Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/104

 88 ALBA. Strab. T. p. 231; Niebahr,vol. i. p. 350,3*51.) The ci^ was never reboilt; its temples alone had been spared, and these appear to have been still existing in the time of Augustus. The name, however, was retained not onlj by the mountain and lake, but the valley immediately subjacent was called the Yallis Albfloia, and as late as b. c. 339 we find a body of Soman troops described as encamping "sub jugo Albae Longae " (Liv. vil. 39), by which we must certainly un^^rstand the ridge on which the city stood, not the mountain above it. The whole sur- rounding territory was tenned the " ager Albanus,** whence the name of Albanum was given to the town which in later ages grew up on the opposite side of the lake. [Albanum.] Soman tradition derived from Alba the origin of several of the most illustrious patrician families — the Julii, TuUii, Servilii, Quintii, Sec. — these were represeuted as migrating thither after the fall of their native city. (Liv. i. 30; Tac. Ann. xi. 24.) Another tradition appears to have described the expelled inhabitants as settling at Bo- villae, whence we find the people of that town as- suming in inscriptions the title of " Albani Longani BovUlenses." (Orell. no. 119, 2252.) But, few as are the historical events related of Alba, all authorities concur in repr^enting it as having been at one time the centre of the league c(Hnpo8ed of the thirty Latin cities*, and as exer- cising over these the same kind of suprenuuT- to which Borne afterwards succeeded. It was even generally admitted that all these cities were, in fact, colonies from Alba (Liv. i. 52 ; Dion. Hal. iii. 34), though many of them, as Ardm, Laurentum, Lar vinium, Praeneste, Tnsculum, &c., were, according to other received traditions, more ancient than Alba itself. There can be no doubt that this view was altogether erroneous; nor can any dependence be placed upon the lists of the supposed Alban colonies preserved by Diodoms (Lib. vii. ap. Euseb. Arm. p. 185), and by the author of the Origo Cftntit Bomanae (c 17), but it is possible that Virgil may have had some better authority for ascribing to Alba the foundation of the eight cities enumerated by him, viz. Nomentum, Gabii, Fidenae, Collatia, Pometia, Gastrum Inui, Bola, and Cora. (Aen. vi. 773.) A statement of a very jdifferent character has been pre- served to us by Pliny, where he enumerates the " popnli Albenses " who were accustomed to share wt^ the other Latins in the sacrifices on the Alban Mount (iii. 5, 9). His list, after excluding the Albani Uiemselves, contains just thirty names; but of these only six or seven are found among the cities that oompoeed the Latin league in b. c. 493 : six or seven others are known to us from other sources, as among the smaller towns of Ladum*, while all the others are wholly unknown. It is evident that we have here a catalc^ue derived from a much earlier state of things, when Alba was the head of a minor league, composed principally of places of secondary rai^, y^ch were probaUy either colonies or de- pendencies of her own, a relation which was after- wards erroneously transferred to that subsisting be< tween Alba and the Latin lei^ue. (Niebuhr, voL i. pp. 202, 203, vol. ii. pp. 18 — ^22; who, however, pro- bably goes too far in regarding these " popuU Al- benses " as mere demea or townships in tlw territory of Alba.) From the expressions of Pliny it would seem clear tliat this minor confederacy co-existed with under the aiticle Latini. ALBA, a larger one including all the Latin cities; for fiier^ can be no doubt that the common sacrifices an tin Alban Mount were typical of such a bond of nnioA among the states that partook of them; and the &ct that the sanctuary on the Mods Albanus was tli« aoesae of these sacred rites aflR>rds strong confinn^ ation of the fact that Alba was really the chief city of the whole Latin confederacy. Perhaps a sdfl stronger proof is found in the circumstance that th« Lucus Ferentinae, immediately without the walla of Alba itself, was the scene of thdr political «s- semblies. If any historical meaning or value oonld be at^ tached to the Trojan legend, we should be led to con* nect the origin of Alba with that of Laviniom, and to ascribe ^em both to a Pelasgian source. But there are certainly strong reasons for the oontnuy view adopted by Niebuhr, according to which Alba and Lavinium were essentially distinct, and eyen op- posed to (me another; the latter being the head of the Pelasgian branch of the Latin race, while the former was founded by the Sacrani or Casci, and becanw the centre and representative of the Oscan element in the population of Latium. [Lahni.] Its name — which was connected, according to the Trojan le- gend, with the white sow discovered by Aeneas on his landing (Virg. Aen. iiL 390, viii. 45; Serv. ad loe. Varr. de L. L. v. 144 ; Propert. iv. 1. 85) — wis probably, in reality, derived from its lofty or Alpine situation. The site of Alba Longa, though described with much accuracy by ancient writers, had been in mo- dem times lost sight of, until it was rediscovered bj Sir W. Gell. Both Livy and Dionysius distinctly describe it as occupying a long and narrow ridge be- tween the mountain and the lake; from which or- cumstance it derived its distinctive epithet of Longa. (Liv. i. 3; Dion. Hal. i. 66; Varr, /. c.) Precisely such a ridge runs out from the foot of the central mountain — the Mons Albanus, now MonU Coco — parting from it by the convent of Palazzoh, and ex- i tending al<Hig the eastern shore of the lake to its I north-eastern extremity, nearly opposite the village P^ of Marino. The side of this ridge towards the ]ake i is completely precipitous, and has the appearance of having been artificially scarped or hewn away in its upper part; at its northern extremity remain many blocks and fiiigmente of massive masonry, whidi must have formed part of the andent walls: at the opposite end, nearest to PalazzolOj is a commanding Imoll forming the termination of the ridge in that direction, which probably was the site of the Arx, or citadd. The declivity towards the £. and N£. is less abrupt than towanis the lake, but still x'erv steep, so that the dty must have been confined, as described by ancient authors, to the narrow sununit of the ridge, and have extended more than a mile in length. No other ruins than the fragments of the walls now remain; but an andent road may be dis- tinctly traced from the knoll, now called Mte. Cuccu, along the margin of the lake to the northern ex- tremity of the city, where one of its gates must have been situated. In the deep valley or ravine between the site of Alba and Marino, is a fountain with a co- pious supply ofwater, which was undoubtedly the Aqua Ferentina, where the confederate Latins used to hdd their national assemblies ; a custom which evidently originated while Alba was the head c( the league, but continued long after its destruction. (Gell, Topogr. of Rome, p. 90 ; Nibby, IHntomi di Roma, vol. i. p. 61—65; Niebuhr, vol. i. p. 199.) ^ The
 * The discussion of this list of Pliny is given