DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0503
398 VULCI. [chap. xxi.
place, with no attraction beyond a comfortable inn, kept
by one Cesarini, whose local knowledge may prove
serviceable to the traveller. It is supposed to be the
site of the Forum Aurelii, a station on the Via Aurelia.2
At the mouth of the Fiora, on which it stands, are also a
few Roman remains. On the shore, about three miles
to the south, stood Regse, the site of a very ancient
Pelasgic settlement, Regisvilla, whose king Maleos, or
Mateotes, the legendary inventor of the trumpet, aban-
doned his throne, and migrated to Athens.3 The site is
now called, from its prominent rocks, Le Murelle.4
Vulci lies near the Ponte della Badia, seven or eight
miles inland from Montalto, and is accessible in a carretino,
or light vehicle.5 All this district is a desert—a desert of
corn, it is true, but almost uninhabited, so deadly is the
summer-scourge of malaria. One solitary house is alone
passed on the road to the Ponte della Badia, and that is a
little mill, on the Timone, which is here spanned by a
natural bridge, called, like that of Veii, Ponte Sodo.
Beneath it is a cavern, grotesquely fretted with stalactites.
On passing the Ponte Sodo we entered on a vast treeless
moor, without a sign of life, save a conical capanna of
2 Cluver. II. p. 485 ; Mannert, how- the headland of Malea in Laconia.
ever, (Geog. p. 370), places Forum Regisvilla is probably a Roman eorrup-
Aurelii at Castellaccio, near the mouth tion of the more ancient name of Regse,
of the Arrone, half-way between the which afterwards came again into use.
Fiora and the Marta ; a site more in ac- Welcker (cited by Gerhard, Ann. Inst,
cordance with the Peutingerian Table. 1831, p. 205) derives it from fniyai, clefts,
See page 388. The Fiora is the Armenita which is indicative of its situation.
of the Table, and the Amine of the 4 Holsten. Annot. ad Cluver. p. 34;
Maritime Itinerary. Some singular Westphal, Ann. Inst. 1830, p. 30.
Etruscan monuments have been found in 5 There are two roads from Montalto
the neighbourhood of Montalto of late to Vulci, both practicable for light vehi-
years (Micali, Mon. Ined. p. 195, tav. cles. The shorter runs on the right bank
XXXIV.; p. 403, tav. LIX. 0f the Fiora, but the other on the left
3 Strab. V. p. 225 ; Lactant. ad Stat. bank is preferable. This it is which is
Theb. IV. 224. Miiller (Etrusk. einl. described in the text. It is also marked
2, 6) thinks he derived this name from in the Map.
place, with no attraction beyond a comfortable inn, kept
by one Cesarini, whose local knowledge may prove
serviceable to the traveller. It is supposed to be the
site of the Forum Aurelii, a station on the Via Aurelia.2
At the mouth of the Fiora, on which it stands, are also a
few Roman remains. On the shore, about three miles
to the south, stood Regse, the site of a very ancient
Pelasgic settlement, Regisvilla, whose king Maleos, or
Mateotes, the legendary inventor of the trumpet, aban-
doned his throne, and migrated to Athens.3 The site is
now called, from its prominent rocks, Le Murelle.4
Vulci lies near the Ponte della Badia, seven or eight
miles inland from Montalto, and is accessible in a carretino,
or light vehicle.5 All this district is a desert—a desert of
corn, it is true, but almost uninhabited, so deadly is the
summer-scourge of malaria. One solitary house is alone
passed on the road to the Ponte della Badia, and that is a
little mill, on the Timone, which is here spanned by a
natural bridge, called, like that of Veii, Ponte Sodo.
Beneath it is a cavern, grotesquely fretted with stalactites.
On passing the Ponte Sodo we entered on a vast treeless
moor, without a sign of life, save a conical capanna of
2 Cluver. II. p. 485 ; Mannert, how- the headland of Malea in Laconia.
ever, (Geog. p. 370), places Forum Regisvilla is probably a Roman eorrup-
Aurelii at Castellaccio, near the mouth tion of the more ancient name of Regse,
of the Arrone, half-way between the which afterwards came again into use.
Fiora and the Marta ; a site more in ac- Welcker (cited by Gerhard, Ann. Inst,
cordance with the Peutingerian Table. 1831, p. 205) derives it from fniyai, clefts,
See page 388. The Fiora is the Armenita which is indicative of its situation.
of the Table, and the Amine of the 4 Holsten. Annot. ad Cluver. p. 34;
Maritime Itinerary. Some singular Westphal, Ann. Inst. 1830, p. 30.
Etruscan monuments have been found in 5 There are two roads from Montalto
the neighbourhood of Montalto of late to Vulci, both practicable for light vehi-
years (Micali, Mon. Ined. p. 195, tav. cles. The shorter runs on the right bank
XXXIV.; p. 403, tav. LIX. 0f the Fiora, but the other on the left
3 Strab. V. p. 225 ; Lactant. ad Stat. bank is preferable. This it is which is
Theb. IV. 224. Miiller (Etrusk. einl. described in the text. It is also marked
2, 6) thinks he derived this name from in the Map.