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The origins of Velletri's, known in ancient times as Velitrae, are uncertain. A settlement here existed since pre-historic times, though scholars debated if Etruscan, Latin or Volscan. During the First Latin War, during the reign of the Roman King Ancus Marcius, the city was conquered by the Romans and called Velitrae, from the corresponding Volscan term Velcester. The Roman captured in again in 494 BCE and in 338 BCE: thenceforth Velletri became a flourshing Roman municipium and a site of leasure. During the Roman Empire the Roman patrici built several villas in it. The city had also several temples and an amphitheatre.
The gens Octavia came from Velitrae: his most famous member was Augustus, who spent his youth there.
Velletri began to decay after the sack by Alaric in 410 CE. In the 5th century it was the seat of a bishopric and in the following one it became an imperial city after the Byzantine reconquest of Italy. In the Middle Ages it started a diffucult recover, culminating in the 12th century with its declaration as a free commune. In the 14th and in the first half of the 15th centuries Velletri fought against the commune of Rome and the barons of Lazio, and later became part of the Papal States.
The first pawnshop of the world was opened in Velletri in the 15th century.
In 1774 Velletri and its surroundings were the theatre of a battle between the Spanish and the Austrian Army, during the war between the Habsburg and the Bourbon. After the French Revolution, Velletri rebelled and it was proclaimed a Republic. Later changed side and 900 of its citizens resisted in Castelgandolfo the siege by Joachim Murat. The Republic lasted till 1814, and was briefly revamped in 1849.
Between September 2, 1943, and June 2, 1944, Velletri was heavily bombed by the Allied Powers. Many of the monuments were destroyed and many people died.
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