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Aquileia is a comune (municipality) in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of northeastern Italy. It is situated at the head of the Adriatic Sea at the edge of the lagoons, about from the sea, on the river Natiso (modern Natisone), the course of which has changed somewhat since the Roman era.
In classical antiquity, Roman Aquileia was a major Ancient Rome city with an estimated population close to 100,000 in the 2nd century CE. Founded as a Roman military colony in 181 BCE, Aquileia became the capital of the Augustan X region and a metropolitan center for early Christianity. During late antiquity, it was the first city in the Italian Peninsula to be sacked by Attila the Hun.
Today, Aquileia is one of the most significant archaeological sites in northern Italy. Its ruins, including mosaics and an early Christian basilica, are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Aquileia also holds historical importance as one of the former capitals of Friuli, with its coat of arms being the symbol of the region.
The colony was established with Latin Rights by the triumvirate of Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica, Caius Flaminius, and Lucius Manlius Acidinus, two of whom were of and one of rank. Each of the men had first-hand knowledge of Cisalpine Gaul. Nasica had conquered the Boii in 191. Flaminius had overseen the construction of the road named after him from Bononia (Bologna) to Arretium (Arezzo). Acidinus had conquered the Taurisci in 183.Livy, XL, 34, 2-4.E. Mangani, F. Rebecchi, and M.J. Srazzulla, Emilia Venezie (Bari: Laterza & Figli, 1981), 210.
The triumvirate led 3,000 families to settle the area meaning Aquileia probably had a population of 20,000 soon after its founding. Meanwhile, based on the evidence of names chiselled on stone, the majority of colonizing families came from Picenum, Samnium, and Campania, which also explains why the colony was Latin and not Roman. Among these colonists, pedites received 50 iugera of land each, received 100 iugera each, and equites received 140 iugera each. Either at the founding or not long afterwards, colonists from the nearby Adriatic Veneti supplemented these families.
Roads soon connected Aquileia with the Roman colony of Bologna probably in 173 BC. In 148 BC, it was connected with Genoa by the Via Postumia, which stretched across the Padania from Aquileia through or near to Oderzo, Treviso, Vicenza, Verona, Calvatone, and the three Roman colonies of Cremona, Piacenza, and Tortona. The construction of the Via Popilia from the Roman colony of Rimini to Ad Portum near Altinum in 132 BC improved communications still further. In the first century, the Via Gemina would link Aquileia with Emona to the east of the Julian Alps, and by 78 or 79 the Via Flavia would link Aquileia to Pula.
Meanwhile, in 169 BC, 1,500 more Latin colonists with their families, led by the triumvirate of Titus Annius Lucius, Publius Decius Subulo, and Marcus Cornelius Cethegus, settled in the town as a reinforcement to the garrison.Livy XLIII 17,1 The discovery of the gold fields near the modern Klagenfurt in 130 BCStrabo IV. 208 brought the growing colony into further notice, and it soon became a place of importance, not only owing to its strategic military position, but as a centre of commerce, especially in agricultural products and viticulture. It also had, in later times at least, considerable .
In 90 BC, the original Latin colony became a municipium and its citizens were ascribed to the Roman tribe Velina. The customs boundary of Italy was close by in Cicero's day. Julius Caesar visited the city on a number of occasions and pitched a winter camp nearby in 59–58 BC.
Augustus was the first of a number of emperors to visit Aquileia, notably during the Pannonian wars in 12–10 BC. It was the birthplace of Tiberius' son by Julia, in the latter year. The Roman poet Martial praised Aquileia as his hoped-for haven and resting place in his old age.Martial, Epigrams lib. 4, 25: Aemula Baianis Altini litora villis et Phaethontei conscia silva rogi, quaeque Antenoreo Dryadum pulcherrima Fauno nupsit ad Euganeos Sola puella lacus, et tu Ledaeo felix Aquileia Timauo, hic ubi septenas Cyllarus hausit aquas:
uos eritis nostrae requies portusque senectae, si iuris fuerint otia nostra sui. http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/martial/mart4.shtml
In terms of religion, the populace adopted the Roman pantheon, although the Celts sun-god, Belenus, had a large following. Jews practiced their ancestral religion. Meanwhile, soldiers brought the martial cult of Mithras. In the war against the Marcomanni in 167, the town was hard pressed; its fortifications had fallen into disrepair during the long peace. Nevertheless, when in 168 Marcus Aurelius made Aquileia the principal fortress of the empire against the barbarians of the North and East, it rose to the pinnacle of its greatness and soon had a population of 100,000. Septimius Severus visited in 193. In 238, when the town took the side of the Roman Senate against the emperor Maximinus Thrax, the fortifications were hastily restored, and proved of sufficient strength to resist for several months, until Maximinus himself was assassinated.
Yet Aquileia would rise again, though much diminished, and continue to exist until the Lombards invaded in 568; the Lombards destroyed it a second time in 590. Meanwhile, the patriarch fled to the island town of Grado, which was under the protection of the Byzantines. When the patriarch residing in Grado reconciled with Rome in 606, those continuing in the Schism of the Three Chapters, rejecting the Second Council of Constantinople, elected a patriarch at Aquileia. Thus, the diocese was essentially divided into two parts, with the mainland patriarchate of Aquileia under the protection of the Lombards, and the insular patriarchate of Aquileia seated in Grado being protected by the exarchate of Ravenna and later the Doges of Venice, with the collusion of the Lombards. The line of the patriarchs elected in Aquileia would continue in schism until 699. However, although they kept the title of patriarch of Aquileia, they moved their residence first to Cormons and later to Cividale.
While Maxentius was patriarch, the pope approved the Synod of Mantua, which affirmed the precedence of the mainland patriarch of Aquileia over the patriarch of Grado. However, material conditions were soon to worsen for Aquileia. The ruins of Aquileia were continually pillaged for building material. And with the collapse of the Carolingians in the tenth century, the inhabitants would suffer under the raids of the Magyars.
By the eleventh century, the patriarch of Aquileia had grown strong enough to assert temporal sovereignty over Friuli and Aquileia. The Holy Roman Emperor gave the region to the patriarch as a feudal possession. However, the patriarch's temporal authority was constantly disputed and assailed by the territorial nobility.
In 1027 and 1044, Patriarch Poppo of Aquileia, who rebuilt the cathedral of Aquileia, entered and sacked neighbouring Grado, and, though the Pope reconfirmed the Patriarch of the latter in his dignities, the town never fully recovered, though it continued to be the seat of the Patriarchate until its formal transference to Venice in 1450.
In the fourteenth century, the Patriarchal State reached its largest extension, stretching from the Piave river to the Julian Alps and northern Istria. The seat of the Patriarchate of Aquileia had been transferred to Udine in 1238, but returned to Aquileia in 1420 when Venice annexed the territory of Udine.
In 1445, the defeated patriarch Ludovico Trevisan acquiesced in the loss of his ancient temporal estate in return for an annual salary of 5,000 allowed him from the Venetian treasury. Henceforth only Venetians were allowed to hold the title of Patriarch of Aquileia. The Patriarchal State was incorporated into the Republic of Venice with the name of Patria del Friuli, ruled by a provveditore generale or a luogotenente living in Udine.
The patriarchal diocese was finally officially suppressed in 1751, and the sees of Udine and Gorizia were established from its territory.
During the Napoleonic Wars Aquileia was annexed to the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy by the 1807 Treaty of Fontainebleau. It returned to Austrian Empire control in 1815 following the Congress of Vienna, initially as part of the Kingdom of Illyria, then the reconstituted Gorizia and Gradisca (part of the Austrian Littoral).
Following the Austria-Hungary defeat in World War I, Aquileia passed to the Kingdom of Italy in 1920 (Treaty of Rapallo).
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