History of Alatri

Alatri is situated on the slopes of the “Ernici” mountains, near “Frosinone”. The Romans called it "Aletrium" (or "Alatrium"), but the etymological studies to date have failed to produce reliable  and incontrovertible results, because "Aletrium" is not of Latin origin, as  also witnessed the great Latin playwright  Plautus (254-184 BC), who called  "Alatrium" a "Barbaric Urbs", a "city of the barbarians", because it was built by people external to Italy (See C.O. Muller, “Sur le sens du mot barbarica chez Plaute”, in “Annales de l 'institut de correspondance Archéologique”, 1832, Vol. 4: 379). It is so obvious that the etymology of the city was sought in other languages. The hypotheses proposed in the past postponed to roots of Hebrew or Phoenician words.

The contemporary studies suggest however a possible Etruscan and Hernician root, since "Aletrium" was an important city of Hernici. The most compelling scientific proposals have come from scholars who, although writing over one hundred years of each other,  have come to almost identical results, starting with the similarities between "Velatri" (“Volterra”) and “Alatri”. The first proposal dates back to 1894; Caesar Antonio de Cara wrote that "[...] The city of Alatri, "Alatrium" or "Aletrium" is of Pelasgian origin, as its walls and the magnificent acropolis (...) Its name was in the Semitic form "Bal-ati-ri - Val-ati-ri" (...) "Velatri" (...) is identical to the names of Alatri. Elatria and “Velitrae - "Veletri" (...) and the meaning is always the same, 'country or land belonging to ‘Ati’, i.e. to 'Hethei' or 'land of Hethei' "(See Cesare Antonio de Cara," The Hethei-Pelasgians " ,  Accademia dei Lincei, 1894: 432 and 444). Alexander Crawford writes that " ‘Velatri’ - Volterra is certainly to be put in contact "with 'Alatrium', near Ferentino, a most ancient city of Hernici” (See A. Crawford, , “Etruscan Inscriptions”, BiblioBazaar,  2009: 290 and note).

The proto-historic origins of  Alatri are therefore linked to the Hernici ,  to whom it is attached, around the seventh century BC, the construction of the Acropolis and the mighty megalithic walls that surround the city. With the Roman expansion and the entrance, in 484 BC, in the "Foedus Cassianum", Alatri first became an ally of Rome, and, in 90 BC, it was elevated to “Municipium”. It was bishop's see at the age of Emperor Constantine (272-337) and in the early sixth century it was the center of one of the oldest monastic communities of the West, even before the formation of Benedictine monasticism. During the barbarian invasions after the siege and sack suffered in 543 by Ostrogothic King Totila (died in 552), Alatri strengthened its defensive structures to meet the continuing threats of the Lombards and then the Saracens. Independent municipality from the second half of the twelfth century, it has always been faithful to the Church; in the thirteenth century it reached the top of its political and cultural development, building numerous civic and religious monuments.

During the fourteenth century, after the transfer of the papacy to Avignon, it suffered the domain of Counts Ceccano (1334), and a diminution of its municipal autonomy by Cardinal Egidio Albornoz (1310-1367). It was later dominated by the Durazzo (1408-1414),  Visconti (1434) and by the Spaniards in 1556. After the Napoleonic period, with the restoration of the Papal States (1815), the city had a long period of political calm, leading to, from the early years of national unity, an improvement in economic conditions. The city, at the end of World War II, implemented a comprehensive program of rehabilitation and social policy, the effects of which, through a vigorous development of multiple realities and cultural production, recorded a decisive influence on formation of the present city.