DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0488
chap, xix.] THE ACROPOLIS AND ANCIENT WALLS. 383
and Minerva, which were usual in Etruscan cities,10 and
which analogy teaches us to look for on the Acropolis, or
most elevated position. This spot is known by the name
of Ara della Eegina, or " The Queen's Altar/'
At a little distance behind these substructions, a semi-
circular line of blocks is to be traced, which appears to
mark the outline of the citadel. On the east of it are
traces of a gate; and on the opposite side, in the slope
facing the Montarozzi, is a half-buried arch, which must be
an ancient gateway, now encumbered with debris. It is
shown in the woodcut at the head of this chapter.1
From the Arx the hill is seen to turn to the north-
east, showing the form of the city to have been that
of an obtuse angle. The arm most remote from Corneto
is bounded at the distance of nearly a mile by a
high sugar-loaf mound, and the intervening slopes are
thinly strewn with blocks of the ancient walls—one stone
rarely standing upon another. The conical, or rather
wedge-shaped, height, called La Castellina, appears to have
been without the limits of the city, from which it is sepa-
rated by a hollow.2 Were it not included, the city must
still have been about five miles in circuit.
The line of walls may be traced in many detached
portions by substructions. The blocks, though sometimes
volcanic, are generally cut from the calcareous cliffs of the
city, in dimensions and arrangement resembling the rem-
nants of masonry at Yeii and Caere, and with equal claims
10 Serv. ad Mn. I. 426. took this height for the acropolis. Its
1 The arch is only 6 ft. 6 in. in span, slope, indeed, bears fragments of ancient
and about 3 ft. thick, inwards ; so that walling, but whether these belonged to a
it must have been a mere postern. The fortification, or mark the precinct of a
depth of the voussoirs is 21 inches, and of temple which crowned the summit, now
the courses in the surrounding masonry, occupied by medieval remains, I could
17 or 18 inches. not determine.
2 Westphal (Ann. Inst. 1830, p. 37)
and Minerva, which were usual in Etruscan cities,10 and
which analogy teaches us to look for on the Acropolis, or
most elevated position. This spot is known by the name
of Ara della Eegina, or " The Queen's Altar/'
At a little distance behind these substructions, a semi-
circular line of blocks is to be traced, which appears to
mark the outline of the citadel. On the east of it are
traces of a gate; and on the opposite side, in the slope
facing the Montarozzi, is a half-buried arch, which must be
an ancient gateway, now encumbered with debris. It is
shown in the woodcut at the head of this chapter.1
From the Arx the hill is seen to turn to the north-
east, showing the form of the city to have been that
of an obtuse angle. The arm most remote from Corneto
is bounded at the distance of nearly a mile by a
high sugar-loaf mound, and the intervening slopes are
thinly strewn with blocks of the ancient walls—one stone
rarely standing upon another. The conical, or rather
wedge-shaped, height, called La Castellina, appears to have
been without the limits of the city, from which it is sepa-
rated by a hollow.2 Were it not included, the city must
still have been about five miles in circuit.
The line of walls may be traced in many detached
portions by substructions. The blocks, though sometimes
volcanic, are generally cut from the calcareous cliffs of the
city, in dimensions and arrangement resembling the rem-
nants of masonry at Yeii and Caere, and with equal claims
10 Serv. ad Mn. I. 426. took this height for the acropolis. Its
1 The arch is only 6 ft. 6 in. in span, slope, indeed, bears fragments of ancient
and about 3 ft. thick, inwards ; so that walling, but whether these belonged to a
it must have been a mere postern. The fortification, or mark the precinct of a
depth of the voussoirs is 21 inches, and of temple which crowned the summit, now
the courses in the surrounding masonry, occupied by medieval remains, I could
17 or 18 inches. not determine.
2 Westphal (Ann. Inst. 1830, p. 37)