Lavinium
Lavinium is an ancient city located in the region of Latium (modern-day Lazio), approximately seventeen miles southeast of Rome. Historically significant, it was a member of the Latin League and served as its federal sanctuary beginning in the sixth century BC. Lavinium is noted for its early maritime connections with the Greek world, which influenced its cultural and religious practices. According to Roman tradition, the city was founded by Aeneas, a Trojan hero, who named it after his wife Lavinia. This mythological foundation ties Lavinium to the legendary origins of Rome, as it is said that Aeneas's son, Ascanius, later established Alba Longa, from which Romulus and Remus would eventually found Rome.
Over the centuries, Lavinium became a site of significant religious importance, featuring cults dedicated to deities such as the Penates and Vesta. Archaeological excavations have revealed numerous altars and votive offerings, affirming its status as a major religious center in ancient Latium. Despite suffering during the civil wars of the early first century, Lavinium's legacy as a prominent cultic site remains evident in its ruins and the artifacts uncovered, which reflect its rich historical and cultural heritage.
Subject Terms
Lavinium
(Pratica di Mare)
An ancient city in Latium (Lazio), seventeen miles southeast of Rome. Lavinium belonged to the Latin League and became its federal sanctuary during the sixth century BC; it was also mentioned in the first treaty between Rome and Carthage, as described by Polybius (508). Easy access to the sea gave it early contacts with the Greek world, which lent its cults a Greek (not Etruscan) character. At the conclusion of Rome's war with the Latins in 338, the town, which had remained loyal to the Romans, probably became a municipium. During the civil wars of the early first century it appears to have suffered gravely from the troops of Gaius Marius. Situated close to the ancient town of Laurentum (Casale Decima)—which was linked to Rome by the Via Laurentina—Lavinium belonged to the Laurens ager, Laurentine territory, and later became identified with Laurentum itself, under the name of Laurolavinium.
According to the myth told by Virgil and Livy and others, Lavinium was founded by Aeneas, a fugitive from Troy, because he had been told to establish the settlement at the place where he would see a sow with thirty young; and it was at Lavinium that the prodigy duly appeared (it is depicted on a medallion of Antoninus Pius, AD 138/9, together with the walls of the city). Aeneas named his new foundation after his wife Lavinia, daughter of Latinus, who was the legendary king of the `Aborigines,’ or Latins, and ruled at Laurentum. It was from Lavinium, according to this tradition, that Aeneas' son Ascanius, thirty years later, founded Alba Longa, from which, after many generations, Romulus and Remus went forth to found Rome itself. Although, therefore, there is no direct, incontrovertible evidence for the veneration of Aeneas at Lavinium until the late fourth century, the place enjoyed enormous renown in subsequent times for the part it had supposedly played in the foundation of Rome. This role was celebrated by an important cult of the (supposedly Trojan) Penates (household gods)—from which the Romans borrowed their own national rites of the same deities—and a sanctuary of the hearth-goddess Vesta, which was closely linked with the cult of the Penates at Lavinium and with Vesta's own worship at Rome. Another deity who received reverence locally was Indiges—a designation for worshipped ancestors—who was identified both with Jupiter and with Aeneas, and whose burial place, under the name of Jupiter Indiges, was shown beside the river Numicus, not far off.
Excavations have confirmed the supposition that Lavinium was the most impressive of the archaic religious centers of Latium. Several extra-urban sanctuaries are now known. One (near the little church of Santa Maria delle Vigne) contains a series of thirteen large altars, carefully aligned, ranging in date from the sixth to about the second century; discoveries on the site include not only votive terracottas but an inscription of c 500 testifying to the worship of the Dioscuri (Castor and Pollux), who were identified locally with Lavinium's deified ancestors, or with its Penates. Bronze statuettes of young men (kouroi) and women (korai) have also been found. However, the claim that a mound tomb of the seventh century, about a hundred yards distant, should be identified with a hero's shrine of Aeneas—seen six hundred years later by Dionysius of Halicarnassus—has now been discounted. A second, `eastern’ sanctuary that has recently been examined contains vast, rich and varied material from about the sixth century down to the end of the third, including a votive deposit from which numerous large statues have emerged and have been, or are being, restored. Most of the figures dated from the second half of the fourth century, though some, in severe style, may go back to the years before 500. At least four of these images, probably of fifth-century date, are striking and original representations of Minerva (Athena Tritonia), fully armed; they were probably buried when a temple of the goddess suffered destruction. Various stretches of the city wall have also come to light, and it has been deduced that Lavinium expanded in the course of the sixth century, when its older sections assumed the functions of an acropolis, from which various objects of all dates have been recovered.