BOVILLAE, an ancient town of Latium, a station on the Via Appia (already paved up to this point in 293 B.c.) 11m. S.E. of Rome. It was a colony of Alba Longa, and one of the 3o cities of the Latin league. After the destruction of Alba Longa the sacra were, it was held, transferred to Bovillae, including the cult of Vesta (in inscriptions virgines vestales Albanae are mentioned, and the inhabitants of Bovillae are always spoken of as Albani Longani Bovillenses) and that of the gens Julia. This hereditary worship made it important when the Julian house rose to power. The knights met Augustus' dead body at Bovillae on its way to Rome, and in A.D. i 6 the shrine of the family worship was dedicated anew, and yearly games in the circus were instituted. Milo and Clodius quarrelled here and Clodius was killed ; his villa lay above the town, left of the Via Appia. Bovillae probably replaced Alba Longa as a local centre after the destruction of the latter by Rome, a case of deliberate choice of a strategically weak position. Re mains of buildings of the imperial period—the circus, a small theatre, and edifices probably connected with the post-station may still be seen south-west of the Via Appia.