DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.786#0026
10 SANTA MARINELLA. [chap. xxxi.
Here, then, stood the town in whose cemetery the
Duchess of Sermoneta made excavations. What was its
name 1 We have no mention by ancient authors of any
town on this coast between Alsium and Centum Cellse,
whose site has not been determined. That this was of
very ancient date, may be inferred from the silence of
Roman writers, as well as from the character of the
remains, which mark it as Etruscan. Now, on the coast
immediately below it stands the Torre di Chiaruccia, the
Castrum Novum of antiquity; a name which manifestly
implies the existence of a more ancient fortress, a Castrum
Vetus, in the neighbourhood; which, there can be little
doubt, is the place whose remains occupy the Puntone
del Castrate9 This may have fallen into decay before the
domination of the Romans, or it may have been destroyed
by them at the conquest, and when a colony was to be
established, a fresh site was chosen on the coast below,
probably for convenience sake; or it may be, that the
entire population of the old town was transferred to the
new, for the same reasons that led to the formation of
the duplicate cities of Palerii and Volsinii.10
9 This conjecture of mine is confirmed when those maps were executed,
by the actual name of the site, as Dr. 10 Cramer (Ancient Italy, I. p. 203)
Braun suggests (Bull. Inst. 1847,p. 94)— supposes that the Castrum Vetus implied
Castrato being, probably, a mere corrup- in the Castrum Novum was the Castrum
tion of the ancient name. I am indebted Inui of the Latin coast, mentioned by
to the Car. Canina for the information Virgil (iEn. VI. 776), which Servius (ad
that a mosaic discovered a few years loc.) and Rutilius (I. 232), on the other
since at Sta Marinella, bore the repre- hand, seem to confound with Castrum
sentation of a town on a height, which Novum. A Castrum is mentioned by
he suggests may have been this on the Paterculus (I. 14) as colonised at the
Puntone del Castrato. In the old fresco commencement of the First Punic War
maps in the galleries of the Vatican, (cf. Liv. epit. XI.); but from the con-
some ruins are indicated on this height, text it may be gathered that the Castrum
though no name is attached. This in Picenum is here referred to. Cramer,
shows that the site was recognised as p. 285.
ancient at the close of the 16th century,
Here, then, stood the town in whose cemetery the
Duchess of Sermoneta made excavations. What was its
name 1 We have no mention by ancient authors of any
town on this coast between Alsium and Centum Cellse,
whose site has not been determined. That this was of
very ancient date, may be inferred from the silence of
Roman writers, as well as from the character of the
remains, which mark it as Etruscan. Now, on the coast
immediately below it stands the Torre di Chiaruccia, the
Castrum Novum of antiquity; a name which manifestly
implies the existence of a more ancient fortress, a Castrum
Vetus, in the neighbourhood; which, there can be little
doubt, is the place whose remains occupy the Puntone
del Castrate9 This may have fallen into decay before the
domination of the Romans, or it may have been destroyed
by them at the conquest, and when a colony was to be
established, a fresh site was chosen on the coast below,
probably for convenience sake; or it may be, that the
entire population of the old town was transferred to the
new, for the same reasons that led to the formation of
the duplicate cities of Palerii and Volsinii.10
9 This conjecture of mine is confirmed when those maps were executed,
by the actual name of the site, as Dr. 10 Cramer (Ancient Italy, I. p. 203)
Braun suggests (Bull. Inst. 1847,p. 94)— supposes that the Castrum Vetus implied
Castrato being, probably, a mere corrup- in the Castrum Novum was the Castrum
tion of the ancient name. I am indebted Inui of the Latin coast, mentioned by
to the Car. Canina for the information Virgil (iEn. VI. 776), which Servius (ad
that a mosaic discovered a few years loc.) and Rutilius (I. 232), on the other
since at Sta Marinella, bore the repre- hand, seem to confound with Castrum
sentation of a town on a height, which Novum. A Castrum is mentioned by
he suggests may have been this on the Paterculus (I. 14) as colonised at the
Puntone del Castrato. In the old fresco commencement of the First Punic War
maps in the galleries of the Vatican, (cf. Liv. epit. XI.); but from the con-
some ruins are indicated on this height, text it may be gathered that the Castrum
though no name is attached. This in Picenum is here referred to. Cramer,
shows that the site was recognised as p. 285.
ancient at the close of the 16th century,