Terracina

Terracina is a city and comune of the province of Latina - (until 1934 of the province of Rome), Italy, 76km southeast of Rome by rail and 56km by the Via Appia by car.HistoryAncient timesTerracina appears in ancient sources with two names: the Latin Tarracina and the Volscian Anxur. The latter is the name of Jupiter himself as a youth (Iuppiter Anxur or Anxurus), and was the tutelary god of the city, venerated on the Mons Neptunius (current Monte S. Angelo), where a temple dedicated to him still exists (see below). The name Tarracina has been instead pointed out variously as pre-Indo-European origin (Ταρρακινή in ancient Greek), or as Etruscan (Tarchna or Tarchuna, the name of the Tarquinii family): in this view, it would precede the Volscian conquest.Terracina occupied a position of notable strategic importance: it is located in fact at the point where the Volscian Hills (an extension of the Lepini Mountains) reach the coast, leaving no space for passage between them and the sea, in a site commanding the Pontine Marshes (urbs prona in paludes, "a city surrounded by marshes", as Livy called it) and also possessing a small harbour. During the 600's BC, it joined the Etruscan League of twelve cities. In 509 BCE Terracina was already under Roman supremacy, but was not included in the list of the Latin league of 499 BCE. In 406 it was stormed by the Romans, then lost in 402, recovered in 400, unsuccessfully attacked by the Volsci in 397, and finally secured by the establishment of a colony of Roman citizens in 329 BCE.