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Velia was the Roman name of an ancient city on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is located near the modern village of Novi Velia near Ascea in the Province of Salerno, Italy.
It was founded by Greeks from Phocaea as Hyele () around 538–535 BC. The name later changed to Ele and then Elea (; ) before it became known by its current Latin and Italian language name during the Roman era.
The city was known for being the home of the philosophers Parmenides and Zeno of Elea, as well as the Eleatic school of which they were a part.
Around the 5th century BC, the city was known for its flourishing trade relations. It also took on considerable cultural importance for its pre-Socratic philosophical school, known as the Eleatic School, founded by Parmenides and carried forward by his student Zeno, famous for his paradoxes.
In the 4th century it entered the league of cities committed to stopping the advance of the Lucanians, who had already occupied nearby Poseidonia (Paestum) and were threatening Elea.
It joined an alliance with Rome in 273 BC and was included in the ancient province of Lucania. Elea had excellent relations with Rome: it supplied ships for the Punic wars (3rd-2nd century) and sent young priestesses for the cult of Demeter (Ceres), coming from the local aristocratic families. It became a holiday and health resort for Roman aristocrats, perhaps also thanks to the presence of the medical-philosophical school.
In 88 BC Elea was ascribed to the Romilia tribe, becoming a Roman municipium with the name of Velia, but with the right to maintain the Greek language and to mint its own coins. In the second half of the 1st century BC it served as a naval base, first for Brutus (44 BC) and then for Octavian (38 BC). The prosperity of the city continued until the end of the 1st century AD, when numerous villas and small settlements were built, together with new public buildings and thermae, but the progressive silting up of the port led the city to progressive isolation and impoverishment.
From the end of the imperial age, the last inhabitants were forced to take refuge in the upper part of the Acropolis to escape the advancement of marshy land.
Bricks with Greek brick-stamps were also employed in later times of a unique shape, each having two rectangular channels on one side.
There are remains of cisterns.
/ref> Two well-preserved bronze Greek with Etruscan design found there including metal fragments from weapons thought to be offerings to the goddess after the battle.
The temple visible today on the Acropolis dates to the Hellenistic period.Wolf, Markus (2023). Hellenistische Heiligtümer in Kampanien. Sakralarchitektur im Grenzgebiet zwischen Großgriechenland und Rom Hellenistic. DAI Rom Sonderschriften, vol. 26. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, , pp. 71-76.
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