What? Where is that? Never heard of it," most people would say. I hadn't either, until I came across some stunning mosaics - quite a few of them, I might add. And 'stunning' doesn't even begin to cover it. Aquileia was one of the most important cities in the inhabited Western world between 300 BC and 500 AD. The story of what was at the time, the ninth-largest city in the world during the 5th century, reads like a epic tale. 

Although the area was likely inhabited earlier by nomads from eastern and northern Europe, it was discovered around the third century BC by the Romans, who found it a strategic location for a settlement. The first families to settle came from the south, from Campania, making it more of a Latino than a Roman settlement.