or () is a region of the Italian Peninsula bounded to the north by the Tiber River, to the east by the central Apennine Mountains, to the west by the Mediterranean Sea and to the south by Monte Circeo. It was the territory of the Latins, an Italic tribe which included the early inhabitants of the city of Rome. Later it was also settled by various Italic tribes such as the Rutulians, Volscians, Aequi, and Hernici.Strabon Geography III 10. The region was referred to as "old" to distinguish it from the expanded region, Latium, that included the region to the south of Old Latium, between Monte Circeo and the river Garigliano – the so-called Latium adiectum ("attached Latium"). It corresponded to the central part of the modern administrative region of Lazio, Italy, and it covered an area measuring of roughly 50 Roman miles.Pliny NH III 56. It was calculated by Mommsen that the region's area was about 1860 square kilometres.T. Mommsen History of Rome I 3, 3.
Settlement Literary tradition Dionysius of Halicarnassus has preserved extensive information on the settlement of Latium in his book, Roman Antiquities, where he listed and discussed many legends and traditional stories related by historians and scholars, both Greek and Roman, on how Latium was settled. Pliny the Elder also wrote about Old Latium. In his book Natural History, he lists two settlements in Old Latium that at the time of writing had disappeared. Other important literary sources include Livy, Strabo, Festus, and Servius Danielis.
According to these sources Latium was first settled long ago by Sicels and Ligures,Festus s. v. sacrani p. 424 L: "Sacrani are named those who moved from Reate and expelled the Sicels and Ligures from the Septimontium"; Servius Danielis Ad Aeneidem XI 371, VIII; Dionysius of Halicarnassus RA I 12, 2 citing Sophocles's Triptolemus on Oenotrians and Ligures settling the coasts of the Tyrrhenian Sea. but many sources contradict or do not state which of the two groups first settled Latium. According to the literary tradition, the Sicels and Ligures were forced out of Latium by the constant pressure exerted by the Aborigines, who dwelt in Reate, causing the Ligures to migrate to Liguria and the Sicels to Sicily. The migration of the tribes appears to have been from the hills and mountains of the region down towards the plains, although there are testimonies of Greek colonizers migrating by sea into the region, as in the legend of Evander, and to southern Italy, as the Sicels were considered to be both Oenotrians of Greek origin,Dionysius of Hal. RA I 12, 3. and Rutulian of Daunian origin.
The arrival of the Aeneads and the founding of Lavinium are claimed to mark the beginning of civilization in Latium, and 30 years after these events Alba was founded, the city that led the Latin League, a coalition of 30 cities and tribes that lasted for 500 years. While there are many different myths on the founding of these cities, it is known that the region and the Latin League were religiously influenced by the cult of Iuppiter Latiaris, an epithet of Jupiter, and venerated this god as the high protector of the league.
Pliny's list The accounting provided by Pliny the Elder does not include all the centres of Latium Vetus that later developed into towns, but rather lists those which, according to the scholar, had disappeared by his time without leaving any trace. Therefore, he does not mention Anxur, Tibur, Cora, Ficulea, Nomentum, Praeneste, Gabii, Ardea, Aricia, Tusculum, Lavinium, Laurentum, Lanuvium, Labicum, and Velitrae, which were still standing, with the exception of old Labicum. But some settlements he mentions were in fact visited by Strabo only seventy years earlier (such as Tellenae), and some still certainly stood in his own time, such as Pedum. Another oddity of the passage is that while he claims there were fifty-three centres that had disappeared, his list numbers only fifty. Even though elsewhere he mentions two other sites, Apiolae and Amyclae, this still does not equal fifty-three. The list is in book III of his Natural History ch. 68 and 69:
The list is apparently made up of two sections, the first is referred to as clara oppida and the second as populi Albenses. The last two towns mentioned among the clara oppida, Norba and Sulmo, were in fact within Latium Adiectum. They were destroyed in the 1stcenturyBC during the war between Marius and Sulla.
The second section gives the names of the populi Albenses. These were local communities inhabiting the region of Mons Albanus (now Monte Cavo) and its immediate surroundings, the Alban Hills. Only some of them seem to have reached the urban stage and the list reflects the typical archaic Bronze Age organization of human settlement: sparse, polycentric and gravitating around a religious centre, in this case the sanctuary of Iuppiter Latiaris. The exact location of these settlements is unknown with a few exceptions: Aesulae, Pedum, Fidenae, Politorium, Bovillae, and Tolerium. It is possible that the Latinienses were settlers of the Ager Latiniensis, i. e. the area near Laurentum and Lavinium,Cf. Cicero De Haruspicum Responso: a crack sound was heard in the Ager Latiniensis. and that the Foreti were actually settlers of the area later occupied by the Roman Forum. The Querquetulani, however, were certainly not the settlers of the Querquetulan (i.e. Caelian ) Hill in Rome as they are mentioned by Dionysius in the list of Latin peoples who went to war against Rome in 495 BC.
Dionysius's list Dionysius gives a list of the towns members of the Latin League that voted for war against Rome after the capture of Fidenae by the Romans, under the influence of Aricia and of former king Tarquinius the Proud at an assembly held at Ferentinum:Dionysius V 61 3. D. calls Ferentinum the caput Ferentinae or aquae Ferentinae of Roman authors. See below A. Grandazzi's citations in the discussion of the issue.
As Niebuhr remarked, once again the total yields the sacred number of thirty, but the sum is made up of different components. It is a mix of some of the members of the populi Albenses and some of the clara oppida. In fact, many of the oppida had been destroyed or resettled by the Romans during the regal period, namely Caenina, Politorium, Ficana, Cameria, Medullium, Corniculum, Collatia. Among the clara oppida of Pliny's list, Satricum, Norba, Sulmo, Scaptia, Tellenae show up here, and among the populi albenses Bubentum, Corioli, Pedum, Querquetula, Tolerium, and possibly Nomentum.
Other sources In his description of Augustan region I, which included Old Latium, the geographer Strabo mentions many old towns, among them Collatia, Antemnae, Fidenae and Labicum, as reduced to mere villages, private rural estates or displaced to different locations; Apiolae, Suessa and Alba Longa as disappeared; Tellenae on the foothills southwest of the Alban Hills as still standing.
The historiographer Livy and the lexicographer Festus also repeatedly mention the old Latin towns. Another tradition related by Philistos of Syracuse calls the Sicels Ligurians, whose king was a Sikelos. This tradition is followed by Stephanus of Byzantium, who cites Hellanicus of Lesbos as his authority.
These ancient traditions have led some scholars to look for traces of the presence of these peoples in later populations.
Archaeological evidence
Even though erudite scholars have been trying to ascertain the location of the ancient towns of Latium for at least the last four centuries (see Cluvier), and despite the recent progress made by archaeology in the field of the human settlement of ancient Latium, only a few towns of archaic Latium cited by ancient sources have been identified with certainty, whereas a remarkable number of settlements that have been unearthed remain unidentified. This is due to the lack of epigraphic confirmation, due to the rare use of writing in archaic times. The problem is made even more difficult because some of the ancient locations were possibly resettled during the Early Middle Ages, as was probably the case for Labicum and Collatia. A good instance of such a custom is provided by Falerii outside Latium Vetus. Towns which have been identified archaeologically include Satricum, Politorium, Ficana, Tellenae, Crustumerium, Corniculum, Antemnae, Collatia, Fidenae, Pedum, Apiolae, Gabii and perhaps Querquetulum. Alba Longa, Pometia and Corioli remain unidentified. Traces of the presence of the Ligures and Sicels remain in the toponymy and onomastics.See the works by G. Sergi, F. Ribezzo, G. Devoto, G. Alessio and A. Grandazzi cited below.
The most conspicuous case and one which has given rise to long-standing debate is Alba Longa. The location of that famous city, according to tradition founded by Ascanius and the metropolis of the Latins for 418 years, is still a mystery. Some scholars have argued that it has not yet been identified because the Ancients themselves did not know exactly where it was located and the reason for their ignorance was that Alba had never been a real city. It would rather have been a loose collection of small and sparsely populated protohistoric villages organised in the Bronze Age custom around the sanctuary of Mount Albanus and abandoned before it reached the urban stage.A. Grandazzi "La localisation d' Alba" in MEFRA 1986. See section below.
Amitinum This centre was located to the east of Rome on the Corniculan Mountains, not far from Curniculum. Its identification is due to an inscription that mentions a pagus amentinus.CIL VI 251.
Antemnae The town of Antemnae was located three miles to the north of Rome on the left bank of the river Anio and close to its confluence with the Tiber. Its name means "between the rivers" (Antemnae is the Sabine for Latin interamnes). Some of its ruins were discovered in 1880 during excavations to build the fortress "Forte Antenne". Later excavations yielded additional material. The location is now within the urban area of Rome.
Antemnae was colonised by Rome at the time of Romolus during the first effort to control the left bank of the Tiber up to the Anio, thus ensuring a communication route with Etruria along the Via Salaria. The Antemnates and the Caeninenses were granted full Roman citizenship. Nevertheless, the town revolted several times, the last time in 507 BC.Dionysius Hal. V 21.
Apiolae Destroyed by Tarquinius Priscus, the remains have been identified and excavated. The town was located on Monte Savello between Albano and Pavona. It housed a temple of Apollo and the famous spring of Juturna, with nearby Lake Turni being the object of a local cult. Today the two water sources are known as the spring of Secciano and the Laghetto di Pavona.
Aefulae The site of the settlement of the Alban people Aesulani has been identified with the hilltop castrum of Aefulae near ancient Tibur and close to the site of one of the temples of Bona Dea. It was deserted by the original dwellers and later resettled by the Romans, who turned it into a military fort.Aesulae is the Latin pronunciatiation of a Sabine Aefulae i.e. meaning Aedules.
Bolae The site of the Alban people Bolani is frequently mentioned by the historians Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Livy. It was occupied by the Aequians probably already in the late 6th century or in the wars led by Coriolanus.Dion. Hal. VIII 18. Its site is not known with certainty, but it must have stood not far from Praeneste and Labicum.
Corioli The site of this settlement must have stood on the south-west side of the Alban Hills near Genzano and Lanuvium.
Pedum The most important of the Latin towns developed from the ancient populi albenses, Pedum stood between Tibur and Praeneste near modern Gallicano nel Lazio. It was taken by the Romans with Coriolanus.Livy II 39; Plutarch Cor. 28. After the final demise of the Latin League, the town declined.
Tolerium