Latium was a region of ancient
Italy, home to the original
Latin people. Its area constituted a part of the much larger modern
Italian Regione of
Lazio, also called
Latium in
Latin, and occasionally in modern
English. The ancient language of the region was to become the basis of
Latin.
Latium has played an important role in history owing to its status as the cradle of the Roman Empire and the city of Rome. Consequently, it is home to celebrated works of art and architecture.
The region that would become Latium had been home to settled agricultural populations since the early Bronze Age, and was known to the Ancient Greeks. It was populated by a mixture of Indo-European and non-Indo-European language speakers. The name is most likely derived from the Latin word "latus", meaning "wide", expressing the idea of "flat land" (in contrast to the local Sabine high country) but the name may originate from an earlier, non Indo-European one. The Etruscans, from their home region of Etruria (modern day Tuscany) exerted a strong cultural and political influence on Latium from about the 8th century B.C. onward. However, they were unable to assert political hegemony over the region, which was controlled by small, autonomous city-states in a manner roughly analogous to the state of affairs that prevailed in Ancient Greece. Indeed, the region's cultural and geographic proximity to the cities of the Greek mainland had a strong impact upon its early history. The Phoenicians, who had a long tradition of trading with Italian people and possessed much of Sicily, are also believed to have influenced the region's development.
One of the earliest recorded non-Etruscan settlements in Latium is the quasi-mythical city of Alba Longa located somewhat southeast of the present-day city of Rome. According to Livy and other ancient authorities, it was here that the Latin League was founded, a coalition of city-states intended as a bulwark against Etruscan expansion.
