Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1285

 VEDINUM. VEDINUM(C/(Z««e), a city of Venetia, mentioned only by Pliny (iii. 19. s. 23) among the munici- palities of that country. It was situated in the jjlain of the Garni, 1 1 miles W. of Cividale (Forum Julii), and 22 NNW. of Aquileia. In Pliny's time it was apparently an inconsiderable place, but rose into importance in the middle ages, and is now a flourishing and populous city, and the capital of the whole province of the Friull. JIany MSS. of Pliny write the name Nedinates, which has been adopted both by Harduin and Sillig, but it is probable that the old reading Vedinates is correct. [E. H. B.] VEDRA {Oiiiopa, Ptol. ii. 3. § 6), a river in the N. part of the E. coast of Britannia. The name would lead us to the conclusion that it is the Wear (Camden, p. 944), yet Horsley (p. 103) and others have taken it to be the Tyne. [T. H. I).] VEGIA (Ou67ia or OJeria), or Vegium (Plin. iii. 21. s. 25), a town of Liburnia, the present Vezzo. [T. H. D.] VEGISTUM (Oi5€7i(rTOf), or, as some read, Ve- testum iOvtTicnov), a town of Galatia, in the territory of the Tolistobogi, between Mounts Didymus and Celaenus (Ftul. v. 4. § 7), is perhaps the same place as the Vetissum of the Peutinger Table. [L. S.] VEII (OuTji'oj, Strab. v. p. 226; Ovioi, Dionys. H. ii. 54 : Eth. Veientes, Cic. D'w. i. 44; Liv. i. 15, &c. : Adj. Veins (trisyl.), Propert. iv. 10. 31), an ancient and purely Tuscan city of Etruria. According to Festus (ap. P. Diac. s. v.) Veia was an Oscan word, and signified a waggon (plaustrum); but there is nothing to show that this was the etymology of the name of the town. Among the earlier Italian topographers, a great diversity of opinion prevailed respecting the site of Veii. Nardini was the iirst writer who placed it at the present hola Farnese, the correctness of which view is now universally admitted. The distance of that spot northwards from Rome agrees with the distance assigned by Dionysius of Halicarnassus (^. c.) to Veii, namely, "about 100 stadia," which is confirmed by the Tabula Pent., where it is set down at 12 miles. In Livy, indeed (v. 4), it is mentioned as being " within the 20th milestone ;" but this is in a speech of App. Claudius, when the orator is using round numbers, and not solicitous about^ strict accuracy; whilst the two writers before cited are professedly giving the exact distance. Nor can the authority of Eutrupius (i. 4), who places Veii at 18 miles from Rome, be admitted to invalidate the testimony of these authors, since Eutropius is notoriously incorrect in particulars of this description. There are other cir- cumstances which tend to show that Jsola Farnese is the site of ancient Veii. Thus the Tab. Peuting. further indicates that the city lay on the Via Cassia. Kuw following that road for a distance of about 12 miles from Rome, the locality not only exactly cor- responds with the description of Dionysius, but also the remains of city walls and sepulchres, and traces of roads in various directions, have been found there. Moreover at the same spot were discovered, in the year 1810, stones bearing inscriptions which related exclusively to Veii and the Veientines. We know little of the history of Veii but what concerns the wars it waged with the Romans. It is called by Eutropius (i. 20), " civitas antiquissiina Italiae atque ditissima," and there can be no doubt that it was in a flourishing state at the time of the foundation of Rome. At that period the Etruscan, or Veientine, territory was separated from the Latin by the river Albula, afterwards called Tiberis ; and VEII. 12r,l consequently neither the Mons Vaticanus nor Jani- culensis then belonged to the Romans. (Liv. i. 3.) To the SW. of Rome it extended along the right bank of the Tiber down to the sea, where it contained some Salinae, or salt-works, at the mouth of the river. (Dionys. ii. 55.) The district immediately opposite to Rome seems to have been called Septem Pagi (76.). On the N. of Rome the territoiy of Veii must at one time have extended as far as Mount Soracte, since the ager Capenatis belonged to it, Capena being a colony of Veii (Cato,a^}. Sero. Aen. vii. 697); though in the history of the wars between Rome and Veii, Capena appears as an independent city. [Capena, Vol. I. p. 504.] On the NW. it may probably have stretched as far as the Mons Ciminus ; but here, as well as more to the S., its limits are uncertain, and all we know is that in the latter direction it must have been bounded by the territory of Caere. (Of. Miiller, Ftrusker, ii. 2. p. 1, &c.) The ager Veiens is stigmatised by Horace and others as producing an execrable sort of red wine (Sat. ii. 3. 143; cf. Pers. V. 147 ; Mart. i. 103. 9, ii. 53. 4, &c.). We learn from Dionysius (ii. 54) that the city was of about the same size as Athens, and therefore nearly as large as Rome within the walls of Servius. [PiOMA, VohlL p. 756.] The political constitution of Veii, like that of the other Etruscan cities, seems originally to have been republican, though probably aristocratically repub- lican, with magistrates annually elected. It was perhaps their vicinity to ambitious and aspiring Rome, and the constant wars which they had to wage with that city, that induced the Veientines to adopt the form of an elective monarchy, in order to avoid the dissensions occasioned by the election of annual ma- gistrates under their original constitution, and thus to be enabled, under a single leader, to act with more vigour abroad ; but this step procured them the ill- will 0*" the rest of the Etruscan coiifederacy (Liv. v. 1, cf. iv. 17). Monarchy, however, does not appear to have been permanent among them ; and we only know the names of two or three of their kings, as Tolumnius {ib.), Propertius (Serv. Aen. vii. 697), and Morrius {lb. viii. 285). The first time that the Veientes appear in history is in the war which they waged with Romulus in oi'der to avenge the capture of their colony, F'idenae. According to the narrative of Livy, this war was terminated by one decisive battle in which Romulus was victorious (i. 15); but Dionysius (ii. 54, seq.) speaks of two engagements, and represents the Ro- mans as gaining the second by a stratagem. Both these writers, however, agree with regard to the re- sults of the campaign. The loss of the Veientines was so terrible, both in the battle and in the sub- sequent flight, in which numbers of them were drowned in attempting to swim the Tiber, that they were constrained to sue for peace. The terms im- posed upon them by Romulus show the decisive nature of his victory. They were compelled to sur- render that part of their territory in the neighbour- hood of Rome called Septem Pagi, probably from its containing seven villages ; to give up the salt-works which they possessed at the mouth of the Tiber; and to provide 50 hostages as security for the due execution of the treaty. On these conditions they obtained a peace for 100 years, with the restoration of their prisoners ; though such of the latter as ]ire- ferred to remain at Rome were jircsented with the freedom of the city and lands on the left bank of the Tiber. The district of Septem Pagi thus acquired