THE LEGENDARY PAST OF THE AREA

Several ancient authors inform us about the legendary nature of the area that we are about to visit. The historian Strabo for example, writing in the early first century AD, says: "It is said that Aeneas, along with his father Anchises and his son Ascanius, after putting in at Laurentum, which was on the shore near Ostia and the Tiber, founded a city a little above the sea, within about twenty-four stadia from it" (Geography V,3,2). According to legend, the Trojan hero Aeneas had set foot on Italian soil here. He founded a city which he called Lavinium, after his wife Lavinia, daughter of king Latinus. Eventually the arrival of Aeneas would lead to the foundation of Rome. The most famous description of the events is the epic poem Aeneid, written by Vergilius, who read it to Augustus, even bringing the Emperor to tears.

The ruins of Lavinium are near Pratica di Mare. But what about Laurentum? Bertha Tilly begins an article published in 1976 as follows: "The existence and location of a city called Laurentum is one of the most debated problems of ancient topography. There are at least seven places on the Roman Campagna (which roughly corresponds to Latium Vetus) in the coastal district between the Tiber and Ardea which have been recognised by various scholars as a prétendue Laurente. The question was further complicated, even confused by Carcopino when, following certain earlier authorities, but stating with greater confidence and with long and detailed argument, he came to the conclusion that Lavinium was originally Laurentum."

On these pages such hypotheses will not be discussed (which should not be understood as a form of criticism, but merely as avoiding a very long and extremely complex debate). We will return to the legendary past several times, but only when visiting certain ancient remains, or when we find echoes in the Imperial period.

Click to enlarge. The Landing of Aeneas in Italy, by James Mason, 1772.