Treviso is a town in the Veneto region of Italy. It is the capital of province of Treviso. The municipality has 82,112 inhabitants (December 2004): some 80,000 live in the urban center proper, while the city hinterland has a population of some 170,000. It is the home of the headquarters of designer clothing company Benetton, and of the major appliance maker DeLonghi.

Geography

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The city is situated some 15 km south-west the right bank of the Piave River, on the plain between the Gulf of Venice and the Alps, at the confluence of the Sile with the Botteniga.

History

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Venetic Period
For some scholars, the ancient city of Tarvisium derived its name from a settlement of the Celtic tribe of the Taurusci. Others have attributed the name instead to the Indo European root tarvos, meaning "bull".
Roman Period
Tarvisium, then a city of the Veneti, became a municipium in 89 BC after the Romans added Cisalpine Gaul to their dominions. Citizens were ascribed to the Roman tribe of Claudia. The city lay in proximity of the Via Postumia, which connected Opitergium to Aquileia, two major cities of Roman Venetia during Ancient and Early Medieval times. Treviso is rarely mentioned by ancient writers, although Pliny writes of the "Silis," that is the Sile River, as flowing ex montibus Tarvisanis.

During the Roman Period, Christianity was spread to Treviso. Tradition records that St. Prosdocimus, a Greek who had been ordained bishop by St. Peter, brought the Catholic Faith to Treviso and surrounding areas. By the fourth century, the Christian population grew sufficient to merit a resident bishop. The first documented was named John the Pius who began his epsicopacy in 396 AD.

Barbarian Period
Treviso lay in the path of barbarians invading Italy. Treviso went through a demographic and economic decline similar to the rest of Italy after the fall of the Western Empire; however, it was spared by Attila the Hun, and thus, remained an important center during the 6th century. According to tradition, Treviso was the birthplace of Totila, the leader of Ostrogoths during the Gothic Wars. Immediately after the Gothic Wars, Treviso fell under the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna until 568 AD when it was taken by the Lombard, who made it as one of 36 ducal seat and established an important mint. The latter was especially important during the reign of the last Lombard king, Desiderius, and continued to churn out coins when northern Italy was annexed to the Frankish Empire. People from the city also played a role in the founding of Venice.

Carolingian Period
Charlemagne made it the capital of a border March, i.e, the Marca Trevigiana, which lasted for several centuries.

High Middle Ages
Treviso joined the Lombard League, and gained independence after the Peace of Constance (1183). This lasted until the times when seignories started to impose in northern Italy: among the various families who ruled over Treviso, the Da Romano reigned from 1237 to 1260. Struggles between Guelph and Ghibelline factions followed, with the first triumphant in 1283, date after which...