DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0214
112 NEPI. [chap. v.
particulars. It is a small town, not larger than Sutri;
and its position is very similar, though the plateau it occu-
pies rises much higher from the ravines, and the cliffs are
in most parts more precipitous. As to its natural strength
it has certainly no less claim than Sutri to the title of "key
and portal of Etruria."9
In strolling around the place, I was surprised at the
small numher of tombs. The opposite cliff of the ravine
to the south, has not a single cave ; and on the other side
of the town there are far fewer than usual in the imme-
diate vicinity of Etruscan sites, which present facilities for
excavation. The Nepesini seem to have preferred burying
their dead beneath the surface of the ground, to hollowing
out tombs or niches in the cliffs; and the table-lands
around the town are probably burrowed thickly with sepul-
chres. In the rock on which the modern walls are based,
close to the gate that opens to Civita Castellana, are traces
of sepulchral niches ; and here also a sewer, like those at
Sutri, opens in the cliff. The ravine is spanned by a
bridge,10 and also by an aqueduct of a double tier of arches,
the work of the sixteenth century.
No one should cross this bridge without a pause. The
dark ravine, deepening as it recedes, leading the eye to
the many-peaked mass of Soracte in the distance, by the
towers and battlements of the town on one hand, and by
a stately stone-pine raising its spreading crest into the
blue sky on the other, is set off like a picture in its frame.
It is one of those scenes in which you would scarcely wish
an alteration—in which Nature rivals the perfection of art.
There is little to detain the antiquarian traveller in
9 Liv. VI. 9. more elevated appellation than La But-
10 The stream below is said by Nibby tata della Mola, or the Mill-force. The
to retain the classic name of Falis- stream in the opposite ravine is called
co, though all my inquiries produced no Cava-terrar-*. «., Earth-digger.
particulars. It is a small town, not larger than Sutri;
and its position is very similar, though the plateau it occu-
pies rises much higher from the ravines, and the cliffs are
in most parts more precipitous. As to its natural strength
it has certainly no less claim than Sutri to the title of "key
and portal of Etruria."9
In strolling around the place, I was surprised at the
small numher of tombs. The opposite cliff of the ravine
to the south, has not a single cave ; and on the other side
of the town there are far fewer than usual in the imme-
diate vicinity of Etruscan sites, which present facilities for
excavation. The Nepesini seem to have preferred burying
their dead beneath the surface of the ground, to hollowing
out tombs or niches in the cliffs; and the table-lands
around the town are probably burrowed thickly with sepul-
chres. In the rock on which the modern walls are based,
close to the gate that opens to Civita Castellana, are traces
of sepulchral niches ; and here also a sewer, like those at
Sutri, opens in the cliff. The ravine is spanned by a
bridge,10 and also by an aqueduct of a double tier of arches,
the work of the sixteenth century.
No one should cross this bridge without a pause. The
dark ravine, deepening as it recedes, leading the eye to
the many-peaked mass of Soracte in the distance, by the
towers and battlements of the town on one hand, and by
a stately stone-pine raising its spreading crest into the
blue sky on the other, is set off like a picture in its frame.
It is one of those scenes in which you would scarcely wish
an alteration—in which Nature rivals the perfection of art.
There is little to detain the antiquarian traveller in
9 Liv. VI. 9. more elevated appellation than La But-
10 The stream below is said by Nibby tata della Mola, or the Mill-force. The
to retain the classic name of Falis- stream in the opposite ravine is called
co, though all my inquiries produced no Cava-terrar-*. «., Earth-digger.