DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0140
38 VEIL—The City. [appendix to
to the ground, because founded on a total misconception of the true
situation of Veii.
His error is the more surprising as he had the testimony of Dionysius,
(II., p. 116), that Veii" stood on a lofty and cliff-hound roek." Holstenius,
who regarded Isola Farnese as the Arx of Veii, speaks of the cuniculus
of Camillus being "manifestly apparent " in his day (Adnot. ad Cluv.,
p. 54), but he probably mistook for it some sewer which opened low in
the cliff. Nibby (III., p. 424) confesses his inability to discover it, but
inclines to place it on the road from Isola towards Rome. Gell indicates
a spot in the valley below the Piazza d' Armi, which he considers likely
to have been chosen. If at the base of this height, any perpendicular
shafts—-pozzi, as the peasants call them—were discovered, and if these,
when cleared out, were found to communicate with a horizontal passage,
this I think would be likely enough to prove the cuniculus.
Note II.—Sepulchbal Niches, and Modes of Sepultube.
These rocks at Veii, with faces full of sepulchral niches, are unique in
Etruria, but have their counterpart at Syracuse, and other cemeteries cf
Sicily ; the only other instance in Italy that I know is on the Via Appia,
just beyond Albano. Tombs full of niche3 are abundant in Etruria, and as
they are almost always found in exposed situations, rifled of all their
furniture, it is difficult to pronounce on their antiquity. Their similarity
to the columbaria of the Romans, is suggestive of such an origin, while
the want of the olla hole, already mentioned, and the fact of being
hollowed in the rock, instead of being constructed with masonry, dis-
tinguish them from the Roman columbaria. It is not improbable that
these pigeon-holed tombs of Etruria are of native origin, and that the
Romans, as Cav. Canina opines, (Bull. Inst. 1841, 18), thence derived
their idea of the columbaria, most likely from those of Veii, the nearest
city of Etruria. By some the pigeon-holed tombs in Etruscan cemeteries
are regarded as of late date, indicating a period when burning had
superseded burial. Mieali, (Mon. Ined., pp. 163, 370), who is of this
opinion, thinks all such tombs on this site posterior to the fall of Veii.
Yet combustion was of far higher antiquity. The Greeks, in the earliest
times, certainly buried their dead; such was the custom in the time of
Cecrops, and of fable, (Cic. de Leg. II. capp. 22, 25), yet in Homeric
times burning was practised, as in the case of Patroclus and of Hector.
That mode, however, was probably confined to the wealthy, for the
expense of the pyre, as we find it described by Homer, (II. XXIII. 164,
et seq. ; XXIV. 784, et seq.), and by Virgil, (J3n. XI, 72, el seq.), must
to the ground, because founded on a total misconception of the true
situation of Veii.
His error is the more surprising as he had the testimony of Dionysius,
(II., p. 116), that Veii" stood on a lofty and cliff-hound roek." Holstenius,
who regarded Isola Farnese as the Arx of Veii, speaks of the cuniculus
of Camillus being "manifestly apparent " in his day (Adnot. ad Cluv.,
p. 54), but he probably mistook for it some sewer which opened low in
the cliff. Nibby (III., p. 424) confesses his inability to discover it, but
inclines to place it on the road from Isola towards Rome. Gell indicates
a spot in the valley below the Piazza d' Armi, which he considers likely
to have been chosen. If at the base of this height, any perpendicular
shafts—-pozzi, as the peasants call them—were discovered, and if these,
when cleared out, were found to communicate with a horizontal passage,
this I think would be likely enough to prove the cuniculus.
Note II.—Sepulchbal Niches, and Modes of Sepultube.
These rocks at Veii, with faces full of sepulchral niches, are unique in
Etruria, but have their counterpart at Syracuse, and other cemeteries cf
Sicily ; the only other instance in Italy that I know is on the Via Appia,
just beyond Albano. Tombs full of niche3 are abundant in Etruria, and as
they are almost always found in exposed situations, rifled of all their
furniture, it is difficult to pronounce on their antiquity. Their similarity
to the columbaria of the Romans, is suggestive of such an origin, while
the want of the olla hole, already mentioned, and the fact of being
hollowed in the rock, instead of being constructed with masonry, dis-
tinguish them from the Roman columbaria. It is not improbable that
these pigeon-holed tombs of Etruria are of native origin, and that the
Romans, as Cav. Canina opines, (Bull. Inst. 1841, 18), thence derived
their idea of the columbaria, most likely from those of Veii, the nearest
city of Etruria. By some the pigeon-holed tombs in Etruscan cemeteries
are regarded as of late date, indicating a period when burning had
superseded burial. Mieali, (Mon. Ined., pp. 163, 370), who is of this
opinion, thinks all such tombs on this site posterior to the fall of Veii.
Yet combustion was of far higher antiquity. The Greeks, in the earliest
times, certainly buried their dead; such was the custom in the time of
Cecrops, and of fable, (Cic. de Leg. II. capp. 22, 25), yet in Homeric
times burning was practised, as in the case of Patroclus and of Hector.
That mode, however, was probably confined to the wealthy, for the
expense of the pyre, as we find it described by Homer, (II. XXIII. 164,
et seq. ; XXIV. 784, et seq.), and by Virgil, (J3n. XI, 72, el seq.), must