Latium
Latium (/ˈleɪʃiəm/ LAY-shee-əm, US also /-ʃəm/ -shəm;[1][2][3][4] Latin: [ˈɫati.ũː]) 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.
Definition
The modern descendant, the
The ancient language of the Latins, the tribespeople who occupied Latium, was the immediate predecessor of 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.
Geography
The earliest known Latium was the country of the
The selection of Jupiter as a state god and the descent of the name Latini to the name of the
A major modern etymology is that Lazio comes from the Latin word "latus", meaning "wide",[10] expressing the idea of "flat land" meaning the Roman Campagna.History
The region that would become Latium had been home to settled agricultural populations since the early
By the 10th century BC, archaeology records a slow development in agriculture from the entire area of Latium with the establishment of numerous villages.
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).[16]
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.[17]
The district-strongholds there later gave rise to the considerable towns of
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
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.[15] 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 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.[21]
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.[20]
According to
Roman hegemony
Having destroyed Alba Longa, Rome was in command of the Latin festival and thus held presidency over the Latin peoples.[23] 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.[24]
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 c. 620 BC.[24] 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).[12]
While Rome may have acquired considerable territory (some 350 sq. miles)[25] 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.[25] This 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.[26]
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.[27]
After the
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.[28]
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,[29] 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.[28]
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 the papacy.[28]
After the short-lived
On 20 September 1870, the
Modern region of Latium
Latium, often referred to by the Italian name Lazio, is a government region, one of the first-level administrative divisions of the state, and one of twenty regions in Italy. Originally meant as administrative districts of the central state, the regions acquired a significant level of autonomy following a constitutional reform in 2001. The modern region of Latium contains the national capital Rome.
See also
- Latium adiectum
- Latin Valley
- Fidenae
- Etruria
References
Citations
- ^ "Lazio". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (5th ed.). HarperCollins. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
- ^ "Latium". Collins English Dictionary. HarperCollins. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
- ^ "Latium" (US) and "Latium". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 22 March 2020.
- ^ "Lazio". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
- ISBN 978-87-7876-177-4.
- ISBN 0312383959.
- ^ Strabo, Geographica, V, 3,9.
- ^ Aeneid, VIII.323.
- ^ Bevan 1875, pp. 530–531
- ^ "Latin - Origin and meaning of the name Latin". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
- ^ a b Emilio Peruzzi, Mycenaeans in early Latium, (Incunabula Graeca 75), Edizioni dell'Ateneo & Bizzarri, Roma, 1980
- ^ a b (in French) Giovanni Colonna, Milieu, peuplement, phases naturelles, in Naissence de Rome, cataloged by the Petit Palais, 1977
- ^ Fox, p. 112.
- ^ Fox, pp. 112–113.
- ^ a b c M. Cary, H.H. Scullard p. 32
- ^ Mommsen pp. 36–37
- ^ Mommsen pp. 37–38
- ^ Mommsen p. 38
- ^ a b Mommsen p. 39
- ^ a b c Viscount James Bryce Bryce The World's History: The Mediterranean nations. London (1902). p. 343
- ^ Mommsen p. 40
- Livy, Ab urbe condita 1.29
- ^ Mommsen p. 103
- ^ a b Fox, pp. 111–112
- ^ a b M. Cary, H.H. Scullard pp. 54–55
- ^ Fox p. 276
- ISBN 9781107030350.
- ^ ISBN 9788836500154.
- ^ Musto, Ronald G., Cola Di Rienzo, Oxford Biographies, 21 novembre 2012, DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195399301-0122
- ^ Susan Vandiler, Imperial City: Rome under Napoleon, p. 20
- ^ CONSIGLIO REGIONALE DEL LAZIO (ed.). "LA NASCITA DELLE REGIONI A STATUTO ORDINARIO" (PDF). consiglio.regione.lazio.it (in Italian)..
Sources
- Bevan, William Latham; Smith, William (1875). The student's manual of ancient geography. London: J. Murray.
- Geographica (Strabo)book V chapter 3 – Rome 20 BC
- Athanasius Kircher – Latium – 1669 – Amsterdam 1671
- G. R. Volpi – Vetus Latium Profanum et Sacrum – Rome 1742
- T. J. Cornell – The beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars – London 1995
- C. H. Smith – Early Rome and Latium. Economy and Society, c. 1000 – 500 BC, "Oxford Classical Monographs" – Oxford 1996
- Theodor Mommsen, The History of Rome Volume I. 1894. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- Fox, Robin Lane, The Classical World: An Epic History From Homer to Hadrian. Basic Books, 2006.
External links
- Toponymy of Latium
- Behncke, Boros (1996–2003). "Colli Albani or Alban Hills volcanic complex, Latium, Italy". Italy's Volcanoes: The Cradle of Volcanology. Archived from the original on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 28 January 2010.