SUMMIT OF MONTE CAVO. 85 gravissant le Mont-Albain (Monte-Cavi), à l'endroit où, sous les grands chênes, apparaissent tout à coup, parmi les feuilles tombées, les dalles de la voie Triomphale."—Ampère, Hist. Rom. i. 47. "Up this same Alban Mount, to the temple of Jupiter Latiaris, which was for Alba what the Capitol was for Rome, the dictators of Alba and Latium undoubtedly led their legions when they returned in triumph. This solemnity, in which the triumphant generals appeared in royal robes, was unquestionably derived from the period of the monarchy: nor would the Latin commanders deem themselves inferior to the Romans, or bear themselves less proudly, when they were not subject to the imperium of the latter, or show less gratitude to the gods. Indeed their triumph was preserved in that which the Roman generals solemnized on the Alban Mount: for that the first who assumed this honour (C. Papirius Maso) was renewing an earlier usage, is at least far more probable, than that he should have ventured to assume a distinction of his own devising. He triumphed here, not properly as a Roman consul, but as commander of the Latin cohorts, belonging partly to the towns of ancient Latium, partly to the colonies which sprang out of that state after it was broken up, and which represented it. At this distance from Rome he was secured from interruption by his imperium: and the honour was bestowed on him by the acclamation of the Latins, seconded by that of the Italian allies, and perhaps expressing itself by the otherwise inexplicable salutation of imperator, given to generals after a victory; a salutation which, at least after the Latins and their allies had all received the freedom of the city, was used by the Roman legions; as they may have joined in it previously, when its origin was forgotten. In early times, if fortune was propitious, Latin triumphs might be celebrated, for wars conducted by Latin generals under their own auspices, and even, by virtue of their equality in the league, with Latin legions under their command."-Niebuhr's Hist. of Rome, ii. 36. The top of the mount is a grassy platform, in the centre of which is a Passionist Convent, built in 1788 by Cardinal York, who destroyed the ruins of the famous temple for the purpose. The only remains are some massive fragments of wall and the huge blocks of masonry which surround a grand old wych-elm tree in front of the convent. The Latin Feriæ had been always celebrated on the Alban Mount; and there Tarquin erected the temple of Jupiter Latiaris, probably with the idea of doing something popular, in using a site Remains of the Temple of Jupiter Latiaris, Monte Cavo. once consecrated to the protecting god of the Latin confederation: "Et residens celsâ Latiaris Jupiter Albâ." Lucan. Phars. i. 198. Piranesi says that the temple was 240 ft. long and 120 wide-the having the width half the length being according to Etruscan taste. Servius had already built a temple for the Latins (that of Diana) upon the Aventine-but: "Le Monte Albain, qui s'élève à trois mille pieds au-dessus de la mer et domine tout la Latium, allait mieux au Superbe, visant dans tous ses monuments et dans tout son règne à la grandeur et à la magnificence, que l'humble Aventin, l'un des séjours de le plebs latine favorisée par Servius et méprisée par Tarquin."-Ampère, Hist. Rom. i. 214. Instead of sacrificing a bull on the Capitol, on the summit of the Alban Mount Crassus sacrificed a sheep-ovemhence ovation. THE ALBAN MOUNT. 87 "La route des Ovations est celle qu'on suit aujourd'hui pour arriver au sommet du Mont Albain. Une partie, qui est très-bien conservée, frappe le voyageur quand elle lui apparait tout à coup au sein d'une forêt solitaire. Il est encore imposant ce souvenir, même du petit triomphe." -Ampère, Hist. Rom. iv. 416. On the Alban Mount, Juno, in the Eneid, stood to contemplate the country, in the same way that tourists do in our days : "At Juno, e summo, qui nunc Albanus habetur, Tum neque nomen erat, nec honos aut gloria monti, Æn. xii. 134. And truly the view is worthy of the eyes of a goddess, though the heights of Monte Pila close it in towards the south. "From the summit of the Alban Mount, by the light of the setting sun, the eye can reach Corsica and Sardinia; and the hill which still bears the name of Circe looks like an island beneath the first rays of her heavenly sire. The line of the long street of Alba, stretching between the mountain and the lake, may still be made out distinctly. Monte Cavo was the Capitoline hill of Alba; its summits required to be fortified, to secure the town from above: and there is great probability in the conjecture, that, as the citadel at Rome was distinct from the Capitoline temple, the Rocca di Papa was the citadel of Albano."— Niehbuhr's Hist. of Rome, i. 199. Hence, by the green lanes of La Fajola, once notorious for their brigands, and by winding pathlets through delicious woods, and narrow ways between green meadows (somewhat difficult to find without a guide), passing a farm of the Corsini, we descend upon the second lake of our pilgrimage. "Lo, Nemi! navelled in the woody hills So far, that the uprooting wind which tears The oval mirror of thy glassy lake; A deep cold settled aspect nought can shake, All coiled into itself and round, as sleeps the snake." Byron's Childe Harold. "Ovide dit, en parlant du lac de Nemi: Là est un lac ceint d'une épaisse forêt.' Sylva præcinctus opacâ Est lacus.' (Fast. iii. 263.) Il y'avait donc en cet endroit une forêt. Cette forêt était assez considérable pour faire donner au sanctuaire de la Diane d'Aricie le nom de Nemus. Ce bois n'existe plus, mais il a laissé son nom au lac charmant et au village pittoresque de Nemi."-Ampère, Hist. Rom. i. 48. The village of Nemi (far more worth visiting than Genzano) is beautifully situated on the edge of a steep cliff above the lake, and is surmounted by a fine old castle which, after passing through the hands of the Colonna, Borgia, Piccolomini, Cenci, Frangipani, and Braschi, is now the property of Prince Rospigliosi. "The water is surrounded in parts by rocks of the hardest basaltic lava, in others by conglomerated cinders and scoriæ, and in some places by banks of tufa. Its circumference is about five miles, and the level of the water higher than that of the Alban lake. The story of the ship discovered at the bottom of this lake, and said by some authors to have belonged to the time of Tiberius, by others to that of Trajan, is well known. Biondi, Leon Battista Alberti, and particularly Francesco Marchi, a celebrated architect and military engineer of the sixteenth century, who went down into the lake himself, have spoken of it. Fresh investigations have been carried on of late, at which I was present, and I assert that the pretended ship was nothing more than the wooden piles and timbers used in the foundations of a building. The beams were of fir and larch, and were joined by metal rails of various sizes. The pavement, or at least the lowest stratum of the remains, was formed of large tiles placed upon a kind of grating of iron, on which the name Caisar in ancient letters was marked. "The name Caisar seems to explain the history of the building. For Suetonius, in his Life of Julius Cæsar, as an illustration of the Dictator's extravagance, asserts, that after having built a villa on the lake of Nemi at an enormous expense, he had the whole destroyed because it did not quite suit his taste. It is my belief that the pretended ship was nothing else than the piles and wooden framework upon which this villa was supported, and that after the upper part was destroyed the foundation under the water still remained, partly covered by fragments of the demolished building above."-Nibby. Nemi occupies the site of the ancient town of Nemus. "Albanus lacus, et socii Nemorensis ab unda." Propert. iii. El. 22. "Nemus... glaciale Dianæ." Stat. Silv. iv. 4. Diana must have had a grove and temple here as well as at Ariccia. The fountain into which she is supposed to have changed the nymph Egeria after the death of Numa is pointed out on the way to Genzano. "Non tamen Egeria luctus aliena levare Damna valent; montisque jacens radicibus imis Ovid. Metam. xv. 547. Genzano, which forms so conspicuous a feature in the view. |