Note: Area of central-western Italy in which the city of Rome was founded and grew to be the capital city of the Roman Empire. It includes the areas of modern southern Lazio to north of the Garigliano river near the city of Sinuessa, over the foothills of the Apennines. Indo-Europeans arrived ca. 1,500 BCE. Early inhabitants were Latins, Etruscans and various Italic tribes; held by Rome from the 3rd century BCE; invaded by Visigoths, Vandals and Lombards near end of Roman Empire; part of Papal States, 8th-19th centuries.