DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0108
6 VEIL—The City. [chap. i.
Etruscan sites, is not to be received with implicit faith.
According to him, the mill marks the scene of the
slaughter of the Fabii, that noblest and bravest of Roman
families—a mere conjecture, arising, probably, from the
erroneous notion that Isola was the site of their camp.7
He also points out some walling on the verge of the cliff-
bound plateau that here projects into the glen, and pro-
nounces it to be the pier of a bridge which had spanned
the hollow at this spot, and communicated with a road in
a narrow cleft in the hill opposite. The ruins, more pro-
bably, formed a portion of the city-walls. It is ungracious,
however, to convict a man of ignorance of his own trade,
and on such occasions it is ever wise to adhere to the
proverb,
Odi, vede, e taee
Se vuoi titer in pace.
If in peace with your neighbour you wish to live long,
Listen, and look, but hold your tongue.
Following the line of the high ground to the east, I
passed several other fragments of the ancient walls, all
mere embankments, and then struck across bare downs
or corn-fields into the heart of the city. A field, over-
grown with briers, was pointed out by Antonio as the site
of excavations, where were found, among other remains,
the colossal statue of Tiberius, now in the Vatican, and
the twelve Ionic columns of marble, which sustain the
portico of the Post-office at Rome. This was probably
the Forum of the Roman " Municipium Augustum Veiens,"
which rose on the ruins of Etruscan Veii. The colum-
barium, or Roman sepulchre, hard by, must have been
without the limits of the municipium, which occupied but
a small portion of the site of the original city ; when first
7 The Fabii were slaughtered on a height, not in a valley. lav. II. 50. Dionys.
IX. p. 579.
Etruscan sites, is not to be received with implicit faith.
According to him, the mill marks the scene of the
slaughter of the Fabii, that noblest and bravest of Roman
families—a mere conjecture, arising, probably, from the
erroneous notion that Isola was the site of their camp.7
He also points out some walling on the verge of the cliff-
bound plateau that here projects into the glen, and pro-
nounces it to be the pier of a bridge which had spanned
the hollow at this spot, and communicated with a road in
a narrow cleft in the hill opposite. The ruins, more pro-
bably, formed a portion of the city-walls. It is ungracious,
however, to convict a man of ignorance of his own trade,
and on such occasions it is ever wise to adhere to the
proverb,
Odi, vede, e taee
Se vuoi titer in pace.
If in peace with your neighbour you wish to live long,
Listen, and look, but hold your tongue.
Following the line of the high ground to the east, I
passed several other fragments of the ancient walls, all
mere embankments, and then struck across bare downs
or corn-fields into the heart of the city. A field, over-
grown with briers, was pointed out by Antonio as the site
of excavations, where were found, among other remains,
the colossal statue of Tiberius, now in the Vatican, and
the twelve Ionic columns of marble, which sustain the
portico of the Post-office at Rome. This was probably
the Forum of the Roman " Municipium Augustum Veiens,"
which rose on the ruins of Etruscan Veii. The colum-
barium, or Roman sepulchre, hard by, must have been
without the limits of the municipium, which occupied but
a small portion of the site of the original city ; when first
7 The Fabii were slaughtered on a height, not in a valley. lav. II. 50. Dionys.
IX. p. 579.