HISTORY OF THE ROMAN CITY OF VELLEIA

Investigations in the Roman town of Veleia, in the Chero valley, also known as the “Pompei of Northern Italy” started very early, little after the half of the XVIII century by the Borbone family, dukes of Parma, following the casual discovery of the famous Trajan’s Tabula alimentaria, a large inscription on a bronze slab originally intended for display to the public in the basilica.

The centre, located on an elevation, developed after a precise political project when, little before the II century B.C., the opposition of the local people of the Veleiates Ligurians was definitively defeated. Therefore the creation of the new centre, overlying the preceding one, indicates the attained dominion on the territory and the Roman supremacy. Several elements seem to prove this, such as the interest shown by Trajan in the Tabula, the numerous dedications of the citizenship to the members of the Imperial families, as well as the name of the town itself, sometimes called “Augusta”.

Veleia was the chief-town of a wide mountain district and in direct contact with the districts of other important centres of Liguria and Tuscany. In the I century B.C. it gained the administrative autonomy and, as soon as it became a municipium, its urban organisation started to define: from the ancient Ligurian village located along the slope, to the massive movements and deposition works of earth, leading to the formation of a system of “terraces”, on which private and public open spaces and buildings were erected.

At the beginning of the Imperial period (Augustan-Julio-Claudian age) the stone paved area of the forum was built on one of the largest terraces, the result of a massive levelling work.  It was surrounded, along the longest and one of the shortest sides, by arcades with shops and other public buildings. Several honorary monuments and epigraphs were located in various parts of the forum, where the inhabitants of Veleia could admire the statues and read the inscriptions mainly dedicated to the emperors and their relatives or commemorating some public works realised by local notables and benefactors in the town.

The civil basilica was placed along the shortest northern side of the forum. The large building, with only one nave, housed the famous group composed of twelve big statues made of Luni marble, representing the members of the Julio-Claudian family and L. Calpurnius Piso, patron of Veleia. Other important works were also placed inside the building, as the copy, on a bronze slab, of a passage of the Lex Rubria de Gallia Cisalpina (49-42 B.C.) concerning the jurisdiction of the magistrates that were active in the province and the very famous Tabula Alimentaria Traiana. It is an extremely important document since it identifies a series of land properties (about 400) burdened with a mortgage, in consequence of Imperial loans at a low interest, with a detailed indication of the names of the villages and the hamlets where they are placed, as well as of the neighbouring estates.

On the lowest terrace, which was connected to the upper one by a stately entrance, a building - possibly a sanctuary - was located. It can probably be considered as the heir of the ancient cults of healthy waters located in the surrounding of Veleia, in connection to the presence of a series of salty waters sources and oily salty waters that had attracted human interest since very ancient times and that certainly had also an economic importance for the Romans. Behind the forum were situated another public building (the thermal baths with the calidarium and the tepidarium)  a residential area and, little higher, an ellipsoidal basin (water tank), erroneously interpreted and re-built as an amphitheatre.

As other centres of the VIII regio, Veleia declined slowly along time, but it survived in the Late Ancient period (V century). Then, it disappeared and its presence was completely cancelled by time.

a cura dell' IBC Emilia Romgna