Dennis, George: The cities and cemeteries of Etruria: in two volumes (Band 1) (London, 1848)

88 SUTRI. [chap. iv.

by which, the blocks were wrought into a solid wall.
The dimensions of the blocks being the same, or very
nearly so, in almost every specimen of this masonry
extant in Etruria,2 I will give them as a guide in future
descriptions, in order that when the term emplecton is
used, it may not be necessary to re-specify the dimensions.
This masonry is isodomon, i. e. the courses are of equal
height—about one foot eleven inches. The blocks which
present their ends to the eye are generally square, though
sometimes a little more or a little less in width; and
the others vary slightly in length, but in general this is
double the height, or three feet ten inches. It is singular
that these measurements accord with the length of the
modern Tuscan braccio of twenty-three inches. The same
description of masonry was used extensively by the Romans,
during the times of the Republic, in Latium, Sabina, and
in Rome itself, and seems to have been brought to perfec-
tion in the magnificent wall of the Forum of Augustus;
but that it was also used by the Etruscans is attested by
certain of their tombs ; so that while it is often impossible
to pronounce any particular portion to be of Etruscan or
Roman origin, it may safely be inferred that the style was
Etruscan, imitated and adopted by the Romans.3

2 The only exceptions I know are at of Sutri, or in fact any masonry of this
Cervetri, where the dimensions are description found on Etruscan sites, be
smaller. of Etruscan construction—asserting that

3 The Roman masonry of this de- " it is certain that it is not found in any
scription, especially on the other side Etruscan cities of undoubted antiquity;"
of the Tiber, is often of inferior dimen- and referring it always to the Romans,
sions, as in the Porta Romana of Segni, True it is that the walls of Falleri,
where the courses are only eighteen which he cites, were built by a Roman
inches deep, and the Porta Cassamaro colony in this style (see the two wood-
of Ferentino, where they are still less— cuts in Chap. VII.) ; but what can be
from fourteen to seventeen inches. said to the masonry of precisely the
The specimens in Etruria are much same character and dimensions, which
more uniform. Mr. Bunbury, in his may be traced in fragments around the
new edition of Sir William Gell's Rome, heights of Civita Castellana, marking out
(p. 328), questions whether these walls the periphery of a city which is now