Alba Longa (in Italian sources occasionally written
Albalonga) was an ancient city of
Latium[1] in central
Italy southeast of
Rome[2] in the
Alban Hills. Founder and head of the
Latin League, it was destroyed by Rome around the middle of the
7th century BC.
According to the accounts of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, the kings of Alba Longa gave a direct line of descent between Ascanius and Romulus. According to Livy we know of two more kings of Alba Longa, outside of this sequence. Both reigned during the reign of the Roman king Tullus Hostilius. The first of these kings was Gaius Cluilius who died during a war against the Romans. He was succeeded by Mettius Fufetius who was in turn executed by Tullus Hostilius for treachery. Though it is important to note that these are both identified as dictators, not as kings.
The location of the ancient Latin city has been much debated since the 16th century. The point of departure is the foundation story in Dionysius of Halicarnassus (I.66&_160;ff.) which speaks of a site between Monte Cavo and Lake Albano. The site has been at various times identified with the convent of S. Paolo at Palazzola, near Albano, or with Coste Caselle, near Marino, or finally with Castel Gandolfo. The last of these places in fact occupies the site of Domitian's villa, which ancient sources state in turn occupied the arx 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.
