Classical sources Herodotus (c. 484–425 BC) at one point mentions the Veneti of the Adriatic (
Histories V.9) and at another refers in passing to the "Eneti in Illyria" (
Histories I.196) whose supposed marriage customs, he claims, mirrored those of the Babylonians. This led early scholars to seek to link the Veneti with the
Illyrians. Their Illyrian origin is further strengthened by their close relationship with the inhabitants of the coastal regions of the
Adriatic. However, this identification of the Adriatic Veneti as Illyrians has been discredited by many linguists.
Hans Krahe and later Anton Mayer showed that Herodotus was not referring to the Adriatic Veneti, but to an Illyrian tribe that lived in the borderlands of northern historical
Macedonia. Later linguistic and paleontological studies further solidified their findings. Roman historian
Titus Livius (59 BC–AD 17), himself a native of the Venetic town of
Patavium, wrote that after the
fall of Troy, the Trojan prince
Antenor became the leader of the Paphlagonians after they all had been expelled from their homeland. Together, they migrated to the northern end of the Adriatic coast where they established a settlement, and conquered and merged with indigenous people known as the
Euganei. The story connects the Veneti with the
Paphlagonian Eneti, mentioned by
Homer (750 BC).
Virgil (70-19 BC), in his epic the
Aeneid, relates the same tradition. A commentary on Virgil's
Aeneid by the grammarian
Maurus Servius Honoratus (fl. c. AD 400) is said to imply a link between the Veneti and the
Vindelici who are related to
Liburnians from the Istrian Coast. However, the reference to the Veneti in Virgil seems to place them in the "innermost realm of the Liburnians" which must have been the goal at which Antenor is said to have arrived. This however implies only that the ancient Liburnians may have once encompassed a wide swath of the Eastern Alps, from Vindelicia, through Noricum, to the Dalmatian coast before the coming of the Veneti.
Pliny the Elder (AD 23–79) mentions that
Cornelius Nepos (100–24 BC) implied that the
Paphlagonian Eneti (
Heneti) were ancestors of the Veneti of Italy. He lists the towns of
Ateste,
Acelum, Patavium,
Opitergium,
Belunum, and
Vicetia as belonging to the Veneti. By the 4th century BC the Veneti had been so Celticized that
Polybius wrote that the Veneti of the 2nd century BC were identical to the Gauls except for their language. The Greek historian
Strabo (64 BC–AD 24), on the other hand, conjectured that the Adriatic Veneti descended from
Celts who in turn were related to the later
Celtic tribe of the same name who lived on the coast of
Brittany and fought against
Julius Caesar. He further suggested that the identification of the Adriatic Veneti with the Paphlagonian Enetoi led by Antenor—which he attributes to
Sophocles (496–406 BC)—was a mistake due to the similarity of the names. Strabo also gives information on the then-current domains of the Veneti.
Pre-Roman period The territory of the Veneti came to the notice of the Greeks in the 4th c. BC. Strabo records that
Dionysius I of Syracuse (c. 432–367 BC), desiring the famed horses of the Veneti, founded trading colonies along the Adriatic coast. The Sicilian tyrant favored the town of Adria as a trading partner, helping it build canals which linked it to the sea and broke the trading monopoly of Spina. In 303/302 BC the
Lacedaemonian prince
Cleonymus of Sparta led a fleet of mercenaries up the
Brenta River intending on sacking
Patavium. However, the Veneti fought back and the Spartan ships were captured and destroyed. The Veneti were in recurring conflict with the
Celtic peoples who then occupied most of Northwestern Italy, although they maintained peaceful relations with the
Cenomani Celts who had settled in and eventually absorbed the areas of
Brescia and
Verona.
Roman period The Veneti seem to have begun contact with Rome in the third century BC. They established
amicitia with Rome against the Gauls BC. During the
Second Punic War, the Veneti were again allied with the Romans against the Celts, Iberians, and the
Carthaginian expedition (218–203 BC) led by
Hannibal. Livy records that they sent soldiers to fight along with the Romans at the
battle of Cannae. With the foundation of the Latin colony of Aquileia by Rome in 181 BC and laying of the
Via Postumia in 148 BC followed by the
Via Annia in 131 BC, Roman influence among the Veneti increased. The Veneti seem to have voluntarily and gradually adopted the Latin language, Roman architecture, Roman city planning, and Roman religion. Votive offerings sometimes appear in the Venetic language written with the Roman alphabet or in Venetic with a Latin translation. Roman consuls were asked to adjudicate border disputes between
Este and
Padua in 141 and again in 135 BC and also a border dispute between
Este and
Vicenza. In 175 BC,
Padua requested the aid of Rome in putting down a local civil war. The Veneti were given Latin rights after the
Social War in the Lex Pompeia de Transpadanis and Roman citizenship in 49 BC in the Lex Roscia. Roman colonies established at
Este,
Concordia, and
Trieste between 49 BC and 14 AD and at
Oderzo and
Zuglio during the reign of
Claudius further contributed to the absorption of the Veneti into Roman culture. == Beliefs ==