DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0630
522 MONTE FIASCONE. [chap, xxvui.
in the case of Feronia, there must have been a permanent
population on the spot, attracted by the temple and the
wants of the worshippers. This would explain the tombs
found on the slopes of the hill.
Well may this height have been chosen as the site of
the national temple! It commands a magnificent and
truly Etruscan panorama. The lake shines beneath in all
its breadth and beauty—truly meriting the title of " the
great lake of Italy 6 "—and though the towers and palaces
of Volsinii have long ceased to sparkle on its bosom,
it still mirrors the white cliffs of its twin islets, and the
distant snow-peaks of Amiata and Cetona. In every other
direction is one "intermingled pomp of vale and hill."
In the east rise the dark mountains of Umbria ; and the
long line of mist at their foot marks the course of " the
Etruscan stream"—
" the noble river
That rolls by the towers of Rome."
The giant Apennines of Sabina loom afar off, dim through
the hazy noon; and the nearer Ciminian, dark with
its once dread forests, stretches its triple-crested mass
across the southern horizon. Fertile and populous was
the country, numerous and potent the cities, that lay
beneath the confederate princes as they sat here in council;
and many an eye in the wide plain would turn hitherward
as to the ark of national safety. The warriors gathering
at the sacred lake in defence of their children's homes and
fathers' sepulchres, would look to the great goddess for
succour—the augur on the distant arx of Tarquinii or
implied by Livy (VI. 2) when he says at the similar annual meetings of the
that merchants brought to Rome the ^Etolian League at Thermum. Polyb.
news of the Etruscan council at the V. 1.
Fanum Voltumnse. Fairs were held 6 Plin. N. H. II. 96.
in the case of Feronia, there must have been a permanent
population on the spot, attracted by the temple and the
wants of the worshippers. This would explain the tombs
found on the slopes of the hill.
Well may this height have been chosen as the site of
the national temple! It commands a magnificent and
truly Etruscan panorama. The lake shines beneath in all
its breadth and beauty—truly meriting the title of " the
great lake of Italy 6 "—and though the towers and palaces
of Volsinii have long ceased to sparkle on its bosom,
it still mirrors the white cliffs of its twin islets, and the
distant snow-peaks of Amiata and Cetona. In every other
direction is one "intermingled pomp of vale and hill."
In the east rise the dark mountains of Umbria ; and the
long line of mist at their foot marks the course of " the
Etruscan stream"—
" the noble river
That rolls by the towers of Rome."
The giant Apennines of Sabina loom afar off, dim through
the hazy noon; and the nearer Ciminian, dark with
its once dread forests, stretches its triple-crested mass
across the southern horizon. Fertile and populous was
the country, numerous and potent the cities, that lay
beneath the confederate princes as they sat here in council;
and many an eye in the wide plain would turn hitherward
as to the ark of national safety. The warriors gathering
at the sacred lake in defence of their children's homes and
fathers' sepulchres, would look to the great goddess for
succour—the augur on the distant arx of Tarquinii or
implied by Livy (VI. 2) when he says at the similar annual meetings of the
that merchants brought to Rome the ^Etolian League at Thermum. Polyb.
news of the Etruscan council at the V. 1.
Fanum Voltumnse. Fairs were held 6 Plin. N. H. II. 96.