Latium
For the football club, see S.S. LazioLatium (
Lazio in Italian) is a region of central
Italy, bordered by
Tuscany,
Umbria,
Abruzzo,
Marche,
Molise,
Campania and the
Tyrrhenian Sea.It comprises 5 provinces:
Rome,
Viterbo,
Latina,
Frosinone, and
Rieti. The regional capital is
Rome; the current President of the Region is
Piero Marrazzo (center-left, elected 2005).
The name of the region also survives in the tribal designation of the ancient population of
Latins, from whom the
Romans originated. In
Roman mythology, the shadowy king
Latinus allegedly gave his name to the region. Modern linguists postulate origins in a
Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) root
*stela- (to spread, extend), expressing the idea of "flat land" (in contrast to the local
Sabine high country). But the name may originate from an earlier, non Indo-European one. See the
Online Etymological Dictionary. Since Latium is respected more as a designation for ancient Rome, it is not used as a label on maps or globes.
The region which would become Latium was, in the centuries before the future Romans inhabited it, populated by several different peoples, some originally non-
Indo-European. It was dominated by the
Etrureans, both culturally and politically, but was a region with many local cultures, each city-state having its own, somewhat akin to
Greece. Indeed, trade with Greeks and
Phoenicians strongly influenced the Etrurian culture, which acquired its
alphabet (later inherited by Rome), and some cultural traits, from those two sources.
At the same time that the latest Indo-European tribes were moving into Greece, closely related tribes invaded many other regions, including what would someday be Italy. Among these were the peoples we now call the Latins, who settled in (what we now call) Latium. Initially, they were seen as weak newcomers, a sort of instant underclass, by most of the people of the native city-states.
This subjected them to quite a bit of local imperialism and eventually they united against the
Etruscans and
Samnites, fighting a series of wars which ended with their main city,
Rome, dominating the region. In
338 BCE, after the
Social War in
90 BCE, Rome granted all all the people of the region, Roman citizenship.
Latium has great importance for
history,
art,
architecture,
archaeology,
religion, and
culture in general. The immense patrimony of the city of Rome forms only a part of the treasures spread over the hundreds of towns, villages, abbeys, churches, monuments, and other sites of the region.
*
Rome (Roma) (pop. 2,546,807), capital city of the region, of the province with the same name and of the country. The commune of Rome is the largest municipality by area in Europe.
*
Anzio, site of
Allied landings in
World War II*
Cassino, site of famous
monastery and the
World War II battle*
Castel Gandolfo, summer residence of the Pope
*
Cerveteri, site of one of the two best preserved Etruscan
necropolises in Italy
*
Civitavecchia, the region's principal port
*
Frascati city of the wine, well known in central-western Europe
*
Frosinone, capital city of the
province of Frosinone (pop. 477,950)
*
Latina, capital city of the
province of Latina (pop. 489,599)
*
Nettuno, site of Allied landings in the World War II, site of the American Cemetery and Memorial, site of Saint Maria Goretti's Shrine
*
Ostia, the ancient Roman port of Rome
*
Rieti, capital city of the
province of Rieti (pop. 151,000)
*
Tarquinia, site of the other of the two best preserved Etruscan necropolis in Italy
*
Tivoli, site of
Hadrian's Villa*
Viterbo, capital city of the
province of Viterbo (pop. 285,254)
*
Official Site of the Regione Lazio (in Italian)
*
Official site of the Regione Lazio (in English)
*
Map of Lazio
