DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0498
chap, xx.] REMAINS OP A PORT INDICATE THE SITE. 393
long embankment of regular masonry, which, rising some
twenty feet above the stream, extends in fragments a con-
siderable distance towards the sea. The masonry of both
arch and embankment is of tufo, uncemented, and though
not emplecton, is of manifest antiquity. The vault must be
the mouth of a sewer or stream, as is clearly shown by the
mound of earth which chokes it. Were it not for this, and
the trees which have taken root in it, the arch could not
be examined from this bank; and to the boughs of the
said trees I acknowledge my "indebtedness" for the
sketch which is copied in the woodcut at the head of this
Chapter.
Remounting the bank, I descried a double line of sub-
structions stretching away in connection with the arch, in
a direct line towards the height of the town. I traced it
across the plain, till the modern road, which skirts the
base of that eminence, obliterated its vestiges. It was
obviously the ancient road or causeway from the stream to
the town. Scarce a block of the pavement remained, but
the skeleton—the double line of kerb-stones—was most
palpable. This causeway explained the long embankment
to have been a quay, and a port was at once confessed.9
I could not doubt that this was a quay, for the opposite
bank was very low, and entirely without masonry. The
whole seemed the counterpart of the Pulchrum Littus and
the Cloaca Maxima ; the embankment being of the same
height, the vault of the same dimensions, and the object
being doubtless similar—to drain the low grounds on this
bank,1 and to serve as a barrier against occasional floods—
9 The river would not serve as a port of a bridge across the Marta seems op-
now-a-days, but must have been quite posed to that view,
deep and broad enough for the gallies of ' The arch may possibly have been a
the ancients. The causeway may pos- bridge over a small stream, which fell
sibly have formed part of the ancient into the Marta, but no traces of a chan-
Via Aurelia, but the absence of all traces nel could I perceive in the plain. The
long embankment of regular masonry, which, rising some
twenty feet above the stream, extends in fragments a con-
siderable distance towards the sea. The masonry of both
arch and embankment is of tufo, uncemented, and though
not emplecton, is of manifest antiquity. The vault must be
the mouth of a sewer or stream, as is clearly shown by the
mound of earth which chokes it. Were it not for this, and
the trees which have taken root in it, the arch could not
be examined from this bank; and to the boughs of the
said trees I acknowledge my "indebtedness" for the
sketch which is copied in the woodcut at the head of this
Chapter.
Remounting the bank, I descried a double line of sub-
structions stretching away in connection with the arch, in
a direct line towards the height of the town. I traced it
across the plain, till the modern road, which skirts the
base of that eminence, obliterated its vestiges. It was
obviously the ancient road or causeway from the stream to
the town. Scarce a block of the pavement remained, but
the skeleton—the double line of kerb-stones—was most
palpable. This causeway explained the long embankment
to have been a quay, and a port was at once confessed.9
I could not doubt that this was a quay, for the opposite
bank was very low, and entirely without masonry. The
whole seemed the counterpart of the Pulchrum Littus and
the Cloaca Maxima ; the embankment being of the same
height, the vault of the same dimensions, and the object
being doubtless similar—to drain the low grounds on this
bank,1 and to serve as a barrier against occasional floods—
9 The river would not serve as a port of a bridge across the Marta seems op-
now-a-days, but must have been quite posed to that view,
deep and broad enough for the gallies of ' The arch may possibly have been a
the ancients. The causeway may pos- bridge over a small stream, which fell
sibly have formed part of the ancient into the Marta, but no traces of a chan-
Via Aurelia, but the absence of all traces nel could I perceive in the plain. The