Description : Alatri (Latin: Aletrium) is an Italian town and comune of the province of Frosinone in the region of Lazio, with c. 30,000 inhabitants. An ancient city of the Hernici, it is known for its megalithic acropolis. The area of the modern city was settled as early as the 2nd millennium BC. Aletrium was a town of the Hernici which, together with Veroli, Anagni and Ferentino, formed a defensive league against the Volsci and the Samnites around 550 BC. In 530 they allied with Tarquinius Superbus' Rome, confirming the Etruscan influence in the area attested also by archaeology. Alatri was defeated by Rome in 306 BC and forced to accept the citizenship. In Cicero's time it was a municipium, and continued in this position throughout the imperial period. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the city decayed, the only respected authority being represented by the Christian bishop. During the reign of Theodoric the Great (5th century AD) the patrician Liberius promoted the construction of a monastic community, one of the most ancient in the West, where in 528 St. Benedict sojourned briefly. In 543, during the Gothic Wars, Alatri was sacked and destroyed by Totila's troops. In the 12th century the city became an important stronghold of the popes when they were obliged to leave the then unsafe Rome. In the following century it became a free commune, although under the authority of the bishops and the pope, governed by consuls until 1241, when a podestà was introduced. In the following centuries it flourished economically and expanded, conquering Collepardo, Guarcino, Trivigliano, Vico and Frosinone, though often hampered by inner strife. In the 15th century Alatri started to lose its freedom, due to the involvement of Ladislaus of Naples and Pope Martin V. After the short seigniory of Filippo Maria Visconti in 1434, the city had to accept papal suzerainty. Struggles with the neighbouring communes continued, and in 1556 it was occupied by Spanish soldiers. During the Roman Republic, it remained loyal to the pope. During the Napoleonic occupation (1809–1814) numerous members of the papal administration, as well as bishop Giuseppe della Casa, were deported to France. It became part of Italy in 1870. During World War II it suffered heavy destruction and human victims.
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