DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.786#0256
chap, xliii.] THE SPECULAR MOUNT. 239
at the present day along the coasts of Italy. It may have
stood on this height, which commands a wide view of the
Mediterranean, though Repetti thinks it probably occupied
the eastern cliff, which is still known by the name of
Punto della Tonnarella, From this " specular mount" you
perceive that Populonia is situated, as Strabo describes it,
" on a lofty promontory, sinking abruptly to the sea, and
forming a. peninsula." The Castle hides the view of
the bay; but on the north the coast is seen trending
away in a long low line towards the mountains around
Leghorn; and even the snowy Apennines above the Gulf
of Spezia may be descried in clear weather. As the eye
sweeps round the horizon of waters, it meets the steep
rock of Gorgona, then the larger and nearer island of
Capraja, and, if the weather be very clear, the mountain-
crests of Corsica beyond. But those of Sardinia are not
visible, though Strabo has recorded his experience to the
contrary, and Macaulay, on his authority, has sung of
" sea-girt Populonia,
Whose sentinels descry
Sardinia's snowy mountain-tops
Fringing the southern sky."
Even were the distance not too great, the broad mass
of Elba which fills the south-western horizon, would
effectually conceal them from the view. That island rises
in a long line of dark peaks, the loftiest of which on
the right is Monte Campana; and the highest at the
other end of the range, is crowned by the town of Rio.
beacon-tower on the fortifications, in- Sed speculam, validse rupis sortita
stead of a Pharos built as usual on the vetustas,
mole ; so that a double purpose was Qua fluctus domitos arduus urget
served (I. 403—8) :— apex.
Non illic positas extollit in sethera Castellum geminos hominum funda-
moles vit in usus,
Lumine noctumo conspicienda Presidium terris, indiciumque
Pharos ; fretis.
at the present day along the coasts of Italy. It may have
stood on this height, which commands a wide view of the
Mediterranean, though Repetti thinks it probably occupied
the eastern cliff, which is still known by the name of
Punto della Tonnarella, From this " specular mount" you
perceive that Populonia is situated, as Strabo describes it,
" on a lofty promontory, sinking abruptly to the sea, and
forming a. peninsula." The Castle hides the view of
the bay; but on the north the coast is seen trending
away in a long low line towards the mountains around
Leghorn; and even the snowy Apennines above the Gulf
of Spezia may be descried in clear weather. As the eye
sweeps round the horizon of waters, it meets the steep
rock of Gorgona, then the larger and nearer island of
Capraja, and, if the weather be very clear, the mountain-
crests of Corsica beyond. But those of Sardinia are not
visible, though Strabo has recorded his experience to the
contrary, and Macaulay, on his authority, has sung of
" sea-girt Populonia,
Whose sentinels descry
Sardinia's snowy mountain-tops
Fringing the southern sky."
Even were the distance not too great, the broad mass
of Elba which fills the south-western horizon, would
effectually conceal them from the view. That island rises
in a long line of dark peaks, the loftiest of which on
the right is Monte Campana; and the highest at the
other end of the range, is crowned by the town of Rio.
beacon-tower on the fortifications, in- Sed speculam, validse rupis sortita
stead of a Pharos built as usual on the vetustas,
mole ; so that a double purpose was Qua fluctus domitos arduus urget
served (I. 403—8) :— apex.
Non illic positas extollit in sethera Castellum geminos hominum funda-
moles vit in usus,
Lumine noctumo conspicienda Presidium terris, indiciumque
Pharos ; fretis.