ARICIA (mod. Ariccia)  , an ancient city of Latium, on the Via Appia, 16 m . S.E. of Rome . The old town, or at any rate its acropolis, now occupied by the modern town, lay high (1350 ft. above sea-level) above the circular Valle Aricciana, which is probably an extinct volcanic crater; some remains of its fortifications, consisting of a mound of earth supported on each side by a wall of rectangular blocks of peperino stone, have been discovered (D . Marchetti, in Notizie degli scavi, 1892, 52) . The lower town was situated on the north edge of the valley, close to the Via Appia, which descended into the valley from the modern Albano, and re-ascended partly upon very fine substructions of opus quadratum, some 200 yds. in length, to the modern Genzano . Remains of the walls of the lower town, of the cella of a temple built of blocks of peperino, and also of later buildings in brick-work and opus reticulatum, connected with the post-station (Aricia being the first important station out of Rome, cf . Horace, Sat. i . 5 . 1, Egressum magna me excepit Aricia Roma hospitio modico) on the highroad, may still be seen (cf . T . Ashby in Melanges de l'ecole francaise de Rome, 1903, 399) . Aricia was one of the oldest cities of Latium, and appears as a serious opponent of Rome at the end of the period of the kings and beginning of the republic .

In 338 B.C. it was conquered by C .

Maenius and became a civitas sine suffragio, but was soon given full rights . Even in the imperial period its chief magistrate was styled dictator, and its council senatus, and it preserved its own calendar of festivals . Its vegetables and wine were famous, and the district is still fertile . (T .