Its foundation is expressly ascribed by
Virgil to the kings of
Alba Longa, and its name is found also in the list given by
Diodorus Siculus of the colonies of that city. Hence, there is no doubt that it was properly a
Latin city, though its name does not appear among the list of those that composed the
Latin League. But it fell at an early period into the hands of the
Aequians.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus describes it as one of the towns taken by
Coriolanus, together with
Toleria and
Labicum; and though
Livy does not notice its conquest upon that occasion, he speaks of it as an
Aequian town, when the name next occurs in history towards the end of the 5th century BC. In this instance the Bolani were among the foremost to engage in war, and ravaged the lands of the neighboring
Labicum, but being unsupported by the rest of the Aequians, they were defeated, and their town taken. It was, however, recovered by the Aequians, and a fresh colony established there, but was again taken by the Romans under
Publius Postumius Albus Regillensis, and it was on this occasion that the proposal to establish a Roman
colony there, and portion out its lands among the settlers, gave rise to one of the fiercest
mutinies in Roman history. Whether the colony was actually sent, the town was again in the hands of the Aequians in 389 BC, when they were defeated beneath its walls by
Marcus Furius Camillus; but
Diodorus Siculus represents it as then occupied by the Latins, and besieged by the
Aequians. This is the last mention of the name in history: it was probably destroyed during these wars, as we find no subsequent trace of its existence; and it is enumerated by
Pliny among the towns which had in his time utterly disappeared. The site is called
Poli, situated in the mountains about eight miles north of
Praeneste; but
Livy tells us that its
ager bordered on that of
Labicum, and the narratives of
Dionysius and
Plutarch above cited seem clearly to point to a situation in the neighborhood of
Labicum and
Pedum. Hence it is much more probable, as suggested by
Francesco Ficoroni and
Antonio Nibby, that it occupied the site of Lugano, a village about 5 miles south of
Palestrina (Praeneste), and 9 miles southeast of
La Colonna (Labicum). The position is, like that of most of the other towns in this neighborhood, naturally fortified by the ravines that surround it: and its situation between the
Aequian mountains on the one side, and the heights of
Algidus Mons on the other, would necessarily render it a military point of importance both to
Aequians and Latins. ==References==