Road station
Aquino
Listen to the story
Aquino, the Roman Aquinum in the Liris valley, lay eighty Roman miles, about one hundred and eighteen kilometres, from Rome on the Via Latina, and grew rich on its dye works: the poet Horace mentions its dye as a cheap rival to the true purple of Sidon. It was the home town of the satirist Juvenal. Hannibal crossed the river nearby in 211 BC on his march on Rome, and remains of its theatre, amphitheatre and a triumphal arch survive.