DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0507
chap, xxi.] DATE OF THE BRIDGE AND AQUEDUCT. 401
the bridge is of different dates. It has three projecting
piers of red tufo, much weather-worn, which are obviously
of earlier construction than the neat and harder nenfro
masonry which encases them. Both are in the same
emplecton style, like the walls of Sutri, Nepi, and Falleri;
and the nenfro portion is, in part, rusticated. This style,
having been adopted by the Romans, affords no decided
clue to the constructors of the bridge. The return-facing
of the arch, however, is of travertine, and may with
certainty be referred to that people, as it possesses features
in common with bridges of undoubted Roman origin—the
Ponte d'Augusto at Narni, and the celebrated Pont du
Gard. The aqueduct, also, I take to be Roman, simply
because it passes over arches of that construction ; for the
skill of the Etruscans in hydraulics is so well attested, as
to make it highly probable that to them were the Romans
indebted for that description of structure. The tufo
buttresses are very probably Etruscan, for they are
evidently the piers of the original bridge ; and may have
been united, as Lenoir suggests, by a horizontal frame of
wood-work—a plan often adopted by the Romans, in the
Sublician, to wit—which subsequently gave place to the
nenfro masonry of the close of the Republic, and to the
arches. This seems a plausible hypothesis ; and, in default
of a better, I am willing to adopt it. The nenfro and
travertine portions are, in any case, of Roman times, what-
ever be the antiquity of the tufo piers.8
The enormous,masses of stalactite which drape the bridge
seem to indicate a high antiquity for the whole structure ;
3 These piers are merely encased, not is known to be of high antiquity. Ann.
connected with the rest of the structure. Inst. 1832, p. 261. Westphal (Ann. Inst.
Lenoir points out an analogy, as 1830, p. 40) takes the Ponte dellaBadia
regards these tufo piers, between this to be Roman, from its similarity to other
bridge and the Ponte Nonno, on the Via bridges of that construction.
Prsenestina, near the site of Gabii, which
VOL. I. D D
the bridge is of different dates. It has three projecting
piers of red tufo, much weather-worn, which are obviously
of earlier construction than the neat and harder nenfro
masonry which encases them. Both are in the same
emplecton style, like the walls of Sutri, Nepi, and Falleri;
and the nenfro portion is, in part, rusticated. This style,
having been adopted by the Romans, affords no decided
clue to the constructors of the bridge. The return-facing
of the arch, however, is of travertine, and may with
certainty be referred to that people, as it possesses features
in common with bridges of undoubted Roman origin—the
Ponte d'Augusto at Narni, and the celebrated Pont du
Gard. The aqueduct, also, I take to be Roman, simply
because it passes over arches of that construction ; for the
skill of the Etruscans in hydraulics is so well attested, as
to make it highly probable that to them were the Romans
indebted for that description of structure. The tufo
buttresses are very probably Etruscan, for they are
evidently the piers of the original bridge ; and may have
been united, as Lenoir suggests, by a horizontal frame of
wood-work—a plan often adopted by the Romans, in the
Sublician, to wit—which subsequently gave place to the
nenfro masonry of the close of the Republic, and to the
arches. This seems a plausible hypothesis ; and, in default
of a better, I am willing to adopt it. The nenfro and
travertine portions are, in any case, of Roman times, what-
ever be the antiquity of the tufo piers.8
The enormous,masses of stalactite which drape the bridge
seem to indicate a high antiquity for the whole structure ;
3 These piers are merely encased, not is known to be of high antiquity. Ann.
connected with the rest of the structure. Inst. 1832, p. 261. Westphal (Ann. Inst.
Lenoir points out an analogy, as 1830, p. 40) takes the Ponte dellaBadia
regards these tufo piers, between this to be Roman, from its similarity to other
bridge and the Ponte Nonno, on the Via bridges of that construction.
Prsenestina, near the site of Gabii, which
VOL. I. D D