ALBANIA, the ancient name of a district in the eastern Cau casus, consisting, according to Strabo (xi. 4. 1-8), of the valley of the Cyrus (Kur) and the land lying between it and the Caucasus range from Iberia to the Caspian sea. The Albani inhabited also the mountain valleys and the land to the north. (Pliny vi. 39). Dionysius of Halicarnassus quotes a tradition that the name arose because the people were the descendants of emigrants from Alba in Italy. Strabo describes them as tall, well made, and in character simple and honest. They worshipped the sun and, more particu larly, the moon, the latter being perhaps identical with the great Nature Goddess of Asia Minor (see GREAT MOTHER OF THE GODS). Old age was held in high honour, but it was sacrilege to speak, or even to think, of the dead. The people were nomadic and lived on the abundant natural fruits of the land. In Strabo's time they appear to have been ruled by a single king. The Albani became known to the Romans during Pompey's pursuit of Mith ridates the Great (65 B.c.), against which they are said to have op posed a force of 6o,000 foot and 20,000 cavalry. Pompey exacted from them a nominal submission, but their independence was not seriously affected by the Romans. In the reign of Hadrian their territory was invaded by the Alani (Th. Mommsen, Provinces of the Roman Empire, Eng. trans. 1886), and later they fell under the Sassanid rule. They were driven finally into Armenia by the Kha zars and ceased to exist as a separate people. The district subse quently suffered under the successive invasions of Huns, Varan gians (who captured the chief town Barda in the loth century), and Mongols. (See CAUCASUS : History ; ARMENIA.)