Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Latium

LATIUM, in ancient geography, was the name given to the portion of central Italy which adjoined the Tyrrhenian Sea on the west, and was situated between Etruria and Campania. The name was, however, applied in a very different sense at different times, and the extent of country comprised under this appellation varied materially. Latium originally means the land of the Latini, and in this sense, which is that alone in use historically, it was a tract of comparatively limited extent; but after the overthrow of the Latin confederacy, when the neighbouring tribes of the Hernicans, Volscians, and Auruncans, as well as the Latins properly so called, were reduced to the condition of subjects and citizens of Rome, the name of Latium was extended so as to comprise them all, and include the whole country from the Tiber to the Liris. The change thus introduced was not formally established till the reign of Augustus; but it is already recognized by Strabo (v. p. 228), as well as by Pliny, who terms the additional territory thus incorporated Latium Adjectum, while he designates the original Latium, extending from the Tiber to Circeii, as Latium Antiquum. We shall confine ourselves in the first instance to the description of Latium in this limited sense, in which it figures in Roman history from the foundation of the city to the days of Cicero.

I. Latium Antiquum. In this original sense Latium was a country of but small extent, and consisted principally of an extensive plain, now known as the Campagna di Roma, bounded towards the interior by the lofty range of the Apennines, which rise very abruptly from the plains at their foot to a height of between 4000 and 5000 feet. Several of the Latin cities, including Tibur and Præsneste, were, however, situated on the terrace-like underfalls of these mountains, while Cora, Norba, and Setia were placed in like manner on the slopes of the Volscian mountains or Monti Lepini, a rugged and lofty range, which branches off from the Apennines near Præneste, and forms a continuous mountain barrier from thence to Terracina. In the midst of the plain thus limited rises a group of volcanic mountains, of about 30 miles in circuit, and attaining to a height of over 3000 feet, now commonly known as the Alban hills, though the designation of Albani Montes is not found in any ancient writer. But the highest summit, now called Monte Cavo, on which stood the temple of Jupiter Latiaris, was known as Mons Albanus; while the north-east summit, which almost equalled it in height, bore the name of Mount Algidus, celebrated in all ages for the dark forests of ilex with which it was covered. No volcanic eruptions are known to have taken place in these mountains within the historic period, but the remains of a crater are distinctly seen near the summit of the Mons Albanus, forming the basin now known as the Campo di Annibale, while the cup-shaped lakes known as the Alban Lake and the Lake of Nemi unquestionably occupy the basins of similar craters at a lower level on the southern slope of the mountain, and the adjacent Lacus Aricinus, now drained, was another vent of a similar character.

But, besides this distinctly volcanic group, by far the greater part of the plain now called the Campagna di Roma was formed by volcanic deposits, consisting for the most part of the rock called tufo, an aggregate of volcanic sand, pebbles, and cinders or scoriæ, varying greatly in hardness and consistency, from a compact rock well adapted for building stone to a loose disintegrating sand known by the local name of puzzolano. In a few places only beds of lava are found, the most distinct of which is a continuous stream extending from the foot of the Alban hills to within 2 miles from Rome, along which the line of the Appian Way was carried. These deposits have been formed upon previously existing beds of Tertiary formation, which here and there rise to the surface, and in the Monte Mario, a few miles north of Rome, attain to the height of 400 feet. The surface is by no means an uniform plain, like that of the Terra di Lavoro (the ancient Campania), but is a broad undulating tract, furrowed throughout by numerous depressions, with precipitous banks, serving as water-courses, though rarely traversed by any considerable stream. As the general level of the plain rises gradually, though almost imperceptibly, to the foot of the Apennines, these channels by degrees assume the character of ravines of a formidable description.

Between the volcanic tract of the Campagna and the sea there intervenes a broad strip of sandy plain, evidently formed merely by the accumulation of sand from the sea, and constituting a barren tract, still covered, as it was in ancient times, almost entirely with wood. This long belt of sandy shore extends without a break for a distance of above 30 miles from the mouth of the Tiber to the promontory of Antium (Porto d’Anzo), which is formed by a low but rocky headland, projecting out into the sea, and giving rise to the only considerable angle in this line of coast. Thence again a low sandy shore of similar character extends for about 24 miles to the foot of the Monte Circello, an isolated mountain mass of limestone of about 9 miles in circumference, and rising to a height of 2000 feet. From the almost insulated character of this remarkable promontory, which is united to the Apennines at Terracina by a similar strip of sandy coast, between the Pontine Marshes and the sea, there can be no doubt that it was once an island, which has been gradually united to the mainland by alluvial deposits. But it is certain that these deposits must have commenced long before the historical period, and the assertion strangely ascribed by Pliny to Theophrastus, that the Circeian promontory was in the days of that philosopher still an island, is certainly erroneous. The region of the Pontine Marshes, which occupies almost the whole tract between the sandy belt on the sea-shore and the Volscian mountains, extending from the southern foot of the Alban hills below Velletri to the sea near Terracina, a distance of about 30 miles, is a perfectly level plain, rendered pestilential by the stagnation of numerous streams that descend from the neighbouring mountains, and are unable to find their way through this extremely low and level tract, while their outlet to the sea is barred by the sands of the coast between Monte Circello and Terracina.

At the earliest period of which we have any historical record the whole of the country that we have thus described, or Latium in the proper sense of the term, was inhabited by the people known to the Romans as Latini. Of their origin or ethnical affinities we have very little information, except that they belonged to the same branch of the Italian races with the Umbrians, Oscans, and Sabellians (see Italy). At the same time they constituted, according to the general testimony of ancient writers, a distinct people from their neighbours the Sabines and the Volscians, who held the mountain districts adjoining their territory, as well as (in a much higher degree) from the Etruscans on the other side of the Tiber. There was once, however, a people called the Rutuli, who occupied a small portion of the Latin territory adjoining the sea-coast, and are described as a separate people under their own king, a tradition familiar to all modern readers from its having been adopted by Virgil. But the name of the Rutuli, as that of an independent people, disappears from history at a very early period, and their capital city of Ardea was certainly one of the thirty cities that in historical times constituted the Latin league. The list of these cities given us by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, which has every appearance of being derived from an authentic document (see Niebuhr's Roman History, vol. ii. p. 23), enumerates them as follows: – Ardea, Aricia, Bovillæ, Bubentum, Corniculum, Carventum, Circeii, Corioli, Corbio, Cora, Fortinei (?), Gabii, Laurentum, Lavinium, Labicum, Lanuvium, Nomentum, Norba, Præneste, Pedum, Querquetulum, Satricum, Scaptia, Setia, Tellenæ, Tibur, Tusculum, Toleria, Tricrinum (?), Velitræ.

The list thus given by Dionysius is arranged in an order approximately alphabetical. Omitting the two names which are probably corrupt, and a few of which the site cannot be determined with any certainty, the others may be described according to their geographical arrangement. Laurentum and Lavinium, names so conspicuous in the legendary history of Æneas, were situated in the sandy strip near the sea-coast, – the former only 8 miles east of Ostia, which was from the first merely the port of Rome, and never figured as an independent city. Farther eastward again lay Ardea, the ancient capital of the Rutuli, and some distance beyond that Antium, situated on the sea-coast, which, though not in the list of Dionysius, was certainly a Latin city. On the southern underfalls of the Alban mountains, commanding the plain at the foot, stood Lanuvium and Velitræ; Aricia rose on a neighbouring hill, and Corioli was probably situated in the plain beneath. The more important city of Tusculum occupied one of the northern summits of the same group; while opposite to it, in a commanding situation on a lofty offshoot of the Apennines, rose Præneste, now Palestrina. Bola and Pedum were in the same neighbourhood, Labicum on the slope of the Alban hills below Tusculum, and Corbio on a rocky summit east of the same city. Tibur (Tivoli) occupied a height commanding the outlet of the river Anio. Corniculum, farther west, stood on the summit of one of three conical hills that rise abruptly out of the plain at the distance of a few miles from Monte Gennaro, the nearest of the Apennines, and which were thence known as the Montes Corniculani. Nomentum was a few miles farther north, between the Apennines and the Tiber, and close to the Sabine frontier. The boundary between the two nations was indeed in this part very fluctuating. Nearly in the centre of the plain of the Campagna stood Gabii; Bovillæ was also in the plain, but close to the Appian Way, where it begins to ascend the Alban hills. Several other cities – Tellenæ, Scaptia, and Querquetulum – mentioned in the list of Dionysius were probably situated in the Campagna, but their site cannot be determined. Satricuni, on the other hand was south of the Albau hills, apparently between Telitræ and Antium; while Cora, Norba, and Setia (all of which retain their ancient names with little modification) crowned the rocky heights which form advanced posts from the Volscian mountains towards the Pontine Marshes.

It must be borne in mind that the list given by Dionysius belonged to a date about 490 B.C., and a considerable number of the Latin cities had before that time either been utterly destroyed or reduced to subjection by Rome, and had thus lost their independent existence. Such were Antemnæ and Cœnina, both of them situated within a few miles of Rome, and the conquest of which was ascribed to Romulus; Fidenæ, about 5 miles north of the city, and close to the Tiber; and Crustumerium, in the hilly tract farther north towards the Sabine frontier. Pometia also, on the borders of the Pontine Marshes, to which it was said to have given name, was a city of importance, the destruction of which was ascribed to Tarquinius Superbus. But by far the most important of these extinct cities was Alba, on the lake to which it gave its name, which was, according to the tradition universally received, the parent of Rome, as well as of numerous other cities within the limits of Latium, including Gabii, Fidenæ, Collatia, Nomentum, and other well-known towns. Whether or not this tradition deserves to rank as historical, it appears certain that at an early period there existed a confederacy of thirty towns, of which Alba was the supreme head. A list of these is given us by Pliny (iii. 5, 968) under the name of "populi Albenses," which includes only six of those found in the list of Dionysius; and these for the most part among the more obscure and least known of the names there given; while the more powerful cities of Aricia, Lanuvium, and Tusculum, though situated immediately on the Alban hills, are not included, and appear to have maintained a wholly independent position. This earlier league was doubtless broken up by the fall of Alba; it was probably the increasing power of the Volsci and Æqui that led to the formation of the later league, including all the more powerful cities of Latium, as well as to the alliance concluded by them with the Romans in the consulship of Sp. Cassius (493 B.C.).

The cities of the Latin league continued to hold general meetings or assemblies from time to time at the Grove of Ferentina, a sanctuary at the foot of the Alban hills in a valley below Marino, while they had also a common place of worship on the summit of the Alban Mount (the Monte Cavo), where stood the celebrated temple of Jupiter Latiaris. The participation in the annual sacrifices at this sanctuary was regarded as typical of a Latin city; and they continued to be celebrated long after the Latins had lost their independence and been incorporated in the Roman state. This change took place in 338 B.C. During the centuries that followed down to the end of the Roman republic many of the Latin towns sank into a very decayed condition. Cicero speaks of Gabii, Labicum, and Bovillæ as places that had fallen into abject poverty, while Horace refers to Gabii and Fidenæ as mere "deserted villages." Many of the smaller places mentioned in the list of Dionysius, or the early wars of the Romans, had altogether ceased to exist, but the statement of Pliny that fifty-three communities (populi) had thus perished within the boundaries of Old Latium is certainly exaggerated, and his list of the "illustrious cities" (clara oppida) that had thus disappeared is very confused and unintelligible. Still more erroneous is his statement that there were once twenty-four cities on the site occupied in his time by the Pontine Marshes, – an assertion not confirmed by any other authority, and utterly at variance with the physical conditions of the tract in question.

II. Latium Novum, or Adjectum, as it is termed by Pliny, comprised the territories occupied in earlier times by the Volscians, Hernicans, and Auruncans. It was for the most part a rugged and mountainous country, extending at the back of Latium proper, from the frontier of the Sabines to the sea-coast between Terracina and Sinuessa. But it was not separated from the adjacent territories by any natural frontier or physical boundaries, and it is only by the enumeration of the towns in Pliny according to the division of Italy by Augustus that we can determine its limits. It included the upper valley of the Anio, with the towns of Sublaqueum and Treba; the Hernican cities of Anagnia, Ferentiniun, Alatrium, and Verulæ – a group of mountain strongholds on the north side of the valley of the Trerus or Sacco; together with the Volscian cities on the south of the same valley, and in that of the Liris, the whole of which, with the exception of its extreme upper end, was included in the Volscian territory. Here were situated Signia, Frusino, Fabrateria, Fregellæ, Sora, Arpinum, Atina, Aquinum, Casinum, and Interamna; Anxur, or Tarracina, was the only seaport that properly belonged to the Volscians, the coast from thence to the mouth of the Liris being included in the territory of the Auruncans, or Ausonians as they were termed by Greek writers, who possessed the maritime towns of Fundi, Formiæ, Caieta, and Minturnæ, together with Suessa in the interior, which had replaced their more ancient capital of Aurunca. Sinuessa, on the sea-coast between the Liris (Garigliano) and the Vulturnus, was the last town in Latium according to the official use of the term.

Though the Apennines comprised within the boundaries of Latium do not rise to a height approaching that of the loftiest summits of the central range, they attain to a considerable altitude, and form steep and rugged mountain masses from 4000 to 5000 feet high. They are traversed by three principal valleys: – (1) that of the Anio, now called Teverone, which descends from above Subiaco to Tivoli, where it enters the plain of the Campagna; (2) that of the Trerus or Sacco, which has its source below Palestrina (Præneste), and flows through a comparatively broad valley that separates the main mass of the Apennines from the Volscian mountains or Monti Lepiui, till it joins the Liris below Ceprano; (3) that of the Liris or Garigliano, which enters the confines of New Latium about 20 miles from its source, flows under the walls of Sora, and has a very tortuous course from thence to the sea at Minturnæ; its lower valley is for the most part of considerable width, and forms a fertile tract of considerable extent, bordered on both sides by hills covered with vines, olives, and fruit trees, and thickly studded with towns and villages.

It may be observed that, long after the Latins had ceased to exist as a separate people, we meet in Roman writers with the phrase of "nomen Latinum," used not in an ethnical but a purely political sense, to designate the inhabitants of all those cities on which the Romans had conferred "Latin rights" (jus Latinum), – an inferior form of the Roman franchise, which had been granted in the first instance to certain cities of the Latins, when they became subjects of Rome, and was afterwards bestowed upon many other cities of Italy, especially the so-called Latin colonies. At a later period the same privileges were extended to places in other countries also, as for instance to most of the cities in Sicily and Spain. All persons enjoying these rights were termed in legal phraseology "Latini" or "Latinæ conditionis."

For the topography of Latium, and the local history of its more important cities, the reader may consult Sir W. Gell's Topography of Rome and its Vicinity, 2 vols. 8vo., Lond., 1834, 2d ed., 1 vol., 1846, with a valuable map; Nibby, Analisi Storico-Topografico-Antiquaria della Carta dei Dintorni di Roma, 3 vols. 8vo, 1837, 2d ed. 1848; Westphal, Die Römische Kampagne, 4to, Berlin, 1829; Bormann, Alt-Latinische Chorographie und Städte-Geschichte, 8vo, Halle, 1852; Burn's Rome and the Campagna, 4to, Lond., 1871; Hare's Walks around Rome, 2 vols. 8vo, Lond., 1873. An elaborate antiquarian map of Old Latium has been long in preparation by the Cavaliere Do Rossi, but has not yet made its appearance. (E. H. B.)

LATONA is the Latin name of the Greek Leto, mother of Apollo and Artemis. In Greece she belongs rather to the sphere of mythology than of religion; she forms part of the surroundings of these two great deities, but is not usually a goddess to whom worship is paid or temples built. Different forms of the Latona legend are found in the various seats of Apolline religion. Of these seats the chief are Delos and Delphi, and the tradition which has obtained the widest literary currency is a union of the legends of these two places, formed doubtless under the unifying influence of the Delphic oracle. Latona, pregnant by Zeus, long seeks in vain for a place of refuge to be delivered. She wanders from Crete over Athens, the coasts of Thrace and Asia Minor, and the islands; at last the barren desolate isle of Delos offers itself. Pindar and later poets tell that Delos was a wandering rock borne about by the waves, till it was fixed to the bottom of the sea to serve for the birth of Apollo. Hence arose the belief that Delos could not be shaken by earthquakes, a belief that was disproved by several shocks in historical times (Herod., vi. 98; Plin., iv. 66). In the oldest forms of the legend Hera is not mentioned; but afterwards the wanderings of Leto are ascribed to the jealousy of Hera, enraged at her amour with Zeus. In the legend the foundation of Delphi follows immediately on the birth of the god; and on the sacred way between Tempe and Delphi the giant Tityus offers violence to Leto, and is immediately slain by the arrows of Apollo and Artemis. Such are the main facts of the Leto legend in its common literary form, which is due especially to the two Homeric hymns to Apollo. We must turn from mythology to actual religion in order to discover the true character of the myth. Then we shall find that Leto is a real goddess, and not a mere mythological figure. The honour paid to her in Delphi and Delos might be explained as part of the cultus of her son Apollo; but temples to her existed in Argos, in Mantinea, and in Xanthus of Lycia; her sacred grove was on the coast of Crete. In Lycia graves are frequently placed under her protection (see Corpus Inscr. Græc., No. 4259, 4300, 4303, &c.); and she is also known as a goddess of fertility and as κουροτρόφος. In these attributes we recognize the earth-goddess. Now, although in the common legends Apollo and Artemis are called the twin children of Leto, yet she appears far more conspicuously in the Apolline myths than in those which grew round the great centres of Artemis worship; moreover, in the older forms of the Apolline myths Artemis is hardly mentioned except as an after-thought, and the Homeric hymn makes them born in different places (τὴν μὲν ἐν Ὀρτυγίῃ, τὸν δὲ κραναῇ ἐνι Δήλῳ). Facts such as these will be readily explained if one recognizes that the idea of Apollo and Artemis as twins is one of later growth on Greek soil, and that the two religions come from different origins in Asia Minor. Again Lycia, one of the chief homes of the Apolline religion, is precisely the country where most frequent traces are found of the worship of Leto as the great goddess. Etymological considerations point in the same direction. The Greeks always connected the word Leto with the root seen in λανθάνω, λήθη, &c.; but it is more probable that the resemblance is delusive, and that the origin is to be found in words which are not so distinctively Greek. Leto and Leda are both probably forms of the Lycian word Lada, which means woman or lady; and the island of Lade or Late (Plin., v. 35), the town Lete, the rivers Ladon and Lethteus, were all named from the goddess.

It is clear then that Latona or Leto was the great goddess of a religion which found its way into Greece, where its mythology was harmonized to a certain extent with that of the other religious systems of the country. Everything points to Lycia as the earlier home of this religion. Zeus, by whatever name he was called, and Leto are heaven and earth; their offspring is Apollo, the ever young god of light and of the sun, born afresh every spring. The myth is the same that occurs over and over again with different names in every district of Greece and Asia Minor. But in Greece Hera was recognized as the supreme consort of Zeus, and Latona could only rank with many other goddesses of antique religions as his concubine; though even in Greece the oldest forms of the tradition recognize her as the goddess-consort, κυδρὴ παρακοιτίς, of Zeus. Sappho calls her and Niobe "loving companions." The father of Leto, Cœus, must be a god in the almost forgotten religion to which she belongs.

In Greek art Leto appears usually in company with her children; in vase paintings especially she is often represented with Apollo and Artemis. The statue of Leto in the Letoon at Argos was the work of Praxiteles.

See Mitth. Inst. Ath., i. 168; Hesiod, Theog., 134; Couze, Reisen auf den Griech. Inseln, p. 91.

LATREILLE, Pierre-André (1762-1833), French naturalist, was born in humble circumstances at Brives-la-Gaillarde, now in the department of Corrèze, France, on November 29, 1762. His abilities attracted the attention of the Baron d'Espagnac, who in 1778 placed him at the Collége Lemoine at Paris, where the Abbé Haüy was at that time a teacher. Having chosen the ecclesiastical career, he was admitted to priestly orders in 1786, and in the same year retired to Brives, devoting all the leisure which the discharge of his professional duties allowed to the study of entomology. In 1788 he returned to Paris and found means of making himself known to the leading naturalists there, – Fabricius, Olivier, Bosc, Lamarck; his first important contribution to his special science, a "Mémoire sur les Mutilles découvertes en France," contributed to the Proceedings of the Society of Natural History in Paris, procured for him the honour of admission to that body, and of being made a corresponding member of the Linnean Society of London. At the Revolution he was compelled to quit Paris, and as a priest of conservative sympathies suffered considerable hardship; he lay for some time in prison at Bordeaux, and gained his liberty at last only through the intervention of the naturalists Bory de Saint-Vincent and Dargelas. His Précis des Caractères génériques des insectes, disposés dans un ordre naturel, appeared at Brives in 1796. In 1798 he became a corresponding member of the Institute, and at the same time was entrusted with the task of arranging the entomological collection at the recently organized "Museum d'Histoire Naturelle" (Jardin des Plantes); in 1814 he succeeded Olivier as member of the Académie des Sciences, and in

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