VELLE'IA, or VELETA, a t. of ancient Liguria, situated among the northern slopes of the Apennines, 18 m. s. by e. of Placentia (Piacenza). Little information respecting it can be gleaned from the Latin writers. The Veleiates are mentioned by Pliny among the Ligurian tribes, and seem to have been subjected to Rome in 158 B. c. The t., however, dates from the time of Tiberius, and appears, according to the traditionary account, to have been overwhelmed by a land-slip of the mountains Moria and Rovinazzo, the earth having been loosened by the percolation through it of the waters from a lake high up in the mountains. A comparison of the soil which covers the city with that of the moun tains, confirms this story, though, strange to say, there is not the slightest notice in Roman history of such an event having happened. Velleia remained hid and forgotten Lill 1747, when a field-laborer turned up a tablet of bronze, on which Trajan's alimen tary law for the public maintenance of 279 children was written. This tablet, which measured about 8 ft. 8 in. by 5 ft. 9. in., Paris measurement, and weighed 7,200 ounces, narrowly escaped being melted down for bell-metal; and in 1700 excavations were commenced by the directions of the duke of Parma at the place where the tablet had been found. The result of these investigations, which were continued till 1765, was the discovery of a forum, In which was another bronze tablet of a smaller size than the one previously found, an amphitheater, baths, 12 marble statues, numerous small bronze statues, medals, coins, stamps, inscriptions, and bronze instruments of various kinds. From none of the coins discovered being of later date than the time of Probus,
it has been supposed that the catastrophe which overwhelmed the city happened either during or soon after his reign. The museum at Parma contains most of the antiquities which have thus been rescued from the bowels of the earth.
For about a century previous to 1747, it was known to a very few that ancient treasures were concealed at the place where the town was subsequently discovered; and so much wealth in coins and gold statues was discovered by a poor priest belonging to the adjoining village of Macinisso, that his family became ennobled.
A few trifling excavations have been made since 1765, but they have now been dis continued for a number of years.—See La Rovina di Veleia, misurate e disegnate da Gio vanni Antolini, etc. (Milano, 1819); and Tavola Legislativa della Gallia Cisalpina ritrovata in Veleia da D. Pietro di Lama (Parma, 1820).