DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0104
2 VEIL—The City. [chap. i.
of Romulus for metropolitan honours ; and, but for the
eloquence of Camillus, would have arisen as Roma Nova
to be mistress df the world.1 Yet, in the time of Augustus,
we are told that the city was a desolation,2 and a century
later its very site is said to have been forgotten.3 Though
re-colonised under the Empire, it soon again fell into utter
decay, and for ages Veil was blotted from the map of
Italy. But when, on the revival of letters, attention was
recalled to the subject of Italian antiquities, its site
became a point of dispute. Fiano, Ponzano, Martignano,
and other places, found their respective advocates. Some,
with Castiglioni, placed it at Civita Castellana; others,
with Cluverius, at Scrofano, near Monte Musino; Zanchi
at Monte Lupolo, above Baccano ; while Holstenius, Nar-
dini, and Fabretti assigned to it the site which more
recent researches have determined beyond a doubt to
belong to it. This is in the neighbourhood of Isola Far-
nese, a hamlet about eleven miles from Rome, on the right
of the Via Cassia.4
The ancient road from Rome seems to have left the
Via Cassia about the fifth milestone, not far from the
sepulchre vulgarly, but erroneously, called that of Nero;
and to have pursued a serpentine course to Veii; but this
road, Sir William Cell thinks, has been little travelled since
the formation of the Via Cassia (a.tj. 629), yet it must
have been the way to the Municipium that subsequently
arose on the site. Instead of pursuing this ancient track,
1 Li v. V. 51—55. the Forum. The Peutingerian Table also
2 Propert. IV. Eleg. x. 29. gives twelve miles as the distance. Livy
3 Floras, I. 12. (V. 4) speaks of it in round terms as
* This agrees with the distance indi- " within the twentieth milestone, almost
cated by Dionysius (II. p. 116. ed. Syl- in sight of the City." Eutropius, a no-
burg), who says Veii is 100 stadia from torious blunderer, calls the distance
Kome, or more than twelve miles, the eighteen miles (I 17).
distances being anciently reckoned from
of Romulus for metropolitan honours ; and, but for the
eloquence of Camillus, would have arisen as Roma Nova
to be mistress df the world.1 Yet, in the time of Augustus,
we are told that the city was a desolation,2 and a century
later its very site is said to have been forgotten.3 Though
re-colonised under the Empire, it soon again fell into utter
decay, and for ages Veil was blotted from the map of
Italy. But when, on the revival of letters, attention was
recalled to the subject of Italian antiquities, its site
became a point of dispute. Fiano, Ponzano, Martignano,
and other places, found their respective advocates. Some,
with Castiglioni, placed it at Civita Castellana; others,
with Cluverius, at Scrofano, near Monte Musino; Zanchi
at Monte Lupolo, above Baccano ; while Holstenius, Nar-
dini, and Fabretti assigned to it the site which more
recent researches have determined beyond a doubt to
belong to it. This is in the neighbourhood of Isola Far-
nese, a hamlet about eleven miles from Rome, on the right
of the Via Cassia.4
The ancient road from Rome seems to have left the
Via Cassia about the fifth milestone, not far from the
sepulchre vulgarly, but erroneously, called that of Nero;
and to have pursued a serpentine course to Veii; but this
road, Sir William Cell thinks, has been little travelled since
the formation of the Via Cassia (a.tj. 629), yet it must
have been the way to the Municipium that subsequently
arose on the site. Instead of pursuing this ancient track,
1 Li v. V. 51—55. the Forum. The Peutingerian Table also
2 Propert. IV. Eleg. x. 29. gives twelve miles as the distance. Livy
3 Floras, I. 12. (V. 4) speaks of it in round terms as
* This agrees with the distance indi- " within the twentieth milestone, almost
cated by Dionysius (II. p. 116. ed. Syl- in sight of the City." Eutropius, a no-
burg), who says Veii is 100 stadia from torious blunderer, calls the distance
Kome, or more than twelve miles, the eighteen miles (I 17).
distances being anciently reckoned from