TUSCULUM

ancient Italic city (now Frascati) in Latium, 15 miles (24 kilometres) southeast of Rome, a favourite resort of wealthy Romans under the late republic and the empire (1st century BC4th century AD). Tusculum was a Latin settlement during the early Iron Age (early 1st millennium BC) and was probably under Etruscan influence. According to Roman tradition Octavius Mamilius of Tusculum, son-in-law of the last Roman king, organized a league of 30 Latin cities against Rome in the late 5th century BC, but was defeated and killed in a battle at Lake Regillus in 497, which established Roman supremacy over the Latins. Thereafter, the city usually remained loyal to Rome. The Roman writer Cicero had a villa at Tusculum in the 1st century BC and composed his philosophical work Tusculanae disputationes there. In the early medieval period, Tusculum was an important stronghold, and its counts were influential at Rome. The Romans finally destroyed it during a war in 1191. The remains of ancient Tusculum include a forum, an amphitheatre of the 2nd century AD, and a complex of buildings wrongly known as the villa of Cicero. The highest point of the city was its citadel, on which are the remains of a medieval castle.