LATINS

   The historical people on the southern flank of the Etruscans, marked by the important geographical boundary of the Tiber River, whose most prominent city was Rome. The Latins shared with the Etruscans a similar Bronze Age development, although with greater qualities of continuity. Unlike the Etruscans, who adopted a relative parity of city relations, Rome managed to dominate her local urban neighbors and landscape, producing a new scale of power that led to the conquest of Etruria, commencing with the destruction of Veii (396 BC) and rapidly moving on to the effective absorbtion of all Etruria either by conquest or by alliance by the middle of the third century BC. The takeover by the Latin language was also rapid and can be followed in tomb inscriptions such as those of the Volumni at Perugia.

   See also CAI CUTU.