LATIUM, in Ancient Geography, the country of the Latins, at first contained within very narrow bounds, but afterwards increased by the accession of various tribes and races. The appellation, according to Virgil, is a latendo, from Saturn's lying hid there from the hostile pursuit of his son Jupiter; and from Latium comes Latini, the name of the people, though Dionysius of Halicarnassus derives it from King Latinus, who reigned about the time of the Trojan war. But, be this as it may, it is certain, that Latium, when under Æneas and his descendants, or the Alban kings, contained only the Latins, exclusive of the Æqui, Volsci, Hernici, and other people; but that Æneas reckoned the Rutulians, after their conquest, amongst the Latins. And this constituted the ancient Latium, confined to the Latins; but afterwards, under the kings, and subsequently, it reached from the Tiber to Circeii. Under the consuls, the country of the Æqui, Volsci, Hernici, and others, after long and bloody wars, was added to Latium, under the appellation of adjunctions or superadded Latium, as far as the river Liris, the eastern boundary, and to the north as far as the Marsi and Sabines. The various people which in succession occupied Latium, were the aborigines, the Pelasgi, the Arcades, the Siculi, the Arunci, the Rutuli; and beyond Circeii, the Volsci, the Oscii, and the Ausones; but the question as to who first, and who next, occupied the country, it is exceedingly difficult to resolve.