DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0121
CHAP. I.]
SIZE OF VEIL
19
conquest of Etruria, the downfal of Hannibal, and when
all fear of a foe at the gates of the City was removed,
that a permanent bridge was constructed. The Romans of
that day had no need to go beyond their own walls for
the model of a stone arch; they had had it for ages in the
Cloaca Maxima.
From the Ponte d'Isola, a pathway leads to the mill.
Here I had completed the circuit of Veii. Gell calls it
more than four miles in circumference, but his own map
makes it of much greater area. Nibby seems nearer the
truth, in calling it seven miles round, which more nearly
agrees with the statement of Dionysius that Veii was equal
in size to Athens,3 said to have been sixty stadia in cir-
cumference, i.e. seven miles and a half,3 or at the lower
estimate of ten stadia to the mile, the common itinerary
stadia of Greece, six miles in circuit. The Rome of Ser-
vius Tullius, which Dionysius also compares to Athens, was
about the same extent.4
Such then is Veii—once the most powerful,5 the most
wealthy city of Etruria,6 renowned for its beauty,7
its arts and refinement, which in size equalled Athens
and Rome, in military force was not inferior to the latter,8
and which for its site, strong by nature and almost im-
pregnable by art,9 and for the magnificence of its buildings
de L. L. V. cap. 83. Dionys. II. p. 132.
Plin. Nat. Hist. XXXVI. 23.
3 Dionys. II. p. 116. Clurerius (Ital.
Ant. II. p. 531) needlessly proposed to
substitute Fidenee for Athense.
3 So says the Scholiast on Thucy-
dides, II. 13 ; but the great historian
himself merely states that the extent
of that part of the city which was
guarded was 43 stadia ; and the Scho-
liast adds that the unguarded part,
or the space between the Long Walls,
which united the city with the Pirseus,
was 17 stadia in breadth.
* IV. p. 219; and IX. p. 624.
5 Dionys. II. p. 116 ; Liv. IV. 58.
« Liv. II. 50 ; V. 20,21,22. Floras
(1.12) and Plutarch (Camil.) attest its
wealth by the spoil that fell into the
hands of the conquerors. Eutrop.
I. 18.
» Liv. V. 24.
8 Plut. Cam.
9 Urbe valida muris ac situ ipso
munita, Liv. I. 15, V. 2. Dionys. 1. c,
and IX. p. 593; Plut. Romul. and
Camil.
c 2
SIZE OF VEIL
19
conquest of Etruria, the downfal of Hannibal, and when
all fear of a foe at the gates of the City was removed,
that a permanent bridge was constructed. The Romans of
that day had no need to go beyond their own walls for
the model of a stone arch; they had had it for ages in the
Cloaca Maxima.
From the Ponte d'Isola, a pathway leads to the mill.
Here I had completed the circuit of Veii. Gell calls it
more than four miles in circumference, but his own map
makes it of much greater area. Nibby seems nearer the
truth, in calling it seven miles round, which more nearly
agrees with the statement of Dionysius that Veii was equal
in size to Athens,3 said to have been sixty stadia in cir-
cumference, i.e. seven miles and a half,3 or at the lower
estimate of ten stadia to the mile, the common itinerary
stadia of Greece, six miles in circuit. The Rome of Ser-
vius Tullius, which Dionysius also compares to Athens, was
about the same extent.4
Such then is Veii—once the most powerful,5 the most
wealthy city of Etruria,6 renowned for its beauty,7
its arts and refinement, which in size equalled Athens
and Rome, in military force was not inferior to the latter,8
and which for its site, strong by nature and almost im-
pregnable by art,9 and for the magnificence of its buildings
de L. L. V. cap. 83. Dionys. II. p. 132.
Plin. Nat. Hist. XXXVI. 23.
3 Dionys. II. p. 116. Clurerius (Ital.
Ant. II. p. 531) needlessly proposed to
substitute Fidenee for Athense.
3 So says the Scholiast on Thucy-
dides, II. 13 ; but the great historian
himself merely states that the extent
of that part of the city which was
guarded was 43 stadia ; and the Scho-
liast adds that the unguarded part,
or the space between the Long Walls,
which united the city with the Pirseus,
was 17 stadia in breadth.
* IV. p. 219; and IX. p. 624.
5 Dionys. II. p. 116 ; Liv. IV. 58.
« Liv. II. 50 ; V. 20,21,22. Floras
(1.12) and Plutarch (Camil.) attest its
wealth by the spoil that fell into the
hands of the conquerors. Eutrop.
I. 18.
» Liv. V. 24.
8 Plut. Cam.
9 Urbe valida muris ac situ ipso
munita, Liv. I. 15, V. 2. Dionys. 1. c,
and IX. p. 593; Plut. Romul. and
Camil.
c 2