Roman Ardelica was a town of Gallia Transpadana that occupied the site of the modern Peschiera del Garda, at the southeast angle of the Lacus Benacus (Lago di Garda), just where the Mincius (modern Mincio) issued from the lake.
The name is found under the corrupted form Ariolica in the Tabula Peutingeriana, which correctly places it between Brixia and Verona; the true form is preserved by inscriptions, of which one says that it was a trading place, with a corporation of ship-owners, collegium naviculariorum Ardelicensium. (Orell. Inscr. 4108.)
The town is mentioned as Arilica in Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia.
The archaeological area in Peschiera del Garda conserves the remains of a Roman settlement which started around the end of the I century B.C. on the remains of an older village of III-II B.C.
The settlement, with commercial function, was restored during the II century and lasted up to the IV century A.D.
It is believed that this site corresponds to the ancient Roman village of Arilica, which is known thanks to four inscriptions of the “collegium nautarum Arilicensium”, the association of boat drivers in Peschiera, which managed the traffic in the southern part of the lake.