DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0221
chap, vi.] FRAGMENTS OF ANCIENT WALLS. 119
ruined gateways of the middle ages, and winds down into
this valley, through which flows the Treia, spanned by a
neat bridge of three arches. Here stands a large building
in ruins, once a Locanda, destroyed by the French. The
table-land of Civita here rises above your head in a range
of steep, lofty cliffs of red tufo, based on a stratum of
white sandy breccia. At the brow of the cliff, just above
the bridge, is a long line of wall of the middle ages, in one
place based on more ancient masonry of larger blocks,
evidently part of the Etruscan walls, the very "mcenia
alta " sung by Ovid.2 A sewer in the cliff beneath them
tends to confirm their antiquity.
This fine of cliff runs due north and south for some dis-
tance—it then suddenly turns at right angles, where a glen
opens to the west, and the streamlet of the Saleto, or, as
it is also called, the Ricano, issues from it to unite its
waters with those of the Treia. It is a lonely, and wild,
but attractive spot. No sign of man save in the stepping-
stones over the stream, or in the narrow track through the
meadows or brushwood. Not a sound to remind you of
the neighbourhood of the town over your head. The lofty
cliffs on either hand bare their broad faces with a con-
trasted expression—smiling or scowling as they catch or
lose the sun.
Here it is advisable to cross the stream to get a better
view of the cliffs of the city. Soon after entering this
glen you may perceive a portion of ancient wall sunk in a
hollow of the cliff, and filling a natural gap. You may
count as many as twelve courses. A little beyond you
traces of the ancient city in several the largest cities in the south of Etruria.
places widely distant, proving that it The peninsular platform, which he mis-
was not confined to a mere corner of took for the site of the entire city, was
the plateau, but extended over the whole probably that of the Arx.
space, whose limits are defined by na- 2 Ovid. Amor. III., Eleg. xm. 34.
tural boundaries, and was thus one of
ruined gateways of the middle ages, and winds down into
this valley, through which flows the Treia, spanned by a
neat bridge of three arches. Here stands a large building
in ruins, once a Locanda, destroyed by the French. The
table-land of Civita here rises above your head in a range
of steep, lofty cliffs of red tufo, based on a stratum of
white sandy breccia. At the brow of the cliff, just above
the bridge, is a long line of wall of the middle ages, in one
place based on more ancient masonry of larger blocks,
evidently part of the Etruscan walls, the very "mcenia
alta " sung by Ovid.2 A sewer in the cliff beneath them
tends to confirm their antiquity.
This fine of cliff runs due north and south for some dis-
tance—it then suddenly turns at right angles, where a glen
opens to the west, and the streamlet of the Saleto, or, as
it is also called, the Ricano, issues from it to unite its
waters with those of the Treia. It is a lonely, and wild,
but attractive spot. No sign of man save in the stepping-
stones over the stream, or in the narrow track through the
meadows or brushwood. Not a sound to remind you of
the neighbourhood of the town over your head. The lofty
cliffs on either hand bare their broad faces with a con-
trasted expression—smiling or scowling as they catch or
lose the sun.
Here it is advisable to cross the stream to get a better
view of the cliffs of the city. Soon after entering this
glen you may perceive a portion of ancient wall sunk in a
hollow of the cliff, and filling a natural gap. You may
count as many as twelve courses. A little beyond you
traces of the ancient city in several the largest cities in the south of Etruria.
places widely distant, proving that it The peninsular platform, which he mis-
was not confined to a mere corner of took for the site of the entire city, was
the plateau, but extended over the whole probably that of the Arx.
space, whose limits are defined by na- 2 Ovid. Amor. III., Eleg. xm. 34.
tural boundaries, and was thus one of