It owes its present name to an unproven identification of the site with the ancient Volscian Artena, destroyed in 404 BC.

Another Artena, which was an Etruscan town belonging to the district of Caere, and laying between it and Veii, was destroyed in the period of the kings, and its site is unknown.

Due to the latter's anti-papal stance, Artena was ravaged several times by papal armies (1526, 1543 and 1557).

On the mountain 600 metres (2,000 ft) above the village are the fine remains of the fortifications of a city built in the 6th or 5th century BC, in cyclopean blocks of local limestone.

[3][5][6] This terraced settlement (Piano della Cività) later was the site of a Roman villa.