Cameria

History

Cameria was one of the most ancient cities of Latium, having been established as a colony of Alba Longa, long before the founding of Rome. Diodorus Siculus attributes its foundation to Latinus Silvius, one of the Alban kings. It was numbered among the Prisci Latini, the old Latin towns whose inhabitants were regarded as aborigines; that is, those who had lived there ab origine, "from the beginning". It is uncertain whether its name is connected with that of Camers, the name of two mythological personages alluded to by Virgil. The location of Cameria is no longer known with certainty, but the most likely candidate for its modern location is the town of Palombara Sabina, built on a hill near the foot of Monte Gennaro.

Dionysius of Halicarnassus relates that in the early years of the Roman Kingdom, the Camerini came into conflict with the Romans led by Romulus, the legendary founder and first King of Rome, and Titus Tatius, the leader of the Sabine population at Rome, who ruled alongside Romulus for five years. According to Dionysius, the expedition against the Camerini was the only military venture undertaken by the two kings during what was otherwise a peaceful period in Rome's early history.

Roman territory was regularly raided by parties from Cameria, and the city ignored repeated Roman demands to stop the "robbers", or otherwise redress the injury done to Roman property. Romulus and Tatius marched on Cameria, defeating the Camerini in a pitched battle, and then laying siege to the town, which they took by storm. The Camerini were disarmed, and a third of their territory was seized by Rome and allocated to its people, who began to settle in the former Camerian territory. …

Legacy

The surname Camerinus was borne by the oldest family of the Sulpicia gens, one of the most illustrious patrician families of ancient Rome, and probably indicated that the Sulpicii originated at Cameria. Members of this family frequently held the highest offices of the Roman state from the earliest years of the Republic until the second century AD, and the name occurs to the end of Roman history. Tacitus reports that the Coruncanii were also from Cameria.