Vergilian Cities of the Roman Campagna

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.