The Tiber River rises in the northern Apennines and flows southwards past Perugia and Rome before turning westwards to meet the Tyrrhenian Sea at Ostia. Early Latium consisted of a small coastal area bounded on the west by the Tyrrhenian Sea, on the north by the Tiber River – beyond which lay Etruria – and on the east by the foothills of the Apennines. The coast was an unhealthy marsh subject to periodic flooding, but Latium was able to feed a relatively large population using the back country for crops and the slopes for grazing.
The original settlement of Rome developed inland on seven hills east of Tiber Island (a small island in the middle of the river) and the most easily fordable point in the area. In reality the seven hills were simply low but steep-sided mounds. The Palatine in the centre was surrounded by the other six hills – in clockwise order the Capitoline (NW, near Tiber Island), the Quirinal (N), the Viminal (NNE), the Esquiline (NE), the Caelian (E) and the Aventine (SW).
Latin tribes began to build settlements on the hills in the early eighth century BC. During the seventh century BC there was an amalgamation of separate settlements into the city-state of Rome. Livy reports that when the Quirinal settlements joined those of the Palatine, Aquiline and Caelian, the union became known as Rome of the Four Regions. Eventually the Viminal tribe joined the growing community, for which the Capitoline served as the common acropolis and citadel. Apparently the Aventine hill lacked settlements until the fifth century BC. Two hills across the river, the Janiculum and the Vaticanus, eventually became part of the unified community.
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