DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22272#0052
34
GLASGOW ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
Varro,1 known as distinctively a soldier's dyke or military
fence.
A glance over the passages cited in this chapter suffices to
show that, with the Roman military engineers, the earthen vallum
had two main types. There was the cespiticious vallum, built
of sod ; and there was the aggested vallum, heaped up from
promiscuous earth. These two types have, indeed, been known
wherever earthworks have been commonly used.
1 Varro, De Re Rustica, lib. i., cap. 14.
Nunc de septis quae tutandi causa
fundi aut partis riant dicam. Earum
tutelarum genera mi., unum naturale,
alteram agreste, tertium militare, quar-
tum fabrile. Horum unumquodque
species habet plures. Primum naturale
sepimentum quod obseri solet virgultis
aut spinis quod habet radices ac vivae
sepis praetereuntis lascivi non metuet
facem ardentem. Secunda sepes est ex
agresti ligno sed non vivit. Fit aut
palis statutis crebris e virgultis impli-
catis aut latis perforatis et per ea
foramina trajectis longuriis fere binis
aut ternis: aut ex arboribus truneis
demissis in terram deinceps constitutis.
Tertium militare sepimentum est fossa
et terreus agger: sed fossa ita idonea
si omnem aquam quae caelo venit re-
cipere potest aut fastigium habet ut
exeat e fundo. Agger is bonus qui
intrinsecus junctus fossa aut ita arduus
ut emu transcendere non sit facile.
Hoc genus sepes fieri secundum vias
publicas solent et secundum amnes.
Ad viam Salariam in agro Crustuinino
videre licet locis aliquot conjunctos
aggeres cum fossis ne flumen agris
noceat. Aggeres qui faciunt sine fossa
eos quidam vocant muros ut in agro
Reatino. Quartum fabrile sepimentum
is novissimum, maceria. Hujus fere
species quatuor; quod fiunt e lapide ut
in agro Tusculano; quod e lateribus
coctilibus ut in agro Gallico ; quod e
lateribus Orudis ut in agro Sabino; quod
ex terra et lapillis compositis in formis
ut in Hispania et agro Tarentiuo.
Varro, Re Rustica, i. 14.
Now I shall speak of fences which
should be made to protect the farm
generally or a particular field. Of
these protections there are four classes—
1st, natural; 2nd, rural; 3rd, military;
and 4th, artificial. Each of these classes
has several species. First there is the
natural feuce which is usually planted
with bushes or thorns, and which being
a quick hedge need not fear the blazing
torch of the mischievous passer-by.
Secondly, there is the hedge made of
rustic (or unsawn) timber, but it is not
quick. It is made of pales thickly
placed with brushwood wattled be-
tween ; or broad beams with holes
bored in them, and about two or three
long cross spars put through these
holes; or from the trunks of trees
driven into the ground and arranged in
a row. Thirdly, the military fence
(or soldier's dyke) is a fosse and an
agger of earth. Now, a proper fosse is
one which is able to receive all the rain
which falls from heaven, or has a fas-
tigium (a pointed bottom), so that the
water may flow off the farm. It is a
good agger which is joined, on its inner
side, by a fosse, or is so steep as not to
be easily climbed over. This kind of
fence is usually made along public roads
and riversides. At the Salarian way in
the Crustumine district [near Rome] one
may see in places many aggers conjoined
with fosses to prevent the river from
damaging the fields. Some make aggers
without a fosse ; these some call walls
{muros), as in the Reatine district [near
Rome]. The fourth and last fence is
stonework. Of this there are about
four species, that made of square stone,
as in the Tusculan district; that of baked
bricks, as in the Gallic district; that of
unbaked bricks, as in the Sabinedistrict;
that of earth and gravel compacted in
"forms," as in Spain and the Tarentine
district.
GLASGOW ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
Varro,1 known as distinctively a soldier's dyke or military
fence.
A glance over the passages cited in this chapter suffices to
show that, with the Roman military engineers, the earthen vallum
had two main types. There was the cespiticious vallum, built
of sod ; and there was the aggested vallum, heaped up from
promiscuous earth. These two types have, indeed, been known
wherever earthworks have been commonly used.
1 Varro, De Re Rustica, lib. i., cap. 14.
Nunc de septis quae tutandi causa
fundi aut partis riant dicam. Earum
tutelarum genera mi., unum naturale,
alteram agreste, tertium militare, quar-
tum fabrile. Horum unumquodque
species habet plures. Primum naturale
sepimentum quod obseri solet virgultis
aut spinis quod habet radices ac vivae
sepis praetereuntis lascivi non metuet
facem ardentem. Secunda sepes est ex
agresti ligno sed non vivit. Fit aut
palis statutis crebris e virgultis impli-
catis aut latis perforatis et per ea
foramina trajectis longuriis fere binis
aut ternis: aut ex arboribus truneis
demissis in terram deinceps constitutis.
Tertium militare sepimentum est fossa
et terreus agger: sed fossa ita idonea
si omnem aquam quae caelo venit re-
cipere potest aut fastigium habet ut
exeat e fundo. Agger is bonus qui
intrinsecus junctus fossa aut ita arduus
ut emu transcendere non sit facile.
Hoc genus sepes fieri secundum vias
publicas solent et secundum amnes.
Ad viam Salariam in agro Crustuinino
videre licet locis aliquot conjunctos
aggeres cum fossis ne flumen agris
noceat. Aggeres qui faciunt sine fossa
eos quidam vocant muros ut in agro
Reatino. Quartum fabrile sepimentum
is novissimum, maceria. Hujus fere
species quatuor; quod fiunt e lapide ut
in agro Tusculano; quod e lateribus
coctilibus ut in agro Gallico ; quod e
lateribus Orudis ut in agro Sabino; quod
ex terra et lapillis compositis in formis
ut in Hispania et agro Tarentiuo.
Varro, Re Rustica, i. 14.
Now I shall speak of fences which
should be made to protect the farm
generally or a particular field. Of
these protections there are four classes—
1st, natural; 2nd, rural; 3rd, military;
and 4th, artificial. Each of these classes
has several species. First there is the
natural feuce which is usually planted
with bushes or thorns, and which being
a quick hedge need not fear the blazing
torch of the mischievous passer-by.
Secondly, there is the hedge made of
rustic (or unsawn) timber, but it is not
quick. It is made of pales thickly
placed with brushwood wattled be-
tween ; or broad beams with holes
bored in them, and about two or three
long cross spars put through these
holes; or from the trunks of trees
driven into the ground and arranged in
a row. Thirdly, the military fence
(or soldier's dyke) is a fosse and an
agger of earth. Now, a proper fosse is
one which is able to receive all the rain
which falls from heaven, or has a fas-
tigium (a pointed bottom), so that the
water may flow off the farm. It is a
good agger which is joined, on its inner
side, by a fosse, or is so steep as not to
be easily climbed over. This kind of
fence is usually made along public roads
and riversides. At the Salarian way in
the Crustumine district [near Rome] one
may see in places many aggers conjoined
with fosses to prevent the river from
damaging the fields. Some make aggers
without a fosse ; these some call walls
{muros), as in the Reatine district [near
Rome]. The fourth and last fence is
stonework. Of this there are about
four species, that made of square stone,
as in the Tusculan district; that of baked
bricks, as in the Gallic district; that of
unbaked bricks, as in the Sabinedistrict;
that of earth and gravel compacted in
"forms," as in Spain and the Tarentine
district.