CELEIA
(Celje) Yugoslavia.
Prehistoric settlement situated on both sides of the right angle made
by the river Savinja as it emerges to the SE from the
fertile hollow set in the foothills of the Karawanken and
so-called Savinjske Alps. It was a Celtic oppidum (the
name is pre-Celtic), princely seat with its own mint, a
Roman municipium walled by Claudius, and an episcopal
see in late antiquity. The city is in the SE part of the
territory of Noricum on the road from Aquileia to Carnuntum, which for the prehistoric period can aptly be
referred to as the amber road.
The excavations, which include all periods, are made
difficult by the presence of modern buildings. The finds
are preserved in the local museum. An important sculpture collection includes funerary reliefs with mythological
scenes, such as Luna and Endymion, and the rescue of
Patrokles' body. Very little is preserved in situ.
The forum has not yet been investigated although its
location, in the NW part of the city, is known from
chance finds, which included a series of bases for commemorative statues and a row of altars. To the S above
the city, the Sanctuary of Norein-Isis and Hercules is
preserved on the hillside terrace in the sacred grove along
with other oriental sanctuaries. The roads leading up to it
were bordered by necropoleis. To the NW are two parallel Christian churches from the 5th and 6th c. They have
mosaic floors with donor inscriptions. Bishop Gaudentius,
whose metrical epitaph probably dates from the beginning of the 6th c. (
AIJ 16), came from Celeia, which
was also the native city of T. Varius Clemens, who was
appointed ab epistulis imperatorum in the reign of the
emperors Lucius Verus and Marcus Aurelius.
Fourteen km W of Celeia, a fortress was built during
the Marcomannic Wars (168-173) for Legio II Italica
(the village of Ločica presently stands there). Shortly
thereafter the legion was moved to Lauriacum. Two km
from there in the direction of Celeia a local necropolis
was excavated (1st-3d c. near the village of Šempeter ob
Savinji). The architectural remains recovered during the
excavations were restored and are preserved in situ. They
consisted of large aediculae for politically prominent families of Celeia, richly decorated with mythological symbolism.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
J. Klemenc, “Izkopavanja na Sadnikovem vrtu v Celju,”
Celjski zbornik (1957)
PI; id.,
Rimske
izkopanine v Šempetru (1961)
PI; V. Kolšek,
Celeia, Steindenkmäler (1967)
PI; id.,
Šempeterska nećropola
(1971)
I; A. Bolta & V. Kolsek,
Celjski muzej (1970)
I; J. Šašel, “Celeia,”
RE Suppl. XII (1970); T. Kurent,
Modularna rekonstrukcija edikul v Šempetru (1970); G. Winkler, “Legio II Italica,”
Jahrbuch des Oberösterreichischen Musealvereins 116 (1971); J. Orozen,
Zgodovina Celja (1971)
I.
J. SASEL
