DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0213
chap, v.] ANCIENT WALLS. Ill
remain imbedded in a mass of Roman opus incertum, which
apparently once faced the whole structure, showing the
priority of the emplecton? If this formed part of the walls of
Nepete, the ancient must have been somewhat larger
than the modern town.
This is all I could perceive of the ancient walls of
Nepete. These portions, be it observed, are on the
weakest side of the town, where it receives no protection
from nature. On every other side, as it is situated on
a long cliff-bound tongue of land between two ravines
that meet at its tip, there was little need of walls. But
at the root of the tongue, where the ground on which
the city stands meets the unbroken level of the Campagna,
it was most strongly fortified in ancient times ; and the
necessity continuing through the troubled period of the
middle ages, the walls were preserved as much as might
be, or replaced, where dilapidated, by the strong line of
fortifications and flanking bastions, which still unites the
ravines. From the analogy of other Etruscan cities, it is
probable that the inhabitants were not satisfied with the
natural protection of their precipices, but surrounded the
city with walls, which, in after times, were demolished,
probably for the sake of materials to build or repair the
edifices of the town.
My aim being simply to point out objects of antiquarian
interest, I shall say little of the modern representative of
Nepete, referring the reader to his guide-book for ordinary
8 Nibby (II. p. 400) thinks these relics Castellana, which he admits to be
of the ancient walls of Nepi are of Ro- Etruscan. There is no reason to sup-
man construction, and of the time of the pose that these walls at Nepi are of
colony formed here A. V. C. 381, be- less ancient construction. Whether
cause their masonry is analogous with raised by Etruscan or Roman workmen,
that of the walls of the new Falerium they are in a style employed by the
(Falleri) raised not long after that date. former people, and often imitated by the
But it is also precisely similar to the latter,
masonry of the ancient walls at Civita
remain imbedded in a mass of Roman opus incertum, which
apparently once faced the whole structure, showing the
priority of the emplecton? If this formed part of the walls of
Nepete, the ancient must have been somewhat larger
than the modern town.
This is all I could perceive of the ancient walls of
Nepete. These portions, be it observed, are on the
weakest side of the town, where it receives no protection
from nature. On every other side, as it is situated on
a long cliff-bound tongue of land between two ravines
that meet at its tip, there was little need of walls. But
at the root of the tongue, where the ground on which
the city stands meets the unbroken level of the Campagna,
it was most strongly fortified in ancient times ; and the
necessity continuing through the troubled period of the
middle ages, the walls were preserved as much as might
be, or replaced, where dilapidated, by the strong line of
fortifications and flanking bastions, which still unites the
ravines. From the analogy of other Etruscan cities, it is
probable that the inhabitants were not satisfied with the
natural protection of their precipices, but surrounded the
city with walls, which, in after times, were demolished,
probably for the sake of materials to build or repair the
edifices of the town.
My aim being simply to point out objects of antiquarian
interest, I shall say little of the modern representative of
Nepete, referring the reader to his guide-book for ordinary
8 Nibby (II. p. 400) thinks these relics Castellana, which he admits to be
of the ancient walls of Nepi are of Ro- Etruscan. There is no reason to sup-
man construction, and of the time of the pose that these walls at Nepi are of
colony formed here A. V. C. 381, be- less ancient construction. Whether
cause their masonry is analogous with raised by Etruscan or Roman workmen,
that of the walls of the new Falerium they are in a style employed by the
(Falleri) raised not long after that date. former people, and often imitated by the
But it is also precisely similar to the latter,
masonry of the ancient walls at Civita