Altinum

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For the Italian town in the province of Chieti, see Altino, Abruzzo.

Location of the province of Venice

Altinum (modern Altino, a frazione of Quarto d'Altino) is the name of an ancient coastal town of the Veneti ^[1] in Venetia, 15 km SE of Tarvisium (now Treviso), in Italy, on the edge of the lagoons. It was reportedly very wealthy. Located on the eastern coast of that nation, at the mouth of the river Silis, it was destroyed by Attila in 452 and eventually abandoned by its inhabitants, who sought refuge in the islands of the lagoon, such as Torcello, where later Venice was to be built

[edit] History

Altinum was both strategic and beautiful. Finds and Venetic funeral inscriptions show that it was a center as early as the fifth century B.C. It increased in importance with the Romanization of the region and specifically with the construction of the Via Annia (131 B.C.), which passed through, linking Atria with Aquileia. At the end of the Republic, Altinum became a municipium whose citizens were ascribed to the Roman tribe Scaptia. Augustus and his successors brought it into further importance with the construction of the Via Claudia Augusta which began at Altino and reached the "limes" of the northeast at the Danube, a distance of 350 m., apparently by way of the Lake of Constance. The place, thus, became of considerable strategic and commercial importance, and the comparatively mild climate (considering its northerly situation) led to the erection of villas which Martial (Epigr. iv. 25) compares with those of Baiae.

Lucius Verus died there in 169 A.D.

Altinum became the seat of a bishop by at least the fifth century A.D, the first bishop being Heliodorus of Altino (Eliodoro).^[2]

Around 452, Attila the Hun captured the city and burned it to the ground, along with several other nearby cities. Refugees settled on the islands of the lagoons, forming settlements which eventually became known as Venice.