Toponymy

Etymologically, the place name Trieste derives from the Venetic Tergeste, formed from terg (“market”) combined with -este, a suffix typical of Venetic place names. However, Strabo derives the name Tergestum from the Latin Ter gestum bello, referring to the three battles against the Histri, which supposedly gave rise to the name of the frourio, or fort, of Tergestum.

Territory

Tergeste dominated the Gulf of Trieste in the northernmost part of the Upper Adriatic. The urban area was situated mainly on a hilly slope that became mountainous in the areas adjoining the built-up zone. It lay at the foot of a prominent escarpment descending sharply from the Karst Plateau toward the sea.

History

Prehistory

The territory where the present-day city of Trieste and its Karst hinterland are located became a permanent human settlement during the Neolithic period. From the end of the Bronze Age, the castellieri culture, associated with pre-Indo-European peoples, began to develop in the region.

After the tenth century BCE, the presence of the first Indo-European groups on the Karst—the Histri—is documented. Nevertheless, they were probably not the first inhabitants of the future Trieste, despite the presence of several castellieri in the region.

The foundation of the first nucleus of Roman Tergeste appears instead to be attributable to the Veneti, as indicated by the Venetic roots of the name (Terg and Este) and by other important archaeological discoveries. Strabo attributes the foundation of Tergeste to the Celtic people known as the Carni. The same author refers to Ter gestum bello, or three battles against the Histri, as the origin of the name of the frourio, or fort, of Tergestum.

Roman Period

The city of Tergeste is clearly shown on the Peutinger Table, which represents the Roman Empire during the Augustan period.

In 178 BCE, Aulus Manlius Vulso led a new war against the peoples of Istria, partly to protect the newly established colony of Aquileia. His ally was Catmelus, king of the Taurisci, who commanded an army of 3,000 soldiers.

The consul, who had established his camp in the Gulf of Muggia near Tergeste, was attacked by the enemy king Epulon, who succeeded in capturing two Roman outposts and the camp of one legion. Vulso, called to the aid of the second legion, in turn surprised the Histri while they were plundering the Roman camp.

Following the Roman conquest in the second century BCE, the settlement became a municipality under Latin law under the name Tergeste. It developed an increasingly urban character during the age of Augustus. It obtained the status of a Roman colony of the Pupinia tribe, probably after the Battle of Philippi (42–41 BCE).

According to Appian of Alexandria, the Iapydes, described as a strong and warlike tribe, invaded Roman territory as far as Aquileia twice within a period of twenty years—certainly in 52 BCE and again a few years later—and succeeded in plundering Tergeste itself.

The Iapydes carried out numerous raids, the colony of Pula was destroyed, Liburnian pirates disrupted traffic in the Adriatic, and the Dalmatians remained independent and dangerous. This situation compelled Augustus, by then the undisputed master of the Roman West, to personally undertake a series of campaigns toward the Sava River in Pannonia and along the coast of Illyria. The principal objective was to reach the stronghold of Segesta, known to the Romans as Siscia (modern Sisak).

Tergeste became a Roman colony during the imperial period under Vespasian. It reached its greatest expansion during the principate of Trajan. According to Pietro Kandler, its population probably numbered approximately 12,000–12,500 inhabitants. The city would not again reach the demographic level of the Roman period until the 1760s.

In the lower part of the hill of San Giusto, toward the sea, the remains of the Roman city can still be observed today, despite the many modern buildings that partially obstruct the view.

Archaeology of the Ancient City

Its powerful walls demonstrate the strategic importance of the ancient city. Constructed from stone blocks, they surrounded the city from the hilly areas down toward the sea.

Trieste possessed a harbor in the Campo Marzio area, as well as a series of smaller harbors along the coast: beneath the promontory of San Vito, at Grignano, near several patrician villas, at Santa Croce, and elsewhere.

The city’s water needs were supplied by two aqueducts, those of Bagnoli and San Giovanni di Guardiella.

Two buildings provide particularly clear evidence of Trieste’s importance during the Roman period. The first is the Roman theater, dating from the end of the first century BCE and enlarged under Trajan with funding from Quintus Petronius Modestus. It had a capacity of approximately 6,000 spectators.

The second is the Early Christian basilica, built between the fourth and fifth centuries CE. It contains magnificent mosaics, tangible evidence of the wealth of the local church and of the city of Tergeste until the end of the imperial period.

On the hill of San Giusto, some remains of the temples of Jupiter and Minerva are still visible. Certain architectural structures belonging to the latter were preserved in the foundations of the cathedral. They can be identified from outside through special openings in the walls of the bell tower and in the basement, accessible through the Civic Museum of History and Art of Trieste.

The Christian basilica, dating from the first half of the fifth century, was discovered beneath the present-day Cathedral of San Giusto.

The structure was built over an earlier Roman temple constructed during the reign of Domitian and perhaps restored under the emperors Hadrian or Antoninus Pius. It was probably built by a certain Publius Palpellius Clodius Quirinalis, praefectus classis of the Ravenna fleet around 80 CE.

Before this temple, an equestrian monument had been dedicated to Gaius Calpetanus Rantius Quirinalis Valerius Festus, consul suffectus in 71 CE.

North of the temple was the forum, the principal square of the ancient city. It was connected by a portico to the civic basilica, which was divided into three aisles and contained an interior apse. The donor was Quintus Baienus Blassianus, a procurator under Trajan before 120–125 CE.

The Arch of Riccardo, an ancient city gate built during the second half of the first century BCE, is another Roman monument that has survived in relatively good condition to the present day. At Grignano and other locations along the coast, remains of villas belonging to the local aristocracy have also been discovered. Most were constructed during the first and second centuries CE.

The road constructed by Vespasian, known as the Via Flavia and built in 78–79 CE, also survives. It was an ancient Roman road in the region of Regio X Venetia et Histria that continued toward the Roman province of Dalmatia. It is thought that it may originally have extended as far as Achaea, following the Istrian coast and passing through Pula and Rijeka.

The Via Gemina was another important road that crossed the ancient city, connecting Aquileia with Emona (modern Ljubljana). It was constructed after 14 BCE by the Legio XIII Gemina. This road followed the first section of the Amber Road, which continued toward the Danube near Carnuntum.

Antiquarium of Via del Seminario

Part of the Roman walls is preserved in the Antiquarium on Via del Seminario. These archaeological remains are among the oldest in Trieste. They date to the end of the Roman Republic, that is, the end of the first century BCE, as do the domus of the Antiquarium on Via Donota and the Roman theater.

Part of the walls constructed by Octavian, before he had taken the title Augustus, between 33 and 32 BCE for the defense of the colony of Tergeste can still be seen there.

The preserved section is 4 meters long and 2.4 meters wide. The external faces of the walls are made of sandstone blocks, while the internal filling consists of sand mixed with rock. A channel for water drainage is visible at the base of the walls.

Between the middle of the first century and the second century CE, the walls lost their original defensive function. They were reused as part of a terracing system covering the entire slope of the hill of San Giusto facing the sea.

Behind the section of wall, a room with an opus spicatum floor—rectangular bricks arranged in a herringbone pattern—was uncovered. Several fragments of amphorae were also found there. The room has been interpreted as an oil-processing basin. This area of ancient Tergeste was in fact used for productive activities.

Antiquarium of Via Donota

The Antiquarium of Via Donota is located in the lower part of the hill of San Giusto. Visitors can see the remains of a domus and a necropolis dating from the Roman period.

The domus was constructed at the end of the first century BCE, when the entire slope of the hill of San Giusto facing the sea was being developed through the construction of terraces. At the end of the first century CE, the domus was abandoned, and from the second century onward part of it was reused as a pagan necropolis.

The domus was built on two levels, adapting to the slope of the hill. Several rooms have been identified inside, including a well and latrines containing everyday refuse. These discoveries have made it possible to reconstruct aspects of the daily habits of the ancient inhabitants of Trieste.

At least two phases of use have been identified for the necropolis. Between the second and fourth centuries CE, the lower level of the domus was used by a wealthy local family as a private necropolis. From the fourth century onward, it was used for various types of burials, including the burial of children in amphorae.

Archaeologists explain the greater number of child burials compared with adult burials by hypothesizing that between the fourth and sixth centuries CE there was a high rate of infant mortality caused by malnutrition.

Bibliography

Godoli, Ezio. Le città nella storia d’Italia: Trieste. Rome: Editori Laterza, 1984.

Maggi, Paola, Renata Merlatti, and Gabriella Petrucci. Sotto Trieste: Percorsi nella città tra storia e archeologia. Trieste, 2009.

Morselli, Chiara. “Tergeste. Vecchi e nuovi dati per la forma urbis.” In Forme e tempi dell’urbanizzazione nella Cisalpina (II secolo a.C.–I secolo d.C.): Atti delle Giornate di Studio, edited by Luisa Brecciaroli Taborelli. Florence, 2007.

Tedesco, Pamela. “I siti archeologici di Trieste. Parte I.” Chartae Historiae: Periodico dell’A.S.D. Trieste Scherma Storica 1 (2016): 7–9.

Wilkes, J. J. Dalmatia: History of the Provinces of the Roman Empire. London: Routledge & K. Paul, 1969.

Ancient sources

Appian. The Illyrian Wars. In Roman History.

Caesar. The Gallic War. Book 8, section 24.

Pliny the Elder. Natural History. Book 3, sections 18, 22, and 127.

Strabo. Geography. Books 5 and 7.

Velleius Paterculus. Roman History. Book 2, section 110.4.

Ptolemy. Geography. Books 1 and 3.

Online and archaeological sources

Bender, H. “Tergeste.” Pleiades. Accessed September 23, 2026.

Comune di Trieste. Archaeological Itinerary. Trieste.

Bordi, Alberto, ed. “Il piacere dell’etimologia. Rubrica a cura di Alberto Bordi. Giro d’Italia in Etimo: il Nord.” Comirap, August 30, 2013.

Chiara Morselli, “Tergeste. Vecchi e nuovi dati per la forma urbis,” in Forme e tempi dell’urbanizzazione nella Cisalpina (II secolo a.C.–I secolo d.C.), ed. Luisa Brecciaroli Taborelli (Florence, 2007).

Morselli, “Tergeste,” 190–91.

Pliny the Elder, Natural History 3.127.