Battle of Lake Regillus

The Regillus lacus was a lake in the area of ​​the ancient city of Tusculum near modern Frascati, possibly in the drained crater " Pantano Secco ".

On Regillus lacus found at the beginning of the 5th century BC, the decisive battle in the first place Latinerkrieg the Roman Republic. Place and year of the event are not precisely known, the tradition position is uncertain.

Tensions between the young Roman Republic and the previously dominated by the monarchical Rome neighboring towns led at the turn of the 6th to 5th century BC to an independent Latinerbund. The military decision fell to 496 BC ( there other data 509-493 are proposed BC) on Regillus lacus, which was maybe 4 kilometers north of present-day Frascati. It cited by the former Roman king Lucius Tarquinius Superbus Latin cavalry defeated the Roman Hoplitenaufgebot. However, Rome was not entirely subdue the Latins. The following peace treaty ( foedus Cassianum ) contained an equal defensive alliance between Rome and the Latins.

The war - as the events before and after - is only delivered incomplete, the battle in legendary form. The Roman dictator and military commander Aulus Postumius Albus was doing the honorable of the Latins Dioscuri ( Castor and Pollux ), protective gods of horses and cavalry, a private temple and cult promised that if they would stand on the Roman side. The successful enticement of the hostile deity ( exoratio ) was rewarded with the construction and inauguration of the promised temple 484 BC. A popular story told from the appearance of the Dioscuri themselves in battle and shortly afterwards at the Roman Forum, where their horses at the fountain of Juturna ( Lacus Iuturnae ), near the later Dioscuri Temple ( Aedes Castoris ), soaked and victory the Romans are said to have proclaimed.