DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.786#0035
chap, xxxin.] THE MODERN VILLAGE. 19
rural quiet of the scene. Sword and spear are exchanged
for crook and ploughshare ; and the only sound likely to
catch the ear is the lowing of cattle, the baying of sheep-
dogs, or the cry of the pecorajo as he marches at the head
of his flock, and calls them to foUow him to their fold or to
fresh pastures.3 Silvanus, " the god of fields and cattle,"
has still dominion in the land.4
If the traveller be in a vehicle, he must leave the high
road a little before reaching the Vaccina, where a country-
track crosses the downs to Cervetri. This same track he
must pursue should he approach Cervetri from the side of
Palo. For the pedestrian or horseman there is another,
but longer path, just before reaching a second streamlet,
known by the ominous name of La Sanguinara.5 By the
carriage-track he will ford the Vaccina at the chapel of
Sta Maria de' Canneti, and presently finds himself between
the walls of Cervetri and the heights of the ancient city.
Cervetri, the representative of Agylla, is a miserable
village, with 100 or 200 inhabitants, and is utterly void of
interest. It is surrounded by fortifications of the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries, and stands just without the line of
the ancient walls, so that it is annexed to, rather than
occupies, the site of the original city. The village, and the
3 This scene, of sheep following their 1241) speaks of the valleys or glens of
shepherd, attracted by his voice, often Agylla, abounding in flocks.—
meets the eye of the traveller in the ,. ,,, a, , ,. ,,, ,
East; and beautiful allusion is made to
it in Holy Writ (John X., 3, et seq.). 5 Livy (XXII. 1,) relates that, in the
Oxen and goats also, in Corsica, and year 537, "the waters of Caere flowed
even swine, in Italy, of old, used to mingled with blood." Cf.Val. Max. I. 6,5.
follow their herdsman, at the sound of The Aquae Cseretes, here mentioned, are
his trumpet. Polybius (XII. pp. 654, generally supposed to be the same as the
655, ed. Casaub.), who records this fact, Sepim Kaiperavh of Strabo (V. p. 220),
remarks that while the swineherds of now called the Bagni del Sasso, four
Greece walked behind, those of Italy miles west of Cervetri. May not the
invariably preceded, their herds. above tradition be preserved in the name
4 This region was famed for its cattle of this stream?
in the olden time. Lycophron (Cass.
C 2
rural quiet of the scene. Sword and spear are exchanged
for crook and ploughshare ; and the only sound likely to
catch the ear is the lowing of cattle, the baying of sheep-
dogs, or the cry of the pecorajo as he marches at the head
of his flock, and calls them to foUow him to their fold or to
fresh pastures.3 Silvanus, " the god of fields and cattle,"
has still dominion in the land.4
If the traveller be in a vehicle, he must leave the high
road a little before reaching the Vaccina, where a country-
track crosses the downs to Cervetri. This same track he
must pursue should he approach Cervetri from the side of
Palo. For the pedestrian or horseman there is another,
but longer path, just before reaching a second streamlet,
known by the ominous name of La Sanguinara.5 By the
carriage-track he will ford the Vaccina at the chapel of
Sta Maria de' Canneti, and presently finds himself between
the walls of Cervetri and the heights of the ancient city.
Cervetri, the representative of Agylla, is a miserable
village, with 100 or 200 inhabitants, and is utterly void of
interest. It is surrounded by fortifications of the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries, and stands just without the line of
the ancient walls, so that it is annexed to, rather than
occupies, the site of the original city. The village, and the
3 This scene, of sheep following their 1241) speaks of the valleys or glens of
shepherd, attracted by his voice, often Agylla, abounding in flocks.—
meets the eye of the traveller in the ,. ,,, a, , ,. ,,, ,
East; and beautiful allusion is made to
it in Holy Writ (John X., 3, et seq.). 5 Livy (XXII. 1,) relates that, in the
Oxen and goats also, in Corsica, and year 537, "the waters of Caere flowed
even swine, in Italy, of old, used to mingled with blood." Cf.Val. Max. I. 6,5.
follow their herdsman, at the sound of The Aquae Cseretes, here mentioned, are
his trumpet. Polybius (XII. pp. 654, generally supposed to be the same as the
655, ed. Casaub.), who records this fact, Sepim Kaiperavh of Strabo (V. p. 220),
remarks that while the swineherds of now called the Bagni del Sasso, four
Greece walked behind, those of Italy miles west of Cervetri. May not the
invariably preceded, their herds. above tradition be preserved in the name
4 This region was famed for its cattle of this stream?
in the olden time. Lycophron (Cass.
C 2