) was an ancient town of Venetia, at the southern foot of the Euganean hills, 43 feet above sea-level and 22 miles southwest of Patavium (modern Padua

Padua

Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...

). The site was occupied in very early times, as archaeology begun in the late 19th century showed.

Overview

Large cemeteries have been excavated, which show three different periods from the 8th century BCE down to the Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 domination:

• I. Italic
  Ancient Italic peoples
  Ancient people of Italy are all those people that lived in Italy before the Roman domination.Not all of these various people are linguistically or ethnically closely related...
  
   cremation
  Cremation
  Cremation is the process of reducing bodies to basic chemical compounds such as gasses and bone fragments. This is accomplished through high-temperature burning, vaporization and oxidation....
  
   burials closely approximating to the Villanova
  Villanovan culture
  The Villanovan culture was the earliest Iron Age culture of central and northern Italy, abruptly following the Bronze Age Terramare culture and giving way in the 7th century BC to an increasingly orientalizing culture influenced by Greek traders, which was followed without a severe break by the...
  
   type;
• II. Venetian
  Adriatic Veneti
  The Veneti were an ancient people who inhabited north-eastern Italy, in an area corresponding to the modern-day region of the Veneto....
  
   period, when tombs are constructed of blocks of stone, and situla
  Situla
  Situla is the Latin for bucket, and can mean* situla , a bucket-like vessel, usually of bronze in the Iron Age, and ivory in the Middle Ages* Kappa Aquarii, a star in the constellation Aquarius...
  
  e (bronze buckets), sometimes elaborately decorated, are often used to contain the funerary urns;
• III. Gallic
  Gauls
  The Gauls were a Celtic people living in Gaul, the region roughly corresponding to what is now France, Belgium, Switzerland and Northern Italy, from the Iron Age through the Roman period. They mostly spoke the Continental Celtic language called Gaulish....
  
   period (beginning in the 4th century BCE), when tombs are much poorer, ossuaries
  Ossuary
  An ossuary is a chest, building, well, or site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains. They are frequently used where burial space is scarce. A body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years the skeletal remains are removed and placed in an ossuary...
  
   being of badly baked rough clay, with traces of Gallic influence characteristic of La Tène culture
  La Tène culture
  The La Tène culture was a European Iron Age culture named after the archaeological site of La Tène on the north side of Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland, where a rich cache of artifacts was discovered by Hansli Kopp in 1857....
  
  ; cremation also continues.

The many important objects found in these excavations are preserved in the local museum.

Inscriptions show that the Venetic language

Venetic language

Venetic is an extinct Indo-European language that was spoken in ancient times in the North East of Italy and part of modern Slovenia, between the Po River delta and the southern fringe of the Alps....

 asserted its existence even after Ateste came into the hands of the Romans. When this occurred is not known. Boundary stones of 135 BCE exist, which divide the territory of Ateste from that of Patavium and of Vicetia, showing that the former extended from the middle of the Euganean hills to the Atesis (modern Adige

Adige

The Adige is a river with its source in the Alpine province of South Tyrol near the Italian border with Austria and Switzerland. At in length, it is the second longest river in Italy, after the River Po with ....

, from which Ateste no doubt took its name, and on which it once stood).

After the battle of Actium

Battle of Actium

The Battle of Actium was the decisive confrontation of the Final War of the Roman Republic. It was fought between the forces of Octavian and the combined forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII. The battle took place on 2 September 31 BC, on the Ionian Sea near the city of Actium, at the Roman...

, Augustus

Augustus

Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...

 settled veterans from several of his legions in this territory, Ateste being thenceforth spoken of as a colony (colonia

Colonia (Roman)

A Roman colonia was originally a Roman outpost established in conquered territory to secure it. Eventually, however, the term came to denote the highest status of Roman city.-History:...

). It appears to have furnished many recruits, especially for the cohortes urbanae

Cohortes urbanae

The cohortes urbanae of ancient Rome were created by Augustus to counterbalance the enormous power of the Praetorian Guard in the city of Rome and serve as a police force...

, an urban police force created by Augustus. Ateste appears but little in history, though its importance is vouched for by numerous inscriptions, the majority of which belong to the early Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

.