DOI article:
Ashby, Thomas: The classical topography of the roman Campagna, 1
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70291#0181
Classical Topography of the Roman Campagna.—I. 163
of the Aqua Alexandrina, which shortly become visible to the right, cross-
ing the Fosso di Centocelle. I have only been able, however, to trace
the existence of a road by finding two tombs and some paving stones near
the aqueduct ; its continuation to the Praenestina (if it ever had any ; Nibby
and Gell mark it as running only for a little over half a mile from the
point where it leaves the Labicana) has been obliterated. No traces of it,
or of any other ancient road, were found during the construction of the
fort.
About 5§ kilometres from Rome, a few hundred yards to the right,
are the remains of an extensive villa. The most conspicuous part is a
square building, standing upon a lofty base, and apparently octagonal
inside, constructed of opus mixtum (i.e. of courses of bricks and of small
cubes of tufa alternately) with a binding course of tiles at the interval of
1'28 metres. Below it in the valley are extensive remains of floors of opus
spicatum (herring-bone brickwork) and signinum, the former having the
following section (from top to bottom):
opus spicatum, °05 m.
fine layer of cement, °I m.
rough cement (" coccia pista "), with fragments of brick or tile, '085 m.
grey pozzolana and tufa concrete: uncertain.
Just before reaching the sixth kilometre stone there are some remains
of tombs on the left of the road. Here a fragment of a large sarcophagus,
similar to one in the Cortile del Belvedere in the Vatican, called " sarcofago
proconsolare " (Visconti, Museo Pio Ciementino, V. tav. xxxi. p. 185 of
the Milan edition), was discovered in 1888 (Bull. Com. p. 266, Not. Scan.
P. 507).
On the left, extending as far as the Via Collatina, lies the Tenuta di
Tor Sapienza (so called from the fact that it belongs to the " Sapienza"
(i.e. Collegio) Capranica). Besides the inscriptions, &c. found by Vescovali
in 1819 three miles from Rome near the road (cf. p. 162), and the objects
discovered by him in 1830 in the same locality, excavations conducted by
Fortunati in 1861 produced an enormous number of inscriptions, almost
all of them sepulchral. A list (not complete nor quite accurate) may be
found in the " index locorum recentiorum" at the end of Vol. xiv. of
the Corpus Inscriptionum. The remains close to Tor Sapienza itself are
quite insignificant.
M2
of the Aqua Alexandrina, which shortly become visible to the right, cross-
ing the Fosso di Centocelle. I have only been able, however, to trace
the existence of a road by finding two tombs and some paving stones near
the aqueduct ; its continuation to the Praenestina (if it ever had any ; Nibby
and Gell mark it as running only for a little over half a mile from the
point where it leaves the Labicana) has been obliterated. No traces of it,
or of any other ancient road, were found during the construction of the
fort.
About 5§ kilometres from Rome, a few hundred yards to the right,
are the remains of an extensive villa. The most conspicuous part is a
square building, standing upon a lofty base, and apparently octagonal
inside, constructed of opus mixtum (i.e. of courses of bricks and of small
cubes of tufa alternately) with a binding course of tiles at the interval of
1'28 metres. Below it in the valley are extensive remains of floors of opus
spicatum (herring-bone brickwork) and signinum, the former having the
following section (from top to bottom):
opus spicatum, °05 m.
fine layer of cement, °I m.
rough cement (" coccia pista "), with fragments of brick or tile, '085 m.
grey pozzolana and tufa concrete: uncertain.
Just before reaching the sixth kilometre stone there are some remains
of tombs on the left of the road. Here a fragment of a large sarcophagus,
similar to one in the Cortile del Belvedere in the Vatican, called " sarcofago
proconsolare " (Visconti, Museo Pio Ciementino, V. tav. xxxi. p. 185 of
the Milan edition), was discovered in 1888 (Bull. Com. p. 266, Not. Scan.
P. 507).
On the left, extending as far as the Via Collatina, lies the Tenuta di
Tor Sapienza (so called from the fact that it belongs to the " Sapienza"
(i.e. Collegio) Capranica). Besides the inscriptions, &c. found by Vescovali
in 1819 three miles from Rome near the road (cf. p. 162), and the objects
discovered by him in 1830 in the same locality, excavations conducted by
Fortunati in 1861 produced an enormous number of inscriptions, almost
all of them sepulchral. A list (not complete nor quite accurate) may be
found in the " index locorum recentiorum" at the end of Vol. xiv. of
the Corpus Inscriptionum. The remains close to Tor Sapienza itself are
quite insignificant.
M2