official communications, and trade goods. Roman roads were of several kinds, ranging from small local roads to broad, long-distance highways built to connect cities, major towns and military bases. These major roads were often stone-paved and metaled, cambered for drainage, and were flanked by footpaths, bridleways and drainage ditches. They were laid along accurately surveyed courses, and some were cut through hills, or conducted over rivers and ravines on bridgework. Sections could be supported over marshy ground on rafted or piled foundations.
Veneto or the Venetia is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the north-east of the country. It is the fourth most populous region in Italy, with a population of about five million. Venice is the region's capital and the largest city.
Aquileia is an ancient Roman city in Italy, at the head of the Adriatic at the edge of the lagoons, about 10 kilometres (6 mi) from the sea, on the river Natiso, the course of which has changed somewhat since Roman times. Today, the city is small, but it was large and prominent in classical antiquity as one of the world's largest cities with a population of 100,000 in the 2nd century AD and is one of the main archaeological sites of northern Italy. In late antiquity the city was the first city in the Italian Peninsula to be sacked by Attila the Hun.
Watling Street is a historic route in England that crosses the River Thames at London and which was used in Classical Antiquity, Late Antiquity, and throughout the Middle Ages. It was used by the ancient Britons and paved as one of the main Roman roads in Britannia. The route linked Dover and London in the southeast, and continued northwest via St Albans to Wroxeter. The line of the road was later the southwestern border of the Danelaw with Wessex and Mercia, and Watling Street was numbered as one of the major highways of medieval England.
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.
Roman roads in Britannia were initially designed for military use, created by the Roman army during the nearly four centuries (AD 43–410) that Britannia was a province of the Roman Empire.
Stane Street is the modern name of the 91 km-long (57 mi) Roman road in southern England that linked Londinium (London) to Noviomagus Reginorum (Chichester). The exact date of construction is uncertain; however, on the basis of archaeological artefacts discovered along the route, it was in use by 70 AD and may have been built in the first decade of the Roman occupation of Britain.
Altinum was an ancient town of the Veneti 15 km southeast of modern Treviso, close to the mainland shore of the Lagoon of Venice. It was also close to the mouths of the rivers Dese, Zero and Sile. A flourishing port and trading centre during the Roman period, it was destroyed by Attila the Hun in 452. The town recovered, but was later abandoned when sea-borne sand began to cover it over. Its inhabitants moved to Torcello and other islands of the northern part of the lagoon.
The Via Popilia is the name of two different ancient Roman roads begun in the consulship of Publius Popilius Laenas. One was in southern Italy and the other was in north-eastern Italy.
The Via Postumia was an ancient military Roman road of northern Italy constructed in 148 BC by the consul Spurius Postumius Albinus Magnus.
Itinerarium Burdigalense, also known as Itinerarium Hierosolymitanum, is the oldest known Christian itinerarium. It was written by the "Pilgrim of Bordeaux", an anonymous pilgrim from the city of Burdigala in the Roman province of Gallia Aquitania.
San Donà di Piave is a city and comune in the Metropolitan City of Venice, Veneto, northern Italy. It is one of the historical main towns of the Eastern Veneto territory, although it was totally reconstructed in the early 1920s after being heavily damaged during the World War I.
Concordia Sagittaria is a town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Venice, Veneto, Italy.
Vigonovo is a town and comune (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Venice, Veneto, Italy.
The Via Claudia Augusta is an ancient Roman road, which linked the valley of the Po River with Rhaetia across the Alps.
Carbonera is a comune with 11,196 inhabitants in the province of Treviso, Veneto, northern Italy. It borders the municipalities of Treviso, Villorba, Spresiano, Maserada sul Piave, Breda di Piave and San Biagio di Callalta. The municipality of Carbonera includes the following villages or frazioni: Mignagola, Pezzan, Biban, San Giacomo di Musestrelle and Vascon.
Via Gemina was the Roman road linking Aquileia and Emona. It was built in 14 AD by the legio XIII Gemina. In spite of the name given by its constructors it was said it took its name, the "twin road", from the circumstance that it departed from Aquileia along with the Via Postumia.
The National Archaeological Museum of Altino is an archaeology museum next to the archaeological site of Altinum. It is located in the frazione Altino of the municipality of Quarto d'Altino, in the Metropolitan City of Venice.
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. 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.
Roman Aquileia was founded in 181 BC by the Romans, in the territory of the ancient Carni:
In the same year 181 BC the colony of Aquileia was deducted in the territory of the Gauls. 3 000 infantrymen received 50 iugera each, the centurions 100, the horsemen 140. The triumvirs who founded the colony were Publius Scipio Nasica, Gaius Flaminius, and Lucius Manlius Acidinus.
