Roman Aquileia

Roman Aquileia (today's Aquileia in Friuli; in Latin ''Aquileia'') was founded in 181 BC by the Romans,Velleius Paterculus, ''Historiae Romanae ad M. Vinicium libri duo'', I, 13.2. in the territory of the ancient Carni:

An important frontier military city since Republican times, it became one of the capitals of the Roman Empire under Maximian. In 452 A.D. it was finally destroyed by the hordes of Attila's Huns, never returning to its former glory.

This is how Herodian describes it at the time of his 238 siege by the troops of Maximinus Thrax:

Republican period (181-31 BC).

It was founded in 181 B.C. near the Natissa River as a colony under Latin law, by Lucius Manlius Acidinus, Publius Scipio Nasica and Gaius Flaminius, sent by the senate to bar the way to the neighboring Carni and Histrian peoples who threatened the eastern borders of Italy. It was ruled initially by duumvirs and later by quattuorviri with its own senate.Luisa Bertacchi, ''Aquileia: l'organizzazione urbanistica'', p.209. The city first grew as a military outpost in preparation for future campaigns against Histri and Carni, later as "headquarters" for eventual Roman expansion toward the Danube.

The first settlers were 3,000 veterans, followed by their respective families from Samnium, a total of about 20,000 people, who were followed by groups of Veneti; later, in 169 B.C., another 1,500 families were added, while eastern communities, such as Egyptians, Jews and Syrians, also settled in the city.

Aquileia formed the main base of the military operations in Illyricum of the consuls Lucius Cornelius Lentulus Lupus, Gaius Marcius Figulus, and Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Corculum, during the years 156-155 BC, against the Dalmatian tribes, which then led to the conquest of the city of Delminium. In 129 B.C. consul Gaius Sempronius Tuditanus attacked the Histrian peoples of Iapodes and Liburni from northern Italy (from his "headquarters" in Aquileia, as reflected in a eulogy dedicated to him), and later also defeated the Alpine peoples of the Carni and Taurisci (from the area of Nauportus), earning for these successes the Triumph.''Fasti triumphales'': . Ten years later, in 119 BC. Lucius Caecilius Metellus completed a new victorious campaign against the Dalmatians, using Aquileia as the base of his operations, celebrating his triumph the following year and earning himself the victorious title of ''Delmaticus''. Four years later, in 115 BC, the consul Marcus Aemilius Scaurus operated in Cisalpine Gaul against both the Ligurians in the west and the Carni and Taurisci in the east, using Aquileia, in the latter case, as his "headquarters." Still two years later, in 113 B.C., the consul Gnaeus Papirius Carbo was sent to confront an invasion of Germanic-Celtic peoples (including the Cimbri), who had penetrated Illyricum and then Noricum. Carbo, at the head of an army that had Aquileia as its headquarters, was however defeated near Noreia.

From its origin as a military base derives the four-sided shape of the garrison, divided by the ''cardo maximus'', today's Via Julia Augusta, and the ''decumanus maximus''. Once the region had been pacified and Romanized, the city, a ''municipium'' after 89 B.C. as a result of the ''lex Iulia de civitate'' (which conferred the fullness of Roman law, assigning it to the Velina tribe), grew larger in successive stages, as attested by the various city walls. It became a political-administrative center (capital of the Tenth Augustan Region, ''Venetia et Histria'') and a prosperous emporium, benefiting from the long port system and the radius of important roads that ran from it both northward, beyond the Alps and as far as the Baltic Sea ("amber road"), and latitudinally, from Gaul to the East. From late Republican times and throughout most of the Imperial era Aquileia constituted one of the great nerve centers of the Roman Empire. Notable was its artistic life, sustained by the wealth of patrons and the intensity of trade and contacts. Its location made the city a crossroads of trade in glass, iron and amber; a wine named ''Pucinum'' was also produced.

It was precisely during this period that Aquileia gained increasing strategic-military importance. It was to serve as an advanced post protecting northern Italy against possible invasions from the north and east, as happened:
* at the time of the Cimbrian Wars in 102 BCE;
* when Mithridates VI of Pontus planned an invasion of the peninsula through an alliance with Gauls and Scythians. He hoped that many of the Italic peoples would ally with him in hatred of the Romans, as had happened during the Second Punic War to Hannibal, after the Romans had waged war against him in Spain. He knew, moreover, that almost all of Italy had rebelled against the Romans on two occasions in the last thirty years: at the time of the social war of 90-88 B.C. and in the gladiator Spartacus' servile war of 73-71 B.C..Appian of Alexandria, ''Mithridatic Wars'', 109; Strabo, ''Geographica'', VII, 4.3; Plutarch, ''Life of Pompey'', 41.2; Cassius Dio, XXXVII, 11.1.
* for the formation of the powerful kingdom of the Dacian tribes by their king Burebista.

During his first consulship in 59 B.C., Gaius Julius Caesar, with the support of the other triumvirs (Pompey and Crassus), obtained by the '' Lex Vatinia'' of March 1 the proconsulate of the provinces of Cisalpine Gaul and Illyricum for five years and the command of an army consisting of three legions. Shortly afterwards a senatus consultum also added that of Gallia Narbonensis, whose proconsul had died suddenly, and the command of the 10th legion.

The fact that Caesar was initially assigned the province of Illyricum as part of his ''imperium'', and that by early 58 BCE as many as three legions had been stationed in Aquileia, may indicate that he intended to seek glory and riches in this very area with which to increase his military and political power and influence. Caesar needed major military victories so that he could build up his own personal power with which to counterbalance that which Pompey had built up through his victories in the East. To this end he probably planned a campaign beyond the Carnic Alps all the way to the Danube, taking advantage of the growing threat from the tribes of Dacia (roughly corresponding to present-day Romania), which had united under the leadership of Burebista, who had then led his people to conquer the territories located west of the Tisza River, crossing the Danube and subduing the entire area over which the present Hungarian plain stretches, but above all coming dangerously close to Roman Illyricum and Italy. However, his armies had come to a sudden halt, perhaps out of fear of a possible direct intervention by Rome in the Balkan-Carpathian area. Thus, instead of continuing on his march westward, Burebista had returned to his bases in Transylvania, then turned his sights eastward: he attacked the Bastarnae and finally besieged and destroyed the ancient Greek colony of Olbia (near present-day Odessa).

Caesar visited Aquileia several times during the conquest of Gaul: in the winter of 57-56 BC, in connection with military/diplomatic operations conducted by the proconsul himself in the vicinity of Salona around March 3 of that year; in 54 BC to conduct a brief campaign against the Pyrasti people who inhabited southern Illyricum; again in the winters of 54-53 BC. B.C. and 53-52 B.C.; Caesar returned with the legio XV during the following winter, after the city had been attacked along with Tergeste by the Iapydes, when the proconsul was engaged in Gaul against Vercingetorix. The consequence was that the inhabitants of Aquileia were not only forced to repair the damaged walls, but began the construction of two defensive '' castella'': at Tricesimo (50 km north of Aquileia) and at '' Iulium Carnicum''.

In 49 BC, at the outbreak of civil war, Aulus Gabinius was recalled by Caesar and given command of operations in Illyricum. He had three new legions at Aquileia (XXXIII, XXXIV, and XXXV, amounting to 30 total cohorts)H.Parker, ''Roman legions'', pp.64-65. and at the head of 15 cohorts and 3,000 cavalry, marching south toward Macedonia, he suffered a sudden attack by the Dalmatians, managing to shelter at Salona with only a few survivors. Eventually he was able to join Lucius Cornificius (who had Legions XXXI and XXXII under his employ) with the few remaining soldiers to fight against these peoples.

Fifteen years later, between 35 and 33 BCE, Aquileia still remained "headquarters" of Octavian's military campaigns in Illyricum. It was at the center of three different routes: the one furthest to the southeast toward the coastal tribes; the "central" one leading into the territories of the Iapydes; and the one furthest to the northeast against the Carni and Taurisci populations.Appian of Alexandria, ''The Illyrian Wars'', 16-22.

Archaeology of Republican Aquileia

In 148 B.C. from Aquileia began the construction of the Via Postumia, which connected the Adriatic with the Tyrrhenian Sea near Genoa.Massimiliano Pavan, ''Aquileia città di frontiera'', in ''Dall'Adriatico al Danubio'', Padova 1991, p.125. The road was a Roman consular road built by the Roman consul Postumius Albinus in the territories of Cisalpine Gaul, today's Po Valley, mainly for military purposes. Some fifteen years later, in 131 B.C., praetor Titus Annius Rufus started the Via Annia, which connected ''Hatria'' (modern Adria) with ''Patavium'' (Padua), ''Altinum'' (Altino), ''Iulia Concordia'' (modern Concordia Sagittaria, where it intersected the Via Postumia) and finally Aquileia.

The remains of the large river port on the Natissa River (piers, warehouses, and roads that connected with the city), built on both sides of the river, can be visited along the Via Sacra and would date as far back as the end of the 2nd century B.C., later expanded and renovated several times. From the earliest times in Aquileia the deities of the Latin pantheon, as well as of the local pantheon, were worshiped. Numerous inscriptions of the soldiers of the garrison, who resided there for about two centuries, bore the cult of Mitra, and later also that of Christianity.

Image:Porto fluviale di Aquileia.jpg, Roman river port (1)
Image:Aquileia_porto_romano.jpg, Roman river port (2)
File:Aquileia, scavi porto 02.JPG, Excavation of the river port (3)
File:Aquilea quai.JPG, River port (4)
File:573 Fundamenten van oude waarhuizen aan de haven.JPG, River port (5)
File:Aquileia, scavi porto 03.JPG, River port (6)
File:Aquileia.jpg, River port (7)
File:MANA - Flottenbefehlshaber.jpg, Headless statue belonging to Roman admiral (at the Archaeological Museum of Aquileia).

Image:Aquileia_sepolcreto.jpg, Roman burial ground (1)
File:Roman graves outside Aquileia.JPG, Roman burial ground (2)
File:MANA - Mithrasrelief 1.jpg, Sculptural relief of Mitra (Roman legionary cult), now preserved at the National Archaeological Museum in Aquileia.
File:Italie - Frioul - Aquileia - Cimetière paleochretien.jpg, Paleo-Christian cemetery.

Early imperial period (30 B.C.-285 A.D.)

At the time of Augustus, after an initial campaign led by Publius Sillius Nerva in 16 B.C. following an invasion of Pannonians in Istria and the subsequent Roman conquest of territories as far as Pula and Raša, in 15 B.C, his stepson Tiberius, together with his brother Drusus, led a military campaign against the populations of Rhaetians, settled between Noricum and Gaul, and Vindelici. The two, in an attempt to encircle the enemy by attacking him on two fronts without leaving him any escape routes, planned a large "pincer movement," which they put into practice also with the help of their lieutenants: Tiberius moved from Helvetia, while his younger brother moved from Aquileia and reached Tridentum, dividing the army into two columns. A first column traveled along the Adige and Isarco valleys (at whose confluence he built the ''Pons Drusi'', near present-day Bolzano), ascending as far as the Inn; the second went along what was to become under Emperor Claudius the Via Claudia Augusta (traced therefore by his father Drusus) and which, through the Vinschgau valley and the Reschen pass, also reached the Inn river. Tiberius, advancing from the west, defeated the Vindelici, reuniting near Lake Constance with his brother Drusus, who, in the meantime, had defeated and subdued the peoples of the Breuni and Genauni. These successes enabled Augustus to subdue the peoples of the Alpine region as far as the Danube and earned him renewed imperatorial acclaim. A few years later, beginning in 14 B.C, Aquileia again turned out to be instrumental in the subjugation of the whole of Illyricum and Pannonia, under the commands first of Marcus Vinicius, then of Augustus' son-in-law and brotherly friend Agrippa, then of his stepson Tiberius. Aquileia again continued to be an important military center during the Dalmatian-Pannonian revolt of 6-9, forming the last bulwark against the possible threat of an invasion by these peoples, who could thus have reached Rome itself in only ten days. It was clear, however, that Aquileia had lost its former function as "headquarters," which was now attributed by Tiberius to '' Siscia'' on the Sava River, in a more advanced position. From this point on, Aquileia ceased to play a decisive military role any longer, maintaining instead an important economic and social function in the rear, now that all military forces had been moved to Pannonia and Dalmatia.

Drusus the Younger, son of Tiberius, most likely passed through Aquileia when he went to Pannonia to put down a revolt among the legions (in 14). More than fifty years later, in 69, the legions '' VII Claudia'' and '' VIII Augusta'' under the leadership of Marcus Antonius Primus, passed through this city. They had deployed and proclaimed Vespasian their emperor. Some have also speculated that the scenes on Trajan's Column No. 58-63 depict the forum of Aquileia, from where Trajan would have passed for the Dacian campaign of 105.

File:058 Conrad Cichorius, Die Reliefs der Traianssäule, Tafel LVIII.jpg, Trajan Column #58: '' classiarii'' sailing from the port of Brindisi (?).
File:059 Conrad Cichorius, Die Reliefs der Traianssäule, Tafel LIX.jpg, No. 59: Second port on the Italic-Adriatic coast.
File:060 Conrad Cichorius, Die Reliefs der Traianssäule, Tafel LX.jpg, No. 60: The forum of the second Italic city.
File:061 Conrad Cichorius, Die Reliefs der Traianssäule, Tafel LXI.jpg, No. 61: The third stop is perhaps Ancona with its triumphal arch (?).
File:062 Conrad Cichorius, Die Reliefs der Traianssäule, Tafel LXII.jpg, No. 62: Ancona again.
File:063 Conrad Cichorius, Die Reliefs der Traianssäule, Tafel LXIII.jpg, No. 63: Fourth stop, perhaps Aquileia (?). The march will continue to the Danube, following the ''Via Gemina'' to ''Singidunum''.

The Empire between 165 and 189 (at the time of Marcus Aurelius and his son Commodus) was afflicted by a plague, probably a smallpox epidemic, known as the "Antonine plague", which lasted about 15 years and, according to certain sources, exterminated a large percentage of the imperial population (the figures, however, are debated among historians). According to some it was one of the events that profoundly changed Roman history, bringing about almost an epochal break with the previous period.

The city of Aquileia saw, from 168 to 170, immense numbers of troops amassing in its territory, and the fear that this mass gathering might drag along the dangerous disease soon proved well-founded. In the spring of 168 Emperor Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus decided to travel to the Danubian area to reach Carnuntum; Aquileia thus became the first stop, where the imperial general staff was composed of the prefect of the praetorium Titus Furius Victorinus, Pomponius Proculus Vitrasius Pollonius, Daturnius Tullus Priscus, Claudius Fronto, and Adventus Antistius. The two emperors arrived in Aquileia and worried about the epidemic, which meanwhile had already caused the death of the prefect Furius Victorinus, and sent a letter to Galen requesting him as personal physician for the Germanic campaign. By the end of the summer of that year Marcus Aurelius withdrew from the military campaign with his troops to winter in Aquileia. There he was joined by Galen just as the first cases of the plague broke out in the city. The increasing prevalence of plague cases in Aquileia led the emperors to decide to withdraw with only a personal escort to Rome; Lucius Verus, who had urged this departure because of his constant ill health, died shortly afterwards in Altinum, stricken with apoplexy (January 169). The city was finally besieged in 170 by a coalition of Germanic peoples from the territories north of the Danube, who reached northern Italy via the amber road. ''Opitergium'', at that time devoid of walls, was destroyed, but not Aquileia, which still had walls.

The defensive structures, strengthened between the 2nd and 3rd centuries, enabled it to overcome the sieges of the Quadi and the Marcomanni (170), and of the emperor Maximinus Thrax, who, following the election at his expense by the Roman Senate of the emperors Pupienus and Balbinus, who accepted Gordian III as Caesar, descended to Italy from Pannonia with his army (in 238). When Maximinus' army came in sight of Aquileia, located at the crossroads of important communication routes and a storehouse for the food and equipment needed by the soldiers, the city closed its gates to the emperor, led by two senators appointed by the Senate, Rutilius Pudens Crispinus and Tullius Menophilus. Maximinus then made a fateful decision: instead of descending quickly on the capital with a contingent, he marched on ''Emona

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