DOI issue:
Ashby,T.: The classical Topography of the roman campagna. The via latina. Introduction
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70348#0147
Classical Topography of the Roman Campagna.—III. 131
(127 A.D.), 1434 (128 A.D.) from a villa a little way to the W., the remains of
which may be seen on both sides of the Frascati railway. Its water reser-
voir was first discovered in 1854, when the railway was made, and partially
destroyed in 1883, when a selce quarry was enlarged. (Not. Scav. 1883,212.)
Similar ex votos were dug up in 1885-6 in the Vigna Ciampini, now
Senni, and no doubt belonged to the same deposit. In the latter vineyard too
were found according to Lugari’s description ‘ several ancient roads, paved
with blocks of selce, which led towards the Via Latina, seeming to con-
verge as though to join the latter at one point, not far from the ‘ palazzetto ’
(i.e. the Villa Senni). Flanking these roads, besides the usual tombs, were
remains of ancient buildings, reservoirs, terracotta pipes for water supply,
and a quantity of fragments of amphorae and dolia, all collected at one
point.’ As Lanciani remarks, it is a great misfortune that we have no
proper record of the plan and details of these discoveries in a country
village of Roman times. De Rossi in Ann. Inst. 1873, 220, spoke of
important discoveries made while he was writing, which he never described,
and of which his notes now in the Vatican Library contain no mention.
Between the villa and the temple a branch road diverged from the Via
Latina to the Via Cavona, and its pavement may still be seen in the rail-
way cutting (cf. Not. Scav. 1884, 348). Rocchi (Il Diverticolo Frontiniano
dell’ Acqua T,epula, Rome, 1891) maintains that it ran on to the springs of
the Aqua Tepula (the Sorgente Preziosa), but no definite traces of it appear
to exist in the Valle Marciana.
The inscriptions found in the Vigna Ciampini or Senni (cf. supra, 125)
are mainly sepulchral. They comprise C.I.L. xiv. 2504 (P. Aelius Hilarus
Augg. proc(uravit') Alexandrine ad rationes patrimonii), 2529,
2530,2548 a, 4229 a, c, and others given by Tomassetti, 85, note and
Lanciani, Bull. Com. 1905, 134, which are unimportant. 2553, on the other
hand, which is on the other side of the slab on which is 2529, is interesting.
It runs, Olla i. Secundae. Fatales moneo nequis me lugeat Orbi namque
Secunda fui nunc tegor e cinere. Hie ego securis iaceo super omnibus una
Natalis quia nos septimus ussit amor. Natalis monumenti Hi idus Maias.
Henzen, Bull. Inst. 1865, 252, explains it thus: Secunda was the wife of
one Orbius Natalis, and he was her seventh husband (Wilmanns, ex. inscr.
n. 575, explains the phrase quia nos septimus ussit amor with more
probability as meaning that the two had been married seven years):
fatales = mortales, securis = mortuis. Ibid. 2536, 2537 (a cippus of tufa, with
K 2
(127 A.D.), 1434 (128 A.D.) from a villa a little way to the W., the remains of
which may be seen on both sides of the Frascati railway. Its water reser-
voir was first discovered in 1854, when the railway was made, and partially
destroyed in 1883, when a selce quarry was enlarged. (Not. Scav. 1883,212.)
Similar ex votos were dug up in 1885-6 in the Vigna Ciampini, now
Senni, and no doubt belonged to the same deposit. In the latter vineyard too
were found according to Lugari’s description ‘ several ancient roads, paved
with blocks of selce, which led towards the Via Latina, seeming to con-
verge as though to join the latter at one point, not far from the ‘ palazzetto ’
(i.e. the Villa Senni). Flanking these roads, besides the usual tombs, were
remains of ancient buildings, reservoirs, terracotta pipes for water supply,
and a quantity of fragments of amphorae and dolia, all collected at one
point.’ As Lanciani remarks, it is a great misfortune that we have no
proper record of the plan and details of these discoveries in a country
village of Roman times. De Rossi in Ann. Inst. 1873, 220, spoke of
important discoveries made while he was writing, which he never described,
and of which his notes now in the Vatican Library contain no mention.
Between the villa and the temple a branch road diverged from the Via
Latina to the Via Cavona, and its pavement may still be seen in the rail-
way cutting (cf. Not. Scav. 1884, 348). Rocchi (Il Diverticolo Frontiniano
dell’ Acqua T,epula, Rome, 1891) maintains that it ran on to the springs of
the Aqua Tepula (the Sorgente Preziosa), but no definite traces of it appear
to exist in the Valle Marciana.
The inscriptions found in the Vigna Ciampini or Senni (cf. supra, 125)
are mainly sepulchral. They comprise C.I.L. xiv. 2504 (P. Aelius Hilarus
Augg. proc(uravit') Alexandrine ad rationes patrimonii), 2529,
2530,2548 a, 4229 a, c, and others given by Tomassetti, 85, note and
Lanciani, Bull. Com. 1905, 134, which are unimportant. 2553, on the other
hand, which is on the other side of the slab on which is 2529, is interesting.
It runs, Olla i. Secundae. Fatales moneo nequis me lugeat Orbi namque
Secunda fui nunc tegor e cinere. Hie ego securis iaceo super omnibus una
Natalis quia nos septimus ussit amor. Natalis monumenti Hi idus Maias.
Henzen, Bull. Inst. 1865, 252, explains it thus: Secunda was the wife of
one Orbius Natalis, and he was her seventh husband (Wilmanns, ex. inscr.
n. 575, explains the phrase quia nos septimus ussit amor with more
probability as meaning that the two had been married seven years):
fatales = mortales, securis = mortuis. Ibid. 2536, 2537 (a cippus of tufa, with
K 2