Lavinium

Coordinates: 41°39′42″N 12°28′42″E / 41.661625°N 12.478427°E / 41.661625; 12.478427
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with Lavinio.
Gate into the interior of the settlement of the frazione of Pratica di Mare, a medieval walled village at the site of the center of ancient Lavinium. The structures in the photograph vary in date. On the left is the Castello Borghese, possibly the site of the Roman arx or citadel. The archaeological excavations are in a field off to the left of the photograph. The comune of Pomezia and the museum are directly behind the photographer.

Lavinium was a port city of

Tiber river at Ostia and Antium. The coastline then, as now, was a long strip of beach. Lavinium was on a hill at the southernmost edge of the Silva Laurentina, a dense laurel forest, and the northernmost edge of the Pontine Marshes, a vast malarial tract of wetlands. The basis for the port, the only one between Ostia and Antium, was evidently the mouth of the Numicus
river.

The location of Lavinium has never been lost to historians nor does there appear to have been any significant break in its habitation. Today's settlement remains a walled village of medieval design, Pratica di Mare, in the

Marcantonio Borghese
. The castle and the village were periodically renovated. All that remains of the river that once partly surrounded the village is a small stream, the Fosso di Pratica.

Pratica di Mare is about 6 km (3.7 mi) from the

Pratica di Mare Air Force Base has been placed. It has the historical distinction of being the airfield from which Otto Skorzeny
flew Mussolini to safety in Germany after his rescue from imprisonment in a mountain villa. Today the base is both a secure airport for the protection of distinguished visitors to the Rome region and a home for air shows of advanced aircraft. The Fosso di Pratica was re-routed around the end of a runway; however, today's small brook is in no way compatible with the concept of a port. The sea may well have formerly extended up to the base of the hill, as sites further north, such as Ostia, appear to have retreated one or two miles inland. Ancient Roman seaside villas are no longer on the beach.

Archaeology

Pratica di Mare is observably smaller than ancient Lavinium, whose remains crop out in the surrounding fields. Recent archaeological excavations performed to the south date Lavinium to well before the legendary foundation of Rome. It was already fortified in the 7th century BC and flourishing in the 6th.

Ardea to the south by the Via Laurentina. Under the empire it was combined with the mysterious Laurentum
, where many wealthy Romans maintained a winter villa, to become Laurolavinium. The nature of the union remains ambiguous.

A number of

Dioscuri were being venerated at one of numerous altars.[2]

Ex voto statues in the museum at Lavinium

Legend and history

According to Roman mythology, which links Lavinium more securely to Rome, the city was named by Aeneas[3] in honor of Lavinia, daughter of Latinus, king of the Latins, and his wife, Amata.[4][5] Aeneas reached Italy and there fought a war against Turnus, the leader of the local Rutuli people. Aeneas founded not Rome but rather Lavinium, the main centre of the Latin league, from which the people of Rome sprang. Aeneas thus links the royal house of Troy with the early Roman royal house.

The foundation of Lavinium and the Rutulian war are both mentioned prominently in Virgil's Aeneid.[citation needed]

Sulpicius C. f. Galba in Rome 106 BC. The Di Penates depicted on the obverse were brought to Lavinium from Troy by Aeneas. The reverse depicts a prophecy from the Aeneid
: "in the place where a white sow casts thirty piglets under an oak tree, a new city shall be built." A bronze statue of a sow was placed in the forum of Lavinium.

In ancient times Lavinium had a close association with the nearby Laurentum. According to Livy, in the eighth century BC, when Romulus and Titus Tatius jointly ruled Rome, the ambassadors of the Laurentes came to Rome, but were beaten by Tatius' relatives. The Laurentes complained, but Tatius accorded more weight to the influence of his relatives than to the injury done the Laurentes. When Tatius afterwards visited Lavinium to celebrate an anniversary sacrifice, he was slain in a tumult. Romulus declined to go to war and instead renewed the treaty between Rome and Lavinium.[6]

In 509 BC, after the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, one of Rome's first two consuls Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus was coerced into leaving Rome because of his relation to the kings. He voluntarily went into exile in Lavinium.[7]

In around 488 BC, Lavinium was captured by an invading army of the

Attius Tullus Aufidius.[8]

Notes

  1. ^ Christopher John Smith, Early Rome and Latium: Economy and Society c. 1000 to 500 BC (Oxford University Press) 1996:134; Mario Torelli, Lavinio e Roma. Riti iniziatici e matrimonio tra archeologia e storia
  2. ^ Smith 1996.
  3. ^ A tumulus was identified by Romans as the Heroon of Aeneas
  4. Ab urbe condita
    , 1:1
  5. ISBN 978-88-85020-55-9
    . Retrieved 2017-02-19.
  6. Ab urbe condita
    , 1:14
  7. Ab urbe condita
    , 2.2
  8. Ab urbe condita
    , 2.39

References

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Lavinium".

41°39′42″N 12°28′42″E / 41.661625°N 12.478427°E / 41.661625; 12.478427

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