In the second and third books of Livy, the Volscians and Aequians generally come in contact with each other on mount _Algidus_. There are different opinions as to what mountain is meant by this name; scholars commonly rely on a passage in the Itineraries, where a place _Algidus_ or _Algidum_ is mentioned. The district is now never visited, because it is the haunt of fearful robbers; however, after I had left Italy, a friend of mine visited and described the localities. Between the countries of the Latins and Hernicans, there was a high and cold table land, _locus algidus_, not hills in the proper sense, but a rugged district covered with wood (_ilex_). At present there remain but slight traces of that forest, which is a little to the north of Velitrae. As the Aequians and Volscians were contiguous there, they separated the Hernicans from the Romans and Latins, and thus were pernicious to the latter. According to these statements, you will have no difficulty in finding the situation of mount Algidus in your maps. ANTIUM was a Volscian place; I do not mean to say that the whole population consisted of Volscians, but it had received a Volscian colony, which gave the prevailing name; as Virgil says, _Tusco de sanguine vires_, so we may say of Antium, _Volsco de sanguine vires_. In ancient times, Antium was an important maritime and commercial place, but also the haunt of pirates; afterwards it became a _colonia maritima_, that is, its inhabitants were bound to serve in maritime war, and on extraordinary emergencies; they had the Roman franchise, but not the right of voting. The place was greatly favoured, and in the course of time became the emporium of the whole Latin country; its harbour was much better than that of any of the other towns on the same coast, such as Laurentum and Lavinium, which had only road-steads. At a later time, it was artificially improved, a circumstance which had become necessary, for the mud of the Tiber, which was carried along the coast, filled up the harbour. Afterwards Antium was one of those places, in which the wealthy Roman nobles were fond of taking up their summer residence, especially during the first century after Christ. Nero changed it into a military colony, but of an irregular kind. TERRACINA or ANXUR, was a large and ancient Tyrrhenian city; Anxur is acknowledged to be its Volscian name. Its double name alone leads to the supposition that the place had a mixed population. ECETRAE, one of the central points of the Volscian population, must be looked for in the interior of the country, above the Pontine marshes, and not far from Ferentinum. It afterwards entirely disappears like so many other places in that district. I cannot explain this otherwise, than by supposing that the Romans have drawn a veil over the Samnite wars. The time when so many places were destroyed there, must have been that when the Samnites penetrated into the heart of Latium.