Bolae

History

Its foundation is expressly ascribed by Virgil to the kings of Alba Longa, and its name is found also in the list given by Diodorus Siculus of the colonies of that city. Hence, there is no doubt that it was properly a Latin city, though its name does not appear among the list of those that composed the Latin League. But it fell at an early period into the hands of the Aequians. Dionysius of Halicarnassus describes it as one of the towns taken by Coriolanus, together with Toleria and Labicum; and though Livy does not notice its conquest upon that occasion, he speaks of it as an Aequian town, when the name next occurs in history towards the end of the 5th century BC. In this instance the Bolani were among the foremost to engage in war, and ravaged the lands of the neighboring Labicum, but being unsupported by the rest of the Aequians, they were defeated, and their town taken. It was, however, recovered by the Aequians, and a fresh colony established there, but was again taken by the Romans under Publius Postumius Albus Regillensis, and it was on this occasion that the proposal to establish a Roman colony there, and portion out its lands among the settlers, gave rise to one of the fiercest mutinies in Roman history. …