DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0142
40 VEIL—The City. [appendix to
Note III.—The Ponte Sodo.
Gell (II., p. 328) thinks that the deep hollow through whieh the For-
raello here flows was not its original bed, but that it made a detour round
the foot of the ascent, and was brought for additional security nearer the
high ground on which the city stands. I could see no traces of a former
channel. The sinking of so deep a hollow, (which bears no artificial
character,) would be a most arduous undertaking and scarcely worth the
labour, when the natural bed of the stream, though a little more distant,
supposing it to have been as Gell conjectures, might have been enlarged
and fortified. Yet an examination of the tunnel favours Gell's view, or
I should be rather inclined to believe in the natural character of the
hollow, by which the stream approaches the Ponte Sodo, and to think
that there was a natural channel through the rock enlarged by art to
obviate the disastrous consequences of winter floods.
Nibby (III., p. 432) calls the Ponte Sodo 70 feet long. He could
not have measured it, as I have, by wading through it. It is not
cut with nicety, though it is possible that the original surface of
the rock has been injured by the rush of water through the tunnel,
for the stream at times swells to a torrent, filling the entire channel,
as is proved by several trunks of trees lodged in clefts of the rock
close to the roof. So Ovid (Fast. II. 205) speaks of the Cremera
rapax, because
Turbidus hibernis ille fluebat aquis.
There are two oblong shafts in the ceiling, with niches cut in them
at intervals as a means of descent from above, precisely such shafts
as are seen in the tombs of Civita Castellana and Falleri. Here
they must have been formed for the sake of carrying on the work
in several places at once. There is a third at the upper entrance
to the tunnel, but not connected with it, as it is sunk into a sewer which
crosses the mouth of the tunnel diagonally, showing the latter to have
been of subsequent formation to the system of drainage in the city, and
tending to confirm Gell's opinion, that the river originally made a detour
to the left. Gell, -who had not much acquaintance with Etruscan cities,
seems to have mistaken the sewer for an aqueduct, and the shafts for
wells by which the citizens drew water (II., p. 331). At this same end
of the tunnel, the roof is cut into a regular gable form, and is of much
greater elevation than the rest; it is continued thus only for thirty or
forty feet, as if the original plan had been abandoned. This Ponte has
been confounded by some with the Ponte Sodo in the vicinity of Vulci—
Note III.—The Ponte Sodo.
Gell (II., p. 328) thinks that the deep hollow through whieh the For-
raello here flows was not its original bed, but that it made a detour round
the foot of the ascent, and was brought for additional security nearer the
high ground on which the city stands. I could see no traces of a former
channel. The sinking of so deep a hollow, (which bears no artificial
character,) would be a most arduous undertaking and scarcely worth the
labour, when the natural bed of the stream, though a little more distant,
supposing it to have been as Gell conjectures, might have been enlarged
and fortified. Yet an examination of the tunnel favours Gell's view, or
I should be rather inclined to believe in the natural character of the
hollow, by which the stream approaches the Ponte Sodo, and to think
that there was a natural channel through the rock enlarged by art to
obviate the disastrous consequences of winter floods.
Nibby (III., p. 432) calls the Ponte Sodo 70 feet long. He could
not have measured it, as I have, by wading through it. It is not
cut with nicety, though it is possible that the original surface of
the rock has been injured by the rush of water through the tunnel,
for the stream at times swells to a torrent, filling the entire channel,
as is proved by several trunks of trees lodged in clefts of the rock
close to the roof. So Ovid (Fast. II. 205) speaks of the Cremera
rapax, because
Turbidus hibernis ille fluebat aquis.
There are two oblong shafts in the ceiling, with niches cut in them
at intervals as a means of descent from above, precisely such shafts
as are seen in the tombs of Civita Castellana and Falleri. Here
they must have been formed for the sake of carrying on the work
in several places at once. There is a third at the upper entrance
to the tunnel, but not connected with it, as it is sunk into a sewer which
crosses the mouth of the tunnel diagonally, showing the latter to have
been of subsequent formation to the system of drainage in the city, and
tending to confirm Gell's opinion, that the river originally made a detour
to the left. Gell, -who had not much acquaintance with Etruscan cities,
seems to have mistaken the sewer for an aqueduct, and the shafts for
wells by which the citizens drew water (II., p. 331). At this same end
of the tunnel, the roof is cut into a regular gable form, and is of much
greater elevation than the rest; it is continued thus only for thirty or
forty feet, as if the original plan had been abandoned. This Ponte has
been confounded by some with the Ponte Sodo in the vicinity of Vulci—