DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0312
210 FERENTO. [chap. xiii.
Koman, but most of Etruscan construction. A few of
these are tumuli, not of the large size seen at Veii, rather
like those so common at Tarquinii; but the majority are
caves hollowed in the rocks. Orioli mentions some re-
markable tombs in a plain near the town, called Piano
de' Pozzi, because they are entered by oblong wells or
shafts sunk to a great depth in the earth, with niches cut
in the sides for the feet and hands, as in the tombs of
Civita Castellana and Falleri. One of the shafts into
which he descended, was eighty feet deep, another, one
hundred and twenty ; and at the bottom were horizontal
passages, opening at intervals into sepulchral chambers.8
The visitor may vary his route on his return to Viterbo,
by way of Vitorchiano, a small town three or four miles
from Ferento. A competent guide, however, is requisite,
for there is merely a foot-path. Vitorchiano seems to have
been an Etruscan site, and slight excavations have been
made in its neighbourhood. It possesses the singular and
exclusive right of providing servants for the Senator of Rome
—that solitary representative of the mighty body which
once ruled the world. This privilege is derived, tradition
asserts, from classic times, and was accorded in perpe-
tuity to Vitorchiano by a certain emperor, because one of
its townsmen extracted a thorn from his foot. In virtue
thereof, every forty years, the principal families in the
place assemble and draw lots for their order of annual
service ; each family sending one of its members to Rome
in its turn, or selling the privilege, which custom has fixed
at a certain price. The truth of this may be tested by any
one who chooses to inquire on the Capitol of the Senator's
8 Orioli ap. Inghir. Monumenti pendicularly, like wells, sometimes ob-
Etrusehi IV. p. 189. In Magna Grceeia liquely, as in the Egyptian pyramids.—
also such tombs have been found, the I>e Jorio. Sepol. Ant. p. 10.
shafts to which are sunk sometimes per-
Koman, but most of Etruscan construction. A few of
these are tumuli, not of the large size seen at Veii, rather
like those so common at Tarquinii; but the majority are
caves hollowed in the rocks. Orioli mentions some re-
markable tombs in a plain near the town, called Piano
de' Pozzi, because they are entered by oblong wells or
shafts sunk to a great depth in the earth, with niches cut
in the sides for the feet and hands, as in the tombs of
Civita Castellana and Falleri. One of the shafts into
which he descended, was eighty feet deep, another, one
hundred and twenty ; and at the bottom were horizontal
passages, opening at intervals into sepulchral chambers.8
The visitor may vary his route on his return to Viterbo,
by way of Vitorchiano, a small town three or four miles
from Ferento. A competent guide, however, is requisite,
for there is merely a foot-path. Vitorchiano seems to have
been an Etruscan site, and slight excavations have been
made in its neighbourhood. It possesses the singular and
exclusive right of providing servants for the Senator of Rome
—that solitary representative of the mighty body which
once ruled the world. This privilege is derived, tradition
asserts, from classic times, and was accorded in perpe-
tuity to Vitorchiano by a certain emperor, because one of
its townsmen extracted a thorn from his foot. In virtue
thereof, every forty years, the principal families in the
place assemble and draw lots for their order of annual
service ; each family sending one of its members to Rome
in its turn, or selling the privilege, which custom has fixed
at a certain price. The truth of this may be tested by any
one who chooses to inquire on the Capitol of the Senator's
8 Orioli ap. Inghir. Monumenti pendicularly, like wells, sometimes ob-
Etrusehi IV. p. 189. In Magna Grceeia liquely, as in the Egyptian pyramids.—
also such tombs have been found, the I>e Jorio. Sepol. Ant. p. 10.
shafts to which are sunk sometimes per-