The Veneti of the Pre-Roman period in the European context

The Veneti lived not only in the northern part of the Adriatic, but also in Armorica (Britain), on the Alps (Lake Constance), on the mouth of the River Vistola (Western Prussia), in the Lazio region and in Asia Minor. In any case, we only have historical evidence about the Veneti of the Veneto region. As for their supposed microasiatic origins, it is thought that they came from Paphlagonia, guided by a trojan man named Antenore, after the fall of the city of Troy – in Virgilio’s Eneide it is said that the romans came to Lazio guided by Enea in this same fashion – but this is likely to be an invention made by Pliny, who was referring himself to the writings of Cato, and then continued by Livy in an atmosphere of political exaltation of the greatness of Rome.

Like elsewhere in Europe (and not only), the genesis of the different nations and cultures which we can still see today, can be traced back to the period of the Indo-European domination, when Indo-Eeuropean lords imposed themselves over the various Paleo-Europen populations. From a cultural and ethnic point of view, the archaic Veneto – until approximately the XI Century B. C. – was part of the Central European ecumene, of which the Padania region constitutes the southern part. The predominant human type was (and still is) the Alpine one (i. e. the Alpine type of the white or europide race), which is quite different from the mediterranean, the nordic or the balkanic type; in fact it is more similar to the human type of the Baltic and North-Eastern Europe region. The languages spoken in the II Millenium B.C., prior to the Venetian and Indo-European period, are also thought to be finnish or uralic. So I’ll start giving an idea of what the characteristics of the Veneto region in the Pre-Venetian period may have been like. First of all, since prehistorical times Alpine people were distigushed for their industriousness, earnestness and technical talent. Even today we can see that the most advanced regions in the economic field (the real economy, not the virtual economy, in the american way) are those with a strong presence of Alpine people: the Padania region, Austria, southern Germany, midland France. The same can be said for Spain’s most advanced economic areas, like the Catalonia region. On the contrary, Alpine people were reserved persons, they were not very aggressive, nor gifted in abstract culture and artistic creation. It’s not a case that many pre-war race scholars dind’t hold Alpine people in high esteem – but they often proved to be wrong.

The people who lived on the Venetian plain in the Pre-Venetian peiod were called Euganei, and we don’t know much about them. On the mountains, in the area spanning from the Tyrol to southern Bavaria lived the Reti. These two populations must have been virtually identical, and it is generally said that when the Indoeuropeans came in the region, the Euganei escaped from the plain and settled on the mountains, living there together with the Reti. On the contrary, it’s quite probable that the most part of the Euganei stayed on the plain and became vassals of the Indoeuropean Veneti. Little by little, the Euganei adopted Indoeuropean Veneti’s language. The Reti continued to be independet for quite a long time: from a political ponit of view, until the I century B.C., and from a cultural point of view, even longer. We have some informations about these aspects, from which we can also imagine what the Euganei may have been like.

In XVIII century B.C. to XI century B.C. Veneto, there was already a large-scale bronze production. The raw material was imported from Trentino, and then wrought in varius centers in Veneto. There is evidence of the production of small bronze votive statues dating back to that period. These bronze votive statues are typical of Veneto, and their production continued even after the arrival of the Indoeuropeans. In fact, Venetian ex-voto were always made of bronze, and not of ceramic like in the rest of Italy. In Veneto, bronze production continued to be of great importance even under the Romans: the so-called situle were produced there beginning in the VI century B.C. They are bronze vessels decorated with scenes of everyday life (in contrast to the geometrical patterns of decoration used in the rest of Europe) and can be considered as examples of the Venetian bronze craftmanship, a craftmanship which was already flourishing in the II millenium B.C. So it’s clear that before the Indoeuropean period there already were well-developed commercial and handicraft activities.

Studying the Reti, we can have an idea of what things may have been like in the rest of Veneto as well. After the arrival of the Veneti, between the Reti and the Veneti there was an interesting cultural exchange. The Reti used to build their houses (built partially underground) using blocks of stone, and so probalby did the Euganei; many remains of these constructions can be found in all the Alpine Europe area. Also the Veneti adopted this construction technique. Living besides the areas occupied by the Indoeuropeans, the Reti – who were Pre-Venetian – still had their own fluorishing society in Roman period: Valpolicella in the I century B.C. still was a Raetic town, and so was Verona before its celticization, and so was Trento. The Reti were excellent farmers and craftsmen, and their society was well organized, they had strong sense of property and strong family values: these are characteristics that distinguished the Veneti until recent times. As for the language, the Reti had adopted the Etruscan alphabet in early times, and we have some inscriptions dating from the roman peiod. In any case, their language is still indeciphered, and we only know that it is a non Indoeuropean language, porbably uralic. It can be stated that it is similar to the Ligurian language, but the only thing they have in common is their non Indoeuropean origin (Ligurian is a Mediterranean language of Etruscan kind). As far as religion is concerned, we know that the Reti used to light big ritual fires and it seems that the Indoeuropean Reti adopted this same usage. In Lessinia, an area that has a strong Raetic presence, until a century ago, on Midwinter’s day people used to light big fires on the top of the mountains. When the fires were put out, the coals were used as talisman to protect against thunder. These fires were also used for divinatory purpose. Every year between December and January, twigs were burnt in order to "help" the Sun in his seasonal process of lenghtening of daylight.

Another Pre-Indoeuropean architectural typology was that of the Castellieri: constructions built on hills using stone and earth, and surrounded by a ditch. We can find them in Istria and Dalmatia, where they served as fortress and home until the Roman period, but also in Tyrol, where they were oriented according to astrological principles, on the Venetian plain, on the Lake Garda and beyond (this shows the cultural homogeneity between the people of the mountains and those of the plain, in Pre-Indoeuropean times). Someone considers the Castellieri as a sign of Mediterranean influence: while this is not impossible (Mediterranean people were very experienced in building with stone), it is not proved yet.

The Indoeuropean Veneto began with the settlement of the Veneti around the XI-X century B.C. They were Indoeuropeans of the Italic branch, as we can see from their language, which is very similar to Latin. The first writings in Venetian language are grave inscription which date back to the VI century B.C., and are written in the Venetian alphabet (which is derived from the Etruscan alphabet). The Veneti are also said to be Celtic or Protoceltic, but this is a very ambiguous matter, since around the end of the II millenium B.C. there was no clear distinction between the Celtic and the Italic. For example, the religious importance given to the springs and the spirits of the waters is a characteristic feature common to the Celtic, the Italic (see, in particular, the relationship between Numa Pompilius and the nymph Egeria) and the Veneti (the memory of the anguane, spirits of the waters, was still alive a century ago). Venetian temples were often rising near springs or watercourses, and water libations were regularly offered to the deities.

Like all the Indoeuropeans, also the Veneti used to build using wood. Mediterranean people had been very experienced in building with stone, mid-European populations used, it seems, various techniques. In fact, all Venatian cities – most notably Padova and Este, but also Vicenza, Montebelluna, Oderzo, Treviso etc. – were built using wood and now the only things that can be traced are their foundations.

The vitality and the initiative of the Indoeuropeans brought the Veneto region to new heights in the cultural and commerical fields. Northern Adriatic, which was a crossroad between northeastern Europe and the Etruscan and Greek (and, in later times Roman) world, became a very important area for craftsmanship and commerce. Being that the path of the Amber Road, which ran south from the Baltic region, ran also through Veneto, there were great commercial exchanges of various goods: salt, wine, metals, ceramics (Veneto was already then a land of great master ceramists) and horses. Venetian horses were among the best in Europe, and the Veneti were great horse breeders (this is a strongly Indoeuropean feature). As early as the VII century B.C. there was a Venetian coin, called aes rude, replaced in the III century B.C. by the dracma venetica of Massaliot kind and, in the I century B.C., by the Roman coin.

As for religion, we don’t have many informations. Like in the rest of Europe – and also in Asia – the settlement of Indoeuropean aristocracies led to religious sincretism, so that the uranic religion of the dominant aristoracy coexisted and mixed itself with the ones of the subdued Paleo-Europeans populations. While in the field of ancient Greek religion many studies have been made and, to a certain degree, we can now distinguish between Hellenic and Pre-Hellenic elements, things are not so clear for the rest of Europe, and the religious life of Paleo-Europeans and non-Mediterranean populations is almost completely unknown. In the Veneto region, cult places were not temples in the traditional sense, but usually just holy fences built near water springs (this could be, as already said, an Indoeuropean feature of Italic or Celtic kind).

There is no doubt that the Veneti had a religious structure similar to that of the early Roman populations, based on the Indoeuropean triad of deities (Juppiter, Mars, Quirinus), but we don’t have accurate informations about it. The archeological findings tell us more about the popular religion of the Pre-Indoeuropean population (this is the case of all the Italic area, for which, however, thanks to many remains of stone temples and a large amount of written sources, the scholars can draw a more accurate picture of the religious stratifications).

The sacrifice of the horse was a typical Indoeuropean custom practised also in Veneto (virtually identical to some practices still in use in medieval Lithuania). Various findings in the Veneto region tell us that the horses were sacrificed and then buried under barrows of earth. The fact that the most part of the graves found in Veneto are cremation graves could be an evidence of the Indoeuropean predominance.

As for the rest, all we know about Venetian religion of the Pre-Roman period is that there were cults surviving from the Pre-Indoeuropean period ("Euganei"), maybe with some Mediterranean influences and sincretic cults. The most widely known goddess of the Pre-Roman Venetian religion is Reitia (from the Venetian rekt and the German richten = to straighten), formerly Pora, goddess of the ford and of the passage to the other world (this is a Pre-Indoeuropean feature). The most important shrines devoted to Reitia were in Este and Vicenza, where she was believed to help cures and childbirths. Near these shrines many ex-votos have been found, and from the inscriptions upon them we can see that the devotees of Reitia were most of all women. The religion and the cult of Reitia seem to coincide with those of Esculapio, a demigod who is probably of Pre-Indoeuropean origin. In Abano there was the cult of a certain Apono, in Lagole (in the Cadore region) that of the three-headed goddess Trumusiate (or Icate), similar to the hellish Ecate of the Pre-Hellenic period: maybe we can see it as a Mediterranean influence. Strangely, in Roman times, Trumusiate was identified with Apollo.

Hisorically speaking, the Veneti were always under the influence of Rome, which was a natural ally against the Gauls of south-western Padania. In fact both the Romans and the Veneti had to defend themselves against the Gauls for centuries. We also cannot exclude that, from a cultural and linguistic point of view, the Veneti felt closer to the Romans than to the Celtic. In the I century B.C. Veneto became, more or less painlessly, part of the Roman Empire. The most part of the fallen in the Teutoburgo battle were Veneti.

Silvano Lorenzoni

Essential bibliography:

Giulia Fogolari, I veneti, in AA.VV., Antiche genti d'Italia, De Luca, Roma, 1994

Giorgio Chelidonio, Le feste e le tradizioni del fuoco in Lessinia, edizione della Comunità montana della Lessinia, Verona, 1999

Giulio Romano, Archeoastronomia italiana, CLEUP, Padova, 1992

Raffaele Mambella e Lucia Sanesi Mastrocinque, Le Venezie, itinerari archeologici, Newton Compton, Roma, 1988

Roberto Guerra, Antiche popolazioni dell'Italia preromana, Aries, Padova, 1999

Jean Haudry, Gli indoeuropei, Ar, Padova, 2001

Hans F. K. Günther, Tipologia razziale dell'Europa, Ghenos, Ferrara, 2003

Marija Gimbutas, Die Balten, Herbig, München, 1982