Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 3,1): Zeus god of the dark sky (earthquake, clouds, wind, dew, rain, meteorits): Text and notes (Cambridge, 1940)

Rain of stones 493

Latins1. And, since the Alban Hills were certainly prehistoric
v°lcanos, which even in historic times continued to give intermittent
Proof of their smouldering fires2, it is permissible to suppose that a

• Htilseu ;n pau]y—Wissowa Real-Enc. i. 1309—1311 with map, G. Tomassetti La
pagna Romana antica, medioevale e modema Roma 1910 ii. 190—230 ('Albano
r ! e')i G. Giovannoni 'Monte Cavo. Esplorazioni nell' area del tempio di Giove
^ale' in the Not. Scavi 1912 pp. 382—384.

Hiilsen loc. cit. 'die hochste Erhebung des vulkanischen Albanergebirges, jetzt
ont^Cavi (weniger correct Monte Cavo), 954 m. iiber dem Meer.'
a r,.' ^astm The Cambridge Ancient History Cambridge 1928 vii. 348.
has 1 'r '^le Topography of Rome and its Vicinity- London 1846 p. 38 : ' Albano

pr , * at different periods subject to earthquakes; these, however, have hitherto been
0f o lve °f no serious mischief. Shocks were felt here in the year 1829, and in many
\vere 6 V''!a^es ar°und. After continuing for a considerable period, during which they
stra '"nes repeated as often as thrice in one day, they ceased in the autumn. The
an(j ^, st°ries then current among the people, of flames breaking forth from a chasm,
stories trees withering from volcanic effluvia, give an air of probability to the showers of
These *u other prodigies, said to have occurred in ancient times on the Alban Hill.
time th tenomena may De referred to the volcanic nature of the mountain, which, at the
activjjy3, "le^ are sa'd *° have happened, was so much nearer the epoch of its vigour and

ffterti ^aubeny A Description of active and extinct Volcanos, of Earthquakes, and of
Co«ntry fo&^gs1 London 1848 p. 169 f.: 'To the south of Rome the whole of the
1Rounta' r.several miles round Albano abounds in volcanic appearances. Amongst the
as f0r • m 'his group are several lakes which appear originally to have been craters,
'termed' 6 °^ ^"3ano' ^ allariccia, Nemi, and Juturna, to which we may add,
a ParticuJ^'6 ^etween 'ne Alban mountains and the Anio, the Lake of Gabii, noted for
°' Corn r\ Varietv °f Peperino called the Gabian stone, and the singular hexagonal one
volc 6 6' near *rascati, supposed by Gell to be the Lake Regillus....In proof that
[not. ^nic a«ion had not entirely ceased even in modern times, I may state that Pliny
'a^e [of Af2 2*°^ ment'°ns a report which had reached him as to the ground round the
n°'ices a sh*'* °r ^a"ar'cc'a] heing hot enough to set fire to charcoal; and Livy [22. 36]
^'ngits5 °Wer °^ stones tnat fe" there, as well as the bursting out of a warm spring,
^Pusc. Acad'er m'xet' w'tn u'ood> which Heyne supposes to have been bitumen t (+ Heyne,
n''ght iea(j " vo'- ii- p. 263). There are indeed some passages in ancient writers, which
l5eriod within l° suPPose a volcano to have existed among these mountains even at a
*hich contin1 ^C ''m'ts °^ authentic history, for Livy [25. 7] notices a shower of stones
ltlc' Julius *°r tWO entire days ^rom Mount Albano during the second Punic war,
A'u-C j Se1Uens in his work " De Prodigiis" [98 = 38] remarks, that in the year [641]
ln<3eed, if nJ| B'C-1 'he hill appeared to be on fire during the night....These accounts
'^erhaps sujp eonfirmed by other testimony, might be rejected as fabulous, but they may
^°nUnuecj) '° establish the comparatively modern date at which the volcanic action
Cr°Wever, and v,ewed in connexion with the physical structure of the lake itself....This
ttaters> are but tT 0t^er 'a'ces above-mentioned, if even they be considered as volcanic
aces of wmc. !e dePendencies and offsets, as it were, of the great extinct volcano, the
a T° these coS"U remain upon the summit of the Alban hills.'

oZ1*1' difficult'1'6"1'^ E' H' I5unbury in Smith Bid. Geogr. i. 92 opposes a dogmatic
n\CUrrinS °n th A accept: 'Numerous prodigies are recorded by Roman writers as
Voimio.neti» a ch n M°unt: among these the falling of showers of stones is frequently
s«ffian'C energy ^mstance which has been supposed by some writers to indicate that the
Clem]y <);,. ° tnese mountains continued in historical times; but this suggestion is
0Ved °y historical, as well as geological, considerations.'