Lavinium

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"Sanctuary of the Thirteen Altars" south of Lavinium

Lavinium was an ancient city in the Italian region of Lazio , which, according to legend, was founded by Aeneas , the mythical progenitor of the Romans. In the founding phase of Rome Lavinium was an important city and religious center of the Latin Union of Cities. The settlement is four kilometers from the coast. Remains of the ancient Lavinium can be found in the present-day village of Pratica di Mare , a district of Pomezia , 23 km south of Rome in the transition area between the coastal plain and the inland hilly country.

myth

Lavinium plays an important role in today's most famous form of the Roman founding myth, which dates back to the 1st century BC. Received its more or less canonical form. According to this, Aeneas fled his hometown Troy after it was destroyed by the Greeks in the Trojan War . With his father, his son and a few companions he finally went ashore in the Lazio countryside, where he married the daughter of the local king Latinus named Lavinia . Thereupon he founded a city in order to offer a new home to the Penates , the protective gods he had taken with him from Troy. This city was named Lavinium after his wife Lavinia. His son Ascanius later founded the city of Alba Longa , from which Romulus and Remus , the founders of Rome, came a few generations later .

Lavinium also plays a role in the further mythical early history of Rome. The Sabine King Titus Tatius is said to have been murdered there. The first consul of the Roman Republic , Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus , is said to have retired there after his exile from Rome.

Heroon near Lavinium, which was interpreted as the tomb of Aeneas
Minerva statue from the sanctuary at Lavinium

Historical and archaeological evidence

Archaeologically, an Iron Age settlement has been proven in Lavinium . This was in the 6th century BC. During this time the city rose to become a federal sanctuary of the Latin League of Cities. In addition to the Penates, various other deities were also worshiped there. The central sanctuary was located south of the actual settlement area, where in situ have received from this and the following centuries, a total of 13 large altars. Further east is a barrow from the 7th century BC. BC, above which in the 4th century BC A heroon was established; at that time the tomb of Aeneas was presumed to be there. The archaeological finds of this early phase show a strong influence of contemporary Greek culture, so that Lavinium may also have had an influence on the increasing Greek coinage of the emerging Roman state. To the east of Lavinium was a temple of Minerva , in which a 2 meter high statue of the goddess and other small figures in terracotta technique were found.

Lavinium is mentioned in the first Carthaginian-Roman treaty , which is passed down by Polybius and dates back to the late 6th century BC. Is dated. After the 3rd century BC However, the city lost its political role; its symbolic importance increased, however, because of its role in the founding history of Rome and its traditional function as a cult center. Since Lavinium was believed to be the "new" home of the Penates because of its mythical founding history, all high Roman officials ( consuls , praetors , dictators ) later went to Lavinium at the beginning of their term of office to make an offering to these patron gods. Whether these celebrations also served as a regular reminder of an alliance between Lavinium and Rome, which , according to the historian Titus Livius , had been affirmed annually since the end of the Second Latin War , is a matter of dispute .

Politically it had the status of a municipality . In the actual city area, a forum with a temple in the west and an Augustus sanctuary in the south have been archaeologically proven. In the 2nd century AD there seems to have been a certain rise in the city again. In the 4th century AD, however, the settlement ends completely. In early Christian times, the church of Santa Maria delle Vigne was built near the archaic sanctuary.

Web links

Commons : Lavinium  - Collection of Images

literature

Review article

  • Ferdinando Castagnoli: Lavinio. In: Francesco della Corte (ed.): Enciclopedia virgiliana. Volume 3, Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1987, pp. 149-153.
  • Letizia Ceccarelli: Lavinium. In: Same, Elisa Marroni: Repertorio dei Santuari del Lazio (= Archaeologia Perusina. Volume 19). Giorgio Bretschneider, Rome 2011, ISBN 978-88-7689-247-9 , pp. 225-250.
  • Maria Fenelli: Lavinio. In: Bibliografia Topografica della Colonizzazione greca in Italia e nelle isole tirreniche. Volume 8: Siti: Gargara – Lentini. Scuola normal superiore / Ecole française de Rome Pisa / Rome 1990, ISBN 88-7642-030-4 , pp. 461-518 (bibliography up to 1989, including a list of all literary and inscribed sources on Lavinium and a detailed discussion of the history of research).
  • Hans Philipp : Lavinium. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XII, 1, Stuttgart 1924, Sp. 1007-1012 (important compilation of the sources, but not based on the current state of research).
  • Edward Togo Salmon , Timothy W. Potter: Lavinium. In: Simon Hornblower , Antony Spawforth (Eds.): The Oxford Classical Dictionary . 3rd edition, Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York 1996, ISBN 0-19-866172-X , p. 823 (brief overview in English).
  • Giovanni Uggeri : Lavinium. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 6, Metzler, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-476-01476-2 , column 1200 f. (brief overview in German).

Museum guide

  • Filippo Avilia among others: Museo Archeologico Lavinium / Lavinium Archaeological Museum. Gangemi, Rome 2013, ISBN 978-88-492-2291-3 .
  • ML Bruto, Filippo Avilia (ed.): Guida al Museo archeologico Lavinium. G. Canale, Turin 2009, ISBN 978-88-898-7117-1 .
  • Annalisa Zarattini (Ed.): L'area archeologica di Pratica di Mare. Soprintendenza Archeologica per il Lazio, Rome 1995.

Scientific investigations

  • Ferdinando Castagnoli: Lavinivm. Volume 1: Topografia generale, fonti e storia delle ricerche. De Luca, Rome 1972.
  • Ferdinando Castagnoli and others: Lavinivm. Volume 2: Le tredici are. De Luca, Rome 1975.
  • Ferdinando Castagnoli: Roma Arcaica ei recenti scavi di Lavinio. In: La parola del passato. Volume 32, 1977, pp. 340-355.
  • Geneviève Dury-Moyaers: Énée et Lavinium. On the subject of découvertes archéologiques récentes (= Collection Latomus. Volume 174). Latomus, Brussels 1981, ISBN 2-87031-114-1 .
  • Cairoli Fulvio Giuliani, Paolo Sommella: Lavinium. Compendio dei documenti archeologici. In: La parola del passato. Volume 32, 1977, pp. 356-372.
  • Paolo Sommella: Heroon di Enea a Lavinium. Recenti scavi a Pratica di Mare. In: Rendiconti della Pontificia Accademia di Archeologia. Volume 44, 1971/1972, pp. 47-74.
  • Mario Torelli: Lavinio e Roma. Riti iniziatici e matrimonio tra archeologia e storia. Quasar, Rome 1984, ISBN 88-85020-55-0 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Annie Dubourdieu: L'exil de Tarquin Collatin à Lavinium. In: Latomus . Volume 43, 1984, pp. 733-750.
  2. ↑ Giovanni Uggeri: Lavinium. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 6, Metzler, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-476-01476-2 , column 1200 f. (with further sources and literature references).
  3. ↑ Dionysius of Halicarnassus , Antiquitates Romanae 1,64,5; on this Giovanni Uggeri: Lavinium. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 6, Metzler, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-476-01476-2 , Sp. 1200-1201, here Sp. 1201.
  4. ↑ Polybius, Historíai 3,22.
  5. ^ Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius , Saturnalien 3, 4, 11.
  6. ↑ Titus Livius, Ab urbe condita 8,11,15.
  7. ^ John Scheid , Maria Grazia Granino Cecere : Les sacerdoces publics équestres. In: Ségolène Demougin , Hubert Devijver , Marie-Thérèse Raepsaet-Charlier (eds.): L'ordre équestre. Histoire d'une aristocratie (II e siècle av. J.-C. - III e siècle ap. J.-C. ), École française de Rome, Paris / Rom 1999, ISBN 2-7283-0445-9 , p. 79-189, here pp. 110-112.

Coordinates: 41 ° 39 ′ 49 ″  N , 12 ° 28 ′ 49 ″  E