ELEA
later VELIA, Campania, Italy.
A city
of the Ionian Phokaians on the coast of Lucania, founded
540-535 B.C. Following their mass flight from submission
to Persia, the Phokaians first sought refuge in their colonies of Alalia (on Corsica) and Massalia (Marseilles),
but the sea battle of Alalia, in which they triumphed over
a combined force of Etruscans and Carthaginians, led
them to abandon Alalia for a place in Magna Graecia.
After a stop and reinforcement at Rhegion they sailed
N along the coast to Elea, a site in the mountainous
country between Cape Palinurus and Poseidonia (
Hdt.
1.163-67). The foundation prospered and eventually
counted among its ornaments Parmenides, the 5th c. philosopher and statesman who gave the city its constitution,
and the Eleatic school of philosophy. Like Naples and
Tarentum it never fell to the assault of Italic tribes
(
Strab. 6.254). In 387 B.C. it was a member of the Italian
league against Dionysios I of Syracuse and subsequently became a faithful ally of Rome, furnishing her
with ships in the Punic wars and affording a stronghold
in S Italy against Hannibal. Cicero tells us that the cult
of Ceres, Liber, and Libera at Rome was Greek, and
that Velia was one of two cities that furnished priestesses
for it (
Balb. 55). In 88 B.C. it became a municipium and
was inscribed in the tribus Romilia. In the civil war of
44 B.C. Brutus, who had a villa there, made it one of
his bases. Thereafter we know of it only as the native
city of the father of Statius and the grammarian Palamedes and famous for its school of medicine founded on
Parmenides' principles. It was always fiercely independent and determinedly Greek, as the archaeological record also attests, and persisted in writing Greek well into
the Imperial period. Its decline was due to isolation from
the main routes inland and the silting up of its ports. Its
economy had probably always been fragile, dependent on
the sea traffic and fishing; there is little good agriculture
in the vicinity.
The city occupied the end of a spur of the Apennines
between two rivers, the Palistro and the Fiumarella S.
Barbara, with an acropolis overlooking a considerable
bay. Landward from this the city spread to either side over
the slopes descending to the plain and the river ports, the
S quarter much more important than the N. The fortifications are extremely complicated and confusing, the walls
with a base in blocks of the local limestone and sandstone and upper parts in two- and three-ribbed construction
bricks that are a characteristic of the city. The walls made
at least two, and probably three, circuits that could be
separated from one another in emergency, the largest circuit embracing the S and E quarters of the city, another
around the N quarter, and probably a third enclosing the
acropolis and the slope SE of it, the heart of the old city.
There are some scant remains of polygonal masonry of
“Lesbian” type, presumably of an early fortification, to
be seen at places along the crest of the spur, but most of
what can be seen today is work of the Hellenistic period,
with towers protecting the gates and at fairly regular intervals along vulnerable stretches of the curtain, and a
fortress at the high point inland that pains were taken
to include. But the setting of certain towers still wants
explanation; and the function of Porta Rosa, Velia's most
conspicuous monument—both a gate between the N and
S quarters and a viaduct connecting the acropolis with
the inland fortifications—needs further clarification.
Excavations have been carried out on the acropolis and
its adjacencies, in an area known as the agora, and in the
neighborhood of Porta Marina Sud, as well as around
Porta Rosa and its approaches and at scattered points in
the S and E quarters. On the acropolis the most important
remains are those of a large Ionic temple, now reduced
to its foundations (32.50 x 18.35 m) partially covered by
a mediaeval castle. This dominated the view, and around
it were later constructed the terraces and porticos of an
extensive sanctuary. The earliest material is of the 6th c.,
but the temple building is early 5th. Under it is a stretch
of fine archaic work.
On the S slope of the acropolis, in part buried by a
terrace wall of the early 5th c., are foundations of small
buildings in “Lesbian” polygonal masonry. These seem
to be remains of the first settlement, or possibly (on the
evidence of pottery found here) a still more ancient station going back to the early 6th c. It is interesting that
these all seem to have faced E and were aligned with a
regular grid of streets.
Along the crest of the main spur a number of temples
and sanctuaries of a wide range of dates have been explored. The most important are a long, narrow temenos
on the minor acropolis where a stele to Poseidon Asphaleios was found and a vast terrace (ca. 110 x 100 m)
near the summit of the city with a long altar (25.35 x
7 m) reminiscent of that of Hieron at Syracuse.
The agora area, on the slope S of Porta Rosa, consists
of a small public square surrounded by colonnades under
which passes an elaborate channel, best examined uphill
from the square, that drained the surrounding slopes, taking the water to the sea. To the E are remains of a series
of buildings that may be dependencies of the agora. The
terrain here is steep and broken, and the area was repeatedly rebuilt, but the original plan seems to have been of
high antiquity, though what can be seen today is for the
most part Hellenistic and Roman. The drain is dated to
the beginning of the 3d c. B.C.
In the vicinity of Porta Marina Sud a considerable area
has been cleared. Here the most interesting remains are
a building with cryptoporticus that fills a whole insula,
apparently headquarters of a medical association, where
a number of sculptures and inscriptions were recovered,
and a bothros which was found full of votive material,
possibly dedicated to Eros. A number of small houses belonging to the Roman period have been found in this
area; these are all of peristyle plan, no atrium house being known on the site.
The excavators believe that the city was devastated by
catastrophes toward the beginning of the 3d c. B.C.,
toward the middle of the 1st c. A.D., and toward the end
of the 5th c. After the first two the city was rebuilt along
its original pattern, but after the last no rebuilding was
undertaken.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
P. C. Sestieri, “Greek Elea-Roman Velia”
Archaeology 10 (1957) 2-10
I;
La Parola del Passatci 25
(1970) 5-300, 21 (1966) 153-420 (articles by various
authors on “Velia ed i Focei in Occidente”); M. Napoli,
Guida degli scavi di Velia, Cava de'Tirreni (Di Mauro)
(1972)
MP.
L.RICHARDSON JR
