, 1888.
Biblioteca Museu Víctor Balaguer 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 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, 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. 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 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 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 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 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 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.
Latin League 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 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 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 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. 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 the foremost families were compelled to move to Rome: Alba Longa, the mother city, was dissolved into Rome, the daughter. The Latin festival would still be held on the Alban mount, but by Roman magistrates. 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 a social space, or
forum, was built by . 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.
Roman Republic and after The emperor
Augustus officially united all of present-day Italy into 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. wearing the
Civic Crown.
Glyptothek,
Munich 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 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 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. they tried to present themselves as antagonists of the ecclesiastical power. However, between 1353 and 1367, the papacy regained control of Latium and the rest of the
Papal States. 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. ==Modern region of Latium==