an ancient town of Latium, situate between Ostia and Lavinium, about 16 miles from Rome. It derived its name from a grove of laurels with which it was surrounded. Virgil describes it as the residence of King Latinus, and capital of Latium, when Æneas landed on the shores of Italy. With the growth of Lavinium, however, it seems to have fallen into decay; and Ostia, as the port of Rome, seems to have deprived it of its trading importance. Pliny the younger, and Commodus had both villas at Laurentum, although its marshes, whence the Romans derived wild boar for the table, must have rendered it exceedingly unhealthy. The Ager Laurens was the general term for the district, the limits of which, with the precise site of the town itself, are now difficult to determine.