Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/572

 :i56 PATAVISSA. the eastward of the river Xanthus, and consist " of a theatre excavated in the northern side of a small liill, a mined temple on the side of the same hill, and a deep circular pit, of sinEjular appearance, which may have been the seat of the oracle. The town walls surrounded an area of considerable ex- tent; they may easily be traced, as well as the situation of a castle which commanded the harbour, and of several towers which flanked the walls. On the outside of the walls there is a multitude of stone sarcophagi, most of tliem bearing inscriptions, but all open and empty ; and within the walls, temples, altars, pedestals, and fra,<;ments of sculpture appear in profusion, but ruined and mutilated. The situation of the harbour is still apparent, but at present it is a swamp, choked up with sand and bushes." (Beau- fort, Karmanm, pp. 2, 6.) The theatre, of which a plan is given in Leake's Asia Minor (p. 320), was built in the reign of Antoninus Pius ; its diameter is 265 feet, and has about 30 rows of seats. There are also ruins of thermae, which, ac- cording to an inscription upon them, were built by Vespasian. (Comp. Sir C. Fellows, Tour in Asia Min. p. 222, foil.; Discov. in Lycia, p. 179, foil.; Texierj Descript. de I'Asie Min., which contains numerous representations of the ancient remains of Patara ; Spratt and Forbes, Travels in Lycia, i. p. 31, foil.) [L.S.] PATAVISSA {Uarpoviffaa, Ptol. iii. 8. § 7, wrongly), a small town of Dacia, endowed by the emperor Severus with the jus coloniae. (Ulpian, Big. i. 8. 9, where it is called Patavicensium vicus.) Variously identified with Mar-Ujvar, or with Ptoi'w or Tovis, on the Marosch; also with Bogalz and St. Kiraly, on a tributary of the same river. [T.H.D.] PATA'VIUM {naranmov: Eth. Patavinus: Pa- dova), one of the most ancient and important cities of Venetia, situated on the river Medoacus (Erenta), about 30 miles from its mouth. According to a tradition recorded by Virgil, and universally received in antiquity, it was founded by Antenor, who escaped thither after the fall of Troy ; and Livy, himself a native of the city, confirms this tradition, though he does not mention the name of Patavium, but de- scribes the whole nation of the Veneti as having migrated to this part of Italy under the guidance of Antenor. He identifies them with the Heneti, who were mentioned by Homer as a Paphlagonian tribe. (Liv. i. 1 ; Virg. Aen. i. 247 ; Strab! v. p. 212 ; Mel. ii. 4. § 2 ; Solin. 2. § 10.) The national affinities of the Veneti *are considered elsewhere [Veneti]. The story of Antenor may safely be rejected as mythical ; but we may infer from the general accordance of ancient writers that Patavium itself was a Venetian city, and apparently from an early period the capital or chief place of the nation. We have very little information as to its history, before it became subject to Rome, and we know only the general fact that it was at an early period an opulent and flourishing city : Strabo even tells ns that it could send into the field an army of 120,000 men, but this is evidently an exaggeration, and probably refers to the whole nation of the Veneti, of which it was the capital. (Strab. v. p. 213.) Whatever was the origin of the Veneti, there seems no doubt they were a people far more advanced in civilisation than the neighbouring Gauls, with whom they were on terms of almost continual hostility. The vigilance rendered necessary by the incursions of the Gauls stood them in stead on occa- sion of the unexpected attack of Cleonymus the PATAVIUM. Lacedaemonian, who in B.C. 301 landed at the mouth of the Medoacus, but was attacked by the Patavians, and the greater part of his forces cut off. (Liv. X. 2.) It was doubtless their continual hostility with the Gauls that led the Venetians to become the allies of Rome, as soon as that power began to ex- tend its arms into Cisalpine Gaul. (Pol. ii. 23.) No special mention of Patavium occurs during the wars that folli)wed ; and we are left to infer from analogy the steps by which this independent city passed gradually under the dependence and pro- tection of Rome, till it ultimately became an ordi- nary municipal town. In b. c. 1 74 it is clear that it still retained at least a semblance of independence, as we hear that it was distracted with domestic dissensions, which the citizens appealed to Rome to pacify, and the consul M. Aemilius was selected as deputy for the purpose. (Liv. xli. 27.) But the prosperity of Patavium continued unbroken : for this it was indebted as much to the manufacturing industry of its inhabitants as to the natural fertility of its territory. The neighbouring hills furnished abundance of wool of excellent quality ; and this supplied the material for extensive woollen manu- factures, which seem to have been the staple article of the trade of Patavium, that city supplying Rome in the time of Augustus with all the finer and more costly kinds of carpets, hangings, &c. Besides these, however, it carried on many other branches of manufactures also; and so great was the wealth arising from these sources that, according to Strabo, Patavium was the only city of Italy, except Rome, that could return to the census not less than 500 persons of fortunes entitling them to equestrian rank. (Strab. iii. p. 169, v. pp^213, 218.) We cannot wonder, therefore, that both he and Mela speak of it as unquestionably the first city in this part of Italy. (Id. V. p. 213 ; Mela, ii. 4. § 2.) The Patavians had been fortunate in escaping the ravages of war. During the Civil Wars their name is scarcely mentioned; but we learn from Cicero that in b. c. 43 they took part with the senate against M. Antonius, and refused to receive his emissaries. (Cic. Phil. xii. 4.) It was probably in consequence of this, that at a later period they were severely oppressed by the exactions of Asinius Pollio. (Macrob. Sat. i. 11. § 22.) In A. d. 69 Patavium was occupied without opposition by the generals of Vespasian, Primus, and Varus, during their advance into Italy. (Tac. Hist. iii. 6.) From its good fortune in this respect there can be no doubt that Patavium continued down to a late period of the Empire to be a flourishing and wealthy city, though it seems to have been gradually eclipsed by the increasing prosperity of Aquileia and Medio- lanum. Hence Ausonius, writing in the fourth century, does not even assign it a place in his Ordo Nobilium Urbium. But its long period of prosperity was abruptly brought to a close. In a. d. 452 it felt the full fury of Attila, who, after the capture of Aquileia, which had long resisted his arms, laid waste almost without opposition the remaining cities of Venetia. He is said to have utterly destroyed and razed to the ground Patavium, as well as Con- cordia and Altinum (P. Diac. Bist. Miscell. xv. p. 549); and, according to a tradition, which, though not supported by contemporary evidence, is probably well founded, it was on this occasion that a large number of fugitives from the former city took refuge in the islands of the lagunes, and there founded the