VELETA, an ancient city at the base of the Apennines, 231 miles S. from Piacenza, and 45 miles from Parma by the existing roads. The population of this part of Italy was brought under the Roman dominion about a.u.c. 595, by M. Fulvius Nobilior. The inhabitants of Veleia up to the fourth year of the reign of Tiberius lived in vil lages; but a town was formed subsequently, which became a muni cipium, probably between the fourth year of the reign of Tiberius and the eighth of Vespasian. The period of the ruin of Veleia is not accurately known, though it is conjectured to have taken place in the fourth century of the Christian era. Tradition reports a slip of the mountains called Morin and Rovinazzo to have been the cause of the catastrophe which most probably buried the city unexpectedly.
Presuming the city of Veleia to have been buried shortly after the reign of Constantine, it remained unknown and forgotten for fourteen centuries and a half. The first notice of the revival of this ancient city was owing to the Trojan tablet, or bronze table, called the Alimentary Table,' which contains a law under the directions of which 279 children wero maintained. This remarkable document was discovered in 1747 by a peasant of the commune of Macinisso (now called by its ancient name of Veleia), while working in a field. In 1760, excavations ordered by Duke Philip of Parma led to the discovery of the founda tions of the forum and of some publio and private buildings. Twelve marble statues also (some of them of superior workmanship), and numerous Small bronze statues, medals, money, stamps, inscriptions, and small instruments and implements of bronze (including a pair of suuffers of the form now in use), were brought to light. Auother bronze table was also found at a short distance from the spot where thirteen years previously the Alimentary Table of Trojan had been discovered. This table is nearly square, being 2 feet 2 inches and 7 lines (Paris) wide, by 8 feet 8 inches high, and about 2 lines thick.
On the sides and in the middle are holes by which it was probably attached to a wall. The writing, like the large table, is divided into pages; the first contains 52 lines, and the second 53. At the begin ning of the division between the pages, the number MI is marked, from which it is manifest that this table was preceded by three others, forming eix pages. There are good reasons for supposing that this table dates at the latest from about the middle of the 8th. century of Rome. The inscription seems to have been a copy of a law which prescribed to the municipalities of Gallia Cisa!pins a constant rule of procedure. Most of the objects found in this ancient town are now in the museum of Parma.
In the centre of the buildings discovered are tho forum, on the left the amphitheatre, on the right the baths, and at the south end the basilica. Among the most remarkable objects in the forum are the remains of the marble tables and seats of the money-changers, or perhaps officers of the treasury, and the inscription, originally of bronze letters, inserted in the stone pavement of the centre of the forum. A doric portico ran round three sides of the area of the forum, interrupted only on the north by the portico of a small amphi prostyle temple, and was stopped on the south by the wall of the basilica. The basilica contained the twelve marble statues preserved in the museum at Parma. The city was well provided with sewers and drains. The buildings were constructed of rough materials, and stuccoed and painted. A painted fragment is preserved in the museum at Parma, showing that the taste for arabesque decoration was the same as in the south of Italy. Bricks were used to make the foundations level. Some of the bricks are stamped with the maker's name. A few mosaic floors have been removed to the floor of the museum in Parma.