| Almone | |
|---|---|
 The Almone where it flows through thePark of the Caffarella | |
 | |
| Location | |
| Country | Italy |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Mouth | Tiber |
• coordinates | 41°51′58″N12°28′35″E / 41.8662°N 12.4765°E /41.8662; 12.4765 |
| Basin features | |
| Progression | Tiber→Tyrrhenian Sea |
TheAlmone (Latin:Almo) is a small river of theAger Romanus, a few miles south of the city ofRome. Today the river is polluted and is channelled to a sewage treatment plant and no longer reaches its natural confluence with theTiber.
The Latin name of the Almone,Almo (also the name of itscorresponding deity), is derived from the Latin wordalmus, meaning "fertile" or "nourishing," which may derive from its connection to Cybele, also known asMagna Mater ("Great Mother").[1][2]
Since medieval times[3] the stream has been calledMarrana della Caffarella.Marrana (ormarana inRoman dialect) is a term that derives from the name of the ancientager maranus, the fields that surround theVia Appia, and refers to the drainage channels that flow through the countryside near Rome.[4] "Caffarella" refers to the valley, nowa park, that the river runs through. The river has also been known asAcquataccio, a name with two possible derivations. It either refers to the nearby Appian Way, a corruption ofAcqua d'Appia (which becamed'Accia), or the suffix-accio is to be taken inits pejorative sense, and it refers to the marshy waters of the Caffarella valley.[4]
The Almone originates in theAlban Hills from springs fed by the water ofLake Albano,[nb 1] and runs through theAppian Way Regional Park, fed by the waters of the numerous springs present in the area, including the so-calledAcqua Santa ("Holy Water") of theFonte Egeria.[6][7] There, theVia Ostiensis crossed the river with a bridge known as the Travicella.[8]
In the second century, the river was used to provide water for the luxurious gardens of the villa calledTriopio ofHerodes Atticus,[9] erected on land brought to him by his wife,Aspasia Annia Regilla, and centuries after Rome's fall it was employed for agricultural purposes: to irrigate fields, to water cattle, and to move millstones.[7] The final stretch of the river flowed where the present-dayCirconvallazione Ostiense in theGarbatella neighborhood lies. The Almone began to be used for industrial purposes in the early years of the twentieth century, when its waters were diverted to feed a paper mill on the Appian Way, but its decline accelerated in the 1920s, when its final course into the Tiber was covered over to allow the construction of theRome-Lido railway, and also to provide water to the former thermal power plant on the Via Ostiense.[7]
Pollution of the stream has made it such that today, its waters are entirely channeled into theMagliana sewage treatment plant and no longer reach the Tiber at all.[7] It is diverted as soon as it runs under the Via Appia Antica, near Parco Scott, in back of the Piazza dei Navigatori.[7] The closest landmark to the place where it formerly emptied into the Tiber is the largeGazometro.[10][nb 2]
The Almone's importance in Roman times was linked to the annual festival of thelavatio (ceremonial washing) of the sacred stone of thePhrygian goddessCybele, which was held on March 27, thedies sanguinis, "day of blood". The sacred black stone, which was identified with the goddess herself, was taken in procession from its temple on thePalatine Hill, through thePorta Capena, and down theAppian Way to the Almone.[10][11] There it was washed, along with the sacrificial knives pertaining to the deity's cult, at the place where the Almone flowed into the Tiber.[10][11] The priestly college of thequindecimviri attended thelavatio ceremony, and the return trip was made with great festivity.[11]
The choice of the Almone for this ceremony was inspired by events supposedly surrounding the arrival of the cult of Cybele to the city. The sacred stone was brought to Rome in 204 BC,[7] during theSecond Punic War, upon the recommendation of theSibylline Books.[10] While the ship bearing the stone was navigating the Tiber, it became beached near the area where the Almone flowed into the larger river. The ship was able to sail again only after a ritual of purification was completed.[10] The ceremony therefore alluded to, even if it did not reenact, Cybele's original arrival in the city.[12]
Based on the discovery of a smalltuff basin in theTemple of Magna Mater on the Palatine, some have hypothesized that the ritual bathing of the black stone originally occurred there, and that its annual journey to the Almone was only begun during the reign ofAugustus.[13] Whatever the case, there is evidence for some kind of shrine connected to Cybele on the Almone, although it seems to have been closer to the Via Appia than the place where the stream flowed into the Tiber.[13]
Thelavatio was carried out until AD 389, whenpagan rites were abolished in favor of Christianity.[10]
Hic iuvenis primam ante aciem stridente sagitta,
natorum Tyrrhi fuerat qui maximus, Almo,
sternitur; haesit enim sub gutture volnus et udae
vocis iter tenuemque inclusit sanguine vitam.
— Virgil,Aeneid VII, 531–534[nb 3]
The stream lends its name to one of the heroes inVirgil'sAeneid, the eldest son of Tyrrhus and one of the first casualties of the war between the Trojans and the Latins in Book VII.[10][2][14]
Cicero, in his treatiseDe Natura Deorum, names the Almo as one of the local rivers and streams invoked by the Romanaugurs.[nb 4]
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