Opitergium

• a city of Italy, in the territory of the Veneti, now Oderzo, Plin. 3, 19, 23, § 130; Tac. H. 3, 6.—Hence,
• II Ŏpĭtergīnus, a, um, adj., of or belonging to Opitergium, Opitergian, Plin. 3, 18, 22, § 126.—Plur. subst.: Ŏpĭtergīni, ōrum, m., the inhabitants of Opitergium, the Opitergians, Flor. 4, 2, 33.

OPITE´RGIUM (Ὀπιτέργιον: Eth. Opiterginus: Oderzo), a city of Venetia, situated about 24 miles from the sea, midway between the rivers Plavis (Piave) and Liquentia (Livenza), on a small stream (now called the Fratta) flowing into the latter. No mention of it is found before the Roman conquest of Venetia; but it appears to have under their rule become a considerable municipal town, and is mentioned by Strabo as a flourishing place, though not a city of the first class. (Strab. 5. p. 214.) In the Civil War between Caesar and Pompey a body of troops furnished by the Opitergini is mentioned as displaying the most heroic valour, and offering a memorable example of self-devotion, in a naval combat between the fleets of the two parties. (Liv. Ep. cx.; Flor. 4.2.33; Lucan (Luc. 4.462--571.) Tacitus also notices it as one of the more considerable towns in this part of Italy which were occupied by the generals of Vespasian, Primus, and Varus. (Tac. Hist. 3.6.) It is mentioned by all the geographers, as well as in the Itineraries ; and though Ammianus tells us it was taken and destroyed by an irruption of the Quadi and Marcomanni in A. D. 372, it certainly recovered this blow, and was still a considerable town under the Lombards. (Plin. Nat. 3.19. s. 23; Ptol. 3.1.30; Itin. Ant. p. 280; Tab. Peut.;Ammian. 29.6.1; P. Diac. 4.40.) In an inscription of the reign of Alexander Severus, Opitergium bears the title of a Colonia; as it is not termed such either by Pliny or Tacitus, it probably obtained that rank under Trajan. (Orell. Inscr. 72; Zumpt, de Colon. p. 402.): It was destroyed by the Lombard king Rotharis in A.D. 641, and again, in less than 30 years afterwards, by Grimoaldus (P. Diac. 4.47, 5.28); but seems to have risen again from its ruins in the middle ages, and is still a considerable town and an episcopal see.

Opitergium itself stood quite in the plain; but its territory, which must have been extensive, comprised a considerable range of the adjoining Alps, as Pliny speaks of the river Liquentia as rising ex montibus Opiterginis( Plin. Nat. 3.18. s. 22). The Itinerary gives a line of cross-road which proceeded from Opitergium by Feltria (Feltre) and the Val Sugana to Tridentum (Trent). (Itin. Ant. p. 280.)

Now Oderzo; a Roman colony in Venetia, in the north of Italy, on the river Liquentia.

A site in the low Venetian alluvial plain, certainly of the early Venetian age with Celtic traces. It developed at the frontier, marked by the river Livenza, between the Veneti and the Galli Carni. Very probably the center was on the Postumia, the great consular road constructed in 148 B.C. to link Genun with Aquileia. A corps of Opitergimi, siding with Caesar in his war with Pompey, preferred self extinction to surrender, according to the account of Lucan (Scol. al 1.4, 462; cf. also Livy Epit. 110, Florus 2.13.20). The city became a municipium after the promulgation of the well-known Lex Julia Municipalis in 49 B.C. Opitergium was assigned to the tribus Papiria. It was perhaps an administrative center for the many pagi in the rich surrounding countryside. Nothing remains of its religious and civic buildings. The only testimony of its existence are inscriptions and sculptures, now on display in a small museum. Recorded are Jupiter Ammon, the Vires, several decurioni who were members of the municipal council, and the usual Augustales. Notable among the material preserved are a relief with a maenad, several circular altars richly decorated with scrollwork. A beautiful bronze breastplate of the Augustan age is in the Archaeological Museum at Venice.

In A.D. 167 the Quadi and the Marcomanni reached its gates (Amm. Marc. 24.6.1), but a short time later normal daily life resumed. One of its citizens, L. Ragonius Urinatius Larcius Quintianus, became vice consul at the time of Commodius (CIL V, 2112). Opitergium's mosaics of civil life from the 3d and 4th c. are among the most interesting in the region. There are hunting and fishing scenes, and a representation in perspective of a villa rustica enclosed within a protective wall.

The Lombards in two successive expeditions in 635 and 667 destroyed the town, according to Paolo Diacono (4.38.45; 5.28). It revived only at the end of the 10th c.

A. Degrassi, Il confine nord-orientale dell'Italia romana (1954) 114; R. Cessi, “Da Roma a Bisanzio,” and G. B. Brusin, “Monumenti romani e paleocristiani” in Storia di Venezia (1957); P. Fraccaro, “La via Postumia,” Opuscula (1957) IV; B. Forlati Tamaro, Guida del Museo (1959).