The myth of the "Cyclopean walls" in Latium Vetus: from the "Pelasgian question" to the first excavations at Norba.

At the end of the 18th century, the imposing polygonal walls of Latium Vetus remained largely unknown to scholars and enthusiasts of antiquity. It was in 1792 that the French scholar Louis Charles François Petit-Radel initiated a lively international debate on the origin and dating of these enigmatic constructions. Intuitively, Petit-Radel established a strong link between the "cyclopean" structures of Argos, Mycenae, and Tiryns and the defensive walls of some cities in southern Lazio, elaborating the evocative, albeit imaginative, theory that the megalithic walls of Lazio were the work of the mythical Pelasgians, and therefore dated back to a very remote era. The polygonal walls of Latium Vetus thus became central to a heated debate, the so-called "Pelasgian question," destined to continue for over a century. Numerous scholars, including those of great renown, fervently participated in this dispute, aligning themselves for or against Petit-Radel's view. The interest aroused by the "cyclopean walls" and the debate on their origin and chronology prompted travelers, artists, and scholars to explore the centers of southern Lazio, leaving us with valuable chronicles and a significant iconographic contribution from their journeys. The "Pelasgian question" found a resolution only at the beginning of the 20th century, thanks to the first systematic excavations in ancient Norba promoted by the Italian State. These investigations unequivocally established the Roman origin of the city's defensive walls and subsequently those of the other centers in the Lepini Mountains.