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grottoes at Benihassan. The sculptures in these catacombs are chiefly devoted to military subjects processions, in which the king, mounted on a chariot, is followed by his soldiers on foot, or in war-chariots, with distinctive weapons and standards. The monarch is also represented as borne in a kind of open litter or shrine, and advancing with his offerings to the temple of Phtai. His attendants seem, from their dress, to belong to the military caste alone. (Wilkinson, Topography of Thebes, p. 386.; Mod. Egypt, vol. ii. p. 43.) [W. B. D.] ALABIS, ALABUS or ALABON ('Aλabúv, Steph. Byz., Diod.; "Aλasos, Ptol.; ALABIS, Sil. Ital. xiv. 227), a small river on the E. coast of Sicily, flowing into the Sinus Megarensis. Diodorus describes it as a considerable stream issuing from a large basin, of artificial construction, which was regarded as the work of Daedalus, and emptying itself after a short course into the sea. (Diod. iv. 78; Vib. Sequest. p. 4.) This description exactly accords with that given by Cluverius of a stream called Lo Cantaro, which issues from a very copious source only half a mile from the coast, and flows into the sea just opposite the modern city of Augusta. Some traces of buildings were in his time still visible around the basin of its source. (Cluver. Sicil. p. 133; Fazell. vol. i. p. 158.) It is probable that the ABOLUS ("A60λos) of Plutarch, on the banks of which Timoleon defeated Mamercus, the tyrant of Catana, in a pitched battle, is no other than the Alabus. (Plut. Timol. 34.) A town of the same name with the river is mentioned by Stephanus of Byzantium (v. 'Aλa6wv), but is not noticed by any other writer.

[E. H. B.]

66

(The

the satisfaction of all parties. But their privileges did not protect them from the exactions of Verres, who imposed on them an enormous contribution both in corn and money. (Id. ib. 73-75; Ep. ad Fam. xiii. 32.) The city appears to have subsequently declined, and had sunk in the time of Augustus to the condition of an ordinary municipal town (Castell. Inscr. p. 27): but was still one of the few places on the north coast of Sicily which Strabo deemed worthy of mention. (Strab. vi. p. 272.) Pliny also enumerates it among the stipendiariae civitates" of Sicily. (H. N. iii. 8.) Great difference of opinion has existed with regard to the site of Alaesa, arising principally from the discrepancy in the distances assigned by Strabo, the Itinerary, and the Tabula. Some of these are undoubtedly corrupt or erroneous, but on the whole there can be no doubt that its situation is correctly fixed by Cluverius and Torremuzza at the spot marked by an old church called Sta. Maria le Palate, near the modern town of Tusa, and above the river Pettineo. This site coincides perfectly with the expression of Diodorus (xiv. 16), that the town was built "on a hill about 8 stadia from the sea:" as well as with the distance of eighteen M. P. from Cephaloedium assigned by the Tabula. Itinerary gives 28 by an easy error.) The ruins described by Fazello as visible there in his time were such as to indicate the site of a large city, and several inscriptions have been found on the spot, some of them referring distinctly to Alaesa. One of these, which is of considerable length and importance, gives numerous local details concerning the divisions of land, &c., and mentions repeatedly a ALAESA or HALE'SA ("Aλαισa, Diod.; Strab.; river ALAESUS, evidently the same with the HAPtol.; Halesa, Sil. Ital. xiv. 218; Halesini, Cic. LESUS of Columella (x. 268), and which is probably Plin.), a city of Sicily, situated near the north coast the modern Pettineo; as well as a fountain named of the island, between Cephaloedium and Calacta. IPYRRHA. This is perhaps the same spoken of by It was of Siculian origin, and its foundation is re- Solinus (5. § 20) and Priscian (Perieges. 500), but lated by Diodorus, who informs us that in B. C. 403 without mentioning its name, as existing in the territhe inhabitants of Herbita (a Siculian city), having tory of Halesa, the waters of which were swoln and concluded peace with Dionysius of Syracuse, their agitated by the sound of music. Fazello describes ruler or chief magistrate Archonides determined to the ruins as extending from the sea-shore, on which quit the city and found a new colony, which he were the remains of a large building (probably settled partly with citizens of Herbita, and partly baths), for the space of more than a mile to the with mercenaries and other strangers who collected summit of a hill, on which were the remains of the around him through enmity towards Dionysius. He citadel. About 3 miles further inland was a large gave to this new colony the name of Alaesa, to fountain (probably the Ipyrrha of the inscription), which the epithet Archonidea was frequently added with extensive remains of the aqueduct that confor the purpose of distinction. Others attributed veyed its waters to the city. All trace of these the foundation of the city, but erroneously, to the ruins has now disappeared, except some portions of Carthaginians. (Diod. xiv. 16.) It quickly rose the aqueduct: but fragments of statues, as well as to prosperity by maritime commerce: and at the coins and inscriptions, have been frequently discommencement of the First Punic War was one of covered on the spot. (Fazell. de Reb. Sic. ix. 4; the first of the Sicilian cities to make its submission Cluver. Sicil. pp. 288-290; Boeckh, C. I. tom. iii. to the Romans, to whose alliance it continued steadily | pp. 612-621; Castelli, Hist. Alaesae, Panorm. faithful. It was doubtless to its conduct in this 1753; Id. Inser. Sic. p. 109; Biscari, Viaggio in respect, and to the services that it was able to ren-Sicilia, p. 243.) [E. H. B.] der to the Romans during their wars in Sicily, that it was indebted for the peculiar privilege of retaining its own laws and independence, exempt from all taxation:- - an advantage enjoyed by only five cities of Sicily. (Diod. xiv. 16, xxiii. Exc. H. p. 501; Cic. Verr. ii. 49, 69, iii. 6.) In consequence of this advantageous position it rose rapidly in wealth and prosperity, and became one of the most flourishing cities of Sicily. On one occasion its citizens, having been involved in disputes among themselves concerning the choice of the senate, C. Claudius Pulcher was sent, at their own request in B. c. 95, to regulate the matter by a law, which he did to

COIN OF ALAESA.

ALAGO'NIA (Aλayovía), a town of Laconia near the Messenian frontier, belonging to the Eleu

thero-Lacones, containing temples of Dionysus and Artemis. This town was distant 30 stadia from Gerenia, but its site is unknown. (Paus. iii. 21. § 7, iii. 26. § 11.)

ALALCO MENAE. 1. ('Aλаλкоueval, Strab., Paus.; Aλaкouéviov, Steph. B.; Eth. 'Aλaλkoμενιεύς, 'Αλαλκομεναῖος, Αλαλκομένιος: Sulinari), an ancient town in Boeotia, situated at the foot of Mt. Tilphossium, a little to the E. of Coroneia, and rear the lake Copais. It was celebrated for the worship of Athena, who was said to have been born there, and who is hence called Alalcomenēis (AλaλKoμents) in Homer. The temple of the goddess stood, at a little distance from the town, on the Triton, a small stream flowing into the lake Copais. Beyond the modern village of Sulinári, the site of Alalcomenae, are some polygonal foundations, apparently those of a single building, which are probably remains of the peribolus of the temple. Both the town and the temple were plundered by Sulla, who carried off the statue of the goddess. (Hom. II. iv. 8; Paus. ix. 3. § 4, ix. 33. § 5, seq.; Strab. pp. 410, 411, 413; Steph. B. s. v.; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. ii. p. 135; Forchhammer, Hellenica, p. 185.)

Alans) among the generic names applied at different
times to the inhabitants of the European Scythia or
Sarmatia. Thus there were Alani both in Asia, in
the Caucasus, and in Europe, on the Maeotis and the
Euxine; and also, according to Josephus, between
these two positions, in the great plains N. of the
Caucasus; so that they seem to have been spread
over all the S. part of Russia in Europe. Under
Hadrian and the Antonines we find the European
Alani constantly troubling the frontier of the Da-
nube (Ael. Spart. Had. 4. s. 6; Jul. Capit. Ant. Pi.
6. s. 8, Marc. 22, where they are mentioned with
the Roxalani, Bastarnae, and Peucini); while the
Alani of the E. again overran Media and Armenia,
and threatened Cappadocia. (Dion Cass. Ixix. 15.)
On this occasion the historian Arrian, who was go-
vernor of Cappadocia under Hadrian, composed a
work on the Tactics to be observed against the
Alani (Kтağıs Kar' 'Aλavwv), which is mentioned
by Photius (Cod. lviii. p. 15, a., Bekker), and of
which a considerable fragment is preserved (Arrian.
ed. Dübner, in Didot's Script. Graec. Bibl. pp. 250
-253). Their force consisted in cavalry, like that
of the European Alani (the woλvinπWV Qûλov
'Alavav of Dionysius Periegetes, v. 308); and they
fought without armour for themselves or their horses.
As another mark of resemblance, though Arrian

2. Or ALCOMENAE ('Aλкoμeval), said to be a town in Ithaca (Plut. Quaest. Graec. 43; Steph.. B. s. c.), or in the small island Asteris in the neigh-speaks of them as Scythians, a name which was bourhood of Ithaca. (Strab. p. 456.) ALA'LIA. [ALERIA.]

vaguely used in his time for all the barbarians of NW. Asia (cont. Alanos, 30), he speaks of them elsewhere (Tact. 4) in close connection with the Sauromatae (Sarmatians), as practising the same mode of fighting for which the Polish lancers, de

ALANDER, a river of Phrygia (Liv. xxxviii. 15, 18), which is twice mentioned by Livy, in his account of the march of Cn. Manlius. It was probably a branch of the Sangarius, as Hamilton (Re-scendants of the Sarmatians, have been renowned. searches in Asia Minor, vol. i. pp. 458, 467) conjectures, and the stream which flows in the valley of Beiad; but he gives no modern name to it. [G.L.] ALA'NI ('Aλavoí, 'Aλaûvoi), a people, found both in Asia and in Europe, whose precise geographical positions and ethnographical relations are difficult to determine. They probably became first known to the Romans through the Mithridatic war, and the expedition of Pompey into the countries about the Caucasus; when they were found in the E. part of Caucasus, in the region which was called Albania by the Romans, but Alania by Greek writers, and where Alani are found down to a late period of the Greek empire. (Joseph. Ant. Jud. xviii. 4. s. 6; Lucan, x. 454; Procop. Pers. ii. 29, Goth. iv. 4: Const. Porph. de Adm. Imp. 42.) Valerius Flaccus (Arg. vi. 42) mentions them among the people of the Caucasus, near the Heniochi. Ammianus Marcellinus, who tells us more about the Alani than any other ancient writer, makes Julian encourage his soldiers by the example of Pompey, "who, breaking his way through the Albani and the Massagetae, whom we now call Alani, saw the waters of the Caspian" (xxiii. 5). In the latter half of the first century we hear of the Alani in two very remote positions. On the one hand, Josephus, who describes them as Scythians dwelling about the river Tanaïs (Don) and the Lake Macotis (Sea of Azov), relates how, in the time of Vespasian, being permitted by the king of Hyrcania to traverse "the pass which Alexander had closed with iron gates," they ravaged Media and Armenia, and returned home again. On the other hand, they are mentioned by Seneca (Thyest. 629) as dwelling on the Ister (Danube); and Martial (Epigr. vii. 30) expressly calls them Sarmatians; and Pliny (iv. 12. s. 25) mentions Alani and Roxalani (i. e. Russ

Ptolemy, who wrote under the Antonines, mentions
the European Alani, by the name of 'Aλauvo ΣKÚ-
Bai, as one of the seven chief peoples of Sarmatia
Europaea, namely, the Venedae, Peucini, Bastarnae,
Lazyges, Roxolani, Hamaxobii, and Alauni Scythae;
of whom he places the lazyges and Roxolani along
the whole shore of the Maeotis, and then the last
two further inland (iii. 5. § 19). He also mentions
(ii. 14. § 2) Alauni in the W. of Pannonia, no doubt
a body who, in course of invasion, had established
themselves on the Roman side of the Danube. Pto-
lemy speaks of a Mt. Alaunus (7ò 'Aλaūvov ŏpos)
in Sarmatia, and Eustathius (ad Dion. Perieg.
305) says that the Alani probably derived their
name from the Alanus, a mountain of Sarmatia. It
is hard to find any range of mountains answering to
Ptolemy's M. Alaunus near the position he assigns
to the Alauni: some geographers suppose the term
to describe no mountains, properly so called, but the
elevated tract of land which forms the watershed
between the Dniester and the Dnieper. The Euro-
pean Alani are found in the geographers who fol-
lowed Ptolemy. Dionysius Periegetes (v. 305)
mentions them, first vaguely, among the peoples N.
of the Palus Macotis, with the Germans, Sarmatians,
Getae, Bastarnae, and Dacians; and then, more spe-
cifically, he says (308) that their land extends N.
of the Tauri, "where are the Melanchlaeni, and Ge-
loni, and Hippemolgi, and Neuri, and Agathyrsi,
where the Borysthenes mingles with the Euxine."
Some suppose the two passages to refer to different
bodies of the Alani. (Bernhardy, ad loc.)
are likewise called Sarmatians by Marcian of Hera-
cleia (τῶν ̓Αλανῶν Σαρμάτων ἔθνος: Peripl. p. 100,
ed. Miller; Hudson, Geog. Min. vol. i. p. 56).
The Asiatic Alani ('Aλavol Σkútai) are placed by
Ptolemy (vi. 14. § 9) in the extreme N. of Scythia

They

within the Imaus, near the "Unknown Land;" and here, too, we find mountains of the same name (rà 'Aλavá ŏpn, §§ 3, 11), E. of the Hyperborei M.; he is generally supposed to mean the N. part of the Ural chain, to which he erroneously gives a direction W. and E.

the art of war. They despise going on foot. In
person they are nearly all tall and handsome; their
hair is slightly yellow; they are terrible for the
tempered sternness of their eyes. The lightness of
their armour aids their natural swiftness; a circum.
stance mentioned also, as we have seen, by Arrian,
and by Josephus (B.J. vii. 7. §4), from whom we find
that they used the lasso in battle: Lucian, too, de-
scribes them as like the Scythians in their arms and
their speech, but with shorter hair (Toxaris, 51,
vol. ii. p. 557). In general, proceeds Animianus,
they resemble the Huns, but are less savage in form
and manners. Their plundering and hunting ex-

Cimmerian Bosporus, and even into Armenia and
Media; and it is to their life in those parts that the
description of Ammianus evidently refers. Danger
and war was their delight; death in battle bliss; the
loss of life through decay or chance stamped disgrace
on a man's memory. Their greatest glory was to
kill a foe in battle, and the scalps of their slain
enemies were hung to their horses for trappings.
They frequented neither temple nor shrine; but,
fixing a naked sword in the ground, with barbaric
rites, they worshipped, in this symbol, the god of
war and of their country for the time being. They
practised divination by bundles of rods, which they
released with secret incantations, and (it would seem)
from the way the sticks fell they presaged the fu-
ture. Slavery was unknown to them: all were of
noble birth. Even their judges were selected for
their long-tried pre-eminence in war.
these particulars are confirmed by Jornandes (de
Rebus Geticis, 24). Claudian also mentions the
Alani as dwelling on the Macotis, and connects them
closely with the Massagetae (In Rufin. i. 312):
"Massagetes, caesamque bibens Maeotida Alanus."

Several of

Our fullest information respecting the Alani is derived from Ammianus Marcellinus, who flourished during the latter half of the fourth century (about 350-400). He first mentions them with the Roxolani, the Iazyges, the Maeotae, and the Iaxamatae, as dwelling on the shores of the Palus Maeotis (xxii. 8. § 30); and presently, where the Riphaci M. subside towards the Maeo-cursions had brought them to the Maeotis and the tis, he places the Arimphaei, and near them the Massagetae, Alani, and Sargetae, with many other peoples little known (obscuri, quorum nec vocabula nobis sunt nota, nec mores). Again (§ 48) on the NW. of the Euxine, about the river Tyras (Dniester), he places "the European Alani and the Costobocae, and innumerable tribes of Scythians, which extend to lands beyond human knowledge;" a small portion of whom live by agriculture; the rest wander through vast solitudes and get their food like wild beasts; their habitations and scanty furniture are placed on waggons made of the bark of trees; and they migrate at pleasure, waggons and all. His more detailed account of the people is given when he comes to relate that greater westward movement of the Huns which, in the reign of Valens, precipitated the Goths upon the Roman empire, A. D. 376. After describing the Huns (xxxi. 2), he says that they advanced as far as "the Alani, the ancient Massagetae," of whom he undertakes to give a better account than had as yet been published. From the Ister to the Tanaïs dwell the Sauromatae; and on the Asiatic side of the Tanaïs the Alani inhabit the vast solitudes of Scythia; having their name from that of their mountains (ex montium appellatione cognominati, which some understand to mean that Alani comes from ala, a word signifying a mountain). By their conquests they extended their name, as well as their power, over the neighbouring nations; just as the Persian name was spread. He then describes these neighbouring nations; the Neuri, inland, near lofty mountains; the Budini and Geloni; the Agathyrsi; the Melanchlaeni and Anthropophagi; from whom a tract of uninhabited land extended E.wards to the Sinae. At another part the Alani bordered on the Amazons, towards the E. (the Amazons being placed by him on the Tanaïs and the Caspian), whence they were scattered over many peoples throughout Asia, as far as the Ganges. Through these immense regions, but often far apart from one another, the various tribes of the Alani lived a nomade life: and it was only in process of time that they came to be called by the same name. He then describes their manners. They neither have houses nor till the land; they feed on flesh and milk, and dwell on waggons. When they come to a pasture they make a camp, by placing their waggons in a circle; and they move on again when the forage is exhausted. Their flocks and herds go with them, and their chief care is for their horses. They are never reduced to want, for the country through which they wander consists of grassy fields, with fruit-trees interspersed, and watered by many rivers. The weak, from age or sex, stay by the waggons and perform the lighter offices; while the young men are trained together from their first boyhood to the practice of horsemanship and a sound knowledge of

Being vanquished by the Huns, who attacked them in the plains E. of the Tanaïs, the great body of the Alani joined their conquerors in their invasion of the Gothic kingdom of Hermanric (A. D. 375), of which the chief part of the European Alani were already the subjects. In the war which soon broke out between the Goths and Romans in Maesia, so many of the Huns and Alani joined the Goths, that they are distinctly mentioned among the invaders who were defeated by Theodosius, A. D. 379–382. Henceforth we find, in the W., the Alani constantly associated with the Goths and with the Vandals, so much so that Procopius calls them a tribe of the Goths (гoтikdy ĕovos: Vand. i. 3). But their movements are more closely connected with those of the Vandals, in conjunction with whom they are said to have settled in Pannonia; and, retiring thence through fear of the Goths, the two peoples invaded Gaul in 406, and Spain in 409. (Procop. I. c.; Jornandes, de Reb. Get. 31; Clinton, F. R. s. a.; comp. Gibbon, c. 30, 31.)

In 411 the Alani are found in Gaul, acting with the Burgundians, Alamanni, and Franks. (Clinton, s. a.) As the Goths advanced into Spain, 414, the Alani and Vandals, with the Silingi, retreated before them into Lusitania and Baetica. (Clinton, s. a. 416.) In the ensuing campaigns, in which the Gothic king Wallia conquered Spain (418), the Alans lost their king Ataces, and were so reduced in numbers that they gave up their separate nationality, and transferred their allegiance to Gunderic, the king of the Vandals. (Clinton, s. a. 418.) After Gunderic's death, in 428, the allied barbarians

ALA'NI and ALAUNI MONTES. [ALANI.]
ALA'NIA. [ALANI.]

partitioned Spain, the Suevi obtaining Gallaecia, the | the Scythians of the latter, that is, the people of Alani Lusitania and the province of New Carthage, European Sarmatia. Of their language, one soliand the Vandals Baetica. (Clinton, s. a.) Most tary relic has been preserved. In the Periplus of of them accompanied Geiseric in his invasion of the Euxine (p. 5, Hudson, p. 213, Gail) we are told Africa in the following year (429: AFRICA, VAN- that the city of Theodosia was called in the Alan or DALI), and among other indications of their con- Tauric dialect 'Αρδάβδα or 'Αρδαύδα, that is, the tinned consequence in Africa, we find an edict of city of the Seven gods. (Klaproth, Tableaux de Huneric addressed, in 483, to the bishops of the Asie; Ritter, Erdkunde, vol. ii. pp. 845—850; Vandals and Alans (Clinton, s. a.); while in Spain Stritter, Mem. Pop. vol. iv. pp. 232, 395; De we hear no more of them or of the Vandals, but the Guignes, Hist. des Huns, vol. ii. p. 279; Ukert, place of both is occupied by the Suevi. Meanwhile, vol. iii. pt. 2. pp. 550-555; Georgii, vol. i. p. returning to Europe, at the time of Attila's invasion 152, vol. ii. p. 312.) [P. S.] of the Roman empire, we find in his camp the descendants of those Alans who had at first joined the Huns; and the personal influence of Aëtius with Attila obtained the services of a body of Alani, who were settled in Gaul, about Valence and Orleans. (Gibbon, c. 35.) When Attila invaded Gaul, 451, he seems to have depended partly on the sympathy of these Alani (Gibbon speaks of a promise from their king Sangiban to betray Orleans); and the great victory of Chalons, where they served under Theodoric against the Huns, was nearly lost by their defection (451). Among the acts recorded of Torismond, in the single year of his reign (451—452), is the conquest of the Alani, who may be supposed to have rebelled. (Clinton, s. a.) In the last years of the W. empire the Alans are mentioned with other barbarians as overrunning Gaul and advancing even into Liguria, and as resisted by the prowess of Majorian (Clinton, 8. a. 461; Gibbon, c. 36); but thenceforth their name disappears, swallowed up in the great kingdom of the Visigoths. So much for the Alani of the West.

All this time, and later, they are still found in their ancient settlements in the E., between the Don and Volga, and in the Caucasus. They are mentioned under Justinian; and, at the breaking out of the war between Justin II. and Chosroës, king of Persia, they are found among the allies of the Armenians, under their king Saroes, 572-3. (Theo phylact. ap. Phot. Cod. lxv. p. 26, b. 37, ed. Bekker.) The Alani of the Caucasus are constantly mentioned, both by Byzantine and Arabian writers, in the middle ages, and many geographers suppose the Ossetes of Daghestan to be their descendants. The medieval writers, both Greek and Arab, call the country about the E. end of Caucasus Alania.

ALATA CASTRA (πτερωτὸν στρατόπεδον, Ptol. ii. 3. § 13), in the territory of the Vacomagi (Murray and Inverness-shire) was the northernmost station of the Romans in Britain, and near Inverness. This fort was probably raised by Lollius Urbicus after his victories in Britannia Barbara A. D. 139, to repress the incursions of the Caledonian clans: but it was soon abandoned, and all vestige of it obliterated. (Capitolin. Antonin. P. 5; Pausan. viii. 43. § 3.) [W. B. D.]

ALATRIUM or ALETRIUM ('Aλéтpiov, Strab.; ALATRINATES, Liv.; ALETRINATES, Plin. et Inscr.), a city of the Hernicans, situated to the E. of the Via Latina, about 7 miles from Ferentinum, and still called Alatri. In early times it appears to have been one of the principal cities of the Hernican league, and in B. C. 306, when the general council of the nation was assembled to deliberate concerning war with Rome, the Alatrians, in conjunction with the citizens of Ferentinum and Veruli, pronounced against it. For this they were rewarded, after the defeat of the other Hernicans, by being allowed to retain their own laws, which they preferred to the Roman citizenship, with the mutual right of connubium among the three cities. (Liv. ix. 42, 43.) Its name is found in Plautus (Captivi, iv. 2, 104), and Cicero speaks of it as in his time a municipal town of consideration (Or. pro Cluent. 16, 17). It subsequently became a colony, but at what period we know not: Pliny mentions it only among the "oppida" of the first region: and its municipal rank is confirmed by inscriptions of imperial times (Lib. Colon. p. 230; Plin. iii. 5. 9; Inscr. ap. Gruter. pp. 422. 3, 424. 7; Orelli, Inscr. 3785; Zumpt, de Colon. p. 359). Being removed from the high road, it is not mentioned in the Itineraries, but Strabo notices it among the cities of Latium, though he erroneously places it on the right or south side of the Via Latina. (v. p. 237.)

Amidst these materials, conjecture has naturally been busy. From the Affghans to the Poles, there is scarcely a race of warlike horsemen which has not been identified with the Alani; and, in fact, the name might be applied, consistently with the ancient accounts, to almost any of the nomade peoples, con- The modern town of Alatri, which contains a founded by the ancients under the vague name of Scy-population of above 8000 inhabitants, and is an thians, except the Mongols. They were evidently a branch of that great nomade race which is found, in the beginning of recorded history, in the NW. of Asia and the SE. of Europe; and perhaps we should not be far wrong in placing their original seats in the country of the Kirghiz Tartars, round the head of the Caspian, whence we may suppose them to have spread W.-ward round the Euxine, and especially to have occupied the great plains N. of the Caucasus between the Don and Volga, whence they issued forth into W. Asia by the passes of the Caucasus. Their permanent settlement also in Sarmatia (in S. Russia) is clearly established, and a comparison of the description of thein by Ammianus Marcellinus with the fourth book of Herodotus can Leave little doubt that they were a kindred race to

episcopal see, retains the site of the ancient city, or a steep hill of considerable elevation, at the foot of which flows the little river Cosa. It has few monuments of Roman times, but the remains of its massive ancient fortifications are among the most striking in Italy. Of the walls which surrounded the city itself great portions still remain, built of large polygonal blocks of stone, without cement, in the same style as those of Signia, Norba, and Ferentinum. But much more remarkable than these are the remains of the ancient citadel, which crowned the summit of the hill: its form is an irregular oblong, of about 660 yards in circuit, constituting a nearly level terrace supported on all sides by walls of the most massive polygonal construction, varying in height according to the declivity of the ground, but which

attain at the SE. angle an elevation of not less than 50 feet. It has two gates, one of which, on the N. side, appears to have been merely a postern or sally-port, communicating by a steep and narrow subterranean passage with the platform above: the principal entrance being on the south side, near the SE. angle. The gateways in both instances are square-headed, the architrave being formed of one enormous block of stone, which in the principal gate is more than 15 feet in length by 5 in height. Vestiges of rude bas-reliefs may be still observed above the smaller gate. All these walls, as well as those of the city itself, are built of the hard limestone of the Apennines, in the style called Polygonal or Pelasgic, as opposed to the ruder Cyclopean, and are among the best specimens extant of that mode of construction, both from their enormous solidity, and the accuracy with which the stones are fitted together. In the centre of the platform or terrace stands the modern cathedral, in all probability occupying the site of an ancient temple. The remains at Alatri have been described and figured by Madame Dionigi (Viaggio in alcune Città del Lazio, Roma, 1809), and views of them are given in Dodwell's Pelasgic Remains, pl. 92-96. [E.H.B.] ALAUNA, a town of the Unelli, as Caesar (B. G. ii. 34) calls the people, or Veneti, as Ptolemy calls them. It is probably the origin of the modern town of Aleaume, near Valognes, in the department of La Manche, where there are said to be Roman remains.

ALAUNI. [ALANI.]

[G. L.]

ALA'ZON (Plin. vi. 10. s. 11), or ALAZO'NIUS ('Aλaçúvios, Strab. p. 500: Alasan, Alacks), a river of the Caucasus, flowing SE. into the Cambyses a little above its junction with the Cyrus, and forming the boundary of Albania and Iberia. Its position seems to correspond with the Abas of Plutarch and Dion Cassius. [ABAS.] [P. S.]

ALAZO'NES ('Aλaves), a Scythian people on the Borysthenes (Dnieper), N. of the Callipidae, and S. of the agricultural Scythians: they grew corn for their own use. (Hecat. ap. Strab. p. 550; Herod. iv. 17, 52; Steph. B. s. v.; Val. Flacc. vi. 101; Ukert, vol. iii. pt. 2. p. 418.) [P. S.]

ALBA DOCILIA, a town on the coast of Liguria, known only from the Tabula Peutingeriana, which places it on the coast road from Genua to Vada Sabbata. The distances are so corrupt as to afford us no assistance in determining its position: but it is probable that Cluver is right in identifying it with the modern Albissola, a village about 3 miles from Savona, on the road to Genoa. The origin and meaning of the name are unknown. (Tab. Peut.; Cluver. Ital. p. 70.) [E. H. B.]

ALBA FUCENSIS or FUCENTIS (AX6a, Strab.; "A6α PoÚKEVTIS, Ptol.; the ethnic Albenses, not Albani; see Varr. de L. L. viii. § 35), an important city and fortress of Central Italy, situated on the Via Valeria, on a hill of considerable elevation, about 3 miles from the northern shores of the Lake Fucinus, and immediately at the foot of Monte Velino. There is considerable discrepancy among ancient writers, as to the nation to which it belonged: but Livy expressly tells us that it was in the territory of the Aequians (Albam in Aequos, x. 1), and in another passage (xxvi. 11, he speaks of the "Albensis ager" as clearly distinct from that of the Marsians. His testimony is confirmed by Appian (Annib. 39) and by Strabo (v. pp. 238, 240), who calls it the most inland Latin city,

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adjoining the territory of the Marsians. Ptolemy on the contrary reckons it as a Marsic city, as do Silius Italicus and Festus (Ptol. iii. 1. § 57; Sil. Ital. viii. 506; Festus v. Albesia, p. 4, ed. Müller): and this view has been followed by most modern writers. The fact probably is, that it was originally an Aequian town, but being situated on the frontiers of the two nations, and the Marsians having in later times become far more celebrated and powerful than their neighbours, Alba came to be commonly assigned to them. Pliny (H. N. iii. 12-17) reckons the Albenses as distinct both from the Marsi and Aequiculi: and it appears from inscriptions that they belonged to the Fabian tribe, while the Marsi, as well as the Sabines and Peligni, were included in the Sergian. No historical mention of Alba is found previous to the foundation of the Roman colony: but it has been generally assumed to be a very ancient city. Niebuhr even supposes that the name of Alba Longa was derived from thence: though Appian tells us on the contrary that the Romans gave this name to their colony from their own mother-city (l. c.). It is more probable that the name was, in both cases, original, and was derived from their lofty situation, being connected with the same root as Alp. The remains of its ancient fortifications may however be regarded as a testimony to its antiquity, though we find no special mention of it as a place of strength previous to the Roman conquest. But immediately after the subjugation of the Aequi, in B. c. 302, the Romans hastened to occupy it with a body of not less than 6000 colonists (Liv. x. 1; Vell. Pat. i. 14), and it became from this time a fortress of the first class. In B. C. 211, on occasion of the sudden advance of Hannibal upon Rome, the citizens of Alba sent a body of 2000 men to assist the Romans in the defence of the city. But notwithstanding their zeal and promptitude on this occasion we find them only two years after (in B. C. 209) among the twelve colonies which declared themselves unable to furnish any further contingents, nor did their previous services exempt them from the same punishment with the rest for this default. (Appian, Annib. 39; Liv. xxvii. 9, xxix. 15.) We afterwards find Alba repeatedly selected on account of its great strength and inland position as a place of confinement for state prisoners; among whom Syphax, king of Numidia, Perseus, king of Macedonia, and Bituitus, king of the Arverni, are particularly mentioned. (Strab. v. p. 240; Liv. xxx. 17, 45; xlv. 42; Val. Max. ix. 6. § 3.)

On the outbreak of the Social War, Alba withstood a siege from the confederate forces, but it was ultimately compelled to surrender (Liv. Epit. lxxii.). During the Civil Wars also it is repeatedly mentioned in a manner that sufficiently attests its importance in a military point of view. (Caes. B. C. i. 15, 24; Appian, Civ. iii. 45, 47, v. 30; Cic. ad Att. viii. 12, A, ix. 6; Philipp. iii. 3, 15, iv. 2, xiii. 9). But under the Empire it attracted little attention, and we find no historical mention of it during that period: though its continued existence as a provincial town of some note is attested by inscriptions and other extant remains, as well as by the notices of it in Ptolemy and the Itineraries. (Ptol. I. c.; Itin. Ant. p. 309; Tab. Peut.; Lib. Colon. p. 253; Muratori, Inscr. 1021. 5, 1038. 1; Orell. no. 4166.) Its territory, on account of its elevated situation, was more fertile in fruit than corn, and was particularly celebrated for the ex.

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