The Latins, sometimes known as the Latials or Latians, were an Italic tribe that included the early inhabitants of the city of Rome. From about 1000 BC, the Latins inhabited the small region known to
The Lapis Niger, probably the oldest extant Latin inscription (c. 600 BC)
Villanovan culture cinerary hut-urn, showing the likely shape of Romulus' Hut in Rome: a simple mud-and-straw shelter
The "Rain Miracle": Jupiter the Rainmaker rescues the Romans during the Marcomannic Wars (AD 166–180). The soldiers of legion XII Fulminata, who were surrounded by the Quadi Germans and severely dehydrated, were saved by a thunderstorm, which reportedly materialised out of a clear sky. Note the god's wings. Detail from the Column of Marcus Aurelius, Rome
View of Albanus mons (Monte Cavo, 949m), the sacred mount of the Latins in the Alban Hills. The annual religious rites of the Latin Festival were held on its summit. In foreground, the Alban lake, filling the caldera of an extinct volcano
The Aeneid is a Latin epic poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who fled the fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. Written by the Roman po
Latins (Italic tribe)
…and other Trojan survivors must have migrated elsewhere. The legend is given its most vivid and detailed treatment in the Roman poet Virgil's epic, the Aeneid (published around AD 20). According to this, the Latin tribe's first king was Latinus, who gave his name to the tribe and founded the first capital of…
Manuscript circa 1470, Cristoforo Majorana
Aeneas Flees Burning Troy, by Federico Barocci (1598). Galleria Borghese, Rome, Italy
Paul Cézanne, Aeneas Meeting Dido at Carthage, c. 1875, Princeton University Art Museum
Hawara Papyrus 24, with a line of the Aeneid (repeated 7 times, probably a writing exercise) that translates: "It is not the hated face of Spartan Helen..."). 1st century AD, from Hawara, Egypt; displayed at the British Museum, London