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46-502: The surname Auruncus , borne by the consul of 501 BC, suggests that the Cominii might have been of Auruncan origin, although if this were so, the family had reached the highest level of Roman society by the beginning of the Republic. However, there could be other explanations for this cognomen . This early consulship implies that the family was once numbered amongst the patricians, although in

92-683: A Volscian attack upon Rome , the Aurunci took up arms against Rome in support of the Volscian cause, and advanced with their army as far as Aricia , where they were defeated by the Roman consul Publius Servilius Priscus Structus . From this time, the name of the Aurunci does not again occur until 344 BC, when it is evident that Livy is speaking only of the people who inhabited the mountain of Rocca Monfina, who were defeated and reduced to submission without difficulty. A few years later (337 BC), they were compelled by

138-416: A partly marshy and partly mountainous region. The latter saw the creation of numerous Roman and Latin colonies: small Roman colonies were created along the coast, while the inland areas were colonized by Latins and Romans without citizenship. The name Latium was thus also extended to this area south of Rome ( Latium adiectum ), up to the ancient Oscan city of Casinum , defined by Strabo as "the last city of

184-455: A place was called in Italy "height" ( capitolium , the mountain-top), or "stronghold" ( arx , from arcere ); it was not a town at first, but it became the nucleus of one, as houses naturally gathered around the stronghold and were afterwards surrounded with the "ring" ( urbs , connected with urvus and curvus ). The isolated Alban range, that natural stronghold of Latium, which offered to settlers

230-499: A secure position, would doubtless be first occupied by the newcomers. Here, along the narrow plateau above Palazzuola between the Alban lake ( Lagiod di Castello ) and the Alban mount ( Monte Cavo ), extended the town of Alba Longa , which was regarded as the primitive seat of the Latin stock, and the mother city of Rome as well as of all the other Old Latin communities; here on the slopes lay

276-578: A single geo-political entity, Italia , dividing it into eleven regions. Latium – together with the present region of Campagna immediately to the southeast of Latium and the seat of Naples – became Region I. After the Gothic War (535–554) A.D. and the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) conquest, this region regained its freedom, because the "Roman Duchy" became the property of the Eastern Emperor. However

322-701: A social space, or forum , was built by c.  620 BC . The influence of the Etruscans played an important role, and migrants came from Etruscan towns. Soon (according to tradition) it was followed by the rule of Etruscan kings, the Tarquins (traditionally, 616-509 BC). While Rome may have acquired considerable territory (some 350 sq. miles) in Latium, Roman kings never exercised absolute power over Latium. The Latin cities did, however, look to Rome for protection, for Rome had more manpower than any other city in Latium. This

368-450: A society led by influential clans ( gentes ). These clans were a sign of their tribal origin, which continued in Rome as the thirty curiae which organized Roman society. However, as a social unit the gens was replaced by the family which was headed by the paterfamilias - the oldest male who held supreme authority over the family. A fixed local center seemed necessary as the center of

414-399: A warlike and powerful nation who had extended their conquests to the borders of Latium. Livy tells us that in 503 and 502 BC, the Latin cities of Cora and Pometia revolted and allied themselves with the Aurunci. These powerful neighbours supported them with a large army against the infant republic; however, Rome ultimately prevailed. A few years later, in 495 BC, at around the time of

460-590: Is that Lazio comes from the Latin word "latus", meaning "wide", expressing the idea of "flat land" meaning the Roman Campagna . The region that would become Latium had been home to settled agricultural populations since the early Bronze Age and was known to the Ancient Greeks and even earlier to the Mycenaean Greeks . The name is most likely derived from the Latin word " latus ", meaning "wide", expressing

506-617: Is the region of central western Italy in which the city of Rome was founded and grew to be the capital city of the Roman Empire . Latium was originally a small triangle of fertile, volcanic soil ( Old Latium ) on which resided the tribe of the Latins or Latians. It was located on the left bank (east and south) of the River Tiber , extending northward to the River Anio (a left-bank tributary of

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552-532: The Aurunci , a people who lived to the southeast of Latium . Such cognomina belong to a large class of surnames derived from the names of towns, regions, or peoples. Whether the cognomen should be interpreted as meaning that the family migrated from there to Rome under the kings , or whether the consul of 501 BC acquired it as a personal surname is unknown, but the Romans fought against the Aurunci beginning in 503. None of

598-572: The Old Latin language, ancestor of Latin and the Romance languages . Latium has played an important role in history owing to its status as the host of the capital city of Rome , at one time the cultural and political center of the Roman Empire . Consequently, Latium is home to celebrated works of art and architecture . The earliest known Latium was the country of the Latini , a tribe whose recognised center

644-518: The Lake of Ariccia. So, by virtue of her proximity to the sanctuary of Jupiter, the village of Alba Longa held a position of religious primacy among the Latin villages. Originally, thirty villages were entitled to participate in the league, known as the Alban colonies. Only a few of the individual names of these villages are recorded. The ritual of this league was the "Latin festival" ( feriae Latinae ), at which, on

690-523: The Latin peoples. By the mid-7th century BC, Rome had secured itself as a maritime power and secured its salt supply; the Via Salaria (lit. "salt road") was paved from Rome down to Ostia on the northern bank of the river Tiber - the closest salt-field in Western Italy. At the same time, archaeologists detect, there was an urban transformation of the area. Roman huts were being replaced by houses, and

736-559: The Latins". The modern descendant, the Italian Regione of Lazio , also called Latium in Latin , and occasionally in modern English , is somewhat larger still, though less than twice the size of Latium vetus et adiectum, including a large area of ancient Southern Etruria and Sabina. The ancient language of the Latins, the tribespeople who occupied Latium, was the immediate predecessor of

782-456: The Latins. Although Alba Longa enjoyed a position of religious primacy, the Alban presidency never held any significant political power over Latium, e.g. it was never the capital of a Latin state. It is probable that the extent of the Latin League's jurisdiction was somewhat unsettled and thus fluctuated; yet it remained for its existence not an accidental aggregate of various communities, but

828-556: The Mount of Alba, upon a day annually appointed by the chief magistrate for the purpose, an ox was sacrificed by the assembled Latin stock to the "Latin god" ( Jupiter Latiaris ). Each community taking part in the ceremony had to contribute to the sacrificial feast. However; the sacred grove of Aricia, the Nemus Dianae , on the Lake of Aricia , was always among the most popular place of pilgrimage for

874-565: The Romans subsequently held religious and state ceremonies. The last pagan temple to be built stood until the Middle Ages when its stone and location were reused for various monasteries and finally a hotel. During World War II , the Wehrmacht turned it into a radio station, which was captured after an infantry battle by American troops in 1944, and it currently is a controversial telecommunications station surrounded by antennae considered unsightly by

920-712: The Tiber) and southeastward to the Pomptina Palus ( Pontine Marshes , now the Pontine Fields) as far south as the Circeian promontory . The right bank of the Tiber was occupied by the Etruscan city of Veii , and the other borders were occupied by Italic tribes. Subsequently, Rome defeated Veii and then its Italic neighbours, expanding its dominions over Southern Etruria and to the south, in

966-460: The attacks of their neighbours, the Sidicini, to apply to Rome for aid, and meanwhile abandoned their stronghold on the mountain and established themselves in their new city of Suessa. No mention of their name is found in the subsequent Roman wars in this part of Italy. In 313 BC, a Roman colony was established at Suessa ; their national existence must have been thenceforth at an end. Their territory

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1012-526: The coast, were all more or less ancient centers of Latin colonization, not to speak of many other less famous and in some cases almost forgotten. All these villages were politically sovereign, and each of them was self-governing. The closeness of descent and their common language not only pervaded all of them, but manifested itself in an important religious and political institution—the Latin League. The Latins were tied together by religious associations, including worship of Venus, Jupiter Latiaris, and of Diana at

1058-617: The ecclesiastical power. However, between 1353 and 1367, the papacy regained control of Latium and the rest of the Papal States . From the middle of the 16th century, the papacy politically unified Latium with the Papal States , so that these territories became provincial administrations of St. Peter's estate; governors in Viterbo , in Marittima and Campagna , and in Frosinone administered them for

1104-490: The first of the Cominii to hold office at Rome, was an ancient praenomen, sometimes erroneously amended to the nomen Postumius . Another Cominius is found with the praenomen Pontius , evidently a variation of Pompo , the Sabine equivalent of Quintus , rather than the nomen Pontius , although in some sources he is Gaius . The first of the family known to history bore the surname Auruncus , suggesting some connection with

1150-420: The foremost families were compelled to move to Rome: Alba Longa, the mother city, was dissolved into Rome, the daughter. According to Livy , Alba Longa was razed to the ground - spare the temples - by King Tullus of Rome. The Latin festival would still be held on the Alban mount, but by Roman magistrates. Having destroyed Alba Longa, Rome was in command of the Latin festival and thus held presidency over

1196-507: The idea of "flat land" (in contrast to the local Sabine high country). The Etruscans , from their home region of Etruria , exerted a strong cultural and political influence on Latium from about the 8th century BC onward. However, they were unable to assert political hegemony over the region, which was controlled by small, autonomous city-states in a manner roughly analogous to the state of affairs that prevailed in Ancient Greece . Indeed,

1242-402: The later Republic all of the Cominii seem to have been plebeians. It may be that the family passed over to the plebeians during the fourth or fifth centuries BC, or that the patrician branch of the gens became extinct. Alternatively it has been suggested that the earliest consuls included members of a number of plebeian families, and that plebeians were not formally excluded from the office until

1288-491: The long wars against the barbarian Longobards weakened the region, which was seized by the Roman Bishop who already had several properties in those territories. The strengthening of the religious and ecclesiastical aristocracy led to continuous power struggles between lords and the Roman bishop until the middle of the 16th century. Innocent III tried to strengthen his own territorial power, wishing to assert his authority in

1334-506: The mountain, while Suessa , which they subsequently made their capital, was on its south-western slope, commanding the fertile plains from there to the sea. On the east and south they bordered closely on the Sidicini of Teanum and the people of Cales, who, according to Livy , were also of Ausonian race, but were politically distinct from the Auruncans. Virgil evidently regards these hills as

1380-491: The name given by Roman writers to an ancient race or nation of Italy. It appears that "Aurunci" was the appellation the Romans gave to the people called " Ausones " by the Greeks. One form might be derived from the other by rhotacism (corruption of sound "s" in "r") (Ausoni > Auroni > Auronici > Aurunci). The identity of the two is distinctly asserted by Servius , and clearly implied by Cassius Dio , where he says that

1426-525: The name of Ausonia was properly applied only to the land of the Auruncans, between the Volscians and the Campanians . In like manner, Festus makes the mythical hero Auson the founder of the city of Aurunea. Servius terms the Aurunci one of the most ancient nations of Italy. They appear to have been much more powerful and widely spread at an early period than we subsequently find them, but it does not appear that

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1472-459: The name was ever employed by the Romans in the vague and extended sense in which "Ausones" was used by the Greeks. At a later period, in the fourth century BC, the two names of Aurunci and Ausones had assumed a distinct signification, and came to be applied to two petty nations, evidently mere subdivisions of the same great race, both dwelling on the frontiers of Latium and Campania ; the Ausones on

1518-534: The original abode of the Auruncan, and speaks of them as merely a petty people. In contrast, in 495 BC, Dionysius of Halicarnassus refers to them as being a warlike people of great strength and fierceness, who occupied the fairest plains of Campania; so that it seems certain the name is here used as including the people to whom the name of Ausones (in its more limited sense) is afterwards applied. The first occasion in which they appear in Roman history exhibits them as

1564-505: The other Cominii of the Republic is mentioned with any surname, but a variety of personal surnames appears among the Cominii of the Empire . Aurunci The Aurunci were an Italic tribe that lived in southern Italy from around the 1st millennium BC. They were eventually defeated by Rome and subsumed into the Roman Republic during the second half of the 4th century BC. Aurunci is

1610-598: The papacy. After the short-lived Roman Republic (18th century) , the region's annexation to France by Napoleon Bonaparte in February 1798, Latium became again part of the Papal States in October, 1799. On 20 September 1870, the capture of Rome , during the reign of Pope Pius IX , and France's defeat at Sedan , completed Italian unification , and Latium was incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy . Latium, often referred to by

1656-645: The passage of the Twelve Tables in 450–449 BC. Furthermore, Valerius Maximus suggests that the nomen of Auruncus is uncertain, and that he might instead have belonged to the Postumia gens , although modern historians agree that Postumus was most likely his praenomen. The main praenomina of the Cominii were Lucius , Publius , and Gaius , all amongst the most common names at all periods of Roman history. Other praenomina used by this gens include Marcus , Quintus , and Sextus . Postumus , known from

1702-475: The population within view. The selection of Jupiter as a state god and the descent of the name Latini to the name of the Latin language are sufficient to identify the Latins as a tribe of Indo-European descent. Virgil , a major poet of the early Roman Empire , under Augustus , derived Latium from the word for "hidden" (English latent) because in a myth Saturn , ruler of the golden age in Latium, hid (latuisset) from Jupiter there. A major modern etymology

1748-475: The positive expression of the relationship of the Latin stock. The Latin League may not have at all times included all Latin communities, but it never granted the privilege of membership to any that were not Latin. Very early in its existence, Rome acquired the presidency of the league, and Alba Longa appeared as a rival for which it was destroyed in the mid-7th century BC; the league, as it was, had been dissolved and

1794-691: The provincial administrations of Tuscia, Campagna and Marittima through the Church's representatives, in order to reduce the power of the Colonna family . Other popes tried to do the same. During the period when the papacy resided in Avignon, France (1309–1377), the feudal lords' power increased due to the absence of the Pope from Rome. Small communes, and Rome above all, opposed the lords' increasing power, and with Cola di Rienzo , they tried to present themselves as antagonists of

1840-402: The region cannot have been one of the villages, but must have been a place of common assembly, containing the seat of justice and the common sanctuary of the district, where members of the clans met for purposes of administration and amusement, and where they obtained a safer shelter for themselves in case of war: in ordinary circumstances such a place was not at all or but scantily inhabited. Such

1886-447: The region's cultural and geographic proximity to the cities of Magna Graecia had a strong impact upon its early history. By the 10th century BC, archaeology records a slow development in agriculture from the entire area of Latium with the establishment of numerous villages. The Latins cultivated grains (spelt and barley), grapes ( Vitis vinifera ), olives, apples, and fig trees. The various Latini populi (lit. "Latin peoples") lived in

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1932-420: The very ancient Latin districts of Lanuvium, Aricia, and Tusculum. Here too are found some primitive works of masonry, which usually mark the beginnings of civilization. The district-strongholds there later gave rise to the considerable towns of Tibur and Praeneste . Labici too, Gabii , Nomentum in the plain between the Alban and Sabine hills and the Tiber, Rome on the Tiber, Laurentum and Lavinium on

1978-502: The west of the Liris, extending from there to the mountains of the Volscians ; the Auruncans, on the other hand, being confined to the detached group of volcanic mountains now called Monte Santa Croce , or Rocca Monfina , on the left bank of the Liris , together with the hills that slope from there towards the sea. Their ancient stronghold or metropolis, Aurunca was situated near the summit of

2024-556: Was a large, dormant volcano, Mons Albanus ("the Alban Mount", today's Colli Albani ), 20 kilometres (12 mi) to the southeast of Rome, 64 kilometres (40 mi) in circumference. In its center is a crater lake, Lacus Albanus ( Lago Albano ), oval in shape, a few km long and wide. At the top of the second-highest peak ( Monte Cavo ) was a temple to Jupiter Latiaris, where the Latini held state functions before their subjection to Rome, and

2070-400: Was due, in part, to Rome's generous policy of asylum: Roman kindness was unique in its readiness to grant citizenship to outsiders, citizenship was even granted to former slaves. The children of freedmen provided an important source for Roman armies, and given Rome a definite edge in manpower over other cities of the time. The emperor Augustus officially united all of present-day Italy into

2116-491: Was subsequently included in Campania. The Aurunci mountains and the modern town of Sessa Aurunca bears the Aurunci's name. "In multis verbis, in quo antiqui dicebant s, postea dicunt r... foedesum foederum, plusima plurima, meliosem meliorem, asenam arenam." Latium Latium ( / ˈ l eɪ ʃ i ə m / LAY -shee-əm , US also /- ʃ ə m / -⁠shəm ; Latin: [ˈɫati.ũː] )

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