Alba-the-Long

Cité antique strengthened of the Latium, Alba-the-Long ( Alba Longo ) was one of the oldest cities of Italy. Located at 20km in the south-east of Rome.

Legendary history

According to the legend, Alba-the-Long (in Italian Alba Lunga ) was founded by Ascagne (Iule), wire of Énée, thirty years after the foundation of Lavinium. Chronologically, that would mean about in the middle of the XII E, little time after the destruction of Troy (which would have taken place in -1184 according to the Old ones).

Ascagne would have founded a dynasty of kings Albains, of which we know only the names of Procas and his sons Numitor and Amulius. The legitimate heir to Procas was Numitor; but it was driven out by his Amulius brother, who usurped the throne and forced Rhéa Silvia, the girl of Numitor, with becoming a Vestale and thus making vow of chastity. When Rhéa Silvia gave rise to the twins Romulus and Remus, generated by Mars, Amulius ordered to kill them. But the twins abandoned with the the Tiber and were saved. Become men, and become aware of the rights of their birth, they drove out Amulius of the throne, which they restored in Numitor. This last, in thanks, enabled them to found a new city, Rome: thus, the Romans looked at traditionally Alba-the-Long like their city-mother.

Whereas the power of Rome increased, the two cities entered in conflict, and finally under the king Tullus Hostilius (about the middle of the VII E), a war between them was caused by the famous combat of the Horaces and Curiaces; Alba was destroyed, never not to be rebuilt, and its inhabitants were moved in Rome, where the hill of Caelius was offered to them.

Archaeological data and historical interpretation

The localization of the ancient Latin city was the debate object many since the 16th century. The starting point is the history of the foundation at Denys d' Halicarnasse which speaks about a site enters Monte Cavo and the Lac albain. The site was identified on several occasions: with the convent of Saint Paul with Palazzola, close to Albano, or in Coste Caselle, close to Marino, or finally with Castel Gandolfo. It is established that it is at Castel Gandolfo that was the villa of Domitien, whose ancient sources affirm that it occupied the site of the citadel of Alba.

The archaeological data available go back to the iron Age and establish the existence of a series of villages, of which each one had its own necropolis, along the south-western coast of the lake albain. When Rome destroyed them, these villages were to be in still pre-urban phase, and to start to gather around a center which could well have been Castel Gandolfo. This assumption rises owing to the fact that the necropolis which was there is much larger, which lets think of more a big city.

Later, during the republican period, the territory of Alba (the Ager Albanus ) will see the construction of many residential villas, which are mentioned in the ancient literature and whose vestiges are always visible.

The sanctuary of Jupiter latiaris

At the top of the Mons Albanus a very old sanctuary devoted to Jupiter Latiaris was. Florus, the Roman historian of the 2nd century, reports that the place would have been chosen by Ascagne, the founder Alba-the-Long, who after the foundation of the city would have invited Latin to celebrate there sacrifices in the honor of Jupiter.
In the sanctuary, one celebrated each year the Feriae Latinae , during which all the cities belonging to the confederation of the Latin people met to sacrifice to the god a white bull, whose flesh was distributed to the participants. It was thus about a federal worship and its situation close Alba-the-Long testifies to the hegemony that he was to exert on the other spot of worship of the area, among which was to appear Rome.

After the destruction Alba-the-Long and the substitution of Rome like centers hegemonic, the tradition points out the erection of a true temple dedicated to Jupiter Latiaris on the mount Albain under the reign of Tarquin Superb the. This Jupiter temple on the Capitole, built in -507, was intended to fulfill the functions of the Latin federal sanctuary, establishing the religious center in Rome.

There remains today of the ancient sanctuary only some vestiges of the enclosing wall, which were moved site, and important remainders of the paved road which gave of them access and which joined the Via Appia close to Ariccia.

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