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Oderzo (; ) is a comune, with a population of 20,003, in the province of Treviso, in the Italy region of Veneto. It lies in the heart of the Venetian plain, about to the northeast of Venice. Oderzo is crossed by the Monticano river, a tributary of the Livenza.
The centro storico, or town center, is rich with archeological ruins which give insight into Oderzo's history as a notable crossroad in the Roman Empire.
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Citizens of Oderzo likely were involved in the Social War in 89 BC since acorn-like missiles with names in Venetic and Latin inscriptions have been found at Ascoli Piceno.E. Mangani, F. Rebecchi, and M.J. Srazzulla, Emilia Venezie (Bari: Laterza & Figli, 1981), 191.
During the Roman Civil War, Caius Volteius Capito, a centurion born in Oderzo, led a number of men from the town to fight on the side of Julius Caesar against Pompey.Lucan, Pharsalia, B.IV.1.462 For their loyalty, Caesar exempted Oderzo from conscription for 20 years and enlarged its territory.Livy, Ep. 110; Florus, II.13.33 Moreover, in 48 BC the city was elevated to the rank of Roman municipium and its citizens assigned to the Roman tribe Papiria by the Lex de Gallia Cisalpina.
Oderzo achieved its greatest splendor during the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. Its population grew to about 50,000 inhabitants. It lent its name to the Venetian lagoon which was called laguna opitergina and to the mountains of Cansiglio which were called montes opitergini. A number of Roman authors mention the city, among whom are Ptolemy, Strabo, Geografia, lib. V, cap. I, par. 8. Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia, lib. III. Lucan, Pharsalia, lib. IV. Tacitus, Histories lib. III, cap.VI Livy and Quintilian.
Unfortunately, prosperity made Oderzo a target. During the Marcomannic Wars in 167 AD, Oderzo was sacked and destroyed by a force of Marcomanni and Quadi, who then went on to besiege Aquileia.Ammianus Marcellinus, book 29, 6, 1 By the 5th century, Oderzo shared the fate of the rest of Venetia and had to deal with attacks in 403 by the Visigoths led by Alaric I, in 452 by the Huns whose leader, Attila, according to a local legend hid a treasure in a town's pit, in 465 during a revolt of Visigothic and Roman soldiers who objected to the rule of Libius Severus and in 473 by the Ostrogoths who took control of Rome and all of Italy after 476.
Paul the Deacon attributes the Lombard hatred for the city to the perfidy of a certain citizen of Oderzo, a "patricius Romanorum" named Gregory, who in 641, while under the promise of a truce, beheaded Taso and Cacco, sons of Gisulf, the Lombard duke of Forum Iulium. The Lombard king, Rothari, subsequently led a war of vendetta and, having breached Oderzo's defenses, inflicted upon it severe devastation. However, the Lombards apparently withdrew, since in 667, Oderzo was again in the hands of the Byzantines. In that year, Lombard king, Grimoald I, still holding a grudge for the murder of Taso and Cacco, laid siege to Oderzo. Much of its population fled to the nearby cities of Eraclea and Jesolo still under Byzantine control. According to Venetian tradition, one of the refugees from Oderzo was the first Doge of Venice, Paolo Lucio Anafesto. After his victory, Grimoald destroyed the city and divided its territory between the dukes of Treviso, Forum Iulii, and Vittorio Veneto, with the bulk going to Ceneta.Paul the Deacon, History of the Lombards, IV.38-45
In 1943 it was a centre of the civil war between the German puppet Italian Social Republic (RSI) and the Italian resistance movement. In 1945, 120 people suspected of allegiance to the RSI were executed (see Oderzo Massacre).
The city was governed by the Italian Christian Democratic party from 1945–1993, and experienced a notable economic boom, which also attracted a massive immigration from the southern Italian regions.
The Ciclocross del Ponte Faè di Oderzo is a cyclo-cross race held in December.
In the frazione of Colfrancui is the mysterious Mutera, an artificial hill of the Adriatic Veneti, probably used as an observatory.
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