DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.786#0171
chap, xl.] EXTENT OF THE ANCIENT CITY. 155
the east, and turns sharp to the south. The path to the
Seminario leads along the very top of the walls, which are
here from, fourteen to seventeen feet in thickness. They
are not solid throughout, but built with two faces of
masonry, having the intervening space stuffed with rubbish,
just as in the cob-walls of England, and as in that sort of
emplecton, which Vitruvius characterises as Roman.9 Just
beneath the Seminario another postern may be distin-
guished. Prom this point you may trace the line of the
ancient walls, by fragments, beneath those of the modern
town and of the Fortress, round to the Porta all' Arco.
The circumference of the ancient walls has been said to
be about four miles;l but it appears more, as the sinuosities
of the ground are very great. But pause, traveller, ere
you venture to make the entire tour of them. Unless you
be prepared for great fatigue—to cross ploughed land—
climb and descend steeps—force your way through dense
woods and thickset hedges—wade through swamps in the
hollows if it be winter—follow the beds of streams, and
creep at the brink of precipices; in a word, to make a
fairy-like progress
" Over hill, over dale,
Thorough bush, thorough brier,
Over park, over pale,
Thorough flood—"
and only not
"thorough fire—"
think not of the entire giro. Verily—
Viribus uteris per clivos, flumina, lamas.
9 Vitruv. II. 8, 7. Compare Vol. I. cuit will be more than 4J miles. Gori(III.
p. 107. This style of" stuffed" walls is p. 32) cites an authority who ascribes to
not uncommon in the cities of Greece. them a circuit of more than 5 miles. Old
1 Micali, Ant. Pop.Ital. I. p. 141, and Alberti says, the city was in the form of
II. p. 209. Abeken (Mittelital. p. 30) calls a hand, the headlands representing the
it 21,000 feet. If Micali's map be correct, fingers. But it requires a lively fancy
which calls it 7,28073 metres, the cir- to perceive the likeness.
the east, and turns sharp to the south. The path to the
Seminario leads along the very top of the walls, which are
here from, fourteen to seventeen feet in thickness. They
are not solid throughout, but built with two faces of
masonry, having the intervening space stuffed with rubbish,
just as in the cob-walls of England, and as in that sort of
emplecton, which Vitruvius characterises as Roman.9 Just
beneath the Seminario another postern may be distin-
guished. Prom this point you may trace the line of the
ancient walls, by fragments, beneath those of the modern
town and of the Fortress, round to the Porta all' Arco.
The circumference of the ancient walls has been said to
be about four miles;l but it appears more, as the sinuosities
of the ground are very great. But pause, traveller, ere
you venture to make the entire tour of them. Unless you
be prepared for great fatigue—to cross ploughed land—
climb and descend steeps—force your way through dense
woods and thickset hedges—wade through swamps in the
hollows if it be winter—follow the beds of streams, and
creep at the brink of precipices; in a word, to make a
fairy-like progress
" Over hill, over dale,
Thorough bush, thorough brier,
Over park, over pale,
Thorough flood—"
and only not
"thorough fire—"
think not of the entire giro. Verily—
Viribus uteris per clivos, flumina, lamas.
9 Vitruv. II. 8, 7. Compare Vol. I. cuit will be more than 4J miles. Gori(III.
p. 107. This style of" stuffed" walls is p. 32) cites an authority who ascribes to
not uncommon in the cities of Greece. them a circuit of more than 5 miles. Old
1 Micali, Ant. Pop.Ital. I. p. 141, and Alberti says, the city was in the form of
II. p. 209. Abeken (Mittelital. p. 30) calls a hand, the headlands representing the
it 21,000 feet. If Micali's map be correct, fingers. But it requires a lively fancy
which calls it 7,28073 metres, the cir- to perceive the likeness.