Equilo, from the latin word equus=town of horses,and according to transcriptions also Equilio, Esquilio, Esulo, Lesulo, Jexollo and today Jesolo has its roots in the times of the Roman Empire as vicus (= village), on an island next to the mouth of the Piave: it was at the time one of the many places used by merchants in their journeys inside the lagoon, above all in winter, sheltered from winds (the Bora) and storms, on the way from Ravenna, port where the grain of the 9th Augustean Region called Aemilia was embarked, to the great town-fortress Aquileia, rampart of the Eastern Roman border.
Exposed to the continuous barbaric invasions (from the 5th Century on ), a part of the helpless inhabitants of Altino, Oderzo and of the areas around Treviso and Belluno, in their escape, following the river Piave, chose Jesolo as last refuge.
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The first Doges and the war between Jesolo and Eraclea
With the fall of the Roman Empire, Jesolo and the other towns of the Venetian estuary (Rialto, Murano, Burano, Torcello, Malamocco, San Pietro in Volta, Chioggia, Brondolo, Fossone, Eraclea, Fine, Caorle, Grado and Cavarzere), remained without a political direction, they formed a congregation and created their own autonomous government by electing in 697 as head of the government Paoluccio Anafesto, the unforgettable first Doge; capital was Civitas Nova (Eraclea) located in the middle of the Venetiarum Commune.
The inhabitants of Jesolo could hardly stand that the government had its seat in Eraclea, as they considered the origins their town more important and more ancient, and asked without success to become seat of the Doge. When the Eraclean Doge, Orso Teodato, moved in 742 the centre of the power to Malamocco, which granted the interposition of a large expanse of water, in order to have more security from an inner and outer point of view, and to keep a distance from the enemy Equilio, the complaint towards the Eraclean Doges grew.
In 755 Galla from Equilio encroached on the power of the Doge and briefly rose the fortune of the town; he was removed from his office by Domenico Monegario from Malamocco who, at his turn, undergo the same fate and the supreme authority went into the hands of an Eraclean family, the Gabbai, who kept the power for almost half a century.
In 804 Equilio with Malamocco managed to defeat the old enemy but could not rise itself. The Tribune Obelerio from Malamocco, proclamed Doge by the Frank partisans escaped to Treviso (in the small new-born State there were those who took the side of the Bizantines and those the one of the Franks according to their own interests), with the help of the inhabitants of Equilio forced the Gabbai to escape and dismantled Eracliana, centre of the Bizantine party. But at the arrival of the ships coming from Costantinople in support of their friends, commanded by Niceta in 807 and by Ebersapio in 809, Obelerio and his son, who shared the power with his father, had to escape and choose exile; the principality went back into the hands of an Eraclean, Agnolo Partecipazio [Particiaco].
The following year the fleet of the Franks, commanded by Pipino son of Charlemagne, invaded the lagoons and damaged every centre except Rialto, a safe rampart and Rialto itself became in 810 seat of the government and Equilio and Eracliana went to the background like all other small centres. (G. Pavanello, L'Antica Jesolo e la moderna Cava Zuccherina, in L'illustrazione Veneta, n. 9, anno 1927).
