Venĕti

, a people of Italy in Cisalpine Gaul, near the mouth of the Po. They were descended from a nation of Paphlagonia, who settled there under Antenor some time after the Trojan war. The Venetians, who have been long a powerful and commercial nation, were originally very poor, whence a writer in the age of the Roman emperors said, they had no other fence against the waves of the sea but hurdles, no food but fish, no wealth besides their fishing-boats, and no merchandise but salt. Strabo , bk. 4 , . — Livy , bk. 1 , ch. 1 .— Mela , bk. 1 , ch. 2 ; bk. 2 , ch. 4 .— Cæsar , Gallic War , bk. 3 , ch. 8 .— Lucan , bk. 4 , li. 134 .— Silius Italic us , bk. 8 , li. 605 .――A nation of Gaul, at the south of Armorica, on the western coast, powerful by sea. Their chief city is now called Vannes . Cæsar , bk. 3 , Gallic War , ch. 8 .