Aquileia

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Aquileia

Aquileia (Friulian Aquilee, Slovene Oglej) is an ancient Roman town of Italy, at the head of the Adriatic at the edge of the lagoons, about 10 km from the sea, on the river Natiso (modern Natisone), the course of which has changed somewhat since Roman times.

History

Aquileia was founded by the Romans in 180/181 BCE on the narrow strip between the mountains and the lagoons, as a frontier fortress on the north-east, during the Illyrian wars, as a means of checking the advance of that warlike people, not far from the site where in 183 Gaulish invaders had attempted to settle. The colony was led by two men of consular and one of praetorian rank, and 3000 pedites (infantry) formed the bulk of the settlers. Some scholars believe that Aquileia had been a center of Venetia even before the coming of the Romans.

It was probably connected by road with Bononia (Bologna) in 173 BCE; and subsequently with Genua in 148 BCE by the Via Postumia, which ran through Cremona, Bedriacum and Altinum, joining the first-mentioned road at Concordia, while the construction of the Via Popilia from Rimini to Ad Portum near Altinum in 132 BCE improved the communications still further.

In 169 BCE, 1,300 more families were settled there as a reinforcement to the garrison. The discovery of the goldfields near the modern Klagenfurt in 130 BCE (Strabo iv. 208) brought it into notice, and it soon became a place of importance, not only owing to its strategic position, but as a centre of trade, especially in agricultural products. It also had, in later times at least, considerable brickfields.

It was originally a Latin colony, but became a municipium probably in 90 BCE. The customs boundary of Italy was close by in Cicero's day. It was plundered by the Iapydes under Augustus, but, in the period of peace which followed, was able to develop its resources. Augustus visited it during the Pannonian wars in 12‑10 BC and it was the birthplace of Tiberius' son by Julia, in the latter year.

It was the starting-point of several important roads leading to the north-eastern portion of the empire — the road (Via Iulia Augusta) by Iulium Carnicum to Veldidena (mod. Wilten, near Innsbruck), from which branched off the road into Noricum, leading by Virunum (Klagenfurt) to Laurieum (Lorch) on the Danube, the road into Pannonia, leading to Aemona (Laibach, Ljubljana) and Sirmium (Mitrowitz, Sremska Mitrovica), the road to Tarsatica (near Rijeka) and Siscia (Sisak), and that to Tergeste (Trieste) and the Istrian coast.

Its commerce grew rapidly, and when Marcus Aurelius made it (168 CE) the principal fortress of the empire against the barbarians of the North and East, it rose to the acme of its greatness and soon had a population of 100,000. In the war against the Marcomanni in 167, the town was hard pressed; the fortifications had fallen into disrepair during the long peace. In 238, when the town took the side of the Senate against the Emperor Maximinus Thrax, they were hastily restored, and proved of sufficient strength to resist for several months, until Maximinus himself was assassinated.

The 4th century marks, however, the greatest importance of Aquileia; it became a naval station and, probably, the seat of the corrector Venetiarum et Histriae; a mint was established here, the coins of which are very numerous, and the bishop obtained the rank of Patriarch. A council held in the city in 381 was only the first of a series of Councils of Aquileia that have been convoked over the centuries.

An imperial palace was constructed here, in which the emperors after the time of Diocletian frequently resided; and the city often played a part in the struggles between the rulers of the 4th century. At the end of the century, Ausonius enumerated it as the ninth among the great cities of the world, placing Rome, Mediolanum and Capua before it, and called it "moenibus et portu celeberrima."

In 452, however, it was so utterly destroyed by Attila's Huns, that it was afterwards hard to recognize its original site. The Roman inhabitants, together with those of smaller towns in the neighbourhood, fled to the lagoons, and so laid the foundations of the city of Venice. Yet Aquileia arose again, but much diminished and continued to exist until the Lombard invasion of 568, and was once more destroyed (590) by the Lombards. After this the patriarchate was transferred to Grado. It came under the Dukes of Friuli, was again a city of the Empire under Charlemagne. In the eleventh century Aquileia became a feudal possession of its patriarch, whose temporal authority, however, was constantly disputed and assailed by the territorial nobility. In 606 the diocese was divided into two parts, and the patriarchate of Aquileia, protected by the Lombards, was revived, that of Grado being protected by the exarch of Ravenna and later by the Doges of Venice.

In 1027 and 1044 Patriarch Poppo of Aquileia entered and sacked Grado, and, though the Pope reconfirmed the Patriarch of the latter in his dignities, the town never recovered, though it continued to be the seat of the Patriarchate until its formal transference to Venice in 1450.

The seat of the patriarchate of Aquileia had been transferred to Udine in 1238, but returned in 1420 when Venice annexed the territory of Udine. It was finally suppressed in 1751, and the sees of Udine and Gorizia (Görz) established in its stead.

Main sights

Cathedral

The Cathedral of Aquileia is one of the most important edifices of Christianity. It is a flat-roofed basilica erected by Patriarch Poppo in 1031 on the site of an earlier church, and rebuilt about 1379 in the Gothic style by Patriarch Marquad.

The façade, in Romanesque-Gothic style, is connected by a portico to the Church of the Pagans, and the remains of the 5th century Baptistry. The interior has a nave and two aisles, with a noteworthy mosaic pavement from the 4th century CE. The wooden ceiling is from 1526, while the fresco decoration belongs to various ages: from the 4th century in the St. Peter's chapel of the apse area; from the 11th century in the apse itself; from the 12th century in the so-called "Crypt of the Frescoes", under the presbitery, with a cycle depicting the origins of Christianity in Aquileia and the history of St. Hermagoras, first bishop of the city.

Next to the 11th century Romanesque Holy Sepulchre, at the beginning of the left aisle, is the "Excavations Crypt", where three archaeological layers of different ages can be seen: the lowest is from a Roman villa of the age of Augustus; the middle one has a typical cocciopesto pavemente; the upper one, bearing blackening from the Attila's fire, has geometrical decorations.

Externally, behind the 9th century campanile and the apse, is the Cemetery of the Fallen, where ten unnamed soldiers of World War I are buried.

Ancient remains

The ancient buildings of Aquileia served as stone quarries for centuries, and no edifices of the Roman period remain above ground. Excavations have revealed one street and the north-west angle of the town walls, while the National Archaeological Museum (one of the most important museum of Ancient Rome in the world) contains over 2,000 inscriptions, statues and other antiquities, as well as glasses of local production and a numismatics collection.

The site of Aquileia, believed to be the largest Roman city yet to be excavated, is inscribed on the World Heritage List.

Others

In the Monastero fraction is a 5th century Christian basilica, later a Benedictine monastery, which today houses the Paleochristian Museum.

Sources and references

Catholic Encyclopedia
Neher in Kirchenlexikon I, 1184-89
De Rubeis, Monumenta Eccles. Aquil. (Strasburg, 1740)
Ughelli Italia Sacra, I sqq.; X, 207
Cappelletti, Chiese d'Italia, VIII, 1 sqq.
Menzano, Annali del Friuli (1858-68)
Paschini, Sulle Origini della Chiesa di Aquileia (1904)
Glaschroeder, in Buchberger's Kirchl. Handl. (Munich, 1904), I, 300-301; Hefele, Conciliengesch. II, 914-23.
For the episcopal succession, see Gams, Series episcoporum (Ratisbon, 1873-86), and Eubel, Hierarchia Catholica Medii Aevi (Muenster, 1898).

World Heritage Sites in Italy | Roman sites of Friuli Venezia Giulia | Towns in Friuli-Venezia Giulia | Cathedrals in Italy | Destroyed cities