Véies (to pronounce: ), in Latin Veii (the pronunciation and the C-W communication " Véiès" are thus faulty), was a powerful Etruscan city located at the southern border of the Étrurie, in the falisque countryside , to 16 km in the north of Rome. She was regarded as richest of the cities of the Etruscan Ligue. Its history is marked by the ceaseless wars with Rome, during more than four centuries. It falls finally to the hands from the Roman general Camille in -396. It continues to be occupied after its capture by the Romains; the empress Livie has a villa there.

Véies is famous for its statues, in particular one of the emperor Tibère (from now on with the the Vatican) and the Apollon of Véies which is preserved at the Etruscan National museum of the villa Giulia.

The falisque countryside with prehistory

Eras Etruscan and Roman

Chronology

• XI {{E}} front century J. - C.: Age of iron, first traces of the town of Véies. Appearance of Etruscan civilization.

• VIII {{E}} front century J. - C.: The tombs with well evolve to true tombs with pits in which one buries the late one between stone slabs forming a rudimentary sarcophagus. Ballot boxes huts out of rolled bronze are added to the clay ballot boxes. The objects bronzes some diversify and the ceramics of impasto, generally made with the turn, adopts the Greek forms. The decoration of the weapons and the belt buckles grows rich by geometrical reasons refined, dominated more by the curves (orientalizing). In Véies, the stone-built houses start to replace the ground and wood huts.
• VII {{E}} front century J. - C.: War of Rome, directed by Tullus Hostilius, against Véies.
• -578 - -534: War of Rome, directed by Servius Tullius, against Véies.
• -525 : The Roman king Tarquin Superb the makes build on the Capitole a temple of Jupiter decorated with terra cotta manufactured by artists of Véies.
• -482 : Beginning of the war against Rome. Alliance of Rome and Caere against Véies.
• -477 : The Roman family of Fabii which tried to widen its power in north is decimated meadows of Véies, on the edges of Crémère. These three hundred and six Fabii are actually one of the seventeen rustic tribes of Rome (territorial units), bearing a name gentilice. Véiens exploit their victory by the occupation of Janicule. A Roman army will expel some.
• -474 : Forty years truce concluded with Rome.
• -438 : Fidènes, old Etruscan city become Roman colony, is raised against Rome and drives out the colonists. Véies intervenes in its favor.
• -428 : War between Rome and Véies whose king Lars Tolumnus is killed.
• -425 : Rome reconquers Fidènes, head of bridge of Véies on the the Tiber. Twenty years truce between Rome and Véies.
• -406 : Beginning of the seat of the Etruscan city of Véies by the Roman dictator Camille, who wishes to seize his saltworks. The city is abandoned with its fate by the Etruscan Ligue whose aristocracy even is favorable to the Romans.
• -396 : Catch of Véies by the Romans.
• -390 : First confrontation between Celtic and Romains. The Gaulois Sénons are presented in front of the Etruscan city of Clusium (Chiusi), which is in the Roman sphere of influence. Rome sends an embassy, charged to offer its mediation. But the ambassadors violate neutrality while intervening the weapons with the hand against the Gallic ones, which require repair of Rome. In front of its refusal, the Gallic ones go on the city. The Roman army goes to their meeting and gives an opinion, in front of Véies, close to the brook of Allia. There is no combat. Frightened by the cries of Gallic and disconcerted by their impetuosity, the Roman troops relax and seek precipitately a shelter in Rome or in the close cities.
• -388 : Catch and bag of Rome by the Gallic Brennus. Manlius, alerted by geese, saves the citadel of Capitole where the remains of the army, the magistrates and part of the population took refuge. Pressed by the famine, the Romans capitulate. The powerful orator Sulpicius offers thousand visitors' books to Brennus in exchange of his withdrawal. The weights brought by the Gallic ones are pipes, and as the powerful orator refuses them, Brennus, rejecting all discussions, adds his sword on the balance ( Vae victis! ). During the retirement, some ones of the Gallic bands, attacked by the garrisons of Caere and Véies (Camille), undergo heavy losses.

The Etruscan city

Monuments

Outside the walls of the city, on a projecting ledge dominating a small river, Piordo, remain the vestiges of the Sanctuaire of Portonaccio related to the presence of a source. The temple of which it does not remain that little thing were built about the middle of the VI E and delivered during the excavations celebrates it terra cotta statue of Apollo exposed to the museum of the Giulia villa, in Rome.

tumuli and tombs were found dug in the rock; in particular the Campana cave (see below), discovered in 1843, funerary room with the Etruscan first frescos discovered.

The falls from the ducks ( fell delle anatre ), discovered in 1958 is remarkable by its seniority, towards -680/-670. It owes its name with the fresco located on the wall of the bottom of the funerary room.

May 31st 2006 was discovered not far from the site of Véies, in Grotta Gramiccia, oldest fall Etruscan painted known to date. The experts date it from the VII E, towards -690/-680. A small corridor leads to a low part of square form which has on its walls two levels of mural frescos characterized by water birds or migrating to the higher register and the cat-like ones or lions, the large mouth opened and with the threatening attitude, to the lower register, from where the nickname given to the tomb of falls from the howling lions . The tomb is certainly that of a prince or a character of a high social status which had been incinerated and ashes had been laid out there. In spite of the visit of the plunderers of tombs, it provided a still interesting mobiler of which ceramics, Fibule S, jewels, a sword and, located in the access passage of the tomb, vestiges of a tank of war with two wheels presenting of the decorative reasons.

There are also long tunnels which carry out to a hillock of the city, which corroborates the account of the battle of Véies of Tite-Live.

Economy

Government

Art

See article general practitioner: Etruscan art

The fall

Véies is taken in -396 at the conclusion of a ten year old seat by the Roman army ordered by Camille.

This battle is told to us by Tite-Live in its Roman Histoire (V delivers).

Consequences in Rome

The war of Rome against Véies causes several serious disputes:

• It is the first time that the Romans do not return in their hearths to the autumn (normally the season of the war ends in October): to compensate for the sacrifice requested from the soldiers that one maintains under the signs for the bad season, the Roman government creates balances it. The pay is paid thanks to a tax which pour the Roman civilians who do not take part in the seat, which them dissatisfied. The soldiers are dissatisfied also in any case: they cannot return in their hearths to take part in the elections which must even take place in Rome (not vote by correspondence).

• Second subject of discord: the spoils made on the city are considerable; its division causes, before the victory even, of the quarrels very sharp: one authorizes the civilians to be joined the soldiers at the end of the seat: they paid the money of the pay and they require their share of spoils, it is a strange decision which does not like everyone.
• Third subject of quarrel: the patricians want that the spoils are sold and that the money is versed in the Treasury; the plebeian ones want that each one is owner of what it conquered by the sword, according to the former use. It is with this retrograde formula that one resigns oneself.
• Fourth cause for dissatisfaction: the patricians fear that the hugeness of the spoils (Véies is a very rich Etruscan city) does not come to anything to upset the social hierarchy. They remember, a little late, that the Roman general, Camille, promised to offer to the Apollon god the dîme spoils. But the spoils were already distributed. One thus asks the recipients of the spoils to restore of it the tenth for the offering with Apollon: the citizens summoned to transfer this share are carried out very bad liking and cheat as much as they can…

The Roman city

Véies and the falisque countryside after Antiquity

The site even of Véies is abandoned after the Antiquité and remains in the lapse of memory until its redécouverte at the 17th century by the antique dealer Raphaël Fabretti. The remainders of the city are today close to the small village of the Isola Farnese .

The site of Véies today

In 1997, the area of the Latium created the Regional natural park of Véies (15000 ha of protected territory), delimited in the east and the west by the old ways consular and characterized by plates ( altipiano ) in Tuf, by irrigation canals (channels della Crescenza, della Valchetta, della Torraccia, which are thrown in the the Tiber), and by bulky slopes covered with wood preserved still today at the natural state, elements which all are structural feature geomorphological of the southernmost Étrurie.

See too

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