Terracina

Sister cities

• Béjaïa
• Pécs
• Bad Homburg vor der Höhe
• Mondorf-les-Bains
• Mayrhofen
• Kobuleti
• Cabourg
• Sergiyev Posad
• Brixen
• Jūrmala
• Exeter
• Chur

History

Terracina appears in ancient sources with two names: the Latin Tarracina and the Volscian Anxur. The latter is the name of Jupiter himself as a youth ( or ), and was the tutelary god of the city, venerated on the (current Monte S. Angelo), where a temple dedicated to him still exists (see below). The name has been instead pointed out variously as pre-Indo-European origin (Ταρρακινή in ancient Greek), or as Etruscan ( or , the name of the Tarquinii family): in this view, it would precede the Volscian conquest. Terracina occupied a position of notable strategic importance: it is located at the point where the Volscian Hills (an extension of the Lepini Mountains) reach the coast, leaving no space for passage between them and the sea, on a site commanding the Pontine Marshes (, "a city surrounded by marshes", as Livy called it) and also possessing a small harbour. During the 600s BC, it joined the Etruscan League of twelve cities. In 509 BC Terracina was already under Roman supremacy as reported in the 1st treaty between Rome and Carthage. It was soon re-occupied by the Volsci and was not included in the list of the Latin League of 499 BC. In 406 it was recaptured by the Romans then lost in 402 and recovered in 400, unsuccessfully attacked by the Volsci in 397, and finally secured by the establishment of a colony of Roman citizens in 329 BC as . possessed villas in the area. The port was built under Trajan and Antoninus Pius in the 2nd century AD. The last Roman construction was that of a new line of walls during the 5th century AD. The nearby mineral springs by the coast, known to the Romans as and later renamed , are still in use, except one containing arsenic which was blocked up both by the ancients and again in 1839 as a precaution. Terracina is mentioned in…

Geography

The municipality borders with Fondi, Monte San Biagio, Pontinia, Sabaudia, San Felice Circeo and Sonnino. It counts the hamlets (frazioni) of Borgo Hermada, Frasso (shared with Sonnino), La Fiora and San Vito.