The Latin League and Bovillae: between History and Archaeology

This chapter will attempt to reconstruct relations between the city of Bovillae and a circle of neighboring allied cities, collectively called the Latin League. As simple as it may sound, the task is nevertheless a difficult one, considering the set of data on which the analysis depends. Archaeological and historical sources are both limited, the former being highly elusive and the latter informative only to a degree. Historical sources have an added problem: any interpretation of them must come to terms with a series of well-known flaws and limitations that are common to ancient written sources referring to archaic age Rome and particularly to the peoples of pre-Roman Italy.1 Despite these challenges to research, this chapter aims nonetheless to gather and discuss all relevant information available in order to provide a picture of archaic Bovillae and its role in the wider Latin setting.