VI. The Municipium Augustum Veiens

Abstract

The principal source of our knowledge of Veii during the Imperial age is that contained in the inscriptions found on the site itself and in the immediate neighbourhood, supplemented to some extent by the surviving remains. Veii lay off the main road and, while enjoying a modest prosperity under the early Empire, it never achieved sufficient importance to leave any mark upon the larger historical scene. It is hardly mentioned in the contemporary literature; nor, so far as we know, did any son of Veii ever achieve prominence in the outer world. Almost its only claim to contemporary distinction seems to have lain in the evil reputation of its wine.Such as it is, the literary and epigraphic evidence is well summarised in the introduction to the section on Veii in the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (vol. XI, 1, p. 557) and need not here be repeated in full. It will be sufficient to call attention to a few points that have a particular bearing on the historical topography of the city and on the character and scope of the surviving remains.