Roman Verona: The Archaeology of its Town-Plan

Abstract

Archaeology sheds little light upon the origins of Verona, but ancient literary tradition assigns its foundation to the Rhaetians and Euganeans of northern Italy, while modern philologists do not hesitate to identify the name Verona as Gallic. Actually, there is no doubt that, as Pliny asserts, the town lay in Rhaetian land, for inscriptions mentioning Rhaetian deities and religious functionaries come from its neighbourhood. One may even guess at the site of the Rhaetian oppidum, for there is only one hill at Verona that it can have crowned, namely, the high spur east of the river, on which the Visconti later placed their castle of San Pietro. This overlooks the best point to span the turbulent Adige (Athesis) near Verona, and its position serves as a reminder that the Rhaetians were northern folk looking southwards and choosing to live in a hill-town, like their Gallic kinsmen. The disposition of Trento provides an almost exact parallel, further up the valley.