Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1296

1272 VENETIA. (P. Diac. Hist. Lang. ii. 14). But in the later period of the Roman Empire the Athesis seems to have been generally recognised as the W. boundary of Venetia, though not so strictly as to exclude Verona, the greater part of which was situated on the right bank of the river. Towards the N. the boundary was equally indefinite: the valleys and southern slopes of the Alps were occupied by Rhaetian and Euganean tribes; and it is probable that the limit between these and the Veneti, on their S. frontier, was always vague and arbitrary, or at least determined merely by nationality, not by any geographical boundary, as is the case at the present day with the German and Italian races in the same region. Thus Tridentum, Feltria, and Belunum, were all of them properly Rhaetian towns (Plin. iii. 19. s. 23), though included in the Tenth Region of Augustus, and for that reason often considered as belonging to Venetia.

On the E. the limits of Venetia were more definite. The land of the Carni, who occupied the greater part of the modern Frioul, was generally considered as comprised within it, while the little river Formio (Risano), a few miles S. of Tergeste, separated it from Istria. (Plin. iii. 18. s. 22.) Several authors, however, regard Tergeste as an Istrian city [], and must therefore have placed the boundary either at the Timavus, or where the Alps come down so close to the sea, between that river and Tergeste, as to prevent the road being continued along the coast. There can be no doubt that this point forms the natural boundary of Venetia on the E., although the Formio continued under the Roman Empire to constitute its political limit.

The physical peculiarities of the region thus limited are very remarkable. The greater part of Venetia is, like the neighbouring tract of Cisalpine Gaul, a broad and level plain, extending, without in- terruption, to the very foot of the Alps, and furrowed by numerous streams, which descend from those mountains with great rapidity and violence. These streams, swollen by the melting of the Alpine snows, or by the torrents of rain which descend upon the mountains, as soon as they reach the plain spread themselves over the country, forming broad beds of sand and pebbles, or inundating the fertile tract on each side of their banks. Continually stagnating more and more, as they flow through an almost per- fectly level tract, they form, before reaching the sea, considerable sheets of water; and the action of the tides (which is much more perceptible at the head of the Adriatic than in any other part of that sea or of the Mediterranean) combining to check the outflow of their waters, causes the formation of extensive salt-water lagunes, communicating with the sea only through narrow gaps or openings in the long line of sandy barriers that bounds them. Such lagunes, which occupy a great extent of ground S. of the present mouth of the Po [], are con- tinued on from its N. bank to the neighbourhood of Altinum; and from thence, with some interruptions, to the mouth of the Isonzo, at the head or inmost bight of the Adriatic. So extensive were they in ancient times that there was an uninterrupted line of inland navigation by these lagunes, which were known as the Septem Maria, from Ravenna to Altinum, a dis- tance of above 80 miles. (Itin. Ant. p. 126.) Great physical changes have naturally taken place in the course of ages in a country so constituted. On the one hand there is a constant tendency to the filling up of the lagunes with the silt and mud brought

down by the rivers, which converts them first into marshes, and eventually into firm land. On the other hand the rivers, which have for ages been con- fined within artificial banks, keep pushing on their mouths into the sea, and thus creating backwaters which give rise to fresh lagunes. At the same time, the rivers thus confined, from time to time break through their artificial barriers and force new channels for themselves; or it is found necessary to carry them off by new and artificial outlets. Thus all the principal streams of Venetia, from the Adige to the Piave, are at the present day carried to the sea by artificial canals; and it is doubtful whether any of them have now the same outlet as in ancient times.

In the eastern portion of Venetia, from the Piave to the foot of the Alps near Aquileia, these physical characters are less marked. The coast is indeed bor- dered by a belt of marshes and lagunes, but of no great extent: and within this, the rivers that de- scend from the Alps have been for the most part left to wander unrestrained through the plain, and have in consequence formed for themselves broad beds of stone and shingle, sometimes of surprising extent, through which the streams in their ordinary condition roll their diminished waters, the trifling volume of which contrasts strangely with the breadth and extent of their deposits. Such is the character especially of the Tagliamento, the largest river of this part of Italy, as well as of the Torre, the Natisone, and other minor streams. The irregularity of their channels, resulting from this state of things, is sufficiently shown by the fact that the rivers Turrus and Natiso, which formerly flowed under the walls of Aquileia, have now changed their course, and join the Isonzo at a distance of more than 4 miles from that city. [.]

Of the history of Venetia previous to the Roman conquest we know almost nothing. It was occupied at that time by two principal nations, the from whom it derived its name, in the W., and the in the E.; the former extending from the Athesis to the Plavis, or perhaps to the Tilavemptus, the latter from thence to the borders of Istria. But the origin and affinities of the Veneti themselves are extremely obscure. Ancient writers represent them as a very ancient people (Polyb. ii. 17), but at the same time are generally agreed that they were not the origi- nal inhabitants of the tract that they occupied. This was reported by tradition to have been held in the earliest ages by the Euganeans (Liv i. 1), a people whom we still find lingering in the valleys and un- derfalls of the Alps within the historical period, but of whose origin and affinities we know absolutely nothing. [.] In regard to the Veneti themselves it cannot fail to be remarked that we meet with three tribes or nations of this name in other parts of the world, besides those of Italy, viz. the Gaulish tribe of the Veneti on the coast of Ar- morica; the Venedi or Veneti of Tacitus, a Sarma- tian or Slavonian tribe on the shores of the Baltic; and the Heneti or Eneti, who are mentioned as existing in Paphlagonia in the time of Homer. (Iliad, ii. 85.) The name of this last people does not subsequently appear in history, and we are therefore wholly at a loss as to their ethnical affi- nities, but it is not improbable that it was the resemblance or rather identity of their name with that of the Italian Veneti (according to the Greek form of the latter) that gave rise to the strange story of Antenor having migrated to Venetia after