"And that this mighty vision may not seem
Th' effect of fancy, or an idle dream,
A sow beneath an oak shall lie along,
All white herself, and white her thirty young.
When thirty rolling years have run their race,
Thy son Ascanius, on _this_ empty space,
Shall build a royal town, of lasting fame,
Which from this omen shall receive the name."
_Æneid_, viii. 70.
Again, after Father Tiber had disappeared, and Æneas, having invoked
the god, fitted out two galleys to go up the Tiber to Evander:
"Now on the shore the fatal swine is found.
Wondrous to tell, she lay along the ground;
Her well-fed offspring at her udders hung--
She white herself, and white her thirty young!"
_Æneid_, viii. 120.
Thus, according to Virgil's own showing, the sow was found on the
banks of the Tiber; how then could the shores of the Alban Lake be the
site of Alba Longa? Ought we not rather to look for that site on the
banks of the Tiber below Rome, where the sow was found, according to
the voices of the oracle and the river-god, and the record handed down
by Virgil? On the other hand, we are told Alba Longa was "built by
Ascanius, the son of Æneas, thirty years after the building of
Lavinium. Alba stood between a mountain and a lake: the mountain is
extremely strong and high, and the lake deep and large. When one part
of the lake is low upon the retreat of the water, and the bottom
clear, the ruins of porticoes and other traces of habitation appear,
being the remains of the palace of King Alladius, which was destroyed
by the lake rising. Alba Longa was demolished by Marcus Horatius, by
command of Tullus Hostilius" (Dionysius, i. 66. See Livy, i. 29).
From Castel Gandolfo a pleasant road by the lake leads to Marino,
_passing through a wood_ after leaving the lake. _Just before
entering_ the town we come to a wooded glen, the ancient