DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.786#0045
chap, xxxm.] VESTIGES OF THE ANCIENT CITY. 29
peasant follows his plough, the husbandman dresses his
vines, and the shepherd tends his flock, unconscious that he
is treading over the streets and buildings of a city among
the most renowned of ancient times, and thirty times
more extensive than the miserable village which has
preserved its name.
Let not the traveller omit to visit the site of Caere under
the impression that there is nothing to be seen. If of
antiquarian tastes, he will have the satisfaction of deter-
mining the extent, form, and position of the city,—he will
perceive that it was four or five miles in circuit, and there-
fore fully substantiating its claim to be ranked among the
first of Etruria,—that it was of oblong form,—that it had
eight gates, all most distinctly traceable, some approached
by roads sunk in the rock and fined with tombs, others
retaining their flanking walls of masonry,—he will see in
the cliffs around the city, the mouths of sewers above, and
more frequently tombs of various forms below; and he will
learn from the few fragments that remain, that the walls of
Caere were composed of rectangular blocks of tufo, of
similar size and arrangement to those in the walls of Veii
and Tarquinii, and utterly different from those of Pyrgi,
which had a common origin.7
7 Canina (Cere Antica p. 52) says still more distinct on the western side,
there are no vestiges of the walls which I could perceive no such remains; all
surrounded the city ; but foundations the fragments I observed being of an
may, in several parts, be traced along uniform character — rectangular tufo
the brow of the cliffs, and on the side masonry, of smaller blocks than usual,
opposite the Banditaccia, for a consi- and very similar in size and arrangement
derable extent. Many of the ancient to the fragments of walling at Veii (Vol.
blocks have been removed of late years I. p. 15), and Tarquinii (Vol. I. p. 333),
to construct walls in the neighbourhood, and to the ancient fortifications on the
and I was an indignant witness of this height of S. Silvestro, near the Tiber,
destruction, on one of my visits to the which I take to mark the site of Fescen-
site. Nibby (I. p. 358) speaks of traces nium (Vol. I. p. 160). It is neverthe-
of the more ancient or Pelasgic walls less possible that these walls are of
of large irregularly squared blocks, along Pelasgic construction; for, as the only
the cliffs on the east of the city, and material on the spot is soft tufo, which
peasant follows his plough, the husbandman dresses his
vines, and the shepherd tends his flock, unconscious that he
is treading over the streets and buildings of a city among
the most renowned of ancient times, and thirty times
more extensive than the miserable village which has
preserved its name.
Let not the traveller omit to visit the site of Caere under
the impression that there is nothing to be seen. If of
antiquarian tastes, he will have the satisfaction of deter-
mining the extent, form, and position of the city,—he will
perceive that it was four or five miles in circuit, and there-
fore fully substantiating its claim to be ranked among the
first of Etruria,—that it was of oblong form,—that it had
eight gates, all most distinctly traceable, some approached
by roads sunk in the rock and fined with tombs, others
retaining their flanking walls of masonry,—he will see in
the cliffs around the city, the mouths of sewers above, and
more frequently tombs of various forms below; and he will
learn from the few fragments that remain, that the walls of
Caere were composed of rectangular blocks of tufo, of
similar size and arrangement to those in the walls of Veii
and Tarquinii, and utterly different from those of Pyrgi,
which had a common origin.7
7 Canina (Cere Antica p. 52) says still more distinct on the western side,
there are no vestiges of the walls which I could perceive no such remains; all
surrounded the city ; but foundations the fragments I observed being of an
may, in several parts, be traced along uniform character — rectangular tufo
the brow of the cliffs, and on the side masonry, of smaller blocks than usual,
opposite the Banditaccia, for a consi- and very similar in size and arrangement
derable extent. Many of the ancient to the fragments of walling at Veii (Vol.
blocks have been removed of late years I. p. 15), and Tarquinii (Vol. I. p. 333),
to construct walls in the neighbourhood, and to the ancient fortifications on the
and I was an indignant witness of this height of S. Silvestro, near the Tiber,
destruction, on one of my visits to the which I take to mark the site of Fescen-
site. Nibby (I. p. 358) speaks of traces nium (Vol. I. p. 160). It is neverthe-
of the more ancient or Pelasgic walls less possible that these walls are of
of large irregularly squared blocks, along Pelasgic construction; for, as the only
the cliffs on the east of the city, and material on the spot is soft tufo, which