FIDENAE, an ancient town of Latium, situated about 6 m. north of Rome on the Via Salaria. It was for some while the frontier of the Roman territory and was often in the hands of Veii being of importance owing both to its command of the road, and to the existence here of a ferry over the Tiber, which lasted on into imperial times, serving to connect the property of Livia, on this bank with her villa near Saxa Rubra (q.v.). It is spoken of by classical authors as a place almost deserted in their time, • though it was a post station. The site of the arx of the ancient town is to be sought on the hill on which Castel Giubileo stands, while the town lay on the opposite side of the highroad.
See Panaitescu in Ephemeris Dacico-Romana, ii. (1924) 416.