ALBANUS MONS (mod. Monte Cavo), the highest point of the volcanic Alban hills, about 13m. S.E. of Rome, 3,115ft, above sea-level. It is on the inner crater rim, while Tusculum and Algidus Mons are on the earlier outer crater, about 7m. wide. Upon the Mons Albanus stood the temple of Jupiter Latiaris, where the annual festival of the Latin League was held.
Little was left of it even in the 17th century, and the charge generally brought against Cardinal York of having destroyed it to build the monastery on the summit cannot be maintained. It is very probable that it was not a large temple (of which indeed no traces have been found) but a precinct containing a number of small shrines. On the other hand, a little below the summit 16 large drums of columns, some four feet in diameter, were found, and probably belonged to some other temple. The road which ascended to the temple is still well preserved for the greater part of the way from Aricia, where it began. It was called Via Triumphalis, because minor triumphs were held on the Mons Albanus.