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The tract of country bordering on the area of the Anzio beach-head, part of the wider Roman Campagna, stretching from the confines of Ardea to the banks of the T Tiber, is the scene of the dramatic action of the last six books of the Aeneid, the field of strife whereon is played to its finish the struggle for the foundation of the Roman race, and for the birth of Rome. On this soil still remain the Vergilian city of Ostia, which lies near the Tiber's mouth and was the port of Rome in antiquity, of Ardea and Lavinium, ancient settlements standing on the last seaward tufa ridge of the Alban massif and having their origin in the early Iron Age, and of Laurentum, the site of which was early lost in classical times, and cannot yet be located with any certainty. more...

Of the rivers of the Roman Campagna the Numicus, perhaps, attracts especial interest, not only because of several ancient cults connected with it and its resultant peculiar sanctity for the Romans, but also because of three references to it in the Aeneid. In the seventh book, after the Trojans land on the left bank of the Tiber, they prospect the newly-discovered land, and bring back word to AeneasThis seems to imply that the Numicus is second in importance only to the Tiber in that locality. Then an envoy is sent to Latinus, and to his questions Ilioneus, the herald, repliesThirdly, in the Gathering of the Clans, the coastal district of Latium is summarised in the linesApart from the fact that in these passages the Numicus is coupled with the Tiber, and that in the last two its sanctity is manifest, little evidence can be gained from Vergil in regard to the location of the river.Between Ostia and Antium some half-dozen streams flow over the Roman Campagna and debouch on to the shore of Latium (p. 3, fig. 1), four of which have severally been recognised by various authorities as the Numicus. About two kilometres south of the Tiber is the Canale dello Stagno, a sluggish stream which serves as a drainage canal for the tract of land, now reclaimed for tillage and pasture, which once was the Ostian lake and the site of ancient salt beds. It appears originally to have been natural but at some period to have been canalised ; for, though the course is not quite straight, the banks are trim and regular. It is wide enough to admit of a bridge with three arches (pi. iii, 1). more...

At rex sollicitus monstris oracula Fauni,fatidici genitoris, adit lucosque sub altaconsulit Albunea, nemorum quae maxima sacrofonte sonat saevamque exhalat opaca mephitim.hinc Italae gentes omnisque Oenotria tellusin dubiis responsa petunt.The traditional view from the time of Servius onwards has been that this passage refers to a shrine in the neighbourhood of Tibur, and that the waters described are those of the sulphur lakes of Albula, white and strong-smelling, which lie two miles away in the open country. This view was first challenged by Bonstetten in 1805, and his theory has been further developed by Carcopino. The main objections to the old view are, firstly, that Albula lies about thirty miles north in the Sabine region, well away both from the district in which is set the action of the last six books of the Aeneid, and from the home of Latinus, whether the latter was at Laurentum (the existence of which is now doubted by some scholars) or at Lavinium; secondly, the difference in name, for that the springs near Tibur were called ‘Albula’ is well attested by ancient notices; and thirdly, the difficulty of access. Both Bonstetten and Carcopino are in agreement in locating the oracle at the sulphur springs near Pratica di Mare, the ancient Lavinium : neither, however, seems to have investigated the site as fully as was desirable, and it may be of interest to give the results of a further exploration. more...

It is not perhaps generally recognized that the description of the coast of Latium in the seventh book of the Aeneid, in the passage which is often called ‘The Gathering of the Clans’, is in the form of a periplus—literally, ‘a sailing round’. The places and natural features are named in order from the mouth of the Tiber as far as Tarracina (modern Terracina) as if they were seen from the sea by one coasting along the shore. Accounts of this kind are frequent in ancient geographers. Virgil followed a familiar pattern in the six Unes in which this stretch of coast is described:‘Those who plough thy glades, Tiberinus, and the sacred shore of the Numicus, and work the Rutulian hills with the ploughshare, and Circe's ridge, the fields over which Jupiter Anxurus holds sway, and Feronia rejoicing in her green grove; where lies Satura's unhealthy marsh, and cool through sunken valleys Ufens seeks his way, and is lost in the sea.’ more...