DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0265
CHAPTER IX.
OBTE.—HORTA.
By the rushy-fringed bank,
Where grows the willow and the osier dank,
My chariot stays. Milton.
Of the ancient history of Horta, we have no record,
unless the notice by Virgil, the application of which to
this town has been doubted, be received as historical.1 We
know, however, from better authority than that of the
Mantuan bard, namely, from its extant monuments, that
Horta was an Etruscan city, and the archaic character of
those remains even leads us to regard it as among the
most ancient in the land. The only other mention of it
is by Pliny, who cites it among the " inland colonies " of
Etruria ;2 but we learn from inscriptions that it was one
of the military colonies of Augustus.
Orte lies on the right bank of the Tiber, about twelve
miles above Ponte Felice, and crowns the summit of a long
1 Qui Tiberim Fabarimque bibunt,
quos frigida misit
Nursia, et Hortinse classes, popu-
lique Latini.—Ms. VII. 715.
2 Plin. III. 8. Padre Seechi, the
learned Jesuit of Rome, follows Miiller
(Etrusk. III. 3, 7,) in thinking the place
derives its name from Horta, an Etrus-
can goddess equivalent to the Roman
"Salus," and distinct from Nortia or
Fortuna, the great deity of Volsinii.
This goddess Horta is mentioned by
Plutarch (Qusest. Rom. XLVI), who
says her temple was always kept open.
A distinction between her and the
Etruscan Fortuna is indicated by Tacitus
(Ann. XV. 53). Seechi, II Musaieo
Antoniniano, p. 47, n. 5.
Fontanini (de Antiq. Horte, I. cap. I.)
would fain make it appear that Horta
was founded by the Pelasgi, and was one
of the twelve chief cities of Etruria.—
" The baseless fabric of a vision."
OBTE.—HORTA.
By the rushy-fringed bank,
Where grows the willow and the osier dank,
My chariot stays. Milton.
Of the ancient history of Horta, we have no record,
unless the notice by Virgil, the application of which to
this town has been doubted, be received as historical.1 We
know, however, from better authority than that of the
Mantuan bard, namely, from its extant monuments, that
Horta was an Etruscan city, and the archaic character of
those remains even leads us to regard it as among the
most ancient in the land. The only other mention of it
is by Pliny, who cites it among the " inland colonies " of
Etruria ;2 but we learn from inscriptions that it was one
of the military colonies of Augustus.
Orte lies on the right bank of the Tiber, about twelve
miles above Ponte Felice, and crowns the summit of a long
1 Qui Tiberim Fabarimque bibunt,
quos frigida misit
Nursia, et Hortinse classes, popu-
lique Latini.—Ms. VII. 715.
2 Plin. III. 8. Padre Seechi, the
learned Jesuit of Rome, follows Miiller
(Etrusk. III. 3, 7,) in thinking the place
derives its name from Horta, an Etrus-
can goddess equivalent to the Roman
"Salus," and distinct from Nortia or
Fortuna, the great deity of Volsinii.
This goddess Horta is mentioned by
Plutarch (Qusest. Rom. XLVI), who
says her temple was always kept open.
A distinction between her and the
Etruscan Fortuna is indicated by Tacitus
(Ann. XV. 53). Seechi, II Musaieo
Antoniniano, p. 47, n. 5.
Fontanini (de Antiq. Horte, I. cap. I.)
would fain make it appear that Horta
was founded by the Pelasgi, and was one
of the twelve chief cities of Etruria.—
" The baseless fabric of a vision."