Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/101

 ALANI. Spain, the Suevi obtaining Gallaecia, the Ahoi LoaBtaaia and the province of New Carthage, and the Vaadak Baetica. (Clinton, #. a.) Moat «f than aeeacnpanied Gciseric in his invasion of A£net in the foDowii^ year (429 : Africa, Vaii'- DAu), and among other indicatians of their con- tiaaed oonsequenoe in AMca, we find an edict of Baanie addzeaaed, in 483, to the bishops of the Vaadys amd Alamt (Clinton, «. a.); while in Spain «» bear no more of them or of the Vandals, bat the pbre of both b occupied bj the SoevL Meanwhile, Rcoraing to Eorope, at the time of Attila's invasion tf the Roman empire, we find in his camp the de- ■cendents of thoae Ahns who had at first joined the finat; and the perwmal infioence of AStios with Attila «> i tainw1 the services of a bodj of Alani, who ««re settled in Gaol, aboat Valence and Orleans. (GibboB, e. 35.) When AttDa mvaded Gaul, 451, bt seecQs to have depended partly on the sympathy «f these Alanl (GiMnai spoiks of a promise from tbdr king Sanjdban to betny Orleans); and the peat vietoKy of Chalons, whoe they served under Theodorie against the Huns, was nearly loet by their drfrrtinw (451). Among the acts rraorded of To- raoMMl, in the single year of his reign (451^-452), m the oooqueat of the Alani, who may be supposed ti bape rebelled. (Clinton, s.aS) In the last years if the W. emfure the Alans are mentioned with other laibanans as overrunning Gaul and advancing even iato L^^nxia, and as resisted by the prowess of Ma- jarian (Cfinton, «. a. 461; Gibbon, c 36); but tfaoKelarth their name disappears, swallowed up in the fjeai kingdom of the Visigoths. So much for the Alani of the West. An this time, and later, they are still found in thor ancient settlements in the £., between the Don and Volga, and in the Caucasus. They are men- tifload under Jnatinian ; and, at the breaking out of the war between Justin IL and Chosroes, king of Peria, they are finmd among the allies of the Ar- wniaM, under their king Saroes, 572—3. (Theo • ihyfaet ap. Phot. Cod, Ixv. p. 26, b. 37, ed.Bekker.) The Alani of the Caucasus are constantly men- tisned, both by Byzantine and Aratrian writers, in the middle ages, and many geographers suppose the Ometu of DagkaUm to be their descendants. The medieval writers, both Greek and Arab, call the cooixtry about the £. end of Caucasus Alania. Amidst these materials, coqjecture has naturally been bo^. From the Affghans to the Poles, there is scarcely a race of warlike horsemen which has not been identified with the Alani; and, in fiu^ the might be applied, consistently with the ancient to almost any of the nomade peoples, oon- faonded by the ancients under the vague name of Scy- thaaas, except the Mongols. They were evidently a hnadl of that great nomade race which is found, B the be|inning of recorded histoiy, in the NW. of Asia and the SE. of Europe ; and perhaps we should not be fitf wrong in placmg their original seats in the cooBtry of the Kirghiz Tartartj round the head of the Caspian, whence we may suppose them to ham sfvead W.-ward round the Euzine, and espe- daOy to have occupied the great plains N. of the b e t we en the Don and Volgay whence they fcrth into W. Asia by the passes of the Gau- Their permanent settlement also in Sar* (ia A Jtigtid) is clearly established, and a of the dcaciipClon of them by Anunianus Marcdfinus with the fiynrth book of Herodotus can feare fittk donht that they were a kindred nice to ALATRIUM. 85: the ]5cTthiuns of the latter, that is, tlie people of European Sarmatia. Of their language, one soli- tary relic has been preserved. In the Peiriphu of the EtLcine (p. 5, Hudson, p. 213, Gail) we are told that the city of Theodosia was called in the Alan or Tauiic dialect 'ApSd^Sa or ^ApBada, that is, the cUy of the Seven gods. (Klaproth, Tableaux de FAne; Bitter, Erdkunde^ vol. ii. pp. 845 — 850; Stritter, Mem. Pop, vol. iv. pp. 232, 395; De Guignes, Hist, des Huns^ vol. ii. p. 279 ; Ukert, vol. iii. pt. 2. pp. 550 — 555; Georgii, vol. i. p. 152, vol. ii. p. 312.) [P. S.] ALA'NI and ALAUNI MONTES. [Alaki.] ALA'NIA. [Alani.] ALATA CASTRA (ytrt^wrbv arpar&K^v^ Ptol.*iL 3. § 13), in the territory of the Vacomagi (Hurray and Inverness-shire) was the northernmost station of the Romans in Britain, and near Inverness. This fort was probably raised by Lollius Urbicus after his victories in Britannia BarbaniA.D. 139, to repress the incundons of the Caledonian clans : but it was soon abandoned, and all vestige of if obliterated. (Gapitolin. AnUmin. P. 5 ; Pansan. viii. 43. § 3.) [W. B. D.] ALATRIUM or ALETRIUM ('AA A-piov, Strab. ; AlATRINATES, Liv. ; AliETRINATES, PlJlL Ct luscr.), a dty of the Hemicans, situated to the £. of the Via Latina, about 7 miles from Ferentinum, and still called AkUrL In early times it appears to have been one of the principal cities of the Hemican league, and in b. c. 306, when the general council of Uie nation was assembled to deliberate concerning war with Rome, the Alatrians, in conjunction with the citizens of Ferentinum and Vemli, pronounced against it. For this they were rewarded, after the defeat of the other Hemicans, by being allowed to retain their own laws, which they preferred to the Roman citizenship, with the mutual right of connu- bium among the three cities. (Liv. ix. 42, 43.) Its name is found in Plautus {Captivij iv. 2, 104), and Cicero speaks of it as in his time a municipal town of consideration (^Or.pro Ghent. 16, 17). It subeequently became a colony, but at what period we know not: Pliny mentions it only among the "oppida** of the first region: and its municipal rank is confirmed by inscriptions of imperial times {Lib. Colon, p. 230; Plin. iii. 5. 9; Inscr. ap. Gmter. pp.422. 3, 424. 7; Orelli, Inter. 3785; Zumpt, de Colon, p. 359). Being removed from the high road, it is not mentioned in the Itmeraries, but Strabo notices it among the cities of Latium, though he erroneously places it on the right or south side of the Via Latina. (v. p. 237.) The modem town of AkUrij which contains a population of above 8000 inhabitants, and is an episcopal see, retains the site of the ancient city, on a steep hill of considerable elevation, at the foot of which flows the little river Cosa. It has few monu- ments of Roman times, but the remains of its massive ancient fortifications are among the most striking in Italy. Of the walls which surrounded the city itself great portions still remain, built of large polygonal blocks of stone, without cement, in the same style as those of Signia, Norba, and Ferentinum. But much more remarkable than these are the remains of the ancient citadel, which crowned the summit of the hill : its form is an irr^ular oblong, of about 660 yards in circuit, constituting a nearly level terrace supported on all sides by walls of the most massive polygonal constmction, varying in height according to the declivity of the ground, but which O 3