Anne Marie Adam

THE AQUILÉE TERRITORY BEFORE THE COLONY FOUNDATION: LITERARY

SOURCES
AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL REALITIES

Among all the problems raised by the history of Republican Aquileia, that of the
foundation of the colony, and of the context in which it was operated, is undoubtedly
one of the most frequently mentioned, both by historians of the city, only archaeologists
or historians of pre-Roman Friuli. A fundamental aspect! is the occupation of the
territory before the start of the Island

s., its nature and density, and it must be recognized at the outset that, apart from
historical sources and in particular Tite-Live, whose information is not free from internal
contradictions, other means of investigation, linguistic indications and topony and
archaeological discoveries, only provide us with a still too fragmented vision of the
situation (unless of course they do not inform us so gn on the contrary, on the diffuse
nature of this occupation). In addition, a certain number of presuppositions of an
ideological nature, like the claim, very alive in Friuli, of the Celti heritage that, have
sometimes distorted the historical appreciation of the few existing facts.

We would like, without bringing genuinely new elements to the dossier, to bring
together and compare the different categories of information as they have been recently
identified, notably in the previous volumes of the Antichità altoadriati che ( 1), in order
to re-examine the situation of Fri-

(1) For ancient sources: F. CASSOLA, Lt popolazioni prtromant dtl Friuli ntllt
fonti ltlltrarit, in "AAAd" XV-1, 1979, p. 83-112. For archaeological material: P. CASSOL, \ GUIDA, btstdiammti
prtro111a11i 11t / 'ttrrilorio di Aquileia, ibid., p. 66-82; EAD.,
The area orimtalt della civiltà paltovtntta, in "Este e la civiltà paleoveneta a cento anni dalle prime scoperte.
Atti XI conv. di Studi Etruschi e Italici", Florencc 1980, p. 107-122; G. FOGOLARI, I Galli 11tll'alto Adriatico, " AAAd
"XIX, 1981, p. 15-49; S. V1. TRI, La raccolta prtistorica dtl M11sto di Aq11iltia, " AAAd "xxm, 1983, p.
117-126.

13
ANNE MARIE ADAM

oul centro-meridional, at least in the area between Tagliamento and Isonzo, during the
centuries which immediately preceded Romanization.

I. As regards the area of ​the future coast or its surroundings

immediate, the traces of occupation are old but rather sparse. Only one sector has so
far been the subject of a regular excavation, however limited in time: that of the Canale
Anfora, partially explored by F. Gnesotto in 1980 ( 2). We found a palisade of wooden
poles there, the rest of the enclosure of the habitat or the installation of a palafitti type
establishment. The material discovered dates from the most intense period of
occupation in the Recent Bronze, with some older traces (Middle Bronze) and the
persistence of use of the site in the Final Bronze. These vestiges attest in any case the
existence, long time before the works of Roman improvement and the foundation of the
colony, of a stable habitat (during several centuries) and of a certain extent (of which
only a reduced portion was exploited).

The other discoveries made around the city are all sporadic: they were for the
most part listed by F. Anelli (3), whose study served as a starting point for the already
cited article by S. Vitri ( above, not. 1). We note for the Bronze Age a certain
concentration of finds on the southern outskirts of the city (Belvedere, Morsano) (4). A
little further from Aquileia, the

For linguistic issues and toponymy: CC DESINAN, A proposito di Ctlti nel la toponomastica fri11lana, in
"Studi forogiuliesi (in onore di CG Mor)", Udine 1983,
p. 3-40; AL PROSDOCIMI, Coniai / i di ling11t ntlla decima regio, parlt 11ordorientalt, " AAAd "
XXVIII, 1986, p. 15-42.
We can also partially use the directory of discoveries contained in the work by A. TAGLIAFERRI, Coloni t legionari
romani nel Friuli celtico, Pordenone 1986.
For a synthesis from the various documentary sources and a critical reflection on recent research: Ten years
dt rtchtrchts (1975-1985) s11r the Adriatiq11t antiq11t (IIIt siege av.] .- C.- Ile side ap. ].-VS.), in "MEFR (A)"
99, 1987-1, p. 382-384 and 415-418.

(2) F. GNESOIT0, The insediamento preistorico di Canalt Anfora (Terzo di Aquileia),

"AqN" LII, 1981, coli. 5-35.
(3) F. ANELLI, Vtrtigia preistoriche dell'agro aquiltim, " AqN "XX, 1949, coli. 1-24.

(4) The museum of Aquileia acquired in particular, in 1980, a bronze ax at

14
 THE TERRITORY OF AQUILÉE BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE COLONY

gion of Cervignano supplied two deposits of bronze objects which constitute rare
examples of furniture integrated into an archeologically interpretable ensemble: one,
discovered fortuitously in 1984 on the southern periphery, was a deposit of a founder of
the Recent Bronze, with numerous fragments of bronze ingots and an ax with median
fins, probably linked to an area of ​habitat whose excavation could not be undertaken
(5); the other was found earlier in Muscoli (! oc. Pizzat), a short distance north of
Cervignano; it belonged to the extreme end of the Recent Bronze (6).

For the Iron Age, on the other hand, we observe a greater concentration of the
materials discovered, always out of any interpretable context, on the northern periphery
of Aquileia, around Monastero, even if the protohistoric importance of the sector of
Santo Stefano may have been overestimated, as of the end of the last century, by C.
Gregorutti, owing to the erroneous attribution of certain funerary materials which
actually belong to the Roman era (7). Affirmations like that of A. Calderi ni (8) ("tali
ritrovamenti preistorici sono stati fatti a S. Stefano ... e vennero attribuiti a popolazioni
che abitavano Il nel V secolo e potrebbero perciò essere i Veneti"), is not support clone
only on a limited number of sporadic discoveries. However, recently

edges and semi-circular cutting edge which undoubtedly still belongs to the Ancient Bronze Age and comes
from the southern outskirts of the city: F. GNESOTTO, Un'ascia di bron zo dalla periferia di Aquileia, " AqN "LII,
1981, coli. 1-4.
(S) S. VITR1, in "AqN" LV, 1984, coli. 268-269.
(6) S. V1TRI, in "Preistoria del Caput Adriae", Trieste 1983, p. 82-83 (the depot included fragments of
rough bronze ingots and 15 other whole or fragmentary objects: sickle, socket ax, upper part of a sword
blade).
(7) S. V1TRI, La raccolta preistorica ..., art. cii., p. 119-121. We are not unhappy
not sure of the origin of a cord cistus, cited by C. GREGORUTTI
(! Jcrizioni unpublished aq11ileiesi, istriane, triestine, in "Arch. Triest." XIII, 1887, p. 136), then also described
by C. Marchesetti, who brings it close to copies of S. Lucia di Tolmino: this cistus, probably found near
Aquileia, but currently disapeared, can hardly have belonged to more than one funeral complex of a certain
wealth, towards the end of the First Iron Age.

(8) A. CALDERJNI, Aq11ileia romana, Milan 1930, p. 340.

15
 ANNE MARfE ADAM

typical Venetian habitat, with characteristics comparable, for example, to those of

Padua (9).
The archaeological traces are too tenuous until now so that one can still conclude
that there exists on this site a Venetian "village" preexisting at the foundation of the
Roman colony. However, if the toponym Aquileia has long been interpreted as Celtic on
the basis of a hasty attribution of suffi x - eia, also present in toponyms of Noric, its
Venetian character is considered today as incontestable (1 °), which almost necessarily
implies the presence of an establishment in the sector (or, strictly speaking, simply, a
sufficiently assiduous attendance and extended across the pan of Venetian-speaking
populations). The recent rediscovery of an unprecedented Venetian script from Marano
Lagunare ('1) would seem to confirm these hypotheses of a relatively consistent
implantation of the Venetians around the location of the future colony.

To close this inventory of "pre-Roman type" material discovered on the Aquileia

site or in its immediate surroundings, we must also mention a few series of objects
which, despite their appearance, must be treated with caution, because they do not all
constitute documentation usable for the analysis of the situation prior to the arrival of the
Rornains. We will examine further, in a broader geographical context, the chronological
and historical problems posed by these objects, but it is practically certain that many of
them, be they Celtic coins, fibulae with bilateral spring. , and even small votive bronzes
of Venetian tradition or even ceramic called "cinerognola" which belongs to the same
cultural context!

(9) Dott oral communication. Mr. BuoRA.

(10) Lastly, G. FocoLARI and A. PRosooc1M1, I Veneti antichi - Lingua t
n1 / t11ra, Padouc 1988, p. 316 and 403-404.
(11) Reported by the Dott. Buora and briefly mentioned by AL PRosooc1.
Miss, op., it. (( 1988), p. 316.

16
 THE TERRITORY OF AQUILÉE BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE COLONY

II. These chronological questions constitute one of the obsta

These are more serious for a clearly reasoned analysis of the ethnic situation in
pre-Roman Friuli, especially if one thinks of the late nature of most of the Celtic-type
material, often used, undoubtedly ill-founded, for prove the reality of a people

Celtic ent in the 4th or 11th century

before J. - C. .. In most cases, however, there are still no sufficiently detailed
chronologies for metallic or ceramic objects produced between the Ille and the 1st s.
before our era, one runs, therefore, the risk of attributing to these objects a value for
their history which they do not have.

Once admitted that it is most often necessary to "demean" the dating of several
series of furniture, we note the scarcity, already reported, of materials actually
attributable to the 4th and 2nd centuries. The fact certainly partly reflects the reality of
the people lying in this sector of central-southern Friuli, from the current of the 5th
century. av. not. è. Historical reasons have been invoked to explain this relative
depopulation, for example the spread along the Balkan peninsula in the second half of
the 5th century of the plague epidemic which began in Greece. and which we know
above all for Athens itself, through the account of the historian Thucydides (Il, 4 7-54):
Virgil evokes, in fact, in his Georgics ( III, 4 74-4 78) a terrible pesti / entia

which struck the Illyrian coast, the eastern Alps and the Veneto, and ancient
commentators, already, identified the latter with the famous "plague of Athens" ('2).

But the deeper reasons for this regional stagnation could be of an economic
nature (which would better justify the very duration of the phenomenon, between the 5th
century and the second half of the island). In the Bronze Age, in fact, and in the first Iron
Age, until the current of the Vle s. roughly, the region of Friuli central is, in relation to the
Iszozo valley and the eastern Alpine passes, an important passageway between Italy
and the transalpine environment or the Danube basin, as evidenced in particular , from
the Old and Middle Bronze, a certain

(12) J. and A. S11SEL, Dmrla regna paslorum (Vtrg. Gtorg. 3, 476-477), in "Zbor nik posvecen Stanetu
Gabrovcu ob sestdesctletnici" (= "Sicula" 20/21), Ljubljana
1981, p. 421-431.

17
ANNE MARIE ADAM

tain number of metallic objects common to all these regions (13), or, later, hallstattian
influences clearly perceptible - with the presence, for example, among the furniture of
the Pozzuolo-del-Friuli burials, of weapons of iron

- axes- totally foreign to Venetian funeral uses (1 4).

With the displacement, towards the middle of the 5th century, of the vital centers of the
Hallstattian world from east to west, these traffics had to lose part of their importance,
obviously leading to a general decline in the Friulian area, which its population de
partially clamps (15). A real reversal of this crisis situation did not begin until the end of
the Ille s., At a time when the growing Romans' interest in the Adriatic Gulf created the
real conditions for a new economic impetus. In any case, unlike Padane Italy or the
western Venetian area (up to Altino), Friuli seems, at least in the cruel state of our
documentation, to have stayed away from the currents of exchanges between the
peninsula and the Celtic Latenian world, and economic movements caused by!

Be that as it may, the foregoing remarks would encourage us to give some credit
to the speech which, in order to exonerate themselves before the Roman Senate, Galli
transalpini, who, according to the famous Tite-Live story, tried, in 186, to settle in the
region: "... exposuerunt se superante in Gallia multitudine inopia coactos agri et
egestate ad quaerendam sedem Alpes tran sgressos, quae inculta per solitudines
emptied, ibi sine ullius iniuria consedisse ”(Tite-Live XXXIX, 54, 5). It has most often
been considered that this was, on the part of these Gauls, a bad excuse to excuse their
incursion, and the very fact that Titus-

(13) M. MORETTI, Ak1111i aspelli della metallurgia nelle prime fasi dell'età del bronzo i11 Friuli, in
"Problemi storici ed archeologici dell'Italia nordorientale e delle regioni li mitrofe dalla preistoria al medioevo",
"ACMT" XIII-I, 1983, p. 131-138; EAD., In "Preistoria del Caput Adriae", Trieste 1983, p. 69-74.

(14) S. VtTRI, in "ACMT" XIV, 1983-84, p. 201-204.

(1>) These problems which concern the place and the role of Friuli in protohistoric commercial currents
were recently approached by P. CASSOLA GutDA, Poz: Qlo / o del Friuli all'incroào Ira culture vwelo-padane
e culture tra11salpi11e, communication at the Venice conference "La Venetia nell'area padano-danubiana: le
vie di comunicazione" (6-10 April 1988).

18
 THE TERRJTOIRE OF AQUILÉE BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE COLONY

Live attributed this observation to the accused alone, making it obviously suspect.
However, A. Grilli recently argued that the fact of placing this declaration, in a dramatic
manner, in the very mouths of enemies, was in fact intended to draw attention to a
historical reality, and to underline the military importance of the future colony: its
imminent foundation thus filled a dangerous territorial "void", which other populations
were all ready to come and fill, if the Romans did not prevent them (16).

Now let’s take a look at the too few archaeological documents that Friuli provided
for the Second Iron Age. Until the 5th century, the belonging of the whole region to the
Venetian cultural area was demonstrated both by ancient discoveries, such as those of
the Ronchi and Redipuglia necropolises, and by recent works (excavations of the
necropolises of Pozzuolo and San Vito al Tagliamento, excavation of habitats in
Pozzuolo and Porcia, near Pordenone) (17).

On the majority of the sites which, in the region, were massively occupied in the
Bronze Age and the First Iron Age, the last objects showing protohistoric activity appear
to be at the end of the 5th and at the beginning of the 4th century. . This is also the case
for the material collected by U. Furlani on the site of Me dea (18), which constitutes in
this context one of the sets! Es plus

(16) A. GRILLI, Aquileia in Livio, in "Aquileia e Roma", "AAAd" XXX, 1987, p.

20.
(17) For all these sites, see: P. (ASSOLA Gu1DA, The area orimtale della civiltà paleo veuela, cii. (( supra not.
I); and the Trieste exhibition catalog, Preistoria del Caput Adria ,, al., p. I 93-203.

(18) U. FURLANI, Una necropoli dell'età de / farro ml Monte di Medea, " AqN " XLV
XLVI, 1974-75, coli. 31-44. It seems doubtful to us, however, that it is really furniture from a necropolis: the nature of the
objects (some 700 ornaments, among which dominate the fibulae and fragments of fibulae, the breaks of which, always
similar, seem intentional ) and the fact that they were found not separately in burials, but in a homogeneous charcoal layer,
would rather indicate, preferably the vestiges of a disturbed funerary zone, as I would like U. Furlani, those of a "ritual piece"
of the "Brandopferplatz" type. We

has, moreover, often wanted to see on the hill of Medea, the location of the oppidum
founded, according to Tite-Livc, by! es "Galli transalpini transgressi in Venetiam" ( XXXIX,
22, 6): no evidence gn archaeological age has not come, until now, to support this hypo thesis, which rests mainly on an
interpretation today called into question by suffix
- tia, of Medeia, as Celtic (cf. mpra, about the name of Aquileia).

19
ANNE MARIE ADAM

recent, with in particular many fragments of large Certosa fi bules whose arc carries,
near the spring, a large striated pearl ( 19) ( other smaller fibulae, with a smooth pearl
towards the head of the are, and on the foot a large hemispherical button which,
extending above the pin-holder, a lanceolate enlargement, are of identical dating). The
same types of fibulae are also abundant in the Dernazzacco necropolis near Cividale
(see infra).

After the 4th century, and beyond the chronological reservations previously
formulated, it seems that these Palaeo-Venetian-type cultural influences remain
predominant, as the dice show, for example, the fairly massive presence of so-called
ceramic cinerognola whose Venetian character is now no longer disputed, as is its
dissemination throughout the cultural area of ​the continent ( 20). One of the characteristic
forms of this ceramic is that of the streamlined goblet, present at Aquileia on the
ernplacernent of the forum (2 1), but also in Padua, Este or Rotzo on the Altipiano
d'Asiago (22), in contexts that can be dated between the second half of Ille and the end
of Ile s. Before our era. Another typical form, distributed throughout the Veneto and
relatively frequent in Friuli, is that of the almond-shaped lip cup and decorated bottom to
scratch ( 23). Obviously, most of the specimens found in Friuli are not separable from a

(19) U. FURLANI, ari. cii., pi. IJ-IV; B. TERl, 1 •, Cerlo! Ko fibula (Die Cer / osojìbel),

"AV" 27, 1976, type X, p. 425 sqq (beginning of the LTB period or "horizon of left Nc": 4th century); these fibulae
are also present at Este: At-.1. C111ECO B1,1NCH1 and o / ii, Proposta per 11na tipologia delle fìb11 / e di Este, Florence
1976, typc XX Il g, p. 31-32 (late Esce III and Este IV).

(20) For this gray ceramic, see in particular the recent article by M. G ,, MBA and
MY RuTA SERAFINI, Lo ceramica grigia dallo scavo dell'area ex-Pilsm a Padova, " Arch V cn "VII, 1984, p.
7-80, and for the F rioul: L. Zuccow, Saggi di scavo a Se vegliano Altri rinvenimenti di epoca romana, " AqN
"LVI, 1985, coli. 25-30 and P. ( ASSOLA Gum, 1, in "MEFR (A)" 1987-2, cit., p. 416.

(21) P. Gu10A, Lo ceramica "campana" ad Aq11ileia, " AqN "XXXIl-XXXIII, 1961-62, col. 18; G. FOCOLARI,
I Galli nell'alto Adriatico, cit. (( s11pra not. 1), fig. 22.
(22) G. LEONARDI and A. RUTA SERAFINI, L'abitato protostorico di Rotzo (Altipiano di
Asiago), " Preistoria Alpina "17, 1981, p. 20 and 35-36; type study, p. 48 and diffusion map, fig. 4 7.

(23) Mr. J. STRAZZULLA RuscoNJ, in "Arch.CI." XXIX, 1977, fig. 4, p. 111 (two fragmentary strikes from
Aquileia); L. ZuccoLO, ari. cii., coli. 26-27.

20
 THE AQUJLEA TERRITORY BEFORE THE COLONY FOUNDATION

context already romanized, in the 1st c. av. AD, or even later; they must, however,
reflect the maintenance of earlier ceramic traditions and one might think that, at least in
the case of the fragments found at Ouino (24), the context is still that of the Atestino
IVB, in association with varnished ceramics black datable from the 11th century.

Another fairly widespread series in our region, no doubt also from the 11th
century, and unquestionably linked to the Leovenet milieu, is that of small votive
bronzes representing vaults, warriors in assault or offerers, many of whom have
recently published and come from extremely diverse points in Friuli (territory of Aquileia,
Sevegliano, Fagagna and Santa Maria delle Grazie, near Cividale) ( 25). As the map
presented by M. Buora (supra n. 25) clearly shows, these small bronzes meet extremely
precise parallels in Veneto (26), and if several of them are, once again, hardly anterior,
without doubt, in the first century before our era (in association, in Fagagna and Santa
Maria delle Grazie, with small bronzes of centro-italic tradition, of the end of the Island
or of the 1st century BC) However, the persistence of Venetian traditions not only in the
field of crafts, but probably also, what is more important, in the religious domain: we
must consider the permanence of places of worship of pre-Roman origin, which know
still in the middle of Roman times, with the frequentation of centers of Venetian
population, a certain vitality.

Finally, we have already mentioned the presence in the region

(24) F. MASELLI Scon1, Problemi S111tilali dai recenti 1tavi di Duino (Triule) in "Pro blemi storici ed
archeologici dell'Italia nordorientale ...", cii., p. 45-64; EAD., In "Prei storia del Caput Adriae", cii., p. 211-214.

(25) Mr. BuoRA, Alcuni bro11zelli aq11ileiui di lradivo11e preromana preuo i, ivi, i musei
di Udi11e, " AgN "LVII, 1986, coli. 65-76. Sevegliano: ID., Sevegliano ed il territorio, ir, o sla11 / e i11 epoca
romana, " AgN "LVI, 1985, coli. 84-85; Fagagna: A. TAGLIAFERRI, op. cii., (S11pra not. 1), see. I, pi. IV, 1 and
see. II, p. 72-73; S. Maria delle Grazie: Ibid., I, pi. II and IV, 2 and II, p. 228-229; L. ZuccoLO, Noie su al (lmi
bronzei / i cividalesi, in "Quaderni Cividalesi" 10, 1982, p. 7- I 9.

(26) M. ToMBOLANI, Bro11v figurali elr111thi, italici, paleoveneti e romani del Museo pro vinciale di Tomi
/ o, Rome 1981, n • 26-35, 36-40; L. FRANZONI, Bronzei / ie / ruuhi e italiri del Museo archeologico di Verona, Rome
1980, n • 168-169, etc ...; MG MAIOLI, LA stirpe votiva di Villa di Villa a Cordigna110 (Treviso), " ArchVen "VII, 1984,
p. 99-105.

21
ANNE MARlE ADAM

Venetian inscriptions, both in the hinterland (Pozzuolo-del Friuli) and along the coast,
from Marano to the Trieste area (Mug gia), and further east, on the Karst ( S. (anziano
del Carso) and in the Iszozo basin (Idria della Bacia) ( 27). These inscriptions found for
the most part in a late context (thus those of Idria, in a late-republican context), certainly
have the same cultural significance as the series of objects previously mentioned and
demonstrate, as they do, not only the permanence of Palaeo-Venetian culture, but even
the reaffirmation of influences from_

e Veneto from the two

xth half of Ille s. (at the time when so come the oldest examples of gray ceramics).

About the recent discoveries of Duino, F. Maselli Scotti (2 8) had already

underlined! the relationships which seem to exist between the reactivation of these
Venetian influences and the transfer, noted by archeology, of the habitats of the karst
area, where! es castellieri are abandoned from the middle of the 5th c. (2 9),

towards the coastal border (with the development at Atestino IV of sites like Duino or
Stramare di Muggia). This renewed interest of the Venetians for the north-eastern coast
of the Adriatic Gulf must be linked to the development of their alliance with the Romans,
which in turn is part of the more general framework of the progressive increase in the
interests of Rome in the Adriatic, during the second half of llle s. We must beware of
underestimating the influence that the Venetians may have exerted on the development
of Roman policy in the sector, and in particular the community of concerns which must
unite at that time the Romans and their allies, against the threat of other populations,
such as the Istrians (3 °). We will return to these historical questions later.

Faced with this permanence of the Venetian elements until the epo-

(27) All these registrations are listed last by AL PRosooc1M1,

I Vtntli antichi ..., (he. (supra not. 10), p. 314-323.
(28) F. MASELLI Scorri, Problm, i .umitati ..., art. cit. (mpra not. 24), p. 60-62.
(29) Preistoria del Caput Adriae, cit., p. 214-215 (castellieri de Monrupino and Ru
pinpiccolo): on this site the material corresponding to the Atestino TV is completely absent; the same
rcmarquc applies to the habitat of Cattinara ( Ibid., p. 207).
(30) This role of the Venetcs was underlined rccemmcnt by RF Rossi, Problemi di storia dell'Istria in
età romana, " AMSI "84, 1984, p. 50-53.

22
 THE TERRJTOIRE OF AQUILÉE BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE COLONY

that Roman, we note the presence, for the last centuries before our era, of a rather
reduced number of objects of Celtic type. For the coastal area or the plain, these
objects are limited to a few defined categories (fibulae and coins) and are, for the most
part, after the foundation of the Roman colony. Several fibula with the La Tène medium
pattern, with the foot folded and fixed on the top of the arch by means of a molded ring,
were discovered on the same site of Aquileia (3 1). They are similar to specimens found
in Yugoslavia in contexts of La Tène Medium or Finale (32) and are not prior to Ile or
even to the 1st s. av. J.-C .. An identical date must be retained for all similar or
neighboring copies found elsewhere in Friuli (Gradisca di Sedegliano, Sevegliano, Fol
garia-Castelraimondo) (33). Other fibulae from the Latenian tradition are also late: fibula
with gadroon of Aquileia, fi bule in "crab tail" ( Krebsschivanzlibef) of the "Cavedine"
type, found in the excavations of the Roman villa of Joannis (3 4).

Likewise, the so-called "Gallo-Carnic" coins in the regional archaeological

literature belong in reality for the most part to the series of silver coins minted in the
Norique between Ile s. and the beginning of the 1st (tetradrachm with a curly head at
the right - Apollo? - and a knight on the reverse), whose southern diffusion is
undoubtedly linked essentially to the development of trade relations at this time
between Noric and the Romans. As for the other group of my naies traditionally
considered as "Celtic", they are Venetian drachmas, Venetian imitation of the
Massaliote drachma, through the Padane drachmas, struck in Italy from

(31) F. F1sci -1ER, Fn, h, Fibel11 arlS Aquileia, " AqN "XXXVII, I 966, fig. I.
(32) M. GuSTIN, La Tène Fibula, fro! 11 Istria, " Archaeologia lugoslavica "24,
1987, p. 50-53 (types "Kastav" and "Picugi").
(33) F. ANELLI, Bronzi prerof1lani d, 1 Friuli, Udine 1956, pi. IX, 12; L. ZuccoLO,
ari. cii. (supra not. 20), coli. 51-52, fig. 5; F. P1uzz1, Il territorio del C0! 1lune di Folgaria "Zuc Schiaraf1lonl"
(Colle di Caslelraif1londo), in "Castelli del Friuli-Venezia Giulia - Stu di e ricerche" 7, 1984, p. 33-34, no.15.

(34) V.SRIBAR, Eine spiitmillellatene Fib, I arlS Aquileia, " AqN "XLIX, 1978, coli. 6-7 (Ile ou ler s. Av.
N. È.); G. R1c1-11, Fibula La Tène dallo scavo della villa romana di Joannis, " AqN "L, 1979, coli. 121-124
(The type of Cavedine, originating in the Trentine region, has been discovered until now, in spite of its
obvious Celtic inheritance, only in contexts posterior to the beginning of our era) .

23
 ANNE MARIE ADAM

North from the 11th century. The presence of these drachmas in Fri oul must be
considered as further proof of the relations which unite in Ille s. and then, Friuli centro
meridional in Veneto (35).

Regarding the presence of Gallic type objects, little if gn ificative, as we have just
seen, for the low areas, it may be necessary to grant, on the other hand, a special place
to the region of the eastern hills, where certain sites, along the courses of the Torre and
Natisone , provided a greater quantity of Celtic elements: these, in close relation with
the material of the "Group of Idria", on the high Isonzo (36), occupy, between the end of
the first Iron Age and the end of La Tène, a chronological sequence not really
continuous, but at least more language than elsewhere, with some objects which may
have belonged to higher phases of La Tène Ancient and Average, not represented until
now in the rest of Friuli (37). In any case, outside this geographically limited area, and
almost surely also from the carnic zone whose archaeological exploration is still
nonexistent and on which we can say nothing, it hardly seems possible, on the faith of
archaeological discoveries, to make the whole of Friuli a largely Celtic land at the time
when the Romans made their appearance there, or to raise, as has too often been
affirmed, a Celtic installation in the Bassa Friulana in the 4th century. Before our era. a
Celtic installation in Bassa Friulana in the 4th century. Before our era. a Celtic
installation in Bassa Friulana in the 4th century. Before our era.

(35) On these monetary questions, lastly: G. GoR1N1, Ritrovamenti di mo nete celtiche nelle Vene: i:,
ie, in "Keltische Numismatik und Archaologie", BJ \ R lnt. Scr.
200, 1984, see. I, p. 69-87; S. VrTRI, Monete ctltirhe i11 Friuli-Venezja Giulia ( exhibition Trieste, 7-21 /
11/1986).
(36) On this "Idria Group", lastly: D. SVOLSJSJ \ K, Kovafevfe - Na selje idrijske sk11pi11e II vipavski
dolini, " Goriski Letnik "1 O, 1983, p. 5-32.
(37) The most important site in this respect is that of Dernazzacco: ì'vl. 8Rozz1 and
A. T / IGL! / IFERRI, The veneto-celtica di Derna nuropoli = cco - Doc11me11ti e inforn1av · o11i di sca vo, " Forum
lulii "IX, 1985, p. 13-64. On the other hand, great care must be taken, for the same sector, the two twin heights
of Monte Barda and Monte Roba, where the presence of coins and a few other objects that can be dated from
Ile S. before our era are not enough to affirm, as A. TAGLIAFERRI does,

Coloni e legionari romani ..., cit. (( supra not. 1), I, p. 121-125, that this was, at that time, a fortified
establishment directly involved in the war between the Celts inhabiting the region and the Roman legionaries.

i'
24
 THE TERRJTOIRE OF AQUILÉE BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE COLONY

111. However, the literary sources which speak of the foundation

tion of Aquileia (38), and especially the main of them, the account of Tite-Live, do not
totally agree with the picture (very imprecise, it is true) that] archaeological evidence
allows us to draw; moreover, they do not agree with each other. Pseudo-Scylax (XX), at
the end of the 4th century. before our era, and later the Pseudo-Scymnos (387-391)
who writes towards the end of Ile s., but bases his documentation on] es writings of
Ephore and Théopompe, locate, in the enumeration of the peoples who border the
aclriatic coast, the Istrians immediately following the Venetians. In the same way,
Strabo (V, 1, 9) draws, perhaps on the faith of the same sources and in particular
Ephore, the border between Vénètes and lstriens in Timavo. J.-C .. However, Strabo,
in an immediately preceding passage (V, 1, 8), contradicts himself by specifying that the
colony of Aquileia is located outside Venetian territory, of which he fixes the eastern
limit in Tagliamento. Finally, in a third passage (VII, 5, 2), the geographer makes Carni the
neighbors of the Lstrians on the coast, and of Tergeste a carnic village. The explanation
of all these contradictions must be sought in the fact that these different indications
undoubtedly come from sources of different times and bear witness to an evolution over
time of the people of the region.

We find at Tite-Live the same hesitation between Vénè tes and Gauls for the
allocation of territory: when he evokes, for the year 186, the incursion of the Gauls of
the Alps and their attempt to settle in a place close to the future colony, the Hi Storian
says "transgressi in Venetiam "( XXXIX, 22, 6); on the contrary, mentioning in 181 the
definitive foundation of the colony, after long debates, he wrote: "Aquileia colonia latina
eodem anno in agrum Gallorum est deducta ”(XL, 34, 2). F. Cassola (39) attempts to
reconcile these two divergent indications to designate the same territory, by
demonstrating that one ( Venetia) matches

(38) F. CASSOL / \, Le popolavo11i prero111am del Friuli ..., di., (Supra not. 1), in part. p.
99-112.
(39) Jbid., p. 104.

25
ANNE MARIE ADAM

to the traditional designation of reg10n (by reference, obviously, to the population who
formerly occupied it), and that the other ( ager Gallorun1) refers to the inhabitants of
the region at the time of the events told.

The same uncertainty manifests itself, however, in later sources: Silius Italicus
(VIII, 604) ( 40), then Julien l'Apo stat ( Gold., II, 17) consider the territory of Aguilée
camme vénè te, while Pliny the Elder (NH, III, 126) attributes to Carni

("Carnorum haec regio ...") the Timavo area and the gulf of Tri este, just like the
geographer Ptolemy (III, 1, 25) finds its place in Carnic countries not only Forum Iulii
and Aquileia, but even Concordia (maybe to be, it is true, as a result of an erroneous
localization of the latter).

IV. So we must now try to answer the basic question. To whom the territory really
belonged when the colony was founded by the Romans: to the Venetians, camme
seems to indicate archeology and a significant part of the literary sources, or to the
Gauls, and more precisely to the Galli Carni, as others claim to the teurs? For most of
these texts, the difficulty is to date the documentary basis on which they are based and
may have said that, more generally, the real question is chronological.

The Galli Carni were certainly established, at least from then the beginning of
the second Iron Age, in the north of the plain of Fri oul, in the Carnic mountains and
undoubtedly a part of the zone of the hills; remains to be seen what could be, in Ille s.
and at the beginning of the Island, the southern limit of their territory. It is likely that, in
accordance with the "expansionist" habits of the Celts, they did not hesitate to push
forays towards the south, in contact with Venetian territory, as we see for example, in
186, in the Cali transalpini already mentioned (who must be Taurisks ( 41)). If this is also
the case for

(40) Not without anachronism, it is true, since it refers to the time of the second Punic war and
bet of Aquileia, as if the colony already existed.
(41) This identification and the distinction between! Es Gal / i Carni, who already frequented the
region in one way or another, and the newcomers are no longer re-

26
 THE AQUlLEE TERRJTOIRE BEFORE THE COLONY FOUNDATION

! es Carni, how should this penetration be represented? Are these incursions without a
future, like that, precisely, of the Taurisques of the years 186-183? Are these
infiltrations within a population mainly Venetian, and in any case small? Finally, can we
really speak, as most authors have done so far, of a generalized Celtic occupation of
Friuli before the arrival of the Romans? Based on the archaeological documentation,
we have shown that it is difficult to answer this last question in the affirmative.

The documentation provided by toponymic studies pa ratt go in the same

direction: in a recent article ( 42), CC De sinan, following a brief directory of probable
Celtic toponyms in Friuli, offers some general and historical reflections:

- With regard to the geographical distribution of the probably Celtic topony mes, we
note that most of them are attested in the mountainous region and along the hills of
piedmont. But obviously we cannot, from this re-partition alone, draw the conclusion a
priori of an absence of the Gauls in the plain area.

- The Celtic-colored toponymy here is of an archaic type, with a predominance of

oronyms and hydronyms: almost all of the attested names are geographical terms
which demonstrate knowledge of the designated places, but cannot bear witness to a
Gallic "colonization" strictly speaking. Few, for example, are the names which evoke
the habitat, religion, people, as well as allusions to agricultural activities, yet the main
resource of a possible stable and sufficiently numerous population.

- It should be noted, moreover, that Gallic terms are not frequently found in the Latin
lexicon: many toponyms of Celtic appearance are, in fact, lexical borrowings, forged in
Latin or Latin-Roman context and whose adoption is difficult to date, but which can
never be used as

questioned since the fundamental article! by F. SARTORI, Galli transalpini lransgreui in Vmetian, (Liv. XXXIX, 22, 6-7),
" AqN "XXXI, 1960 coli. 1-40.
(42) CC DESINAN, A proposito di Celti nella toponomastica friulana, ari. ,he. (s11pra not.
1).

27
ANNE MARlE ADAM

proof of a pre-Roman Celtic installation. This is undoubtedly the case, in particular, for
the domain terms formed using the suffixes -ic11n1 / -ac11n1, added to a base most
often not celti that, and which are at the origin of toponyms ending in -icco ​/ acco, so
frequent in Friuli ( 4 3).

From these toponymic observations, CC Desi nan ( 44) suggests the following
conclusion, to which we are happy to subscribe: in a stable and continuous possession
born in a colonizzazione para gonabile a quella attuata nella Gallia Cisalpina. Di uno
sfrutta mento economico sistematico, di un'organizzazione politica, di trasformazioni
operate sul paesaggio, dell'incolato, non si sa pra ticamente nulla ”. It should be added
to the nuances brought here the need, already underlined, to distinguish, as regards the
Celtic modes of occupation, several sectors inside the Friulian region.

Still other arguments have been advanced to support the thesis of a Celtic
pre-Roman presence, in particular the religious argument linked to the importance of the
worship of Belenos, well tested at Aguilée in the imperial epogue ( 4 5). However, it does
not seem certain that the certificate of a te! worship, especially at ll the s. of our era, at a
time when the god knows a revival of favor almost everywhere in the Roman world, and
in particular not far from Aguilée, in Pannonia, allows a guelcongue conclusion as for a
possible cultural and religious influence of the Celts in the region in the 4th or 3rd
century. Before Christ..

(43) On the real value of this suffix: AL PRosooc1 11, Co11 / alli di li11g11e ..., ari. cii. (supra not. 1), p.
22-23. We must clone beware of the statistical use, and graphic map, made of these toponyms by many
authors who hope to draw proof of a Celtic presence: in particular A.BERNARDJ, I Celti 11el Veneto, " Athena
cum "fase. Spec. 1976: Convegno in memoria di P. Fraaaro, p. 71-82.

The A. Bcrnardi card is taken over for Friuli by A. T AGLIAFERRJ, op. cit., see you. I, pi. I.

(44) Ari. cii., p. 37.

(4S) Argument presented, in particular, by F. CASSOLA, Popolazioni preroma11e ... rii., p. 104. On the
cult of Bélfoos at Aquileia: F. MARASPIN, li cullo di Be / mo-Apollo ad
Aq11ileia, " Atti Ccsdir "I, 1967-68, p. 147-161 and I. CHJRASSi COLOMBO, I local culli
alpine regioni, " AAAd "IX, 1976, p. 180 ff.

28
 THE TERRJTOIRE OF AQUILÉE BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE COLONY

To return to the chronological guide and to the table offered by the literary
sources, one can remark in any case that when, in 221, the Romans attack lstria for the
first time, no source mentions the need for them to cross on this occasion a land in the
hands of the Gauls: it is more logical to think that they passed directly from the territory
of their Venetian ally to the Istrians. If we want to recognize, on the other hand, the
merits of the indication of Tite-Live, when it locates the foundation of the colony "in
agrum Gallorum", it is necessary to put, as does F. Cassala ( 46), that Carni reached the
Adriatic coast between about 220 and 190. Perhaps they took advantage of this for a
time when, with the Second Public War, the concerns of the Romans were directed
towards more vital interests than the problems of the Upper Adriatic. The relatively late
date of this arrival of the Carni, and the very nature of their establishment that
archaeological and linguistic evidence obliges us to imagine rather diffuse, explains
precisely the weak cultural influence that is that of the Gauls in the region before
Romanization.

V. After an analysis conducted here under different

Aspects, let us now clone to conclude, by gathering the data provided by the different
documentary series. It would seem fair to assume that, at least until the end of the 11th
century, the region where the colony was later founded, and no doubt a good part of
central-southern Friuli, remained included in the Venetian territory, that have kept there
until that time

- there a dominant position on piano culture), a position reaffirmed during the second
half of Ille s., within the framework of the Roman-Venetian alliance. It may be
supposed, however, that the Venetians themselves perceived these distant eastern
margins more like a territory to be controlled from afar and to which the United had
fairly loose links, than like a land of their own. We have invoked, in fact, as proof of the
non-Venetian character of this territory, the very fact that the Romans founded Aquileia
there, because it was not in their habits to

(46) Art. cit., p. 103.

29
ANNE MARIE ADAM

thus robbing allies by amputating a part of their territory by the foundation of a colony.
This attitude is justified on the contrary if the control of their allies in this sparsely
populated region on the borders of Veneto remained little accentuated and
subordinated to the interests of the alliance itself. It is therefore easy to understand that
the Venetians did not protest against the settler projects of Rame: faced with the threat
represented by the actions of the Istrians, the new colony constituted an ideal bulwark,
not only within the framework of the Roman strategy , but also for the Venetian territory
itself.

It is moreover likely that, at the time that interests us, between the end of the 3rd
century and the beginning of the Ile s. before our era, the character of "border territory"
of the Aquileia area was reinforced by the advance of the Carni Gauls towards the
coast. Several sources attest that this movement continued in a south-easterly direction
during the Island and the first century BC, and that! Carni settled then, probably in favor
of the Istrian wars, in areas previously occupied by Lstrians, especially along the coast,
between Timavo and Trieste. Can we go so far as to think that these population
movements are then the consequence of economic attraction exerted by the new colony
and that the true installation of the Gauls on the North Adriatic coast rather followed that
preceded the foundation of this one? It is likely that, from the end of Jlle s., The interests
of the Gauls Carnj, just like those of the Venetians, hardly differ in reality from the
interests of Rome ( 47), and this community of interests was undoubtedly strengthened by
the founding of Aquileia in an area which! the various popularizations frequenting the
region could consider as a "no man's land" between their respective territories ( 48).

(47) This tradition of good relations between Carni and Romans, perhaps established as early as the
first Istrian war and the alpine expedition of the years 221-220, is attested by several episodes in the first half
of the island s .: during This period, the Gauls of the Eastern Alps rarely appear as adversaries for the
Romans, to whom they offer, on the contrary, on several occasions, their help in their Balkan encounters (G. BANDELLI,
in "Athenaeum" 59, 1981, p.22-27).

(48) We know for Cisalpine other cases of colonies founded in this way as a border between the
territories of two populations: Cremona, for example Cenomans and Insubres.

30