Roman Remains.—The Roman remains of Verona surpass those of any other city of northern Italy The most conspicuous of them is the great amphitheatre, a building of the end of the 1st century A.D., which closely resembled the Flavian amphitheatre (Colosseum) in Rome. Its axes measured 505 and 404 ft. Almost the whole of its external arcades, with three tiers of arches, have now disappeared ; it was partly thrown down by an earthquake in 1183, and subsequently used to supply building materials. The interior, with seats for about 25,00o people, has been restored. There are also remains of a well-preserved Roman theatre, close to the left bank of the river adjacent to which is the archaeological museum. The Museo Lapidario contains a fine collection of Roman and Etruscan inscriptions and sculpture, begun by Scipi one Maffei in Veronese Art, Painting and Sculpture.—Painting in Ve rona may be divided into four periods. (i.) The first is char acterized by wall paintings of purely native style, e.g., in SS. Nazaro e Celso (996). (ii.) The Byzantine period lasted during the 12th and 13th centuries. (See S. Zeno for examples.) (iii.) The Giottesque period begins contemporaneously with Altichieri and Giacomo d'Avanzo (second half of the 14th century). These two painters, among the ablest of Giotto's followers, adorned Verona and Padua with very beautiful frescoes, rich in composi tion, delicate in colour, and remarkable for their highly finished modelling and detail. (iv.) To the fourth period belong several important painters. Pisanello or Vittore Pisano, a charming painter and the greatest medallist of Italy, probably a pupil of Altichieri, has left a beautiful fresco in the church of S. Anas tasia, representing St. George and the Princess after the con quest of the Dragon. His only other existing fresco is an Annun ciation in S. Fermo Maggiore (See PAINTING.) His pupils in clude Liberale da Verona, Domenico and Francesco Morone, Girolamo dai Libri (1474-1556), etc. Domenico del Riccio, usually nicknamed Brusasorci (1494-1567), was a prolific painter whose works are very numerous in Verona. Paolo Cagliari or Paul Veronese, and Bonifacio, though natives of Verona, belong rather to the Venetian school.
Verona is specially rich in early examples of decorative sculp ture. (i.) The first period is that of northern influence, exempli fied in the reliefs which cover the western façades of the church of S. Zeno and the cathedral, dating from the 12th century, and representing both sacred subjects and scenes of war and hunting, mixed with grotesque monsters. Part of the western doors of S. Zeno are early examples of caste bronze reliefs. (ii.) In the 13th century the sculpture lost its vigour, without acquiring grace or refinemea, e.g., the font in the cathedral baptistery. (iii.) The next period is that of Florentine influence, exemplified in the mag nificently sculptured tombs of the Della Scala lords, those of Can grande I. (d. 1329), Mastino II. (d. 1351) and (the most elaborate of all) of the fratricide Can Signorio, adorned with statuettes of the virtues, executed during his lifetime (c. 1370), by the sculptor Bonino da Campione. (iv.) In the 15th century Florence influ enced Verona by way of Venice.
designer of an immense number of magnificent palaces in Verona, among which the most outstanding are the Bevilacqua, Canossa and Pompei palaces.
History.—The ancient Verona was a town of the Cenomani, a Gaulish tribe, whose chief town was Brixia. It became a Latin colony in 89 B.C. Inscriptions testify to its importance, indicating that it was the headquarters of the collectors of the 5% inheri tance tax under the Empire in Italy beyond the Po. Its territory stretched as far as Hostilia on the Padus (Po), 3o m. to the south. It lay on the road between Mediolanum and Aquileia, while here diverged to the north the roads over the Brenner. It was the birthplace of the poet Catullus. In A.D. 69 it became the head quarters of the legions which were siding with Vespasian. It was defended by a river along two-thirds of its circumference. The existing remains of walls and gates date from the period between the 3rd of April and the 4th of December of the year 265. A very handsome triumphal arch, now called the Porta de' Borsari, was restored in this year by Gallienus and became one of the city gates.
The same was the case with the Porta dei Leoni, on the east of the city, and with a third arch, the Arco dei Gavi, demolished in 1805.
The emperor Constantine, while advancing towards Rome from Gaul, besieged and took Verona (312) ; it was here, too, that Odoacer was defeated (499) by Theodoric the Goth, Dietrich von Bern—i.e., Verona—of German legends, who built a castle at Verona and frequently resided there. He enlarged the fortified area by constructing a wall and ditch (now called Adigetto), to the S.W. of the amphitheatre, and also built thermae and restored the aqueducts, which had long been out of use.
In the middle ages Verona gradually grew in size and impor tance. Alboin, the Lombard king, captured it in 568, and it was one of the chief residences of the Lombard, and later of the Frankish, monarchs; and though, like other cities of northern Italy, it suffered much during the Guelph and Ghibelline struggles, it rose to a foremost position both from the political and the artistic point of view under its various rulers of the Scaliger or Della Scala family. The first prominent member of this family and founder of his dynasty was Mastino I. della Scala, who ruled over the city from 1260 till his death in 1277. Verona had pre viously fallen under Ezzelino da Romano (1227-1259). Alberto della Scala (d. 1301) was succeeded by his eldest son Bartolo meo,•who was confirmed as ruler of Verona by the popular vote, and died in 1304. It was in his time that Romeo and Juliet are said to have lived. Alboino, the second son, succeeded his brother, and died in 1311, when the youngest son of Alberto, Cangrande, who since 1308 had been joint-lord of Verona with his brother, succeeded to the undivided power. Cangrande (Francesco della Scala, d. 1329) was the best and most illustrious of his line, and is specially famous as the hospitable patron of Dante (q.v.).
Other princes of this dynasty, which lasted for rather more than a century, were Giovanni (d. 135o), Mastino II. (d. 1351), Can grande II. (d. 1359) and Can Signorio (d. 1375). In 1387 Gian Galeazzo Visconti, duke of Milan, became by conquest lord of Verona. Soon after his death the city fell by treacherous means into the hands of Francesco II. di Carrara, lord of Padua. In 1404-1405 Verona, together with Padua, was finally conquered by Venice, and remained subject to the Venetians till the overthrow of the republic by Napoleon in 1797, who in the same year, after the treaty of Campo Formio, ceded it to the Austrians with the rest of Venetia. They fortified it strongly in 1814, and with Peschiera, Mantua and Legnago it formed part of the famous quadrilateral which until 1866 was the chief support of their rule in Italy. The town was greatly damaged by a flood in 1882.
See the various works by Scipione Maffei (Verona Illustrata, 1728; Museum Veronense, 1749) ; A. Wiel, The Story of Verona (London, 1902) ; R. Peyre, Padoue et Verone (19o7) ; E. Giani, L'Antico teatro di Verona (Verona, 1908) ; A. M. Allen, History of Verona (Toro) ; E. R. Williams, Plain Towns (1912) ; M. Ludwig, Auf Veronas Diichern (1919)- H. MI.; T. A.)