ALBA  , a

town and episcopal see of Piedmont, Italy, on the river Tanaro, in the province of Cuneo . From the town of the same name it is 33 M . N.E. direct; it is 42 M . S.S.E. of Turin by rail . Pop . (1901) 13,900 . It contains a fine cathedral, with a Gothic facade, reconstructed in 1486, and is an important commercial centre . It occupies the site of the ancient Alba Pompeia, probably founded by Pompeius Strabo (consul 89 B.c.) when he constructed the road from Aquae Statiellae (Acqui) to Augusta Taurinorum (Turin) . Probably this was the road taken by Decimus Brutus when he succeeded, after the raising of the siege of Mutina in 43 B.C., in occupying Pollentia just before Mark Antony's cavalry came in sight . Alba was the birthplace of the emperor Pertinax . It became an episcopal see dependent on Milan in the 4th century . A small museum of local antiquities was established in 1897 .

See F . Eusebio in Atti del Congresso Internazionale di Scienze Storiche (

Rome, 1904), vol . V. p . 485 .