Frosinone (, local dialect: ) is a town and comune in Lazio, central Italy, the administrative seat of the province of Frosinone. It is located about south-east of Rome close to the Rome-Naples A1 Motorway. The city is the main city of the Valle Latina ("Latin Valley"), an Italian geographical and historical region that extends from south of Rome to Cassino. Until the nineteenth century it was a village with a rural vocation, while from the twentieth century it became an important industrial and commercial center. Traditionally considered a Volscian city, with the name of Frusna and then the Roman of Latium adiectum as Frùsino, over the course of its millenary history it has been subjected to multiple devastations and plunders caused by its geostrategic position; as a consequence of this, as well as due to the destruction due to seismic events (the most ruinous of which occurred in September 1349), it retains only rare, albeit significant, traces of its past. Etymology Frusĭno (this is the Latin name) was at the time inhabited by the people of the Volsci, albeit included in the territory of the Hernici. The Volscian name of the city would be Frusna or Fruscìno, whose etymology is controversial; however, various hypotheses have been tried: the first would make the name derive from the Greek root (portis: heifer); a second, observing the assonance with Etruscan roots, links the name to a hypothetical Etruscan gens Fursina (or also, Frusina or Prusina); These have been accompanied by a more recent one, which, based on the links between the pre-Roman Italic civilizations, and in particular the Etruscan one, with the Akkadian-Sumerian peoples, hypothesizes similar influences also for toponyms: according to this, Frusna would have the meaning of "Land sprinkled by rivers". History Ancient age The first traces of human presence around modern Frosinone date from the Lower Paleolithic (around 250,000 years ago). The earliest settlements in the area are from around 4,000 years ago, including late Bronze Age remains in what is now the upper part of the city (12th-10th century BC) and 7th-6th century BC sepultures. 21 tombs from a Volscan necropolis were found in the Frosinone centre. Founded in the territory of Hernicians by the Volsci in VI century BC. with the name of Fruscìno or Frusna, as a strategic outpost in front of the impregnable fortress of Aletrium (today Alatri). It was subjugated by the Romans in