DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0171
chap, hi.] SITE AND VESTIGES OF THE ANCIENT CITY. 69
incertum, probably of some Roman villa. The hill of Castel
Giubileo, on the other hand, has also formed part of the
city, and its steep, lofty, and isolated character has with
great probability caused it to be regarded as the Arx of
Fidense.1 A farm-house now crests its summit, raised to
that elevation for protection, not from man's attack, but
from a more insidious foe, the malaria of the Campagna.
The ancient Via Salaria, whose course the modern road
follows, passed between these two eminences, that is,
through the very heart of Fidense. In the cliff beneath
the farmhouse is another tomb. Sepulchres were often
hollowed out beneath, though very rarely within, the walls of
Etruscan cities. The whole face of the steep, at the time
I first visited it, was frosted over with the bloom of the
wild pear-trees which clothe it, tinted with the rosy flowers
of the Judas-tree—
" One white empurpled shower
Of mingled blossoms."
Had the whole of the city been comprehended on this
height, it would be easy to understand Livy's description;
" the city, lofty and well-fortified, could not be taken by
assault ;"2 but as it also covered the opposite eminence,
the walls which united them must have descended in two
places, almost to the very level of the plain. These were
the vulnerable points of Fidense, and to them was perhaps
owing its frequent capture. It seems very probable, from
the nature of the position, that the earliest town was con-
fined to the height of Castel Giubileo. Yet, in this case,
Fidense would scarcely answer the description of Diony-
sius, who says, "it was a great and populous city"
1 Gell I., p. 441. The character of parte, suapte nature tutissima erat. Liv
the ground exactly tallies with livy's IV. 22.
description, that it was steepest on the 2 Liv. loc. cit.
side furthest from Eome—ab aversa
incertum, probably of some Roman villa. The hill of Castel
Giubileo, on the other hand, has also formed part of the
city, and its steep, lofty, and isolated character has with
great probability caused it to be regarded as the Arx of
Fidense.1 A farm-house now crests its summit, raised to
that elevation for protection, not from man's attack, but
from a more insidious foe, the malaria of the Campagna.
The ancient Via Salaria, whose course the modern road
follows, passed between these two eminences, that is,
through the very heart of Fidense. In the cliff beneath
the farmhouse is another tomb. Sepulchres were often
hollowed out beneath, though very rarely within, the walls of
Etruscan cities. The whole face of the steep, at the time
I first visited it, was frosted over with the bloom of the
wild pear-trees which clothe it, tinted with the rosy flowers
of the Judas-tree—
" One white empurpled shower
Of mingled blossoms."
Had the whole of the city been comprehended on this
height, it would be easy to understand Livy's description;
" the city, lofty and well-fortified, could not be taken by
assault ;"2 but as it also covered the opposite eminence,
the walls which united them must have descended in two
places, almost to the very level of the plain. These were
the vulnerable points of Fidense, and to them was perhaps
owing its frequent capture. It seems very probable, from
the nature of the position, that the earliest town was con-
fined to the height of Castel Giubileo. Yet, in this case,
Fidense would scarcely answer the description of Diony-
sius, who says, "it was a great and populous city"
1 Gell I., p. 441. The character of parte, suapte nature tutissima erat. Liv
the ground exactly tallies with livy's IV. 22.
description, that it was steepest on the 2 Liv. loc. cit.
side furthest from Eome—ab aversa