LANUVIUM
(Lanuvio) Latium, Italy.
A city
on a S extremity of the Alban Hills ca. 30 km SE of
Rome. It was an independent member of the Latin
League and a participant in the foedus Cassium, 493 B.C.
Loyal to Rome until the Latin war of 340 B.C., it then
received Roman citizenship and Rome received a share
in the city's cult of Juno Sospita (
Livy 8.14). It flourished
as a municipium during the Empire until sacked by barbarians, and was revived in the 11th c. as Civita Lavinia,
through confusion with ancient Lavinium.
The modern city is built over the ancient one except
for the arx (the hill of S. Lorenzo) to the N, where lie
the most important remains. This was surrounded by a
tufa circuit wall, sections of which still stand. Elaborate
ramparts guarded the N and S entrances, though no trace
of the N rampart remains. Later, arched Doric porticos
were built along the W and S sides of the wall. A fine
equestrian group in marble, from the 2d c. A.D., probably
adorned the S entrance. Portions of these armored riders
are now in the British Museum and at the City Museum
in Leeds.
The arx also holds remains of a temple in antis, perhaps associated with the famous Temple of Juno. Of the
earliest structure (ca. 500 B.C.) little remains. More is
extant of the two later phases built ca. 330 B.C. and in
the 3d c. B.C.
Near the arx, amid modern vineyards, are remains of
several Roman villas, one of which is ascribed to Antoninus Pius.
In the modern city the ancient cardo can be traced.
The Palazzo Comunale contains objects from the Temple
of Juno. The wall facing the Palazzo is built over temains
of a Roman theater. In the modern Largo del Tempio
d'Ercole far S of town can be seen temple ruins of the
2d c. B.C.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. M. Woodward,
BSR 7.2 (1914); G. B.
Bendinelli,
MonAnt 27 (1921); A. Galieti
BullComm
61 (1928) and 66 (1938); A. E. Gordon,
The Cults of
Lanuvium (1938).
D. C. SCAVONE
