34 o THE ROMAN CAMPAGNA 



part of its course was buried and the stream, diverted 

 at a right angle, was made to run southeastwards, 

 skirting the volcanic heights until, near Monte Soracte, 

 it reached the plain between the base of the Bracciano 

 and that of the Alban volcano, where it was able at 

 length to find a seaward passage across the site of 

 the future Rome. 



That the early races of man witnessed and suffered 

 from the latest eruptions may well be believed. The 

 oldest traces of human occupation are stone imple- 

 ments, found more particularly in the higher river- 

 gravels which, though they must undoubtedly date 

 back to a remote antiquity, are certainly much later 

 than the general mass of the tuff of the Campagna. 

 Traditions of volcanic events seem to have survived 

 into historic times. The pages of Livy, for example, 

 contain references to showers of stones that fell in 

 various places during the early centuries of Rome, 

 and were regarded as portents of divine interposition 

 in human affairs. We are told that in the hundredth 

 year of the city showers of that kind fell on the 

 Alban Mount, accompanied with loud noises from 

 the wood on the summit. Again, in the year 540, 

 fearful storms are said to have been experienced, while 

 a fall of stones on the Alban Mount went on con- 

 tinuously for two days. Nineteen years later, amidst 

 a miscellaneous series of prodigies, it is said to have 

 rained stones at Aricia, Lanuvium, and on the Aventine. 

 Such references have by some writers been interpreted 

 as proofs of true volcanic eruptions, thus bringing 

 the activity of the volcanoes around Rome well down 

 into historic time. A supposed confirmation of this 



