Lavinium
Lavinium, Lavinium, a city in Latium
- a city of Latium, near the sea-coast, six Roman miles distant from Laurentum, founded by Aeneas in honor of his wife Lavinia, now Pratica, Liv. 1, 1, 11; Varr. L. L. 5, § 144 Müll.; id. R. R. 2, 4, 18; Ov. M. 15, 728; Juv. 12, 71.—
- II Hence,
- A Lāvīnĭus, a, um, adj., of or belonging to Lavinium, Lavinian: arva, Verg. A. 4, 236: litora, id. ib. 1, 2; Prop. 2, 25 (3, 32), 64.—
- B Lāvīnĭenses, ĭum, m., the inhabitants of Lavinium, Lavinians, Varr. R. R. 2, 4, 18.
LAV´INIUM(Λαουΐνιον; Λαβίνιον, Steph. B.: Eth. ΛαβινιἁτηςLaviniensis: Pratica), an ancient city of Latium, situated about 3 miles from the sea-coast, between Laurentum and Ardea, and distant 17 miles from Rome. It was founded, according to the tradition universally adopted by Roman writers, by Aeneas, shortly after his landing in Italy, and called by him after the name of his wife Lavinia, the daughter of the king Latinus. (Liv. 1.1; Dionys. 1.45, 59; Strab. 5. p. 229; Varr. L.L. 5.144; Solin. 2.14.) The same legendary history represented Ascanius, the son of Aeneas, as transferring the seat of government and rank of the capital city of the Latins from Lavinium to Alba, 30 years after the foundation of the former city. But the attempt to remove at the same time the Penates, or household gods of Lavinium, proved unsuccessful: the tutelary deities returned to their old abode; hence Lavinium continued not only to exist by the side of the new capital, but was always regarded with reverence as a kind of sacred metropolis, a character which it retained even down to a late period of the Roman history. (Liv. 1.8; Dionys. 1.66, 67; Strab. 5. p. 229; Vict. Orig. Gent. Rom. 17.) It is impossible here to enter into a discussion of the legend of the Trojan settlement in Latium, a question which is briefly examined under the article LATIUM;but it may be observed that there are many reasons for admitting the correctness of the tradition that Lavinium was at one time the metropolis or centre of the Latin state; a conclusion, indeed, to which we are led by the name alone, for there can be little doubt that Latinus and Lavinus are only two forms of the same name, so that Lavinium would be merely the capital or city of the Latins. (Niebuhr, vol. 1. p. 201; Donaldson, Varronianus, p. 6.) The circumstance that the Penates or tutelary gods of Lavinium continued down to a late period to be regarded as those not only of Rome, but of all Latium, affords a strong corroboration of this view. (Varr. L. L. 5.144.) Whether Lavinium was from the first only the sacred metropolis of the Latin cities,--a kind of common sanctuary or centre of religious worship (as supposed by Schwegler, Römische Geschichte, vol. 1. p. 319),--or, as represented in the common tradition, was the political capital also, until supplanted by Alba, is a point on which it is difficult to pronounce with certainty; but the circumstance that Lavinium appears in history as a separate political community, and one of the cities composing the Latin League,. would seem opposed to the former view. It is certain, however, that it had lost all political supremacy, and that this had passed into the hands of Alba, at a very early period; nor did Lavinium recover any political importance after the fall, of Alba: throughout the historical period it plays a very subordinate part. The first notice we find of it in the Roman history is in the legends concerning Tatius, who is represented. as being murdered at Lavinium on occasion of a solemn sacrifice, in revenge for some depredations. committed by his followers on the Lavinian territory. (Liv. 1.14; Dionys. 2.51, 52; Plut. Rom. 23; Strab. 5. p. 230.) It is remarkable that Livy in this passage represents the people injured as the Laurentes, though the injury was avenged at Lavinium, --a strong proof of the intimate relations which were conceived as existing between the two cities. The treaty between Rome and Lavinium was said to have been renewed at the same time (Liv. l. c.), and there is no doubt that both the Roman annals and traditions represented Lavinium, as well as Laurentum, as almost uniformly on friendly terms with Rome. It was, however, an independent city, as is proved by the statement that Collatinus and his family, when banished from Rome, retired into exile at Lavinium. (Liv. 2.2.) The only interruption of these friendly relations took place, according to Dionysius, a few years after this, when he reckons the Lavinians among the Latin cities which entered into a league against Rome before the battle of Regillus. (Dionys. 5.61.) There is, however, good reason to believe that the names there enumerated are in reality only those of the cities that formed the permanent Latin League, and who concluded the celebrated treaty with Sp. Cassius in B.C. 493. (Niebuhr, vol. ii. pp. 23, 24.)
Lavinium is next mentioned during the wars of Coriolanus, who is said to have besieged and, according to Livy, reduced the city (Liv. 2.39; Dionys. 8.21); but, from this time, we hear no more of it till the great Latin War. in B.C. 340. On that occasion,. according to our present text of Livy (Liv. 8.11), the citizens of Lavinium are represented as sending auxiliaries to the forces of the League, who, however, arrived too late to be of service. But no mention occurs of Lavinium in the following campaigns, or in the general. settlement of the Latin state at the end. of the war; hence it ap. pears highly probable that in the former passage Lanuvium, and not Lavinium, is the city really meant; the confusion between these names in the MSS. being of perpetual occurrence. [LANUVIUM] It is much more probable that the Lavinians were on this occasion also comprised with the Laurentes, who, as we are expressly told, took no part in the war, and in consequence continued to maintain their former friendly relations with Rome without interruption. (L. vi. l. c.) From this time no historical mention occurs of Lavinium till. after the fall of the Roman Republic; but it appears to have fallen into decay in common with most of the places.near the coast of Latium; and Strabo speaks of it as presenting the mere vestiges of a city, but still retaining its sacred rites, which were believed to have been transmitted from the days of Aeneas. (Strab. 5. p. 232.) Dionysius also tells us that the memory of the three animals--the eagle, the wolf, and the fox--which were connected by a well-known legend with the foundation of Lavinium, was preserved by the figures of them still extant in his time in the forum of that town;. while, according to Varro, not only was there a similar bronze figure of the celebrated sow with her thirty young ones, but part of the flesh of the sow herself was still preserved in pickle, and shown by the priests. (Dionys. 1.57, 59; Varr. R. R. 2.4.) The name of Lavinium is omitted by Pliny, where we should have expected to find it, between Laurentum and Ardea, but he enumerates among the existing communities of Latium the Ilionenses Lavini,--an appellation evidently assumed by the, citizens in commemoration of their supposed Trojan descent. (Plin. Nat. 3.5. s. 9.)
Shortly after the time of Pliny, and probably in the reign of Trajan, Lavinium seems to have received a fresh colony, which for a short time raised it again to a degree of prosperity. On this occasion it would appear that the Laurentines and Lavinians were united into one community, which assumed the name of LAURO-LAVINIUM,and the citizens that of LAURENTES LAVINATES,names which from henceforth occur frequently in inscriptions. As a tribute to its ancient sacred character, though a fresh apportionment of lands necessarily attended the establishment of this colony, the territory still retained its old limits and regulations (lege et consecratione veteri manet, Lib. Colon. p. 234.) This union of the two communities into one has given rise to much confusion and misconception. Nor can we trace exactly the mode in which it was effected; but it would appear that Lavinium became the chief town,while the populuscontinued to be often called that of the Laurentes, though more correctly designated as that of the Laurentes Lavinates. The effect of this confusion is apparent in the commentary of Servius on the Aeneid, who evidently confounded the Laurentum of Virgil with the Lauro-Lavinium of his own day, and thence, strangely enough, identifies it with the Lavinium founded as the same city. (Serv. ad Aen. 1.2.) But, even at a much earlier period, it would seem as if the ager Laurens,or Laurentine territory, was regarded as comprising Lavinium; and it is certainly described as extending to the river Numicius, which was situated between Lavinium and Ardea. [NUMICIUS] Inscriptions discovered at Praticaenable us to trace the existence of this new colony, or revived Lavinium, down to the end of the 4th century; and its name is found also in the Itineraries and the Tabula. ( Itin. Ant. p. 301; Tab. Pent. ; Orell. Inscr. 1063, 2179, 3218, 3921.)
We learn also from a letter of Symmachus that it was still subsisting as a municipal town as late as A.D. 391, and still retained its ancient religious character. Macrobius also informs us that in his time it was still customary for the Roman consuls and praetors, when entering on their office, to repair to Lavinium to offer certain sacrifices there to Vesta and the Penates,--a custom which appears to have been transmitted without interruption from a very early period. (Macrob. Sat. 2.4.11; Val. Max.; Symmach. Ep. 1.65.) The final decay of Lavinium was probably produced by the fall of paganism, and the consequent extinction of that religious reverence which had apparently been the principal means of its preservation for a long while before.
The position of Lavinium at Praticamay be considered as clearly established, by the discovery there of the numerous inscriptions already referred to relating to Lauro-Lavinium: in other respects also the site of Praticaagrees well with the data for that of Lavinium, which is placed by Dionysius (Dionys. 24stadia, or 3 miles, from the coast. (Dionys. 1.56.) The Itineraries call it 16 miles from Rome; but this statement is below the truth, the real distance being little, if at all, less than 18 miles. The most direct approach to it from Rome is by the Via Ardeatina, from whence a side branch diverges soon after passing the Solfatara, --a spot supposed to be the site of the celebrated grove and oracle of Faunus, referred to by Virgil [ARDEA], which is about 4 miles from Pratica. The site of this latter village, which still possesses a baronial castle of the middle ages, resembles those of most of the early Latin towns : it is a nearly isolated hill, with a level summit of no great extent, bounded by wooded ravines, with steep banks of tufo rock. These banks have probably been on all sides more or less scarped or cut away artificially, and some slight remains of the ancient walls may be still traced in one or two places. Besides the inscriptions already noticed, some fragments of marble columns remain from the Imperial period, while broken pottery and terra cottas of a rude workmanship found scattered in the soil.are the only relics of an earlier age. (Nibby, Dintorni, vol. ii. pp. 206--237.)
[E.H.B]An ancient town of Latium, three miles from the sea, and six miles east of Laurentum, on the Via Appia, founded by Aeneas, and called Lavinium in honour of his wife Lavinia (Livy, i. 1). It was the sanctuary of the Latin Penates. See Laurentum.
A city 28 km S of Rome. It was founded by Aeneas, fugitive from Troy, and named for his wife Lavinia, daughter of Latinus, king of the Aborigeni. So goes the legend in the liberal poetic version of Virgil, in Livy (11.4ff), Dionysius Halicarnassensis (159.1ff), Dio Cassius (1. Fragm. 1.3ff), Origo gentis Romanae (10.5ff) and in other sources. The earliest testimony of the legend is in Timaeus, ca. 300 B.C., who speaks of the Penates of Troy preserved in Lavinium. The people of Lavinium are mentioned in the first treaty between Rome and Carthage (Polyb. 3.22). The city was the center of the Laurens ager, from which the inhabitants of the city are also called Laurentes; and thus the city itself is sometimes called Laurentum or Laurolavinium. Lavinium was part of the Latin League (Cato, in Prisc. Inst. 4) and was the seat of the League's sanctuary. At the conclusion of the Latin war in 338 B.C., Lavinium probably became a federated municipium. Strabo (5.3.5; 100.232) connected the city's decline with the Samnite ravages, that is, with the actions of Marius' force in 82 B.C. Nevertheless, a particular religious significance preserved Lavinium's importance throughout the ancient period. It was the seat of the cult of the Penates, from which the Romans borrowed the official cult (Macrob. 3.4.11, etc.) of the beginning of the Roman peoples called Latins (CIL x, 797). It is in consideration of this cult and in the acceptance of the legend of their Trojan origins that Varro (Ling. 5.144) could write: “Oppidum quod primum conditum in Latio stirpis Romanae, Lavinium: nam ibi dii penates nostri.” Other cults of Lavinium mentioned in the sources include Vesta, closely connected as at Rome, with the Penates; Indiges (also called Jupiter Indiges or Aeneas Indiges), Venus Frutis, Iuturna, Anna Perenna, Liber, etc. From epigraphic evidence it is known that Castor and Pollux were venerated at Lavinium ca. 500 B.C. and Ceres during the 3d c. B.C.
The city was linked to Rome by the Via Laurentina, on lightly rolling hills in sight of the sea, from which it is 4 km distant as the crow flies. On the coast near the mouth of the Numicus (now called the Fosso di Pratica) was Troia with a Sanctuary of Jupiter Indiges. In this spot legend places the embarcation of Aeneas. The limits of the city are clearly determinable. Above the hillside where today stands the village of Pratica di Mare is the nucleus of the earliest settlement, indicated by the Iron Age tombs found around it. In the 6th c. the city grew to the S and the W, while the older nucleus must have assumed the functions of an acropolis. Various stretches of city wall have been found, the earliest datable to the 6th c. Inside the city are preserved various remains from archaic, Republican, and Imperial times, among them the bases of statues of Lavinia and of Silvius Aeneas, honorific inscriptions, a bath building renovated by Constantine, etc.
Outside the city, toward the E, a temple from the 5th c. has been found; and to the S near the little church of Santa Maria delle Vigne, which is of Early Christian origin, elements of a large sanctuary have been discovered. The latter contains a particularly interesting series of 13 large altars, all aligned, the earliest from the 6th c. B.C. and the most recent perhaps from the 2d c. B.C. Besides many votive terracottas the excavation has brought to light local and imported ceramics from the 6th and 5th c., small bronzes of kouroi similar to those of the Niger Lapis (about 500 B.C.), a very fine bronze statuette of Kore in the Greek oriental style, and the aforementioned Latin inscription of Castor and Pollux datable to ca. 500 B.C. These discoveries are interesting for the testimony they provide of direct contact with the Greek world, probably through maritime trade; and they also contribute new evidence concerning the function that Lavinium may have had in transmitting Greek influence to Rome, particularly in religious matters. Another important discovery made in the same area, about 100 m N of the others, is that of a tomb of the 7th c. B.C., covered by a tumulus. It was transformed in the 4th c. into a Heroon and can be identified as the Heroon in the form of a tumulus seen by Dionysius Halicarnassensis (1.64.5) near Lavinium, not far from Numicus; and believed to be the tomb of Aeneas.
BIBLIOGRAPHYR. H. Klausen, Aeneas und die Penaten I-II (1839-40); A. Nibby, Analisi . . . della Carta de' dintorni di Roma (2d ed., 1848) II, 206ff; J. Carcopino, Virgile et les origines d'Ostie (1919); G. B. Trovalusci, Lavinium. Pratica di Mare (1928); G. Bendz, “Sur la Question de la ville de Laurentum,” Acta Instituti Romani Regni Sueciae 4 (1935); B. Tilly, Vergil's Latium (1947); A. Alföldi, Early Rome and the Latins (1965); G. K. Galinsky, Aeneas, Sicily, and Rome (1969); F. Castagnoli, Lavinium I (1972).
On recent excavations: F. Castagnoli, “Dedica arcaica lavinate a Castore e Polluce,” in Studi e Materiali Storia e Religioni 30 (1959) 109ff; id., “Sulla tipologia degli altari di Lavinio,” Bullettino Commissione Archeologica del Comune di Roma 77 (1959-60) 3ff; id., I luoghi connessi con l'arrivo de Enea nel Lazio, ArchCl 19 (1967) 1ff; P. Sommella, “Lavinium. Rinvenimenti preistorici e protostorici,” ibid. 21 (1969) 18ff; id., “Heroon di Ena a Lavinium: il contributo dei recenti scavi a Pratica di Mare,” RendPontAcc 44 (1971-72) 47-74.
F. CASTAGNOLI