Art. 2.-THE ALBAN HILLS.

1. La Campagna Romana nel Medio Evo. By G. Tomassetti. In 'Archivio della Società Romana di Storia Patria,' and separately. Rome: Loescher, 1884—. 2. La Campagna Romana, Antica, Medioevale e Moderna. By G. Tomassetti. Vols i, ii. Rome: Loescher, 1909-10. 3. Пl Tuscolano nell' Età Classica. By F. Grossi-Gondi. Rome: Loescher, 1908.

4. Wanderings in the Roman Campagna. By R. Lanciani. London: Constable; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1909. 5. The Classical Topography of the Roman Campagna, parts i, iii. By T. Ashby. In papers of the British School at Rome, i, iv, v. London: Macmillan, 1902—. And other works.

ONE of the principal glories of Rome is the view of mountains and hills which can be obtained from it. Not only the dome of St Peter's, the Janiculum, and the summits of the loftiest towers elsewhere in the town, but even the housetops of the newer quarters on the northern and eastern hills command such a panorama as few great cities in the world can boast. The sea is nearer than one is apt to suspect-it is only some fourteen or fifteen miles distant at the nearest point-though it can hardly be seen from any part of Rome except from the dome, owing to the existence of a line of sand-hills parallel to the coast on both sides of the Tiber, which closes the view on the south-west with a low and almost uniform skyline. But on every other side the outline is far more varied. On the north-west are the irregular Tolfa Hills, and the crests which surround the extinct volcanoes of the district of Bracciano; on the north is the long calcareous isolated ridge of Soracte; on the north-east and east are the limestone mountains of the Sabine and Hernican group, with the snowclad summits of the central Apennine chain seen in the gaps between them; while on the south-east is another independent volcanic group, that of the Alban Hills, which will form the object of our especial consideration.

The Alban Hills, with their more gentle, rounded contours, clothed with woods and vineyards and studded

with villages and houses, present a great contrast to the bare, stern outlines of the Hernican Mountains northeast of them; and, as they lie nearer to Rome than the other hills-it is only some nine or ten miles to their lower slopes-they form a very prominent feature in the landscape, especially from the south-east side of the city. There could indeed hardly be found a more perfect view of them than that which is obtained from the old Via Appia, when, shortly after passing the tomb of Caecilia Metella, we see them rising before us. In the centre is the Monte Cavo, the highest point of the chain of summits forming the rim of the inner crater; it is visible from Rome, crowned by a grove of trees and a white monastery. Not far below is the village of Rocca di Papa; lower down are Frascati, Grottaferrata and Marino. Further to the left are the heights of Tusculum and the other hills which enclose the larger ring of the original crater; while to the right, above Marino, the practised eye may distinguish the outlines of a subsidiary crater, in the depths of which lies the lake of Albano. Still further to the right the road leads straight up, not swerving once even where the ascent becomes steep, passing just below Castel Gandolfo, which lies on the rim of the lake, towards Albano, now hidden from us. Still further away to the right, the hills gradually slope away, and become merged imperceptibly in the undulations of the Campagna.

Such are the Alban Hills as they appear from Rome, but it is not thus that we shall understand them. In order to appreciate their topography and history, we must view them from close by; and we may best begin our survey by studying the history of their geological development. The tufa of the Campagna, according to Sir Archibald Geikie, is of submarine formation; while the volcanic groups to the north-west and south-east of it belong to a much later date, when the plain had already been uplifted above the level of the sea. Then there was formed on the south-east 'one great volcanic cone of the type of Vesuvius, with a base about twelve miles in diameter,' which forms the nucleus of what we know as the Alban Hills. Its original form, indeed, is not at all difficult to trace, for the crater-ring is complete on the

* Landscape in History, and other Essays,' p. 304 seq.

north, east and south, from Tusculum past Rocca Priora and Algidus to Nemi; and within it is the great depression that formed the original crater, some six miles in diameter. Sir Archibald suggests that

"The abrupt truncation of this cone, the disappearance of the western portion of its rim, the great size of its crater compared with the total height of the mountain, and the existence of a later cone and crater inside, together with a number of craters outside, suggest that the energy of the volcano culminated in a gigantic explosion, whereby the upper half of the cone, perhaps twice as high then as it is now, was blown away, leaving inside a yawning chasm ... that opened towards the west, where the wall was broken down. . . . The explosion that eviscerated the Alban volcano. . . was not improbably followed by a long period of repose. But the subterranean energy was not exhausted... when it recommenced its activity, the vent, which served as the channel by which its eruptions took place, still retained its central position. Round this vent a new but much smaller cone, bearing witness to less vigour of eruption, was built up in the middle of the crater. This younger mass. . . encloses a well-marked crater with the flat plain of the Campo di Annibale at its bottom.' He goes on to describe how, as the central crater became choked, the volcanic forces, which were not yet entirely at rest, were obliged to find other outlets. Thus two separate eruptions occurred at the point of greatest weakness, on the west, where the original crater rim had been blown away, to which we owe the craters now occupied by the lakes of Albano and Nemi; while at still later times the diminishing volcanic energy forced its way out through the flanks of the original large cone, producing such craters as the Valle Ariccia, the Laghetto di Turno (below Castel Savelli), the lake of Giulianello, and many other smaller vents.

The streams of lava which issued from the crater have only in a few cases descended into the Campagna below. The best-known example is the lofty tongue on which the Via Appia runs; but there are others which are crossed at right angles by the roads to Ardea and Lavinium, and another, larger still, below Colonna, which almost reaches the Anio. The lava is of very fine close texture, and forms an excellent material for building and for paving, of which abundant use has been made ever since

ancient times. It is of this material that the small square paving-stones now used in Rome are composed.

So far as our knowledge at present goes, the appearance of man in the Alban Hills begins with the Iron Age ; and indeed the volcanic activity of which we have spoken may have rendered them uninhabitable at any earlier time. The earliest cemeteries discovered in this district are coeval with the earliest tombs within the city of Rome itself and with tombs which have been found in southern Etruria; they belong to the same civilisation, and to the same people. This civilisation, according to the latest views, is a development of that of the pile-villages of the Po valley, known as the terremare, having been brought here by some of the inhabitants of those villages who descended into Latium, at a date which is assigned by some archæologists to the eleventh, but by others, and with far better reason, to the eighth century before Christ. These people, we know, burnt their dead, and cremation burials largely predominate in the Alban Hills over inhumation burials.

The most important part of the ancient necropolis lies to the north of the village of Castel Gandolfo, which is built on the western rim of the lake of Albano; and it is probable that we must seek here the site of the ancient city of Alba Longa, which derived its name, as Livy informs us, from its situation on a long ridge.

Alba Longa was, according to tradition, founded some 300 years before Rome by Ascanius or Iulus, the son of Aeneas, but the dating is inconsistent with the archæological evidence; and, indeed, the whole history of the period of the kings in Rome is unknown to us, beyond the fact that there undoubtedly was such a period. Nor is there any evidence, apart from legend, that Alba was the mother-city of Rome; we have so far no trace of any civilisation in the Alban Hills older than that which we find in Rome itself. Nor can we accept as in any way historical the records of the wars between Alba and Rome. It is clear only that there existed in the early days of Rome a confederacy of thirty towns, of which Alba was the head. A list of these thirty communities which participated in the sacrifices at the temple of Jupiter Latiaris on the Alban mount is given us by Pliny under the name of 'populi albenses,' but the names of

many of them are otherwise unknown to us; while, though the list includes a people as distant as the inhabitants of Fidenae, the more powerful communities of Aricia, Lanuvium and Tusculum are omitted from it. The military power of this league, if it ever had any, was no doubt broken up by the fall of Alba Longa; and Rome succeeded to her position, not of hegemony, but of honorary presidency; for, as heiress of Alba, Rome never, as Mommsen points out, asserted any claims to sovereignty over the Latin communities.

The possession of the Alban Hills by the Romans and Latins was, however, by no means secure. Determined attacks on the pass of Algidus were made by the Aequi and Volsci; and we have continual mention of it as an advanced post in their joint operations between 465 and 389 B.C. The foundation of Labici as a Latin colony in 418 B.C. may be naturally explained by these operations. About 384 B.C. the constitution of the Latin League under the presidency of Rome was definitely established, and no fresh communities were afterwards admitted to it. It contained only places originally Latin, or towns to which Latin colonies had been sent; and all the important towns in the Alban Hills were included in it-Aricia Bovillae, Cabum, Corbio, Corioli,* Labici, Lanuvium. Tusculum and Velitrae. The Roman power was now spreading beyond the boundaries of Latium; southern Etruria and the Pomptine territory became parts of her dominion; and at the same time Roman authority became stronger in the Latin cities, owing to the assimilation of their municipal constitutions to that of Rome. Tusculum was one of the oldest of the municipia, though the exact date when it received the franchise is uncertain. The spread of Roman conquest southwards drove the Latins into revolt against Rome, in a last desperate struggle against her all-conquering power. The Campanians made common cause with them; but the Roman army won a decisive victory against the combined forces (340 B.C.). The Latin League was now broken up as a political organisation, and existed only as a religious

*The site of Corioli is not certain. It is probably to be sought between the sea, the river Astura and the Alban Hills; but there is no sufficient evidence for the identification with Monte Giove, north-west of Lanuvium which has often been adopted.