DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0191
CHAP. IT.]
THE WALLS AND GATES.
89
Sutri has four gates; one at the end of the town
towards Ronciglione, another at the opposite extremity,
and two on the southern side. A fifth in the north-
ern wall is now blocked up; and it is said that
this and the two on the opposite side are the original
entrances, and that the two at the extremities have been
formed within the last century. If so, Sutrium had the
precise number of gates prescribed by the Etruscan ritual.4
Over that at the western end the claims of the town
to distinction are set forth in this inscription—
SUTRIUM
ETRURLE CLAUSTRA
URBS SOCIA ROMANIS
COMMA CONJUNCTA JULIA;
and over the Porta Romana, the other modern gate, are
painted the arms of the town—a man on horseback, hold-
ing three ears of corn—with an inscription of inferior
correctness—
A PELASGIIS SUTRIUM CONDITUR.
Now, though the village fathers should maintain that the
latter epigraph is a quotation from Livy, believe them not,
gentle traveller, but rather credit my assertion that there
is no historic evidence of such an origin for Sutri—yea,
believe as soon that Tudela, Tarragona, Tafalla, Murviedro,
and other towns in Spain, were founded by Tubal-Cain,
as self-flattering Iberian chroniclers would persuade you;
universally admitted to be no other than
the Etruscan Falerii,—destroyed, be it
remembered, on its conquest ? How is
it that in no case in Etruria is this
masonry found based on a different de-
scription, as though it were Roman
repairs of earlier fortifications, but is
always found at the very foundations,
and often in positions where the walls
must have been completely secure from
the contingencies of warfare ? And what
can be said to its existence in connec-
tion with Etruscan tombs at Cervetri, if
it were not employed by the Etruscans
as well as Romans t
4 Servius (Mn. I. 426) says no Etrus-
can city was deemed perfect that had
less than three gates.
THE WALLS AND GATES.
89
Sutri has four gates; one at the end of the town
towards Ronciglione, another at the opposite extremity,
and two on the southern side. A fifth in the north-
ern wall is now blocked up; and it is said that
this and the two on the opposite side are the original
entrances, and that the two at the extremities have been
formed within the last century. If so, Sutrium had the
precise number of gates prescribed by the Etruscan ritual.4
Over that at the western end the claims of the town
to distinction are set forth in this inscription—
SUTRIUM
ETRURLE CLAUSTRA
URBS SOCIA ROMANIS
COMMA CONJUNCTA JULIA;
and over the Porta Romana, the other modern gate, are
painted the arms of the town—a man on horseback, hold-
ing three ears of corn—with an inscription of inferior
correctness—
A PELASGIIS SUTRIUM CONDITUR.
Now, though the village fathers should maintain that the
latter epigraph is a quotation from Livy, believe them not,
gentle traveller, but rather credit my assertion that there
is no historic evidence of such an origin for Sutri—yea,
believe as soon that Tudela, Tarragona, Tafalla, Murviedro,
and other towns in Spain, were founded by Tubal-Cain,
as self-flattering Iberian chroniclers would persuade you;
universally admitted to be no other than
the Etruscan Falerii,—destroyed, be it
remembered, on its conquest ? How is
it that in no case in Etruria is this
masonry found based on a different de-
scription, as though it were Roman
repairs of earlier fortifications, but is
always found at the very foundations,
and often in positions where the walls
must have been completely secure from
the contingencies of warfare ? And what
can be said to its existence in connec-
tion with Etruscan tombs at Cervetri, if
it were not employed by the Etruscans
as well as Romans t
4 Servius (Mn. I. 426) says no Etrus-
can city was deemed perfect that had
less than three gates.