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Greek city of Velia in Lucania
Silver Didrachm (Nomos) 22mm (6.89 grams) Struck circa 300-280 B.C.
Reference: HN Italy 1312. Williams 505 (O253/R352)
Head of Athena to left, wearing crested Attic helmet decorated with a dolphin to left on the bowl; on neckguard, Φ.
YEΛHTΩN Lion walking right; above, trident head to right between Φ-I.
Velia or Elea, also called Hyele (the different forms are owing to the word having originally the Aeolic digamma, which the Romans changed into V : Velienses or Eleates), a Greek town of Lucania on the west coast between Paestum and Buxentum, was founded by the Phocaeans, who had abandoned their native city to escape from the Persian sovereignty, about B.C. 543. It was situated about 3 miles east of the river Hales, and possessed a good harbour. It is celebrated as the birthplace of the philosophers Parmenides and Zeno, who founded a school of philosophy usually known under the name of the Eleatic. It possessed a celebrated temple of Demeter (Ceres). Cicero, who resided at Velia at one time, frequently mentions it in his correspondence; and it appears to have been reckoned a healthy place. In the time of Strabo it had ceased to be a town of importance.
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 Athena or Athene (Latin: Minerva), also referred to as Pallas Athena, is the goddess of war, civilization, wisdom, strength, strategy, crafts, justice and skill in Greek mythology. Minerva, Athena’s Roman incarnation, embodies similar attributes. Athena is also a shrewd companion of heroes and the goddess of heroic endeavour. She is the virgin patron of Athens. The Athenians built the Parthenon on the Acropolis of her namesake city, Athens, in her honour (Athena Parthenos). Athena’s cult as the patron of Athens seems to have existed from the earliest times and was so persistent that archaic myths about her were recast to adapt to cultural changes. In her role as a protector of the city (polis), many people throughout the Greek world worshiped Athena as Athena Polias (“Athena of the city”). Athens and Athena bear etymologically connected names.
Velia is the Italian (and Latin) name of the ancient town of Elea located on the territory of the comune of Ascea, Salerno, Campania, Italy in a geographical sub-area named Cilento. Originally founded by the Greeks as Hyele in ancient Magna Graecia around 538-535 BC, it is best known as the home of the philosophers Parmenides and Zeno of Elea, as well as the Eleatic school of which they were a part. The site of the Acropolis of ancient Elea, once a promontory (castello a mare meaning castle on the sea) and now inland, was renamed in the Middle Ages Castellammare della Bruca.
Geography
The town is situated close to the Tyrrhenian coast in a hill zone nearby Marina di Casalvelino and Marina di Ascea, on a road linking Agropoli to the southern Cilentan Coast. Its population is mainly located in the plain by the sea (surrounding the southern part of the ancient ruins) and in the hill zones of Enotria, Bosco and Scifro. Velia also had a railway station on the Naples-Salerno-Reggio Calabria line, closed at the end of 1970s.
History
According to Herodotus: in 545 BC Ionian Greeks fled Phocaea, in modern Turkey, besieged by the Persians. After some wanderings (8 to 10 years) at sea, they stopped in Reggio Calabria where, probably, they were joined by Xenophanes who was at the time at Messina, and then moved North along the coast and founded the town of Hyele (Greek: Ὑέλη), later renamed Ele (Ἔλη), and then, eventually, Elea (Ἐλέα). The location is nearly at the same latitude as Phocaea. (Cca. 1′ 20″ North)
Elea was not conquered by the Lucanians, but eventually joined Rome in 273 BC and was included in ancient Lucania.
Ruins of Velia
Remains of the city walls, with traces of one gate and several towers, of a total length of over three miles, still exist, and belong to three different periods, in all of which the crystalline limestone of the locality is used. Bricks were also employed in later times; their form is peculiar to this place, each having two rectangular channels on one side, and being about 1.5 in. square, with a thickness of nearly 4 in. They all bear Greek brick-stamps. There are some remains of cisterns on the site, and, various other traces of buildings.
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