Alba Longa – in Italian sources occasionally written Albalonga – was an ancient city of Latium

Latium

Lazio is one of the 20 administrative regions of Italy, situated in the central peninsular section of the country. With about 5.7 million residents and a GDP of more than 170 billion euros, Lazio is the third most populated and the second richest region of Italy...

 in central Italy

Italian Peninsula

The Italian Peninsula or Apennine Peninsula is one of the three large peninsulas of Southern Europe , spanning from the Po Valley in the north to the central Mediterranean Sea in the south. The peninsula's shape gives it the nickname Lo Stivale...

 southeast of Rome

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 in the Alban Hills

Alban Hills

The Alban Hills are the site of a quiescent volcanic complex in Italy, located southeast of Rome and about north of Anzio.The dominant peak is Monte Cavo. There are two small calderas which contain lakes, Lago Albano and Lake Nemi...

. Founder and head of the Latin League

Latin league

The Latin League was a confederation of about 30 villages and tribes in the region of Latium near ancient Rome, organized for mutual defense...

, it was destroyed by Rome around the middle of the 7th century BC. In legend, Romulus and Remus

Romulus and Remus

Romulus and Remus are Rome's twin founders in its traditional foundation myth, although the former is sometimes said to be the sole founder...

, founders of Rome, had come from the royal dynasty of Alba Longa. It is located 12 miles (19.3 km) southeast of Rome.

Kings of Alba Longa

According to the accounts of Dionysius of Halicarnassus

Dionysius of Halicarnassus

Dionysius of Halicarnassus was a Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric, who flourished during the reign of Caesar Augustus. His literary style was Attistic — imitating Classical Attic Greek in its prime.-Life:...

, the kings of Alba Longa gave a direct line of descent between Ascanius

Ascanius

Ascanius is the son of the Trojan hero Aeneas and a legendary king of Alba Longa. He is a character of Roman mythology, and has a divine lineage, being the son of Aeneas, who is son of Venus and the hero Anchises, a relative of Priam; thus Ascanius has divine ascendents by both parents, being...

 and Romulus

Romulus

- People:* Romulus and Remus, the mythical founders of Rome* Romulus Augustulus, the last Western Roman Emperor* Valerius Romulus , deified son of the Roman emperor Maxentius* Romulus , son of the Western Roman emperor Anthemius...

.

Alban war with Rome

In the 7th century BC the Romans under king Tullus Hostilius

Tullus Hostilius

Tullus Hostilius was the legendary third of the Kings of Rome. He succeeded Numa Pompilius, and was succeeded by Ancus Marcius...

 went to war with Alba Longa which was at that time ruled by Gaius Cluilius

Gaius Cluilius

Gaius Cluilius was the king of Alba Longa during the reign of the Roman king Tullus Hostilius in the middle of the seventh century B.C. Alba Longa was an ancient city of Latium in central Italy southeast of Rome....

.

The pretext for war was that some Roman and Alban peasants had plundered each other's lands, although according to Livy

Livy

Titus Livius — known as Livy in English — was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people. Ab Urbe Condita Libri, "Chapters from the Foundation of the City," covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome well before the traditional foundation in 753 BC...

 the real reason was Tullus Hostilius' warlike disposition. Ambassadors were dispatched by each side to demand restitution, and war was thereafter proclaimed, first by the Romans and soon after by the Albans also.

Livy describes the war as being akin to a civil war, because the Romans were said to be descended from the Albans.

Cluilius marched with his army into Roman territory, established camp, and constructed a giant trench surrounding Rome, which became known as the Cluilian trench

Cluilian trench

The Cluilian trench was a huge military trench that surrounded ancient Rome about four to five miles outside the city made by the army of Alba Longa during the war between Alba Longa and Rome in the middle of the seventh century BC...

. Cluilius however, died in the camp of unspecified causes and the Albans then appointed Mettius Fufetius

Mettius Fufetius

Mettius Fufetius was a dictator of Alba Longa, an ancient town in central Italy near Rome. He was appointed after the death of king Gaius Cluilius and was defeated by Rome.Mettius Fufetius subsequently betrayed the Romans in battle...

 dictator.

Tullus emerged from Rome with his army, passed the Alban camp at night and marched into Alban territory. Mettius followed, camped nearby the Roman army, and then sent a representative to invite Tullus to confer before any engagement. Tullus accepted the invitation, however both sides were drawn up for battle whilst the leaders met between the two forces.

At the conference, Mettius proposed that the dispute be resolved by some means other than mass bloodshed, citing the concern that the nearby Etruscans

Etruscan civilization

Etruscan civilization is the modern English name given to a civilization of ancient Italy in the area corresponding roughly to Tuscany. The ancient Romans called its creators the Tusci or Etrusci...

 would fall upon the two Latin states if weakened by war and unable to defend themselves. It was agreed that a set of triplets from each side, three brothers Horatii and three Curiatii, would battle for the victory of the two states. Livy refers to conflict amongst his own sources as to which set of brothers represented which state, but prefers the view that the Horatii

Horatii

According to Livy, the Horatii were male triplets from Rome. During a war between Rome and Alba Longa during the reign of Tullus Hostilius , it was agreed that settlement of the war would depend on the outcome of a battle between the Horatii and the Curiatii...

 were the Romans, and the Curiatii Albans.

Vows were entered into in a most solemn form by each of the Romans and the Albans as to this agreement by which the future of each state would be bound by the outcome of the fight. Marcus Valerius was appointed fetial

Fetial

A fetial was a type of priest in Ancient Rome. They formed a collegium.Their duties included advising the senate on foreign affairs and international treaties, making formal proclamations of peace and of war, and confirming treaties. They also carried out the functions of traveling heralds or...

, and Spurius Fusius pater patratus, for the purposes of binding Rome by the treaty.

The battle was fought. Two of the Romans were the first to fall. Then the remaining Roman, Publius Horatius, slew the three Albans, and thus won victory for Rome.

After the dispute was thus determined, Tullus ordered Mettius to return with his army to Alba, but to keep the Alban youths ready in case war with Veii should break out. The Albans became, in substance, a vassal state of Rome.

Not long afterwards, war did indeed break out with Veii and also with the Fidenates. Mettius and the Albans were ordered to march to battle with Tullus and the Romans, and they met the Etruscans on the far side of the Anio, on the banks of the Tiber

Tiber

The Tiber is the third-longest river in Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Umbria and Lazio to the Tyrrhenian Sea. It drains a basin estimated at...

. However, when the battle commenced, Mettius led his troops away from the battle, leaving the Romans to fight the Etruscans alone.

Rome was victorious against the Etruscans. After the battle Tullus executed Mettius for his perfidy. Then, on Tullus' orders, the Roman soldiers demolished the 400-year old city of Alba Longa, leaving only the temples standing, and the entire population of Alba Longa was transported to Rome, thereby doubling the number of Roman citizens. Tullus enlisted the leading families of Alba amongst the patricians, namely the Julii

Julius

The gens Julia was one of the most ancient patrician families at Ancient Rome. Members of the gens attained the highest dignities of the state in the earliest times of the Republic. The first of the family to obtain the consulship was Gaius Julius Iulus in 489 BC...

, Servilii

Servilia (gens)

The gens Servilia was a patrician family at Rome. The gens was celebrated during the early ages of the Republic, and the names of few gentes appear more frequently at this period in the consular Fasti. It continued to produce men of influence in the state down to the latest times of the Republic,...

, Quinctii, Geganii, Curiatii

Curiatius

Curiatius is the name of a patrician gens of Ancient Rome.The Curiatii were originally from Alba Longa .In the legendary war between Alba Longa and Rome in the 7th century BC a set of triplets of the Curiatii battled with three triplets from Rome, the Horatii, to decide which state would have...

 and Cloelii. Tullus built a new senate-house, the Curia Hostilia, to house the enlarged Roman senate

Roman Senate

The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...

. He also recruited ten new turmae

Turma

A turma was a cavalry squadron in the Roman army of the Republic and Empire. In the Byzantine Empire, it became applied to the larger, regiment-sized military-cum-administrative divisions of a thema....

of equites from amongst the Albans, and new legions. The Alban immigrants lived on the Caelian Hill

Caelian Hill

The Caelian Hill is one of the famous Seven Hills of Rome. Under reign of Tullus Hostilius, the entire population of Alba Longa was forcibly resettled on the Caelian Hill...

 in Rome.

Archaeological data and historical interpretation

Livy

Livy

Titus Livius — known as Livy in English — was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people. Ab Urbe Condita Libri, "Chapters from the Foundation of the City," covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome well before the traditional foundation in 753 BC...

 said of Alba Longa that it was founded by Ascanius

Ascanius

Ascanius is the son of the Trojan hero Aeneas and a legendary king of Alba Longa. He is a character of Roman mythology, and has a divine lineage, being the son of Aeneas, who is son of Venus and the hero Anchises, a relative of Priam; thus Ascanius has divine ascendents by both parents, being...

 to relieve crowding at Lavinium

Lavinium

Lavinium was a port city of Latium, to the south of Rome, at a median distance between the Tiber river at Ostia and Anzio. The coastline then, as now, was a long strip of beach. Lavinium was on a hill at the southernmost edge of the Silva Laurentina, a dense laurel forest, and the northernmost...

. He placed it at the foot of the Alban Mount

Monte Cavo

Monte Cavo is the second highest mountain of the complex of the Alban Hills, near Rome, Italy. An old volcano extinguished around 10,000 years ago, it lies about from the sea, in the territory of the comuneof Rocca di Papa. It is the dominant peak of the Alban Hills...

 and said that it took its name from being extended along a ridge. Dionysius of Halicarnassus

Dionysius of Halicarnassus

Dionysius of Halicarnassus was a Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric, who flourished during the reign of Caesar Augustus. His literary style was Attistic — imitating Classical Attic Greek in its prime.-Life:...

 repeated the story, but added that Ascanius, following an oracle given to his father, collected other Latin populations as well. Noting that alba means "white" (and longa "long") he translated the name "long white town." Dionysius placed the town between the Alban Mount and the Alban Lake, thus beginning a long controversy about its location.

Since the 16th century, the site has been at various times identified with the convent of S. Paolo at Palazzola, near Albano

Albano Laziale

Albano Laziale is a comune in the province of Rome, on the Alban Hills, in Latium, central Italy. It is also a suburb of Rome, which is 25 km distant. It is bounded by other communes of Castel Gandolfo, Rocca di Papa, Ariccia and Ardea. Located in the Castelli Romani area of Lazio...

, or with Coste Caselle, near Marino, or finally with Castel Gandolfo

Castel Gandolfo

Castel Gandolfo is a small Italian town or comune in Lazio that occupies a height overlooking Lake Albano about 15 miles south-east of Rome, on the Alban Hills. It is best known as the summer residence of the Pope. It is an Italian town with the population of 8834...

. The last of these places in fact occupies the site of Domitian's villa, which ancient sources state in turn occupied the arx

Arx (Roman)

Arx is the Latin word for citadel. In the ancient city of Rome, the Arx, not always capitalized, was located on the northern spur of the Capitoline Hill, and is sometimes specified as the Arx Capitolina. Sentries were posted there to watch for a signal to be displayed on the Janiculum if an enemy...

 of Alba.

Archaeological data available for the Iron Age show the existence of a string of villages, each one with its own necropolis, along the south-western shore of Lake Albano. When Rome destroyed these villages they must have still been in a pre-urban phase, starting to group around a centre that may well have been Castel Gandolfo, since the necropolis there is significantly larger, suggesting a larger town.

In the later republican period the territory of Alba (the Ager Albanus) was settled once again with many residential villas, which are mentioned in ancient literature and of which remains are extant.

The shrine of Jupiter Latiaris

On the top of the Monte Cavo

Monte Cavo

Monte Cavo is the second highest mountain of the complex of the Alban Hills, near Rome, Italy. An old volcano extinguished around 10,000 years ago, it lies about from the sea, in the territory of the comuneof Rocca di Papa. It is the dominant peak of the Alban Hills...

 (Mons Albanus) was a very ancient shrine consecrated to Jupiter Latiaris. Florus

Florus

Florus, Roman historian, lived in the time of Trajan and Hadrian.He compiled, chiefly from Livy, a brief sketch of the history of Rome from the foundation of the city to the closing of the temple of Janus by Augustus . The work, which is called Epitome de T...

 (2nd century) states that the site was selected by Ascanius

Ascanius

Ascanius is the son of the Trojan hero Aeneas and a legendary king of Alba Longa. He is a character of Roman mythology, and has a divine lineage, being the son of Aeneas, who is son of Venus and the hero Anchises, a relative of Priam; thus Ascanius has divine ascendents by both parents, being...

, who, having founded Alba, invited all the Latins to celebrate sacrifices there to Jupiter, a custom which eventually led to the annual celebration there of the Feriae Latinae, at which all the cities that belonged to the Latin Confederation would gather under the aegis of Alba, sacrificing a white bull, the flesh of which was distributed among all the participants.

After Alba Longa was destroyed and her leadership role was assumed by Rome, tradition records the building of a full-scale temple to Jupiter Latiaris on the Alban Mount in the reign of Tarquinius Superbus; of which only a few courses of perimeter wall remain today, now removed off site; and substantial remains of the paved road that connected it to the Via Appia near Aricia

Aricia

Aricia can refer to:*Aricia, a genus of gossamer-winged butterflies usually included in Aricia *Aricia , historical figure in ancient Britain*Aricia , minor figure in Greek mythology*Aricia, Italy...

.

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