DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.786#0047
chap, xxxni.] THE BANDITACCIA. 31
These are found on all sides of the city, but particularly on
the high ground to the north, now called La Banditaccia.
Let not the traveller conceive vain fears from a name of so
ominous a sound, and which, his Guide-book will tell him,
was derived from the number of bandits who once infested
the spot.8 The name is simply indicative of the proprietor-
ship of the land, which once belonging to the comune, or
corporation of Oervetri, was terra bandita—"set apart;"
and, as it was uncultivated and broken ground, the termi-
nation descriptive of its ugliness was added—banditaccia.
It retains the name, though it has passed into the hands of
Prince Ruspoli. To reach it from Cervetri, you cross the
narrow glen to the north. Here in the cliffs opposite is
hollowed a long range of sepulchres, all greatly injured
within and without.9
This Banditaccia is a singular place—a Brobdignag
warren, studded with mole-hills. It confirmed the impres-
sion I had received at Bieda and other sites, that the
cemeteries of the Etruscans were often intentional repre-
sentations of their cities. Here were ranges of tombs
hollowed in low cliffs, rarely more than fifteen feet high,
not piled one on another as at Bieda, but on the same
level, facing each other as in streets, and sometimes
branching off laterally into smaller lanes or alleys. In one
part was a spacious square or piazza, surrounded by tombs
instead of houses. None of these sepulchres, it is true,
had architectural facades remaining, but the cliffs were
hewn into smooth, upright faces, and here and there
o Mrs. Gray, from whose account swarming with caverns, might well
that of the Hand-book is derived, may suggest such an appellation,
be excused having fallen into this 9 One of them has a small pilaster
error, when the same had been stated against its inner wall, with capital and
by the highest archaeological authorities abacus quite Doric, and shaft, also, of
in Rome. Cere Antica, p. 51. Bull. early Doric proportions, though resting
Inst., 1838, p. 171. In truth, a spot so on a square base.
These are found on all sides of the city, but particularly on
the high ground to the north, now called La Banditaccia.
Let not the traveller conceive vain fears from a name of so
ominous a sound, and which, his Guide-book will tell him,
was derived from the number of bandits who once infested
the spot.8 The name is simply indicative of the proprietor-
ship of the land, which once belonging to the comune, or
corporation of Oervetri, was terra bandita—"set apart;"
and, as it was uncultivated and broken ground, the termi-
nation descriptive of its ugliness was added—banditaccia.
It retains the name, though it has passed into the hands of
Prince Ruspoli. To reach it from Cervetri, you cross the
narrow glen to the north. Here in the cliffs opposite is
hollowed a long range of sepulchres, all greatly injured
within and without.9
This Banditaccia is a singular place—a Brobdignag
warren, studded with mole-hills. It confirmed the impres-
sion I had received at Bieda and other sites, that the
cemeteries of the Etruscans were often intentional repre-
sentations of their cities. Here were ranges of tombs
hollowed in low cliffs, rarely more than fifteen feet high,
not piled one on another as at Bieda, but on the same
level, facing each other as in streets, and sometimes
branching off laterally into smaller lanes or alleys. In one
part was a spacious square or piazza, surrounded by tombs
instead of houses. None of these sepulchres, it is true,
had architectural facades remaining, but the cliffs were
hewn into smooth, upright faces, and here and there
o Mrs. Gray, from whose account swarming with caverns, might well
that of the Hand-book is derived, may suggest such an appellation,
be excused having fallen into this 9 One of them has a small pilaster
error, when the same had been stated against its inner wall, with capital and
by the highest archaeological authorities abacus quite Doric, and shaft, also, of
in Rome. Cere Antica, p. 51. Bull. early Doric proportions, though resting
Inst., 1838, p. 171. In truth, a spot so on a square base.