The Latins, classified as a tribe of Italics, lived south of the Tiber River in the region of ancient Latium (part of modern Lazio) in present-day west-central Italy. Latin cities included Alba Longa, Ardea, Lavinium, Praeneste (modern Palestrina), Tibur (modern Tivoli), and Tuscu-lum. They are considered the primary ancestors of the Romans. Their name and that of ancient Latium are related to the legendary king Latinus.
ORIGINS
The Latins are thought to have settled the valleys and coastal areas of Latium by about 1100 B. C.E., part of the wave of population movements apparently set in motion throughout the Mediterranean region by the collapse of the civilization of the Mycenaeans.
LANGUAGE
The Latins spoke Latin, part of the Latino-Faliscan branch of Italic. They adopted the Greek alphabet for their writing.
HISTORY
Alba Longa, considered the oldest city in Latium, was the legendary birthplace of Romulus and Remus, the supposed founders, along with some Sabines, of Rome in 753 b. c.e. Latin territory was reduced in the late sixth century b. c.e. to Apennine lands between the Albanus Mons (the Alban Hills) and the Aurunci Mountains by expansion of the VOLSCI. In the seventh-sixth centuries b. c.e. the Etruscans were the most dominant political force in Latium.
By the fifth century b. c.e. about 30 tribes and villages had formed the Latin League, with Alba Longa as the capital. Rome joined the league in 493 b. c.e., it is thought because of an alliance of Volsci and Aequi. In 358 b. c.e. the Latin League was reorganized with Rome assuming leadership. In 341 b. c.e. at the end of the First Samnite War the league, in alliance with the Aurunci, Campani, Sidicini, and Volsci, rebelled against Rome. In 340 b. c.e. the Romans campaigned through Marsi and Paeligni lands and entered Samnium (modern Abruzzi and part of Campania); then the Romans with auxiliaries from among the Samnites descended the Volturno River and defeated the Latins at Suessa Aurunca (modern Sessa Aurunca). In 338 b. c.e. Rome dissolved the Latin League, after which Latin history became part of the Roman story.
CULTURE (see also Italics) Government and Society
The Latin League was centered at Alba Longa, the religious center of the Latins. The league was a commercial as well as a military alliance. Moreover the citizens of the various Latin city-states shared certain rights, in particular those of commercium, connubium, and migratio. The right of commercium allowed citizens of one town to conduct business and own property in another town; that of migratio allowed citizens of one town to settle in another; and that of connubium honored marriages of citizens of two different Latin towns. Rome later used these same rights—free trade, freedom of travel, and intermarriage—in its relations with other peoples.
Religion
A temple honoring Jupiter was situated on the Alban Hills. The Latins, similarly to the Etruscans and other peoples living to the north, practiced cremation as a funeral rite. Latin beliefs and cults probably resembled those of other Italics and endured among the Romans.
Although Rome and the Roman world became a melting pot of many different peoples, the history of Rome begins with the ancestral Latins, who passed down political systems and religious beliefs to the Romans.
World History
