Alba Longa

For from this place the English Channel spreads out in a vast band six hundred feet below one, and the shore perhaps five miles away.

It looks broader than any sea in the world, broader than the Mediterranean from the hills of Alba Longa, and broader than the Irish Sea from the summit of the Welsh mountains.

Though why this is so I cannot tell.

The little old man treated my coming as though it was an expected thing, and before I had spoken to him long assured me that this view gave him complete content.

It forms part of the knowledge considered essential even now for a good education, and it will serve us as a background for the picture which we shall afterwards draw of the events more justly entitled to our attention and study.

End of section 4 Section 5 of Early Rome by Wilhelm Ina This LibriVox recording is in the public domain Recording by Pamela Nagami Chapter 3 The Legends of the Seven Kings of Rome Part 1 At the time when the Capitoline and the surrounding hills were covered with wood or pasture, all the country round about and all the cities of Latium were governed by the kings of the mighty city of Alba Longa, which stood on the banks of the Alban Lake, high on a hill overlooking the whole plain as far as the sea.

The city of Alba was built by Ascanius, the son of Aeneas the Trojan, who had escaped from the burning of Troy, and after many wanderings and adventures had settled on the coast of Latium and there had built the town of Lavinium.

After the death of Aeneas his son had transferred the seat of his kingdom to Alba, and there his descendants ruled for three hundred years in prosperity and peace.

And when Medius came to him after the battle to wish him joy on account of the victory, thinking that Tullus had not discovered his treachery, Tullus ordered him to be seized and torn to pieces by horses as a punishment for wavering in his fidelity between the Romans and their enemies.

Then the Albans were disarmed, and Tullus sent horsemen to Alba who burned the whole town with the exception of the temples and led the inhabitants away to Rome.

From that time Alba Longa was desolate, but the Albans became Roman citizens and their nobles were received among the patricians, so that Albans and Romans became one people as the Romans and the Sabines had become in the reign of Romulus.

After this Tullus waged many wars with his neighbors, the Etruscans and the Sabines, and he became proud and haughty, neglecting the gods and their service and regarding not justice and the laws of Numa.

I am not without some doubts, for who can affirm with certainty in a matter of such antiquity whether this was the same Ascanius mentioned above or one older than him born of Creusa, wife to Aeneas before the destruction of Troy, and who accompanied his father in his flight from thence, whom being also called Iulus, the Julian family claim as the founder of their name.

This Ascanius wheresoever and of whatsoever mother born, certainly the son of Aeneas, finding the number of inhabitants in Lavinium too great, left that city then in a flourishing and opulent state considering the circumstances of those times, to his mother or stepmother and built a new one on the Alban Mount, which from its situation being stretched along the hill was called Alba Longa.

Between the building of Lavinium and the transplanting the colony to Alba Longa, the interval was only about 30 years, yet so rapidly had this people increased in power, especially after the defeat of the Etrurians that not even on the death of Aeneas, nor afterwards during the regency of a woman and the first essays of a youthful reign did either Mezentius and the Etrurians or any other of the bordering nations dare to attempt hostilities against them.

A peace was agreed upon in which it was stipulated that the River Albula, now called the Tiber, should be the boundary between the Etrurians and Latins.

Ascanius' son, called Silvius from his having by some accident been born in the woods, succeeded him in the kingdom.

For from this place the English Channel spreads out in a vast band six hundred feet below one, and the shore perhaps five miles away.

It looks broader than any sea in the world, broader than the Mediterranean from the hills of Alba Longa, and broader than the Irish Sea from the summit of the Welsh mountains.

Though why this is so I cannot tell.

The little old man treated my coming as though it was an expected thing, and before I had spoken to him long assured me that this view gave him complete content.

I am not without some doubts, for who can affirm with certainty in a matter of such antiquity, whether this was the same Ascanius mentioned above, or one older than him, born of Creusa, wife to Aeneas, before the destruction of Troy, and who accompanied his father in his flight from thence, whom, being also called Iulus, the Julian family claim as the founder of their name.

This Ascanius, wheresoever and of whatsoever mother born, certainly the son of Aeneas, finding the number of inhabitants in Lavinium too great, left that city, then in a flourishing and opulent state considering the circumstances of those times, to his mother or stepmother, and built a new one on the Alban Mount, which, from its situation, being stretched along the hill, was called Alba Longa.

Between the building of Lavinium and the transplanting the colony to Alba Longa, the interval was only about thirty years.

Yet so rapidly had this people increased in power, especially after the defeat of the Etrurians, that not even on the death of Aeneas, nor afterwards, during the regency of a woman and the first essays of a youthful reign, did either Mezentius and the Etrurians or any other of the bordering nations dare to attempt hostilities against them.

A peace was agreed upon, in which it was stipulated that the river Albula, now called the Tiber, should be the boundary between the Etrurians and Latins.

I am not without some doubts, for who can affirm with certainty in a matter of such antiquity, whether this was the same Ascanius mentioned above, or one older than him, born of Creusa, wife to Aeneas, before the destruction of Troy, and who accompanied his father in his flight from thence, whom, being also called Iulus, the Julian family claim as the founder of their name.

This Ascanius, wheresoever and of whatsoever mother born, certainly the son of Aeneas, finding the number of inhabitants in Lavinium too great, left that city, then in a flourishing and opulent state considering the circumstances of those times, to his mother or stepmother, and built a new one on the Alban Mount, which, from its situation, being stretched along the hill, was called Alba Longa.

Between the building of Lavinium and the transplanting the colony to Alba Longa, the interval was only about thirty years.

Yet so rapidly had this people increased in power, especially after the defeat of the Etrurians, that not even on the death of Aeneas, nor afterwards, during the regency of a woman and the first essays of a youthful reign, did either Mezentius and the Etrurians or any other of the bordering nations dare to attempt hostilities against them.

A peace was agreed upon, in which it was stipulated that the river Albula, now called the Tiber, should be the boundary between the Etrurians and Latins.