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Latium Vetus
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Latium Vetus
Latium Vetus or Latium Antiquum (English: Old Latium) 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. 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. It was calculated by Mommsen that the region's area was about 1860 square kilometres.
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, 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, 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.
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:
In the first region moreover in Latium were the famous walled towns (clara oppida) Satricum, Scaptia, Politorium, Tellena, Tifata, Caenina, Ficana, Crustumeria, Ameriola, Medullum, Corniculum, Saturnia now which is Rome, Antipolis (which is now the Janiculum, a place in Rome), Antemnae, Camerium, Collatia, Amitinum, Norba, and Sulmo. Together with them the Alban Peoples who used to receive the (sacrificial) meat on the Alban Mount: Albani, Aesolani, Accienses, Abolani, Bubetani, Bolani, Cusuetani, Coriolani, Fidenates, Foreti, Hortenses, Latinienses, Longani, Manates, Macrales, Munienses, Numinienses, Olliculani, Octulani, Pedani, Poletaurini, Querquetulani, Sicani, Sisolenses, Tolerienses, Tutienses, Vimitellari, Velienses, Venetulani, Vitellienses.
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 1st century BC 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,[citation needed] 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, 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.
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Latium Vetus
Latium Vetus or Latium Antiquum (English: Old Latium) 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. 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. It was calculated by Mommsen that the region's area was about 1860 square kilometres.
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, 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, 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.
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:
In the first region moreover in Latium were the famous walled towns (clara oppida) Satricum, Scaptia, Politorium, Tellena, Tifata, Caenina, Ficana, Crustumeria, Ameriola, Medullum, Corniculum, Saturnia now which is Rome, Antipolis (which is now the Janiculum, a place in Rome), Antemnae, Camerium, Collatia, Amitinum, Norba, and Sulmo. Together with them the Alban Peoples who used to receive the (sacrificial) meat on the Alban Mount: Albani, Aesolani, Accienses, Abolani, Bubetani, Bolani, Cusuetani, Coriolani, Fidenates, Foreti, Hortenses, Latinienses, Longani, Manates, Macrales, Munienses, Numinienses, Olliculani, Octulani, Pedani, Poletaurini, Querquetulani, Sicani, Sisolenses, Tolerienses, Tutienses, Vimitellari, Velienses, Venetulani, Vitellienses.
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 1st century BC 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,[citation needed] 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, 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.