Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/110

 94 ALBUM. iiflcribed, bat witiioat authority, to Agrippa. The waters were not hot, like most snlphiireous sooioes, bat cold, or at least ood, their actual temperatnre being abont SOP of Fahrenheit; bat so strong is the sulphareons vapoar that exhales from their surface as to give them the appoarance alluded to by Martial, of " smoking." ( Canaque mdpkureit AVnda fumaX aquity L c.) The name was doubtless derived from the whiteness of the water: the lake is now com- monly known as the Solfatara, (Plin. rm'. 2. s. 6 ; ^^ ^ ^ Strab. L c; Pans. iv. 35. § { Soet. Aug. 82, ' / JVIer. 31; Vitffiv.'t c.) ^o allusian is foimd in 'Z*/> andent authors to the |nroperty possessed by these 'iC'^ waters of incrustjng all the vegetation on their banks with carbonate of lime, a process which goes on with such rapidity that great part of the lake itself is crusted over, and portions of the deposit thus formed, breaking off from time to time, give rise to little floating islands, analogous to those described by ^,,'. ... ancient writers in the Cntilia n Lake. For the same reason the present chaS^of the sbesm has re- quired to be ardficially excavated, through the mass of travertine which it had itself deposited. (Nibby, DitUorni di Rama, vol. i. pp. 4 — 6; Gell, Tcp. of Home, pp. 40, 41.) It h^ been generally sapposed that the Albunea of Horace and Virgil was identical with the Albnla, but there appear no sufficient grounds far this as- sumption: and it seems almost certain that the 7. 12) was the temple of the Sibyl at Tibur itself, in the immediate neighbouihood of the cascade [Tibur], while there are strong reasons for transferring the grove and oracle of Fannus, and the fountain of Albunea connected with them (Viig. ^sfi. vii. 82), to the neighbourhood of Ardea. [Ardba.] [E. H. B.] ALBUM PROMONTORIUM (Plin. v. 19. s, 17), was the western extremity of the mountain range Anti-Libanus, a few miles south of ancient Tyre (Palai-Tyms). Between the Mediterranean Sea and the base of the headland Albnm ran a narrow road, in places not more than six feet in breadth, cut out of the solid rock, and ascribed, at least by tradition, to Alexander the Great. This was the communi- cation between a small fort or castle called Alexan- droechene (^ScandcUium) and the Moditertanean. (It. Hieros. p. 584.) The Album Promontorium is the modem Cape Blanc, and was one bourns journey to the north of Ecctippa (^Dthib or ZSt), [W. B. D.] ALBURNUS MONS, a mountain of Lucanio, mentioned in a well-known passage of Virgil {Gwrg, iii. 146), from which we learn that it was in the ndghbourhood of the river Claras. The name of JUonte Albf*mo b said by Italian topographers to be still retained by the lofty mountain group which rises to the S. of that river, between its two tribu- taries, the Tanoffro and Colore. It is more com- monly called the Monte di PosdgUone, from the small town of that name on its northern declivity, and according to Gluverios is still covered with forests of holm-oaks, and infested with gad-flies. (Cluver. ItaL p. 1254; Romanelli, vol. L p. 418; Zannmii, Carta del Jiegno di NapoU.) We flnd mention, in a fragment of Ludlins, of a PORTUS Alburnus, which appeara to have been situated at the mouth of the river Silarus, and pro- bably derived its name from the mountain. (Lucil. Fr. p. 11, ed. Gerlach; Probus, ad Virg. G. iii. 146; Vib. Seq. p. 18, with Oberlin.) [E. H. B] ALCO'M£NAK('AAjcottcya/: i^cA. 'AAjco/icfci;s> ALERIA. 1. A town of the Denriopes on the Er^n, in Paeo. nia in Macedonia. (Strab. p. 327.) 2. [Alaixxihenae, No. 2.] ALCY<yNIA ('AXjcvoWa), a lake in Argolis, near the Lemaean grove, through which IMonysos was said to have descended to the lower worid,in order to bring back Semele from Hades. Panaanias sajs that its depth was unfathomable, and tbatNerohad tet down several stadia of rope, loaded with lead, with- out flnding a bottun., As Fausanias does not meD- tion a lake Lema, but only a district of thu name, it is probable tiiat the lake called Alcyonia by Pausanias is the same as the Lerna of other writers. (Paos. iL 37. § 5, seq. ; Leake, Morea, vol. IL p. 473.) ALGYO'NIUM MARK [Corihthiacus Si- HUS.] A'LEA QKKia: EtK 'AA^os, 'AAcdnis), a town of Arcadia, between Qrchomenus and Stymphalm, contained, in the time of Pausanias, temples of the Ephesian Artemis, of Athena Alea, and of Dionystis. It appears to have been situated in the territory either of Slymphalus or Orcfaomenus. Pausamas (viii. 27. § 3) caUs Alea a town of the Maenalians; but we ought jnnbably to read Asea in this psasage, instead of Alea. The ruins of Alea have been dia- oovered by the French Gommissioii in the middle of the dark valley of Skotini, about a mile to the K£. of the village of BmfdH. Alea was never a town of importance; but some modem writers have, though inadvertently, placed at this town the cele- brated temple of Atb^ Alea, which was situated at Tegea. [TsoEiL.] (Paus. y'vL 23. % 1 ; Steph. B. #. v.; Boblaye, JZeesAercAety ^, p. 147; Leake, Peiopownetiaca, p. 383.) ALEMANNI. [Gbk.manta.] ALEIUA or ALAXIA (,'AAaXrir, Herod.; 'AA- AaX/o, Steph. B.; 'AXcp(a, PtoL: 'AAAaXjoSm, Steph. B.), one of the chief dties of Corsica, sitnsted on the E. coast of the island, near the mouth of the river Rhotanus {Tamgnano). It was origmallya Greek colony, founded about b. g. 564, by the Pho- caeans of Ionia. Twenty years later, v^ien the parent city was captured by Harpagna, a large por- tion of its inhabitants r^aired to their cdony of Alalia, where th^ dwelt for five years, but tibar piratiod conduct involved them in hostilities with the* Tyrrhenians and Carthaginians; and in a great sea* fight with the combined fleets of these two nations th^ suffered such heavy loss, as induced them to abandon the island, and repair to the S. of Italy, where they ultimately established themsekea at Velia in Lucanla. (Herod, i 165—167; Steph. B.; Died. v. 13, where Kikapts is evidently a cor- rupt reading for *AAaf>la.) No further raention is found of the Greek colony, but the city appears again, under the Roman form of the name, Aieris, during the first Punic war, whoi it was captured by the P/>man fleet under L. Scipio, in b. c. 259, an event which led to the subnussion of the whole island, and was deemed worthy to be expressly mentioned in his epitaph. (Zonar. viii. 11 ; Flor. ii. 2; OrelL Inacr, no. 552.) It subsequoitly received a Roman colony under the dictator SuUa, and appeara to have retained its colonial rank, and continued to be one of the chief cities of Corsica under the Roman Em- pire. (Plin. iii. 6. s. 12; Mela, ii. 7; Died. v. 13; Seneca, Cont,adHelv,S] PtoL iii. 2. § 5; Itin. Ant. p. 85.) Its ruins are still visible near the south bank of the river Tavignano : they are now above half a
 * doraus Albuneae resonantis " of the former ( Carm. i.