Latium
The region of central Italy where Aeneas settled and where Rome would eventually be founded
The Story of Latium
Latium was the coastal plain of central Italy stretching south from the Tiber River, destined in mythology to become the birthplace of Roman civilisation. When the Trojan hero Aeneas arrived in Italy after years of wandering following the fall of Troy, an oracle directed him to Latium, where the indigenous king Latinus ruled. The region's name was connected in myth to Saturn (Greek Kronos), who was said to have hidden (latere) there after being overthrown by Jupiter, establishing a Golden Age of peace and plenty among the native inhabitants. Latinus initially welcomed Aeneas and offered him the hand of his daughter Lavinia, but the local prince Turnus, who had been betrothed to Lavinia, raised war against the newcomers. The conflict, narrated in the second half of Virgil's Aeneid, ended with Aeneas's victory and the merging of Trojan and Latin peoples into a single nation. This mythological fusion served a powerful ideological purpose: Rome's greatness was the product of both Trojan heroism and Latin rootedness, East and West united in a divinely ordained destiny.
Parents
None recorded
Symbols
Fun Fact
The Latin language, the Roman Empire, and all Romance languages trace their mythological origins to this small plain in central Italy where Aeneas landed
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
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