SI VERUM DICIMUS, HAEC EST MEA ET HUIUS FRATRIS MEI GERMANA PATRIA“To tell the truth, this is the real homeland of my brother and me.” Cicero, On the Laws II, 3
The story of the valley, from Cicero to our grandparents
Between the Liri Valley and the Comino Valley lie more than two thousand years of history: Italic towns, Cicero's birthplace, abbeys and castles, paper mills and departures for the wider world. Here we tell it in order, in the words of those who wrote it.
Timeline
The dates that shaped this land
Each entry links to the page with the places to visit.
- before Rome
The Italic towns
Volsci and Samnites live on the heights of the valley. Arpino, Sora and Atina begin as fortified centres; Arpino still has the polygonal walls of the Civitavecchia acropolis. Legend says Saturn founded Arpino and Atina.
- 305 BC
Rome takes Arpino
Arpinum comes under Rome and, by the end of the Republic, is a thriving municipality. It produces two leading figures of Roman history: Gaius Marius and Marcus Tullius Cicero. Arpino today
- 106 BC
Cicero is born
On 3 January, in the family villa on the banks of the Fibreno, just outside Arpino. His grandfather had kept it small, “in the old-fashioned way”; his father enlarged it and spent almost all his life there among his books.
- 50s BC
On the Laws, by the Fibreno
Cicero sets his dialogue on the laws during a walk along the river with his brother Quintus and his friend Atticus, as far as the little island where the Fibreno splits and rejoins. Here he calls this land his “real homeland”. The river and the lake
- 1st c. AD
Pliny and the floating islands
In his Natural History, Pliny the Elder collects the cases of floating islands on Italian lakes. Local tradition, taken up by the Italian National Trust (FAI), recognises among them La Rota on Lake Posta Fibreno.
- 1011
The Abbey of San Domenico
Where the Fibreno flows into the Liri a monastery is founded, on the site said to be Cicero's family villa. In 1104 it is dedicated to Saint Dominic the Abbot. Ancient stone blocks are reused in the doorposts of the portal. Visiting the abbey
- 1017
The castles of the Comino Valley
The Lombard castle of Vicalvi passes to the Abbey of Montecassino. Later the valley belongs to the Counts of Aquino and then to the Cantelmo family, who choose Alvito castle as their residence. Vicalvi and Alvito
- 1579
The Duchy of Sora
Pope Gregory XIII gives his son Giacomo Boncompagni the castle of Isola del Liri, which becomes the seat of the Duchy of Sora. Isola del Liri and the waterfall
- 1810
The lake mill
At the entrance to Lake Posta Fibreno the water mill starts working: the little red house that today can be visited with its original machinery.
- 1800s
Paper and wool mills
The power of the Liri makes Isola del Liri and the valley the paper-making centre of the Kingdom of Naples. The valley belongs to the province of Terra di Lavoro, whose capital is Caserta.
- 1880–1960
The great departures
Whole families leave every village in the valley: for Scotland, England and Ireland, the United States and Canada, France and South America. Many open shops, ice-cream parlours, cafés and restaurants; almost all come back in summer for the village feast. Find your roots
- 13 Jan 1915
The earthquake
The Marsica earthquake also strikes the Liri Valley: at San Domenico almost the whole vault of the church collapses.
- 1927
The province of Frosinone is created
The Sora district and the Comino Valley leave the province of Caserta (Terra di Lavoro) and join the new province of Frosinone. For anyone looking for family records this matters: the oldest documents may be in the Caserta archives.
- 2 July 1940
The Arandora Star
A ship carrying Italian internees from the United Kingdom to Canada is sunk off Ireland: 446 Italians die, many of whom had lived in Britain for years. Among them were five men from Casalattico, in the Comino Valley, now remembered by a memorial in Belmullet, Ireland.
- 1943–1944
The war and Montecassino
The Gustav Line crosses southern Lazio; the Abbey of Montecassino is destroyed in 1944 and later rebuilt. Montecassino today
- 1957
Posta Fibreno becomes a town
Until then Posta Fibreno was a hamlet of the municipality of Vicalvi; with law no. 91 of 1957 it becomes independent. This also matters for research: earlier records are often registered in Vicalvi.
- 1983
The nature reserve
The Lazio Region establishes the Lake Posta Fibreno Nature Reserve to protect the springs, the reed beds, La Rota and the Fibreno trout.
- 2010–2024
The return
The Atina Cannellino bean becomes a PDO product (2010). 2024 is the Year of Italian Roots in the World, and the Sanctuary of the Madonna di Canneto is recognised as a regional sanctuary.
Quotations
Cicero's words on the Fibreno
From the second book of On the Laws. Original Latin text; our translations.
Hic sacra, hic genus, hic maiorum multa vestigia.
“Here are our rites, here our family, here the many traces of our ancestors.”
On the Laws II, 3Hinc enim orti stirpe antiquissima sumus.
“From here we spring, from a most ancient stock.”
On the Laws II, 3Nec enim ullum hoc frigidius flumen attigi.
“I have never touched a colder river than this.” Atticus says it, dipping his foot in the Fibreno.
On the Laws II, 6In the same passage Cicero describes how the Fibreno, “cut as if by a ship's prow”, divides into two equal branches and then joins again, embracing an island the size of a small wrestling ground. There he would sit to think, read and write.
Why it matters today
A successful emigrant who kept coming home
Cicero left here for Rome and became consul. Yet whenever he could get away for a few days he came back to the Fibreno, “for the beauty and healthiness of the place”, and explained to Atticus that this was his real homeland, the place of his roots.
It is the same feeling as that of people who arrive today from Glasgow, London, Toronto or New York looking for their grandparents' house. That is why we chose his words to welcome you.
Sources and further reading
- Cicero, De legibus (On the Laws), book II, 1–6
- Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia, book II
- FAI, “La Rota” entry (Places of the Heart)
- Parchi Lazio, Lake Posta Fibreno Nature Reserve page
- Abbey of San Domenico, Sora: MuseiOnline entry
- Diocese of Sora-Cassino-Aquino-Pontecorvo, decree on the regional Sanctuary of Canneto (2024)