Lanuvium

(now Civita Lavinia ). An old and important city of Latium, on the Appian Way, 20 miles south of Rome. Tradition describes it as a colony from Alba; but it first rose to importance in the 5th century B.C. , when it took part against Rome as one of the thirty cities of the Latin League. Its name again appears in the long wars between Rome and the Æqui and Volsci, siding with the former; it changed sides in 383 B.C. , but was leniently treated by its old ally at the end of the war. In the great Latin war, 340 B.C. , it again took part against Rome, and in the general settlement at the close of hostilities, it obtained the Roman civitas .