politically annihilated was erased from the ranks
of the members of the league. At the same time,
however, according to Latin use and wont the number
once fixed of thirty confederate communities was so
adhered to, that of the participating cities never
more and never less than thirty were entitled to vote,
and a number of the communities that were of later
admission, or were disqualified for their slight importance
or for the crimes they had committed, were without
the right of voting. In this way the confederacy
was constituted about 370 as follows. Of old
Latin townships there were—besides some
which have now fallen into oblivion, or whose sites
are unknown—still autonomous and entitled
to vote, Nomentum, between the Tiber and the Anio;
Tibur, Gabii, Scaptia, Labici,(15) Pedum, and Praeneste,
between the Anio and the Alban range; Corbio, Tusculum,
Bovillae, Aricia, Corioli, and Lanuvium on the Alban
range; Cora in the Volscian mountains, and lastly,
Laurentum in the plain along the coast. To these
fell to be added the colonies instituted by Rome and
the Latin league; Ardea in the former territory of
the Rutuli, and Satricum, Velitrae, Norba, Signia,
Setia and Circeii in that of the Volsci. Besides,
seventeen other townships, whose names are not known
with certainty, had the privilege of participating
in the Latin festival without the right of voting.
On this footing—of forty-seven townships
entitled to participate and thirty entitled to vote—the
Latin confederacy continued henceforward unalterably
fixed. The Latin communities founded subsequently,
such as Sutrium, Nepete,(16) Antium, Tarracina,(17)
and Gales, were not admitted into the confederacy,
nor were the Latin communities subsequently divested
of their autonomy, such as Tusculum and Lanuvium,
erased from the list.
Fixing of the Limits of Latium
With this closing of the confederacy was connected
the geographical settlement of the limits of Latium.
So long as the Latin confederacy continued open,
the bounds of Latium had advanced with the establishment
of new federal cities: but as the later Latin
colonies had no share in the Alban festival, they were
not regarded geographically as part of Latium.
For this reason doubtless Ardea and Circeii were
reckoned as belonging to Latium, but not Sutrium or
Tarracina.
Isolation of the Later Latin Cities as Respected Private
Rights
But not only were the places on which Latin privileges
were bestowed after 370 kept aloof from the federal
association; they were isolated also from one another
as respected private rights. While each of them
was allowed to have reciprocity of commercial dealings
and probably also of marriage (-commercium et conubium-)
with Rome, no such reciprocity was permitted with
the other Latin communities. The burgess of Satrium,
for example, might possess in full property a piece
of ground in Rome, but not in Praeneste; and might
have legitimate children with a Roman, but not with
a Tiburtine, wife.(18)