DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0116
14 VEIL—The City. [chap. i.
On my right were bare, swelling mounds, in which
the mouths of caves were visible, the tombs of ancient
Veii. These are now half choked with earth—it being
customary for excavators to close the sepulchres as soon as
they have rifled them. One tomb alone, which will be par-
ticularly described in the following chapter, now remains
open. Here are also three vaults of Roman reticulated
work, and another vault near them, of similar construction,
just over a modern fountain.
It would be easy to pass the Ponte Sodo without
observing it. It is called a bridge ; but is a mere mass of
rock bored for the passage of the stream. Whether wholly
or but partly artificial may admit of dispute. It is, how-
ever, in all probability, an Etruscan excavation—a tunnel
in the rock, two hundred and forty feet long, twelve or
fifteen wide, and nearly twenty high. From above, it is
scarcely visible. You must view it from the banks of the
stream. You at first suspect it to be of natural formation,
yet there is a squareness and regularity about it which
prove it artificial. The steep cliffs of tufo, yellow, grey,
or white, overhung by ilex, ivy, and brushwood—the deep,
dark-mouthed tunnel with a ray of sunshine, it may be,
gleaming beyond—the masses of lichen-clad rock, which
choke the stream—give it a charm apart from its antiquity.6
Upon this natural bridge is a shapeless mound in the
midst of an ancient roadway. Oell sees in it the ruins of a
square tower, but it requires a brisk imagination to per-
ceive such traces in this overgrown mass ; yet from its
position, and from fragments of walling hard by, it is evi-
dent that this was the site of a double gateway.7 These
6 See Appendix, Note III. during the siege, and being challenged
1 It may have been this tower to mortal combat by Cossus—
which Propertius (IV. Eleg. x. 31) « Forte super porta dux Veius adstitit
had in view, when he represents Tolum- arcem &c."
nius king of Veii standing on the walls
On my right were bare, swelling mounds, in which
the mouths of caves were visible, the tombs of ancient
Veii. These are now half choked with earth—it being
customary for excavators to close the sepulchres as soon as
they have rifled them. One tomb alone, which will be par-
ticularly described in the following chapter, now remains
open. Here are also three vaults of Roman reticulated
work, and another vault near them, of similar construction,
just over a modern fountain.
It would be easy to pass the Ponte Sodo without
observing it. It is called a bridge ; but is a mere mass of
rock bored for the passage of the stream. Whether wholly
or but partly artificial may admit of dispute. It is, how-
ever, in all probability, an Etruscan excavation—a tunnel
in the rock, two hundred and forty feet long, twelve or
fifteen wide, and nearly twenty high. From above, it is
scarcely visible. You must view it from the banks of the
stream. You at first suspect it to be of natural formation,
yet there is a squareness and regularity about it which
prove it artificial. The steep cliffs of tufo, yellow, grey,
or white, overhung by ilex, ivy, and brushwood—the deep,
dark-mouthed tunnel with a ray of sunshine, it may be,
gleaming beyond—the masses of lichen-clad rock, which
choke the stream—give it a charm apart from its antiquity.6
Upon this natural bridge is a shapeless mound in the
midst of an ancient roadway. Oell sees in it the ruins of a
square tower, but it requires a brisk imagination to per-
ceive such traces in this overgrown mass ; yet from its
position, and from fragments of walling hard by, it is evi-
dent that this was the site of a double gateway.7 These
6 See Appendix, Note III. during the siege, and being challenged
1 It may have been this tower to mortal combat by Cossus—
which Propertius (IV. Eleg. x. 31) « Forte super porta dux Veius adstitit
had in view, when he represents Tolum- arcem &c."
nius king of Veii standing on the walls