Although its name derives from the Oscan word tifata, which means holm oak, Mount Tifata is largely barren, except for the woods surrounding the northern side.

On its shores violets grew, and this is why the Greeks called it Clanis. The River Clanis rises on Mounts Tifatini.

Older than Vesuvius. It is among the biggest of Italy, but extinct since fifty thousand years ago. The Roccamonfina volcano rises isolated between the Aurunci Mountains, in Lazio, and in Campania Felix the plain of Garigliano and the Massico massif, separating it from the Tyrrhenian Sea.