This work deals with the area of Southern coastal Latium lying between Terracina and Formia and with the historical events that took place in this territory during the First and Second Samnitic Wars.
By examining the literary sources we can define the historical frame in which the military events took place during the second half of the 4th cent. b.C., when this region played a significant role, thanks mainly to its position, on the route between Latium and Campania, the latter being the object of the territorial expansion of both the Romans and the Samnites.
Among the proposals put forward in the paper, a new location is suggested for the famous battle of Lautulae, which could reasonably be conjectured to have taken place in the narrow passes of the Fondi hinterland, along a road that connected the viae Appia and Latina.
