Alba Pompeia
ALBA POMPEIA (Ἄλβα Πομπηΐα Ptol.: Albenses Pompeiani), a considerable town of the interior of Liguria, situated on the river Tanarus, near the northern foot of the Apennines, still called Alba. We have no account in any ancient writer of its foundation, or the origin of its name, but there is every probability that it derived its distinctive appellation from Cn. Pompeius Strabo (the father of Pompey the Great) who conferred many privileges on the Cisalpine Gauls. An inscription cited by Spon (Miscell. p. 163), according to which it was a Roman colony, founded by Scipio Africanus and restored by Pompeius Magnus, is undoubtedly spurious. (See Mannert. vol. 1. p. 295.) It did not possess colonial rank, but appears as a municipal town both in Pliny and on inscriptions: though the former author reckons it among the nobilia oppidao f Liguria. (Plin. Nat. 3.5. s. 7; Ptol. 3.1.45; Orell. Inscr. 2179) It was the birth-place of the emperor Pertinax, whose father had a villa in the neighbourhood named the Villa Martis. (Dio Cass.; Jul. Capitol. Pert. 1, 3.) Its territory was particularly favourable to the growth of vines. (Plin. Nat. 17.4. s. 3.) Alba is still a considerable town with a population of 7000 souls; it is an episcopal see and the capital of a district.
[E.H.B]A city on the right bank of the Tanaro river, NE of Pollentia in the Augustan Regio IX. In inscriptions, in the Peutinger Table, and in the Latin authors, the name Poinpeia is occasionally added, perhaps because Cn. Pompeius Strabo conferred Latin citizenship on the entire area across the Po river. As a municipiuin, the city was enrolled in the tribus Camilla and was the birthplace of the emperor Pertinax. The city may have been built on a pre-Roman settlement on either side of the road from Augusta Taurinoruin to Aquae Statiellae. It had a circuit wall whose entire polygonal perimeter is known and of which some sections, replaced in the Middle Ages, are still visible on the N side. The walls, probably of the Augustan period, were constructed with a solid core faced with long bricks ca. 2.45 m thick at the base. In one section toward the Tanaro river, a system of fortified passages may have formed one of the city gates. The modern streets, which follow the ancient line and the remains of the Roman sewers (whose underground network is still extant), reveal a regular plan with crossing axis streets. The cardo corresponds to the present-day Via Vittorio Einanuele and Via Vernazza, connecting with the road to Pollentia to the W and to Aquae Statiellae and Hasta to the E. The decumanus, recognizable in the straight course of Via Cavour-Via Vida, was linked to the road to Vada Sabatia (Savona). At the junction of the major axis streets, the modern Piazza del Risorgimento occupies the area of the forum. Here, in 1839 in the Cathedral (the ancient Capitolium?), a colossal marble head of Juno was brought to light. Outside the walls, no visible monumental remains exist today. However, remains of buildings have been isolated in the basements of homes, and precious mosaic pavements have been recovered in the area of the Church of SS. Cosmas and Dainian (a temple, baths?) and near the Church of San Giuseppe. On each occasion, discoveries have been made of inscriptions, sculptures, and objects coming mainly from the necropolis (the major cemetery on Via di Pollenzo) and today are maintained in the Museo Federico Eusebio of the city.
BIBLIOGRAPHYPlin. 3.5, 17.4; Ptol. 3.1.45; Tab. Peut; Rav. Cosm. 4.32.
CIL V, 1, 863f, 7595; E. Ferrero, “Testa muliebre di marmo scoperta ad Alba,” ASPABA (1875) 315ff; F. Eusebio, Alba antica prima dell'era volgare (1884); id., Le mura romane di Alba Pompeia (1906); “Sul Museo Civico di Alba e sopra alcune scoperte archeologiche del territorio albese,” ASPABA (1897) 200ff; A. Piva, “Albensi Vagienni e Statielli,” BSPABA (1932) 7ff; P. Barocelli, Il Piemonte dalla capanna neolitica ai monumenti di Augusto (1933) III, p. 37; N. Lamboglia, Alba Pompeia e il Museo Storico Archeologico F. Eusebio (1949); C. Carducci, Trovamenti ad Alba, N.S. (1950) 211ff; id., “Problemi archeologici di Alba romana,” Boll. Soc. St. Stor. Arch. Cuneo (1969) 1ff.
S. FINOCCHI