ALBA POMPEIA
(Alba) Liguria, Italy.
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.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Plin. 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
