LATINA, VIA, an ancient highroad of Italy, leading south east from Rome. It was probably one of the oldest Roman roads, leading to the pass of Algidus, important in early military history ; and it must have preceded the Via Appia as a route to Campania, inasmuch as the Latin colony at Cales was founded in 334 B.C. and must have been accessible from Rome by road, whereas the Via Appia was only made twenty-two years later. It follows, too, a far more natural line of communication, without the engineer ing difficulties of the Via Appia. As a through route it no doubt preceded the Via Labicana (see LABICANA, VIA) , though the latter may have been preferred later. After their junction, the Via Latina continued to follow the valley of the Trerus, following the line taken by the railway to Naples via Cassino, and passing below the Hernican hill-towns, Anagnia, Ferentinum, Frusino, etc. At Fregellae it crossed the Liris, and then passed through Aquinum and Casinum, both low-lying. It then entered the interval between the Apennines and the volcanic group of Rocca Monfina, and the original road, instead of traversing it, turned abruptly northeast over the mountains to Venafrum, thus giving direct communica tion with the interior of Samnium by roads, to Aesernia and Telesia. Later, however, there was in all probability a short cut by Rufrae along the line of the modern road and railway. The two lines rejoined near the present railway station of Caianello and the road ran to Teanum and Cales, and so to Casilinum, where was the crossing of the Volturnus and the junction with the Via Appia. The distance from Rome to Casilinum was I 29 m. by the Via Appia, 135 m. by the old Via Latina through Vena frum, 126 m. by the short cut by Rufrae. Considerable remains
of the road exist in the neighbourhood of Rome ; for the first m., as far as Compitum Anagninum, it is not followed by any modern road; while farther on in its course it is in the main identical with the modern highroad.
See T. Ashby in Papers of the British School at Rome iv. I sq., v. I sq. for a full account of its remains for the first 4o miles. LATIN', BRUNETTO (1210?-1294?), Italian philosopher, was born in Florence, and belonged to the Guelph party. After the disaster of Montaperti he took refuge for some years (1261 68) in France, but in 1269 returned to Tuscany and for some twenty years held successive high offices. Giovanni Villani says that "he was a great philosopher and a consummate master of rhetoric. . . . He began and directed the growth of the Floren tines, both in making them ready in speaking well and in know ing how to guide and direct our republic according to the rules of politics." While in France he wrote in French his prose Tresor, a summary of the encyclopaedic knowledge of the day (translated into Italian as Tesoro by Bono Giamboni in the 13th century), and in Italian his poem Tesoretto, rhymed coup lets in heptasyllabic metre, a sort of abridgment put in allegor ical form, the earliest Italian didactic verse. He is famous as the friend of Dante (see Inferno, xv. 82-87).
For the Tresor see P. Chabville's edition (1863) ; for the Tesoro, Gaiter's edition (1878) ; for the Tesoretto, B. Wiese's study in Zeit schrift fur romanische Philologie, vii. See also the biographical and critical accounts of Brunetto Latini by Thoe Sundby (1884), and Marchesini (1887 and 189o).