1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Concordia (town)

by Thomas Ashby

CONCORDIA (mod. Concordia Sagittaria), an ancient town of Venetia, in Italy, 16 ft. above sea-level, 31 m. W. of Aquileia, at the junction of roads to Altinum and Patavium, to Opitergium (and thence either to Vicetia and Verona, or Feltria and Tridentum), to Noricum by the valley of the Tilaventus (Tagliamento), and to Aquileia. It was a mere village until the time of Augustus, who made it a colony. Under the later empire it was one of the most important towns of Italy; it had a strong garrison and a factory of missiles for the army. The cemetery of the garrison has been excavated since 1873, and a large number of important inscriptions, the majority belonging to the end of the 4th and the beginning of the 5th centuries, have been discovered. It was taken and destroyed by Attila in A.D. 452. Considerable remains of the ancient town have been found—parts of the city walls, the sites of the forum and the theatre, and probably that of the arms factory. The objects found are preserved at Portogruaro, 11/4 m. to the N. The see of Concordia was founded at an early period, and transferred in 1339 to Portogruaro, where it still remains. The baptistery of Concordia was probably erected in 1100.

See Ch. Hülsen in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopädie, iv. (Stuttgart, 1901) 830.  (T. As.)