Altinum

Altinum (in Altino, a ''frazione'' of Quarto d'Altino) was an ancient town of the Veneti 15 km SE 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.

Today Altinum is an archaeological area and has a national archaeological museum.

Pre-Roman Altinum

Altium was a Venetic settlement. The earliest human presence in the area is dated to the 10th century BCE and is related to hunter gatherer groups. The earliest evidence of a settlement nucleus is dated from the mid-8th century to the mid-7th century BCE. In the 7th century BCE the settlement moved slightly to the northwest, in its historical location. A sacred area which is dated to the late 6th century BCE and developed in the 5th and 4th centuries BCE had votive offering objects from Greek, Magna Graecian, Etruscan and Celtic areas.Cresci Marrone G., Tirelli M., Che cosa Sappiamo (Oggi) dell’ Antica Altino, Atti, Tomo, CLXV,Classe di Scienze Morali, Lettere ed Arti, Fascicolo III, IV, 2007
/ref> This suggests that Altinum was the main port of the Veneti in the proto-historical age.

Archaeology indicates that in the late 6th/early 5th century BC, the Veneti had precocious contact with Celtic areas through the communication routes along the rivers Adige and Piave in the major centres in the plain of the River Po ( Este and Padua and the Adriatic ports such as ''Atria'', modern Adria, and Altinum). There was a trading relationship between high-ranking families. There was a degree of intermarriage. Some Celts settled in the region. Celtic gift and fashion objects appear in the burials of important families.Capuis, L. L’epoca della celtizzazione, in Tirelli M., (ed.), Altino Antica, dai Veneti a Venezia, Marsilio, 2011, pp. 81-93

In the early 4th century BCE the Gauls invaded the plain of the Po as far as Verona. This led to a gradual ethnic mixing and loss of cultural identity, especially in the border areas of the Veneti; Verona in the west and the Lagoon of Venice and the Piave valley in the east. In some places there was at times a transition to the traditional practice of cremation to inhumation and the deposition of weapon in burials, which was an exception to Veneti funerary culture. An example of this was found in a cemetery in Altinum. Such evidence suggests that inter-ethnic relations went beyond just trade and that there were clusters of foreign settlers. Perhaps they were traders, workers and/or mercenaries.

Strabo gave indications of the social, economic and ritual importance horses and horse breeding among the pre-Roman Veneti. He wrote that they bestowed attention on horse rearing “which, though now entirely abandoned, was formerly in great esteem among them, resulting from the ancient rage for breeding mules, which Homer thus mentions: “ From the eeti for forest mules renowned." It was here that Dionysius, the tyrant of Sicily, kept his stud of race-horses. And, in consequence, the enetihorses were much esteemed in Greece, and their breed in great repute for a long period.” (Homer actually wrote “whence is the race of wild mules.” Iliad II. 857) Strabo also noted that the Veneti paid honour to Diomedes by sacrificing a white horse.

In Altinum there was a large number of horses buried in a sacrificial pit at the town's sanctuary and in the cemetery area to the north of the town. In the latter there were some thirty horses, whereas in other Veneti towns there were only a few, except for a cemetery exclusively devoted to some thirty horses to the south of Este. There burials are dated to the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE. Evidence of sacrifice at the sanctuary continues into the Roman imperial period. Here the remains of some twenty horses were found alongside those of bovines, sheep, goats and pigs. The ritual offerings were the heads or parts of hindlegs or tails which were disarticulated, skinned and fleshed. Sketches of headless horses or body parts confirm this animal's key role in religious cults.Gambacurta G., Altino preromana (VIII-IV secolo a. C), in Tirelli M. Altino antica, dai Veneti a Venezia, Marsilio, 2011 p.59, 72

Roman Altinum

Archaeological finds indicate that Altinum's perimeter was marked by waterways beyond which there were cemetery areas. The abundance of watercourses gives the picture of a town deeply tied to water which was characteristic of towns in the Veneto. The transformation of Altinum from a Veneti to a Roman town started with the reorganisation of its marshy environment through the regulation of its waters and the expansion of its canal network. The main work was the digging of the Silocello canal to link the River Sile (which was to the north of the town) to the channel which today is called Santa Maria and which flowed to the south of the town from the River Dese to the lagoon. The most important architectural finds are a town gate on the canal which marked the northern edge of the town, another public building which faced the canal which marked the southern edge of the town and a temple close to the Santa Maria channel which was restructured in a monumental form from a 5th-century BCE wooden structure. (See the "Port and canals" section for Altinum's canals)

In 225 BCE the Veneti and Romans established an alliance treaty in the run up of the Battle of Telamon between Rome and an alliance between the Insubres and Boii Gallic tribes of northern Italy and Gaesatae mercenaries. The foundation of the colony of Aquileia, in Celtic territory, as a fortress to protect northern Italy form invasions from the northeast and east was an important moment in the process of Romanisation of the Veneti and Altinum, which is traceable to the first half of the 2nd century BCE. Altinum came to be half way port and stopover between Ravenna and the new and important colony. Its port grew in size. This was also due to the Romans promoting sea trade in the upper Adriatic SeaTirelli M., Il Porto di Altinum
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The process of Romanisation was in part driven by the presence of Roman, Latin and Italic merchants attracted to this port by lucrative trade. Inscriptions attest an early presence the Publicia, Barbia, Cossutia and Saufeia families in Aquileia and ''Virunum'' (modern Magdalensberg), a town in ''Noricum'' (in present-day Austria) where there was iron mining. These were families of equestrian rank (the Roman entrepreneurial class). They went to Aquileia from central Italy and from there they spread to the northern markets, including Altinum.

Sometime between 153 and 131 BCE the Via Annia was built. It connected ''Atria'' (modern Adria) to Aquileia. It passed through ''Patavium'' (Padua) and then it run close to the coast and passed through Altinum. In 131 BC the Via Popilia, which connected ''Ariminum'' (modern Rimini), Ravenna and ''Atria'', was built. Thus, Altinum came to be connected overland to these important towns, facilitating the movement of goods. Again, its port increased in importance. Its inhabitants were granted Latin rights, a limited form of Roman citizenship, in 89 BCE and in the last decades of the Roman Republic, in 49 BCE, they acquired full Roman citizenship and were assigned to the '' Scaptia'' Roman tribe The town became a municipium, probably in 42-40 BCE.Cresci Marrone G., La voce degli antichi in Tirelli M., (ed.) Altino Antica, dai Veneti a Venezia, Marsilio, 2011, pp. 34, 37]

Velleius Paterculus wrote than in the run up to the final civil war of the Roman Republic (32-30 BCE) between Octavian (later known as emperor Augustus) and Mark Antony, Gaius Asinius Pollio kept Venetia under Mark Antony's control for a long time with his seven legions and accomplished brilliant things near Altinum and other towns in the region. He then joined Mark Antony. This was in 42-40 BCE. Pollio Asinius was either the last governor or the Venetia region of Roman Italy or a member of a commission charged with distributing land to war veterans. With his legions he was able was able to give the towns in Venetia administrative autonomy by giving them the status of municipia without much trouble. It is likely that by saying that Asinius Pollio accomplished brilliant things ("magnis speciosisque rebus"), Velleius Paterculus was referring to Asinius allocating land to veterans near Altinum and Patavium and founding the colony of ''Iula Concordia'' (modern Oderzo) which Julius Caesar had probably planned but not accomplished.

Sometime between 31 and 12 BCE, Octavian established Ravenna's harbour as one of the home ports for his new navy. It became one of the main Roman military ports and this favoured Altinum as it increased the importance of the upper Adriatic Sea.

The town benefited from infrastructure commissioned by the emperor Claudius. In 46 CE he opened a branch of the Via Claudia Augusta from Altinum to ''Tridentum'' (today's Trento) in the Italian Alps. Drusus had started its construction in 15 AD. It connected ''Hostiglia'' (today's Ostiglia), on the River Po, to the "limes" at the Danube in southern Germany via ''Tridentum''. Claudius also build a road along the coast which connected Altinum to ''Atria'' directly. He also extended the navigable route inside the Septem Maria lagoons, to Altinum with the construction of a further canal, the fossa Clodia, thus connecting it to Ravenna. Although this internal route only allowed navigation by smaller vessels, it guaranteed communication even through the worse weather. This enhanced Altinum's strategic and commercial importance as a hub for trade between the Mediterranean Sea, north-eastern Italy and beyond the Alps.

During the civil wars which followed the death of the emperor Nero (see Year of the four emperors, 69 AD), Marcus Antonius Primus, who supported Vespasian's bid to depose Vitellius, advanced into Italy with his troops. Tacitus wrote that he occupied Aquileia and then he was "received with joy" at ''Opitergium'' (Oderzo) and Altinum and that a military contingent was left in Altinum in case of an attack by the fleet in Ravenna.

In 169, during the Marcomannic Wars (166-180 AD) the co-emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus were returning to Rome from the front in Pannonia. Lucius Verus was said to have been hit by apoplexy near Altinum. He got off his carriage bleeding and was taken to Altinum, where he died after three days of not been able to speak. Some modern scholars believe that he may have been a victim of the Antonine Plague.

By the 4th century CE Altinum became the seat of a bishopric. The first bishop was Heliodorus of Altino (died c. 410), He accompanied St Jerome in his first trip to the East. When he returned he became the bishop of Altinum and attended the 381 CE anti-Arian Council of Aquileia in that capacity. Saint Jerome wrote letters to Heliodorus and his nephew Nepotianus, a priest. In a consolatory letter written to Heliodorus when Nepotianus died in 396, he mentioned that Altinum had many churches and martyr shrines and that the Nepotianus presbytery was adorned with flowers of all types, twigs and vine leaves. The cathedral (built in by 381) had two entrances shaded by curtains. It had an altar, shiny floors, walls which were not covered by smoke and an ancillary space related to the sacristy. St Jerome described Altinum as "a populous centre whose buildings were close to each other and many hearths which darkened the air with thick smog." Today Altinum is no longer a residential diocese. It is listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.

The Apex of Altinum's flourishing period was from the 1st century BCE to 2nd century CE. Its size was comparable to that of Pompeii. A decrease in archaeological finds suggests that after this, Altinum, like the other towns in the Veneto region, begun to decline. However, it retained a prominent role.

The Codex Theodosianus (Theodosian Code), a compilation of Roman laws under the Christian emperors from 312 to the 430s commissioned was by Theodosius II and Valentinian III in 429 and published in 438, records sixteen laws that were issued by emperors in Altinum, especially between 364 and 399. It also provides evidence that emperors in the second half of the 4th century often stayed in this town and that the imperial chancellery regularly worked there between 364 and 406.Sperti L., Cipriano S., Paveggio A., Delpozzo E., Altinum discovering a hidden municipium through GIS, historical research and new excavations, Proceedings 12th ICA Conference Digital Approaches to Cartographic Heritage, Venice, 26-28 April 2017
/ref> An early 5th century revision of the Tabula Peutingeriana, an illustrated itinerarium of the Roman Empire, had a symbol depicting Altinum as a town with two towers, which represented it as an important and populous town.
Possenti L. L’ età tardoantica e medievale (IV secolo d.C-639 d.C) in Tirelli M., (ed.), Altino antica, dai veneti a Venezia, Marsilio, 2011, p. 173

Altinum and other towns and villages in the region were destroyed in 452 by Attila the Hun. According to the Chronicon Venetum et Gradense, the earliest Venetian chronicle, written by John the Deacon in the mid- 10th and early 11th century, refugees from Altinum fled to Torcello and other islands in the northern part of the Lagoon of Venice. Some of the inhabitants of these islands moved the island group of Rivo alto, in the central part of the lagoon, 450–500 years later and contributed to the development of a new city, Venice. Thus, according to the tradition, which is still deeply ingrained, the origins of Venice are related to the destruction of Altinum by Attila, its demise and the refugees who fled from this town. The invasion of northern Italy by the Lombards in 568, which spared the lagoons of the north-western coast of Italy, which were under Byzantine influence, has also been held responsible for this demise. The implicit assumption is that this gave a final blow to the remnants of the town. However, archaeological investigations have disproved this notion. Although Attila's actions may well have further contributed to the decline of the town, Altinum overcame this and continued to exist for several centuries.

The features of the coast of north-eastern Italy were changing. The Altinum area slowly became covered by sand brought by the sea which turned into mud, starting from the Roman imperial period. Generally, the inland Roman towns, from Grado to Ravenna, were becoming less and less suited as ports. There was a shift from single ports controlled by the imperial authorities to peripheral ports in satellite areas along new river routes most probably controlled by new investors and ship owners. Trade moved these places. In the case of Altinum it moved to Torcello, which was on a fluvial channel through the lagoon which led to the open sea. Archaeological excavations in the inland towns and the lagoons have not revealed any sudden population movements and sharp population increases in the satellite ports or in Torcello as could be expected with an influx of refugees. The finds show that there was a gradual colonisation of the lagoons, a slow shift over centuries which had already started in the Roman days.Calaon D., Quando Torcello Era Abitata (When Torcello was inhabited), Regione del Veneto, 2013. ''With English translation''
/ref>Calaon D., Late Antiquity and Early Middle ages: warehouses, elites, and settlements, in Balliana E., Bernardi A., Biscontin G., Calaon D., Falchi L., Frigatti C., Izzo F. C., Longega G., Malaguti C., Marcanti A., Melotti E., Povolo C., Prezioso A., Savcic B., Scantamburlo C., Scatto D., Sgobbi M., Vidal D., Zendri E., Excavated Torcello, a shared heritage. ''With English translation''
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Besides the slowly developing troubles of the inland ports, the trend was also favoured by economic changes and new economic opportunities, such as fish farming and salt production. Agriculture played a secondary but fundamental role in favouring new stable settlements through intensive cultivation of limited land areas, which were probably uncultivated. If so, they could be used by military elites who had the means for productive and, above all, infrastructural investment. In Torcello, embankments were built to protect the island. Mooring facilities and warehouses were built to service sea trade. Calaon argues that archaeology shows that the bishop of Torcello, a landowning aristocrat, built his church in Torcello "not so much because he feared barbarian raids, but because he had made a strategic choice. He chose to place his see in a peripheral but flourishing district, perhaps one of the most populous of the whole countryside."

After the fall of the western part of the Roman Empire (conventional date 476 BCE), the Ostrogoths invaded Italy and established the Gothic Kingdom (493–553). The Byzantine emperor Justinian I (527-565) decided to annex Italy to the Byzantine Empire. This led to the Gothic War (535–554) between the Byzantines and the Ostrogoths, which was won by the former. Byzantine rule in northern Italy was short-lived as the Lombards invaded northern Italy (568-73) except for the lagoons of north-eastern coast of Italy. Altinum eventually came under the duchy of Treviso of the Kingdom of the Lombards (568–774).

Narses, the Byzantine military commander in Italy in the final stage of the Gothic War, managed to capture Vitale, the bishop of Altinum, which many years earlier had taken refuge in Aguntum in Noricum, near modern Lienz If there had been a partial withdrawal by Altinum's top clergy, this would have been during Gothic Wars.

Paul the Deacon, the Lombard historian, wrote that the bishop of Altinum took part in the synod of Marano (590) during the Schism of the Three Chapters (553-698).

A 590 letter the Byzantine commander in Altinum wrote to Childebert I, one of the kings of the Franks, attests that Altinum still had town walls.

The move of the bishop of Torcello is assigned to the 5th century or within the 7th century. However, it followed a long and tortuous course which ended for good in the early 11th century.

Mentions by ancient writers

Marcus Valerius Martialis (Martial), the 1st century poet, wrote: "You banks of Altinum, that rival the rural beauties of Baiae, … and you, Aquileia … You shall be the haven and the resting-places of my old age, if my retirement be at my own disposal." Baiae was a popular seaside resort in the Bay of Naples which was very fashionable among rich Romans.

Strabo, the 1st century BCE geographer, gave a description of northern Italy and the Veneto, "The whole of this country is full of rivers and marshes, especially the district of the Veneti, which likewise experiences the tides of the sea. This is almost the only part of our sea he Mediterraneanwhich is influenced in the same manner as the ocean, and, like it, has ebb and flood tides. In consequence most of the plain is covered with lagoons. The inhabitants have dug canals and dikes, after the manner of Lower Egypt, so that part of the country is drained and cultivated, and the rest is navigable. Some of their cities stand in the midst of water like islands, others are only partially surrounded. Such as lie above the marshes in the interior are situated on avigable rivers…. continually swelled by the rains and snows."

Strabo also described Ravenna and Altinum, "Situated in the marshes is the great ity ofRavenna, built entirely on piles, and traversed by canals, which you cross by bridges or ferry-boats. At the full tides it is washed by a considerable quantity of sea-water, as well as by the river, and thus the sewage is carried off, and the air purified … It is a remarkable peculiarity of this place, that, though situated in the midst of a marsh, the air is perfectly innocuous … Another remarkable peculiarity is that of its vines, which, though growing in the marshes, make very quickly and yield a large amount of fruit, but perish in four or five years. Altinum stands likewise in the marshes, its situation being very similar to that of Ravenna."

In his description of the Veneto Region, Pliny the Elder, the 1st century BCE and CE naturalist, wrote that the River Sile flows from the hills of Treviso to Altinum. Regarding the River Po, he wrote, "There is no river known to receive a larger increase than this in so short a space; so much so indeed that it is impelled onwards by this vast body of water, and, invading the land, forms deep channels in its course: hence it is that, although a portion of its stream is drawn off by rivers and canals between Ravenna and Altinum, for a space of 120 omanmiles, still, at the spot where it discharges the vast body of its waters, it is said to form seven seas … and … “The next mouth f the Po… the truscansformerly made from Sagis, thus drawing the impetuous stream of the river across into the marshes of the Atriani, which they call the Seven Seas; and upon which is the noble port of Atria …” By invading the land Pliny meant floods. The seven seas (Septem Maria) was the series of lagoons which the emperor Clausius connected to Altinum (see above). Atria is now modern Adria.

Vitruvius, the 1st century BCE Roman architect, wrote about laying out the ground in marsh areas. “… if in marshes walls are laid out, and these marshes are along the sea, and they look towards the north or between the north and east, and these marshes are higher than the sea coast, they will seem to be reasonably laid out. For if dykes are cut, there is made an outlet of water to the beach; and when the sea is swollen by storms, there is an overflow into the marshes, which being stirred and moved about and mixed with sea salt, does not permit the various kind of marsh creatures to be born there: moreover, those which, by swimming from higher parts, arrive near the coast, are killed by the unfamiliar saltness. An instance of this may be found in the Gallic marshes which are round Altinum, Ravenna, Aquileia and other townships in like places which are nearest the marshes. For owing to these causes, they have an incredible salubrity.” This description fits the walls and canals system of Altinum.

In his Commentary on the Georgics of Virgil, Maurus Servius Honoratus, a grammarian (floruit late 4th century), wrote this about the lintres (small flat-bottomed boats): "Lintres: small river vessels. It is not without reason that irgilremembers the lintres, because in most of Venetia, rich in rivers, every trade is carried out on lintres, such as in Ravenna and Altinum, where even hunting, fowling and the cultivation of the fields are carried out in the litres."

Grattius Faliscus (63 BC – 14 AD) a poet known for his Cynegeticon, a poem on hunting, wrote about types of woods to be used for hunting. He mentioned the pine wood and the broom from Altinum. Broom was used to make arrows.

Regarding the Pectine nigerrimi cockles, Pliny the Elder wrote, "the pectine, the biggest ones and among them those more black in the summer are the most they are found at Mytilene, Tindari, Salona, Altinum …”

In his treatise on agriculture (''De Re Rustica''), Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella (4-70 CE) wrote, “For this use it is better to procure cows from Altinum, which the people of the area call “Ceve”. They are short and produce a great abundance of milk, it is for this reason that this breed is bred ...” He also wrote that while previous generations of farmers considered sheep from Calabria, Apulia and Mileto to be the best, in his days ”the breed form Gallia orthern Italybest is considered the most valuable one, especially the one from Altinum.”

Sheep grazing was important in the Roman days as people wore woollen clothes. Regarding white wool, Martial wrote, "Apulia is noted for fleeces of the first quality; Parma for those of the second. The sheep whose wool is of the third quality distinguishes Altinum." Tertullian 155 – c. 240? BCE) mentioned "... the sheep of Mileto, Selegas, Altinum, or those for which Tarentum or Baetica are renowned, because the nature of those places gives colour to the wool." The 301 Edict on Maximum Prices issued by the emperor Diocletian assigned the wool of Altinum a rather high price (200 denarii per pound). It also assigned a pay of 30 denarii per pound to the workers who made wool in Tarentum, Laodicea and Altinum.

Medieval history

By the 10th century, the area of Altinum was totally abandoned. The bishop of Altinum moved to the island of Torcello (see above). The bishops of Torcello stressed their Altinum lineage and retained the juridical title of bishop of Altinum for centuries. The monks of the monastery of Santo Stefano moved to the Tumba Leseda
island (nowadays it is called La Salina) in the archipelago of the settlement of Ammiana in 900. They established the monastery of Santi Felice e Fortunato. Both settlements were in the northern part of the Lagoon of Venice.

Documentation about the area in this period is scant and comes mostly from ecclesiastic