Aurunca

Aurunca refers to an ancient Italic people and their homeland in the region of southern Latium and northern Campania along the Tyrrhenian coast. In Latin sources the people are usually called the Aurunci (also Auruncae), and the land they inhabited is often described as Aurunca.

Geography and major centers. The core territory lay around the Monti Aurunci, a coastal mountain range that runs along the Tyrrhenian shore in the area between Formia and the Gulf of Gaeta. The principal city in antiquity was Suessa Aurunca, located at the site of the modern town of Sessa Aurunca in the province of Caserta. The Auruncan area bordered the Gaetan coast and lay near important routes linking inland Latium with Campania.

History and Roman interaction. The Aurunci were one of the Italic peoples encountered by early Rome during the expansion into southern Italy. They resisted Roman influence for a period, and over time their territory was absorbed into Roman administration. Suessa Aurunca became a notable urban center under Roman rule, functioning as a municipium or local seat of governance within the broader Campanian area. The region remained inhabited and continued to be of strategic and economic importance in later periods.

Legacy and toponymy. The name Aurunca endures in modern toponymy through Sessa Aurunca, which preserves the ancient designation, and in the geographical reference Monti Aurunci (Aurunci Mountains). The historical Aurunci are documented in classical sources and are studied within the broader context of Italic peoples of pre-Roman and early Roman Italy.