The Venetian people were indigenous, and already present on the territory before Roman times. The Republic of Venice appeared out of the tumultuous centuries in late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages.

Invasions

• The Lombard Invasion
• Did Narses invite the Lombards?
• Invasions of Italy in Late Antiquity
• Venice might not have been

The earliest times

• Why did Venice become a republic?
• Why did Venice get rich?
• Why St Mark?

Legends

• The Birthday of Venice

Sources

• Main sources for early Venice

• Pliny the Elder on Venetia

• The Historia Langobardorum by Paul the Deacon
• The Justinian plague — Historia Langobardorum
• Alboin and Rosamund — Historia Langobardorum
• The invasion of Venetia — Historia Langobardorum

• De Administrando Imperio by Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (c. 950)

• Translatio Marci Evangelistae Venetias (Latin) (late 900s)
• Translatio Marci Evangelistae Venetias (English translation)

Venetian Stories

• Episode 27 — Cassiodorus
• Episode 28 — The early sources
• Episode 29 — The Lombard Invasion
• Episode 30 — Venetia Maritima