British School at Rome: Papers of the British School at Rome (1.1902)

Classical Topography of the Roman Campagna.—I. 273

observation, having traversed the whole distance on foot): "dans tout cet
espace qui est d'environ 8 milles ... on peut la suivre et la reconnoitre a
son pave meme qu'on trouve entier par tout, hors en deux ou trois
endroits, ou la culture n'en laisse voir que les pierres eparses, & en quelques
autres ou elle a ete depavee a dessein recemment comme dans la Vigne
Ricci." This being the case, it is surprising that no one, not even
Rosa (Bull. Inst., 1856, 154) should have described its course correctly
since his day. Kiepert's, and all the other recent maps that I know, are
entirely incorrect, as they mark the ancient road as identical with the
modern, which runs close to Labico 1 and Valmontone,2 immediately on the
N. of the railway to Naples. The latter follows 3 the line of an ancient
road, but certainly not that of the Via Labicana.
About half a mile from Fontana Chiusa the road ascends through a
narrow defile at the top of which its pavement may be seen in situ, on the
N.E. side of the modern cart track, for a distance of about fifty yards, the
S.W. margo being well preserved. After this point it is hidden beneath
the soil, but just after passing the site of the twenty-third milestone it
turns to run due E. Here there is an important junction of roads. One
goes on S.E., following the line to which the Via Labicana has been
keeping up till now. Its pavement may be seen on the E. slope of the
Colle Treare, but after that it descends and runs along a valley full of

1 As I have already stated, the name Labico has only belonged to this village since 1880, up
till which time it was called Lugnano (i.e. fundus Longianus ?). Nibby identified the place with
the ancient Bola, but without sufficient grounds. The site is certainly a fine one for an ancient
city, being isolated except for a narrow neck on the W. The rock has been perpendicularly
scarped, and on the S. side is honeycombed with small caves, which may have been originally
tombs or habitations (Ficoroni, Labico, 66), or, perhaps, never served for anything else than pigsties
—their present use. Traces of antiquity are however wanting, so far as I know, and the scarping
may date from the Middle Ages, for the place is known to have belonged to the Counts of
Tusculum in the eleventh century.

2 Valmontone has similarly been identified by Nibby \Analisi, iii. 369) with Tolerium, one o.
the ancient Latin cities, but without adequate reason. Its site is even stronger than that of Labico,
the rock on which it stands being isolated except on the N.W. No traces of earlier fortifications
than those of the Middle Ages are to be seen, unless the blocks of tufa used in the houses
belonged to the ancient walls, as Nibby thinks. He notes indeed that some of them seem to be
in situ, and he further remarks the existence of some remains of opus reticulatum and of a
sarcophagus of the third century used as a fountain basin. The rock on which the place stands is
full of small caves, now used as pigsties, as at Lugnano.

3 Westphal {Rbmische Kampagne, 77, 81) states that he saw the " Unterlagen" or foundation
blocks of the ancient road in the modern one between S. Cesareo and Lugnano, and pavingstones
(not in situ) E. of Valmontone. There are several in the modern bridge just to the E. of the village,
and a large number are to be seen in use in the modern pavement in front of the Osteria a little
urther on.
T