Lavinium

Lavinium is the name given in Roman myth to an ancient Latin city founded by the Trojan hero Aeneas in Latium and named after Lavinia, the daughter of Latinus. In the legendary chronology of early Latium, Lavinium predates Alba Longa and Rome and served as a religious and political center for the Latin peoples. Ancient authors describe Lavinium as the place where Aeneas settled after his voyage from Troy, married Lavinia, and established the city; from Lavinium his son Ascanius is said to have founded Alba Longa, from which Rome would later emerge. The city’s mythic importance lies in its role as a cultic center of Latium, and as the seat of Latian rites that linked Trojan and Latin religious traditions.

Geography and archaeology: The precise location of Lavinium is not known with certainty. Traditional identifications link it to a hill country south of Rome, near the coast in the modern Lazio region, at or near the locality of Lavinio in the municipalities of Pomezia or Anzio. Archaeological remains attributed to early Latial settlements have been found in the area, but there is limited material securely dated to the time of Aeneas, and the identification with Lavinium rests largely on literary sources and proximity.

Legacy: Lavinium figures prominently in Roman literature as an ancient foundation site and as a symbol of the blend of Trojan and Latin cults that preceded the rise of Rome. The idea of Lavinium influenced later Roman religious and political thought, and the site remained a locus of antiquarian interest through the Renaissance and modern archaeology.