AVEIA(Ἀουΐα. Eth. Aveias,—atis), a city of the Vestini, placed by the Tabula Peutingeriana on the road from Prifernum to Alba Fucensis. Its name is also found in Ptolemy (Ptol. 3.1.59) among the cities of the Vestini, but is not mentioned by Pliny, though we learn from inscriptions that it must have been a municipal town of some importance. There is little doubt that we should read Aveiaefor Avellaein Silius Italicus (Sil. Ital. 8.519) where he enumerates it among the towns of the Vestini, and celebrates the excellence of its pastures. We learn from the Liber Coloniarum (p. 228, where the correction of Aveias agerfor Veiosadmits of no doubt) that its territory was portioned out in the same manner as that of Amiternum, but was not made a colony, and retained, as we learn from an inscription, the subordinate rank of a Praefectura. The site of Aveia has been a subject of much dispute, but Giovenazzi, a local antiquarian, who has investigated the matter with great care, places it near Fossa, a village about six miles S. of Aquila, where there are said to be considerable remains of an ancient city, as well as a church of Sta Balbina, connected by ecclesiastical records with the ancient Aveia. The ruins at Civita di Bagno, supposed by Holstenius to be those of Aveia, are ascribed by this author to Furconium. (Giovenazzi, Della Città d'Aveia nei Vestini, Roma 1773, 4to.; Holsten. Not. in Cluver. p. 139; Romanelli, vol. 3. p. 257—263; Orell. Inscr. 1.06.)
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