Ausona (today Ausonia) was a 4th-century BC city in the central Italian region of

Latium Latium ( , ; ) is the region of central western Italy in which the city of Rome was founded and grew to be the capital city of the Roman Empire. Definition Latium was originally a small triangle of fertile, volcanic soil (Old Latium) on whic ...

. It was one of the three cities possessed by the tribe of the

Ausones "Ausones" (; ), the original name and the extant Greek form for the Latin "Aurunci", was a name applied by Greek writers to describe various Italic peoples inhabiting the southern and central regions of Italy. The term was used, specifically, ...

and its name seems to imply that it was their chief city or metropolis (the others were

Cales Cales was an ancient city of Campania, in today's ''comune'' of Calvi Risorta in southern Italy, belonging originally to the Aurunci/ Ausoni, on the Via Latina. The Romans captured it in 335 BC and established a colony with Latin rights of ...

and Aurunca). It is only once mentioned in history: during the

Second Samnite War The First, Second, and Third Samnite Wars (343–341 BC, 326–304 BC, and 298–290 BC) were fought between the Roman Republic and the Samnites, who lived on a stretch of the Apennine Mountains south of Rome and north of the Lucanians, Lucania ...

(326–304 BC), when—the Ausones having revolted against the Romans—all three of their cities were betrayed into the hands of the Roman consuls, and their inhabitants put to the sword without mercy. No subsequent notice is found of Ausona; but it is supposed to have been situated on the banks of the little river still called Ausente, which flows into the Liris near its mouth. The plain below the modern village of Le Fratte, near the sources of this little stream, is still known as the ''Piano dell'Ausente''; and some remains of a Roman town have been discovered there. cites Romanelli III, p. 438.

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* {{coord, 41.355425, N, 13.748744, E, source:wikidata-and-enwiki-cat-tree_region:IT, display=title Roman towns and cities in Italy Archaeological sites in Campania