Images reveal 'lost' Roman city, Friday, 31 July 2009
Posted on 09/17/2008 10:08:24 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
The hidden ruins of an ancient lagoon city that was the ancestor of Venice have been unearthed by scientists using satellite imaging. The outlines are clearly visible about three feet below the earth in what is now open countryside...
Paolo Mozzi, a researcher at the University of Padua geography department, said high-definition satellite photographs had revealed the ruins of an extensive town much closer to present day Venice at Altino -- known in Roman times as Altinum -- a little more than seven miles north of the city, close to Marco Polo airport... The newly identified ruins include streets, palaces, temples, squares and theatres, as well as a large amphitheatre and canals, showing that Altinum was a wealthy and thriving city. By the 10th century, however, it had been abandoned...
The folk memory of Altinum is preserved in the names of several Venetian islands which are derived from districts of the abandoned Roman town: Torcello (from Torricellum), Murano (Ammurianum) and Burano (Porta Boreana). In the 9th-century the ducal seat of Venice was moved to Rialto island, which is still the city centre, where the Doge's Palace and the Basilica of St Mark were erected. In 828 the relics of St Mark were taken to Venice from Alexandria and placed in the new basilica. They were later venerated as a symbol of the new Venice as it developed into a mighty naval and commercial power in the Middle Ages.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
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Before the Roman Empire, the Etruscans built towns with such canals, to take advantage of swampy ground, which thereby got drained. |
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Amazing how, having been driven into the swamp by barbarians, they found resources to build the elites palaces.
Thanks, SC, for this insight into the beginnings of Venice. Venice is one of the most magical, magnificent places on Earth.
It’s no more amazing than a nice gated community springing up outside, say, Detroit in the 1970s.
The rich take their money where it will be treated well; it’s an historical constant.
Terrible analogy. American rich mostly earned their money. Elites in the times we are discussing stole it.
Defensive much?
Who cares how the money was made?
My point is that it’s far more typical for people with resources to relocate when a neighbourhood starts to go downhill than put up with the unpleasantness that goes with standing up to thugs.
Not necessarily. Many of the major powers rose in the Middle Ages due to trade.
I just explained why your analogy was inapt. Why do you think I’d feel the need to defend myself? Were you attacking me?
Images reveal 'lost' Roman city, Friday, 31 July 2009
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