The first town established was ALBA; around this sprung up other
towns, as Lanuvium, Aricia, Tusculum, Tibur, Praeneste, Laurentum,
Roma, and Lavinium.

These towns, thirty in number, formed a confederacy, called the LATIN
CONFEDERACY, and chose Alba to be its head. An annual festival was
celebrated with great solemnity by the magistrates on the Alban Mount,
called the Latin festival. Here all the people assembled and offered
sacrifice to their common god, Jupiter (_Latiaris_).

[Illustration: Latium]




CHAPTER III.

THE ROMANS AND THEIR EARLY GOVERNMENT.


We have learned the probable origin of the LATINS; how they settled in
Latium, and founded numerous towns. We shall now examine more
particularly that one of the Latin towns which was destined to
outstrip all her sisters in prosperity and power.

Fourteen miles from the mouth of the Tiber, the monotonous level of
the plain through which the river flows is broken by a cluster of
hills [Footnote: The seven hills of historic Rome were the Aventine,
Capitoline, Coelian, Esquiline (the highest, 218 feet), Palatine,
Quirínal, and Viminal. The Janiculum was on the other side of the