Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/107

 ALBANUS. graal put of the walls aii<! odc of the gatci «f the Pmetoriaa camp may be observed in the tifwn of ^Acpto .- it was aa usual of quadrilateral fain, and the walls which surround It are bnilt of Bmow Uocfcs of p eper ii tOj some of them not less tJian IS feet in length, axid presenting maeh re- •nnblanoe to the more UMaent fiNttificatiioos of Bunrnns ItaSaa cities, firom which thej difo, r, in their compAratiyelj small thicbiess. the most interesting remains of an- tkjQxtj still Tisible at Albano may be noticed tfane iffnarkaMe aepnlchral monaments. One of thFse, aboat half a mile firom AUfwto on the road to Borne, catoeeding SO feet m deTstioo, is com- raoolj, hut ecTODeoaslj', deemed the sepnlchxe of Cbdina: aaotfaer, on the same road doee to the pte of AfbamOj has a far better daim to be le g ai de d as that of Pompej, wiw was really boned, as we leani from Phitardi, in the immediate neigh* bouhood of his Alban Tilla. (Pint. Pomp. 80.) The third, satoated near the opposite gate of the town oo the road to Arida, and vnlgarlj known as the Sepoldire of the Horatii and Coriatii, has been sappoaed bj some modem antiqaarians to be the tomb of Anma, son of Porsena, who was killed in battle near Axida. It is, however, probable that B ii of mnch later date, and was constnicted in rwititJ^Ti of the Etiroscan style towards the dose of the Boman repoblic. (Nibby, 2L c p. 93 ; Ganina in Amu deW Inst. Arch, toL ix. p. 57.) For fall ifacatb oonoenmig the Boman remains at Albano, aee liibhy, DkOomi di BomOy pi 88— -97; Biccy, Storm di Alba LoagtL, 4to. Bome, 1787; Pinmesi, AmtidaA di AWano, Boroa, 1762. [E. H. B.^ ALBA'NUS. [Albakia.] ALBA'NUS LACUS, now called the La^o di AlbamOj is a remarkable lake of Latiom, situated iaooHdiately beneath the mountain of the same nune (ntvw JfomU Cavo), about 14 miles S. £. of BoEBe. It is of an oval ferm, about six miles m CTOomferenoe, and has no natural outlet, being lanoanded en all sides by steep or predpitous banks of volcanic tufo, which rise in many parts to s height oif three or four hundred feet above the levd of the lake. It undoubtedly formed, at a very e«iy period, the crater of a vdcano, but this must bare ceased to exist long before the historical era. Thoi^h sitnated apparently at the foot of the Hons Albanoa, it is at a considaable devation above the pbiB of Latiom, the levd of its waters being 918 feet abore the sea: their depth is said to be veiy great. The most interesting drcumstanoe con- nected with this lake is the oonstructiaa of the oddnted emiasary or tunnd to cany off its super- flams waters, the formati<m of which is narrated both by Uxj and IHonydos, while the work itsdf rvsoaias at tlie present day, to confirm the accuracy ef thdr aoooonta. Acoordii^ to the statement thus tnnamitted to ns, this tunnd was a work of the Bomans, undertaken in the year 397 b. c, and was orcamoed by an extraordinary swelling of the lake, tlw waters of which rose fer above their accustomed bei^, so as even to overflow their lofty banks. The legend, which connected this prodigy and the work itadf with the siege of Vdi, may be safely ^«nw^ as unhistorical, but there seems no reason fir rejecting the date thos assigned to it. (Liv. v. 15—19; Won. Hal. xii. 11—16, Fr. Mai; Cic de Dtrin. L 44.) This remarkable work, which, St the presoit day, after the lapee of more than 2000 jeazs, eontmues to serve the porpose for which ALBANUS MONS. 91 it was arigiDally designed, is carried under the ridge that forms the western boundary of the lake near Cattd Gtmdolfo, and which rises in this part to a height of 430 feet above the levd of the water; its actual length is about 6000 feet; it is 4 feet 6 inches wide, and 6^ feet high at its entrance, but the height rapidly diminishes so as in some places not to exceed 2 feet, and it is, in consequence, Impossible to penetrate further than about 130 yards fnm. the opening. The entrance firom the lake is through a flat archway, constructed of large blodcs of peperino, with a kind of court or quadri- lateral space endosed by massive masonry, and a second archway over the actual opening of the tunnd. But, notwithstanding the simple and solid style of their construction, it may be doubted whe- ther these works are coeval with the emissary itsel£ The oppodte extrenuty of it is at a spot called 2s JIfole, near Cattel SaveUif about a mile from AlbanOf where the waters that issue from it form a c o nd d e r sKle stream, now known as the RhoAlbanOy which, after a course of about 15 miles, joins the Tiber near a spot called La Valoa. Numerous openings or shafts firom above (" tpiramina") were necessarily sunk during the process oi construction, some of which remain open to this day. The whole work is cut with the chisd, and is computed to have required a period of not less than ten years for its completion : it is not however, as asserted by Niebuhr, cut throogh "lava hard as iron,*' but^;* tKroogE the soft volcanic tufo of which all these hills are composed. (Gdl, Topogr. ofRom», p. 22 — 29 ; Nibby, DnUomi di Roma, vol. i. p. 98 — 105 ; Westphal, EomitcheKampagney p. 25 ; Abeken, Mmd-ItaUm, p. 178; Nicbuhr, voL ii. pp. 475,:^ 507.) Cicero justly remarks (<fe lAvin, ii. '32) that such a work must have been intended not only to carry off the superfluous waters of the lake, but to irrigate the subjacent plain: a purpose which is still in great measure served by the Rivo AUxmo. The baida of the lake seem to have been in andent times, as they are now, in great part covered with wood, whence it is called by Livy (v. 15) " lacus in nemore Albano.'* At a later period, when its western bank became covered with the villas of wealthy Bomans, numerous edifices were erected on its immediate shores, among which the remains of two grottoes or " Nymphaea " are oonspicuons. One of these, immediately adjoining the entrance of the emissary, was probably connected with the villa of Domitian. Other vestiges of andent buildings are vinble bdow the surface of the water, and tlds circumstance has probably given rise to the tradition common both in andent and modem times of the submerdon of a previously existing dty. (Dion. Hal. i. 71; Niebuhr, vd. L p. 20p, with note by the translators.) " [£. H. B.] ALBANUS MONS (rb 'AX^oybv 6pos, Strab.; Monte Cavo) was the name given to the highest and central summit of a remarkable group of mountains in Latium, which fenns one of the most important phydcal features of that country. The name of Albui Hills, or Jlionti Albania is commonly applied in modem usage to the whole of this group, wludi rises from the surrounding plain in an isolated mass, nearly 40 miles in circumference, and is wholly detached from the monntdns that rise above Praeneste on the east, as well as from the Volsdan mountams or Monti Lqwn on the south. But this more extended use of the name appears to have been unknown to the andents, who speak only of ^/fc.