Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1293

 VELITME. was protracted for more than two years, and it is not quite clear whether the city was taken in tlio end. (Liv. vi. 36, 37, 38, 42.) In b. c. 358 they a^ain broke ont, and ravaged the Roman territories, but we hear notliing of their punishment (Liv. vii. 15): and in B. c. 340, on the outbreak of the great Latin War, they are represented as among the first to join in the defection. It is evident indeed that they were at this time still a powerful people : their troops bore an important part in two successive campaigns, but shared in the general defeat of the Latins on the banks of the Astura,B.c. 338. (Liv. viii. 3, 12, 13 ; Fast. Capit.) After the close of the war they were selected for the severest punishment, on the especial ground of their having been originally Roman citizens. Their walls were destroyed, and their local senators transported beyond the Tiber, under a severe pe- nalty in case of their return. Their place was, how- ever, supplied by a body of fresh colonists, so that the city continued to be not less populous than be- fore. (Liv. viii. 14.) From this time Velitrae sank into the condition of an ordinary municipal town, and we hear little of it in history. It is mentioned incidentally on occasion of some prodigies that occurred there (Liv. xxx. 38, xsxii. 1, 9), but with this exception its name is not again mentioned till the close of the Republic. We Lear, however, that it was a flourishing municipal town, and it derived some celebrity at the commence- ment of the Empire from the circumstance of its having been the native place of the Octavian family, from which the emperor Augustus was descended. The Octavii indeed claimed to be descended from the ancient Roman family of the same name ; but it is certain that both the grandfather and great-grand- father of Augustus were merely men of equestrian rank, who held municipal magistracies in their native town, (Suet. Aug. 1,2; Dion Cass. xlv. 1.) Ac- cording to the Liber Coloniarum, Velitrae had received a fresh body of colonists in the time of the Gracchi ; but it continued to retain its municipal rank until the reign of Claudius, when it received a military colony, and from this time assumed the title of a Colonia, which we find it bearing in inscrip- tions (Lib. Colon, p. 238 ; Znmpt, cle Col. p. 383 ; Orell. Inscr. 1740, 3652). No mention of the city occurs in history under the Roman Empire, but its name is found in the geographers, and inscriptions testify that it continued to exist as a flourishing town down to near the close of the Empire. (Strab. V. p. 237 ; Plin. iii. 5. s. 9 ; Sil. Ital. viii. 376 ; Nibby, Dintorni, vol. iii. p. 450.) It a))pears to have subsequently sufl'ered severely from the ravages of the barbarians, but continued to subsist throuijh- out the middle ages: and the modern city of Velletri still occupies the site of the ancient one, though it has no remains of antiquity. Its position is very similar to that of Lanuvium (Civita Laviniii), on a projecting rock or spur of hill, standing out from the more elevated group of the Alban hills, and rising like a headland above the plain of the Pomp- tine Marshes, which lie stretclied out beneath it. The inscriptions which have been discovered there have been publislied by Cardinali (Inscrizioni Antiche Veliierne, 4to. Roma, 1823). From one of these we learn that the ancient city possessed an amphitlieatre, which was repaired as late as the reign of Valen- tinian, but no traces of it are now visible. It had also temples of Apollo, Hercules and Mars, as well as of the Sabine divinity Sancus. (Liv. xxxii. 1-) Pliny notices the territory of Velitrae as producing VELTAE. 1269 a wine of great excellence, inferior only to the Faler- nian (Plin. xiv. 6. s. 8). [E. H. B.] VELLAVI or VELAUNI, a people of Gallia. In the passage of Caesar (5. G. vii. 75) some editions have Velauni, but it is certain that what- ever is the true form of the name, these Velauni are the Vellaioi (OiJfAAaioi) of Strabo (p. 190). The Gabali and Velauni in Caesar's time were subject to the Arverni. In Ptolemy (ii. 7. § 20) the name is Velauni (OueXavfoi), but he puts them next to the Auscii, which is a great mistake. D'Anville says that the diocese of Pid represents their ter- ritory ; but that this cannot be said of the small province of Vellay, which was annexed to Langucdoc in the ante-revolutionary division of France. In the Notit, of the Provinces of Gallia, the capital of the Veliavi is Civitas Vellavorum [Revessio]. [G. L.] VELLAUNI. [Velauni.] VELLAUNODUNUM, in Gallia. In b. c. 52 Caesar, leaving two legions and all the baggage at Agedincum (Sens), marches on Genabum (Orleans). On the second day he reaches Vellaunodunum. (B. G. vii. 11.) In two days Caesar made a vallum round Vellaunodunum, and on the tliird day the place surrendered, and the people gave up their arms. There is no evidence about the site of Vel- launodunum, except that it was on the roaJ from Sens to Orleans, and was reached in the second day'.s march from Sens, and that Caesar reached Orleans in two days from Vellaunodunum. Caesar was marching quick. D'Anville conjectures that Vellaunodunum may be Beaune, in the old province of Gatinois; for Beaune is about 40 Roman miles from Sens, and the Roman army would march that distance in two days. Beaune is named Belna in the Pagus Vastinensis (Gatinois, Gastlnois, Vas- tinois ; Vapincum), in the acts of a council held at Soissons in 862, and D'Anville thinks that Belna may be a corruption of Vellauna, which is the name of Vellaunodunum, if we cut off the teriniriation dunum. (D'Anville, Notice, cf'C.) [G. L.J VELLEIA [Veleia]. VE'LLICA (OveKKiKa, Ptol. ii. 6. § 51), a town of the Cautabri in Hispania Tarraconensis. Ukert (ii. pt. i. p. 144) places it in the neigiibourhood of Villelba, io .^ N. oi Affdlar de Campo. [T.H.D.] VELLOCASSES. [Velocasses.J VELOCASSES, as Caesar (B. G. ii. 4) writes the name, Vellocasses in Pliny (iv. 18), and in Ptolemy Oviv^kiOKaffioL (ii. 8. § 8). Caesar places them in the country of the Belgae, and consequently north of the Seine. The number of figiiting men that they could muster in b. c. 57 was estimated at 10,000, unless Caesar means that they and the Veromandui together had this nund^r. In tJje di- vision of Gallia by Augustus, the Velocasses were included in Lugdunensis. Their chief town was Rotomagus (Rouen') on the north bank of liie Seine. West of the Velocasses were the Caleti, whose country extended along the coast north of the Seine. That part of the country of the Velocasses which is between the rivers Anddle and Oise, became in modern times Vexin Normand :ind ]'e.viii Fram-ais, the little river Epte forming the boundary between the two Vexin.i. [G. L.] VELPI MONTES (to. Ou(tra ypv, Ptol. iv. 4. S 8), a range of mountains on the W. borders of Cyrenaica, in which were liie sources of the river Lathon. [T. H. D] VELTAE (OvfXrai, Ptol. iii. 5. § 22), a people of European Sarmatia, dwelling on both banks of 4 M 3