At Sgurgola, in the valley of the Sacco, a skeleton was found in a rock-cut tomb of this period which still bears traces of painting with cinnabar. A similar rock-cut tomb was found at Mandela, in the Anio valley. Both are outside the limits of the Campagna in the narrower sense; but similar tombs were found (though less accurately observed) in travertine quarries between Rome and Tivoli. Objects of the Bronze age, too, have only been found sporadically. The earliest cemeteries and hut foundations of the Alban hills belong to the Iron age, and cemeteries and objects of a similar character have been found in Rome itself and in Etruria, belonging to the civilization of the Villanovans (q.v.). It was her possession of the crossing of the Tiber that gave Rome her importance from the first. (See ROME.) For the prehistoric period see B. Modestov, Introduction a l'histoire romaine (Paris, 1907) ; T. E. Peet, The Stone and Bronze Ages in Italy (Oxford, 1909) ; D. Randall-Maclver, Villanovans and Early Etruscans (Oxford, 1924).
The oldest linguistic monument of the Latini is the gold brooch of Praeneste (7th or early 6th century B.c.) and next comes the stele found in the Forum in Rome (6th century B.c.).
It is uncertain to what extent reliance can be placed upon the traditional accounts of the gradual spread of the supremacy of Rome in Latium, and the question cannot be discussed here. Nor can we deal with the list of 3o communities belonging to the Latin league (c. 37o B.c.) accounts of which are given by Dionysius of Halicarnassus.
At a still earlier period there existed another confederacy of 3o towns, of which Alba was the supreme head. A list of those who were wont to participate in the sacrifices on the Alban Mount is given us by Pliny (N.H. iii. 5. 69) under the name of populi albenses, which includes only six or eight of the list of Dionysius; and these among the least known. Many of the rest are unknown; while the more powerful cities of Aricia, Lanuvium and Tus culum, are not included, and appear to have maintained a wholly independent position. This earlier league was doubtless broken up by the fall of Alba ; it was probably the increasing power of the Volsci and Aequi that led to the formation of the later league, including all the more powerful cities of Latium, as well as to the alliance concluded by them with the Romans in the consulship of Spurius Cassius (493 B.c.). Other cities of the Latin league had already (according to the traditional dates) received Latin colonies—Velitrae (494 B.c.), Norba (492), Ardea (442), Labici (418), Circei (393), Satricum (385), Setia (382).
The cities of the Latin league continued to hold general meet ings or assemblies from time to time at the grove of the Aqua Ferentina, a sanctuary at the foot of the Alban hills, perhaps in a valley below Marino, while they had also a common place of worship on the summit of the Alban Mount (Monte Cavo), where stood the celebrated temple of Jupiter Latiaris. The participation in the annual sacrifices at this sanctuary was re garded as typical of a Latin city (hence the name "prisci Latini" given to the participating peoples) ; and they continued to be celebrated long of ter the Latins had lost their independence and been incorporated in the Roman State.
The boundary of the Ager Romanus antiquus towards the north-west is similarly fixed by the festival of the Robigalia at the 5th milestone of the Via Clodia. Within this area fall the districts inhabited by the earliest tribes, so far as these are known to us. The tribus Romilia was settled on the right bank of the Tiber near the sanctuary of the Arvales, the Galeria perhaps a little farther west on the lower course of the stream now known as Galera, and the Fabia perhaps on the Cremera towards Veii. We know that the pagus Lemonius was on the Via Latina, and that the tribus Pupinia dwelt between Tusculum and the city, while the territory of the Papiria possibly lay nearer Tusculum, as it was to this tribe that the Roman citizens in Tusculum belonged in later days. It is possible that the Camilia was situated in the direction of Tibur, inasmuch as this town was afterwards enrolled in this tribe. The tribus Claudia, probably the last of the 16 older tribus rusticae, was, according to tradition, founded in 504 B.C. Its territory lay beyond the Anio, between Fidenae and Ficulea. The locality of the pagi round which the other tribes were grouped is not known to us.