Velitrae

Velitrae is the Latin name of Velletri, an Italian comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome, about 40 kilometres southeast of the city centre in the Alban Hills of the Lazio region. In antiquity it was a city of the Volsci tribe, which by tradition came into conflict with the Romans under King Ancus Marcius and again in the fifth and fourth centuries BCE during the early Republic. It was the home of the Octavii, the paternal family of the first Roman Emperor Augustus. In the Middle Ages it was one of the few free cities of Lazio, with the motto that liberty of pope and empire was given to it. Two battles were fought there, in 1744 and 1849, and it saw fierce fighting in 1944 after the Anglo-American landing at Anzio. Today it is the terminus of the Rome to Velletri railway, opened in 1863, and lies on the Via Appia Nuova.