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. 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. 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. Other important literary sources include Livy, Strabo, Festus, and Servius Danielis.Īccording 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. In his book Natural History, he lists two settlements in Old Latium that at the time of writing had disappeared.

Pliny the Elder also wrote about Old Latium. Settlement Literary tradition ĭionysius 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. It was calculated by Mommsen that the region's area was about 1860 square kilometres. 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. 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'). Later it was also settled by various Italic tribes such as the Rutulians, Volscians, Aequi, and Hernici. It was the territory of the Latins, an Italic tribe which included the early inhabitants of the city of Rome. Old Latium ( Latin: Latium vetus or Latium antiquum) is a region of the Italian peninsula bounded to the north by the river Tiber, to the east by the central Apennine mountains, to the west by the Mediterranean Sea and to the south by Monte Circeo. Map of Latium with the cities of the Latin League

Zebra pen steel