Ogle Earth: Altinum revealed... and in Google Earth
Altinum was a prosperous Roman city on the coastal lowlands of northern Italy. It was sacked by Attila the Hun in the 5th century AD, and conquered by the Lombards a century later. Historians now speculate that these events prompted inhabitants from Altinum and other towns in the vicinity to resettle on more easily defended islands in a nearby lagoon... thus founding Venice. (Wikipedia has a good concise history of the town.)

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