The low lands (modern _Campagna_) were malarious and unhealthy.

Hence the first settlements were made on the hills, which also could be easily fortified.
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).