DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.786#0341
324
SATURNIA.
[chap. xlix.
that Caletra stood somewhere in this district, for Saturnia
was in its territory.6 The Fiora has here the same charac-
ter as at Vulci—a rapid stream overhung by lofty cliffs,
half draped with wood. The rocks are of the same forma-
tion—dark red or brown tufo, overlaid with a stratum of
white travertine, like a wedding cake with its top-crust of
sugar ; but as the plums are not visible till the cake has
been cut, so you can only see the soft volcanic rock, where
the hard aqueous deposit which covers it has been broken
away.
6 Liv. XXXIX. 55. It will be ob-
served that Livy does not speak of a
town of this name, merely of an ager—
" Saturnia colonia civium Romanorum
in agmm Caletranum est deducta ;"
and from this, and more clearly from
Pliny's notice (III. 8) — "oppidorum
veteruni nomina retinent agri Crustu-
minus, Caletranus "—it appears that
the Etruscan town had ceased to exist
before Imperial times — a fact which
may assist researches for its site. It
has been already observed (irf mpra,
p. 297), that Repetti suggests for
Caletra a site in the neighbourhood of
Magliano, and some would identify it
with the newly found city between that
village and the sea ; but there is no
reason to suppose from the only two
notices we have of Caletra, that it was
ever of such importance as that site
would indicate, which corresponds with
far more probability to the ancient
Vetulonia.
SATURNIA.
[chap. xlix.
that Caletra stood somewhere in this district, for Saturnia
was in its territory.6 The Fiora has here the same charac-
ter as at Vulci—a rapid stream overhung by lofty cliffs,
half draped with wood. The rocks are of the same forma-
tion—dark red or brown tufo, overlaid with a stratum of
white travertine, like a wedding cake with its top-crust of
sugar ; but as the plums are not visible till the cake has
been cut, so you can only see the soft volcanic rock, where
the hard aqueous deposit which covers it has been broken
away.
6 Liv. XXXIX. 55. It will be ob-
served that Livy does not speak of a
town of this name, merely of an ager—
" Saturnia colonia civium Romanorum
in agmm Caletranum est deducta ;"
and from this, and more clearly from
Pliny's notice (III. 8) — "oppidorum
veteruni nomina retinent agri Crustu-
minus, Caletranus "—it appears that
the Etruscan town had ceased to exist
before Imperial times — a fact which
may assist researches for its site. It
has been already observed (irf mpra,
p. 297), that Repetti suggests for
Caletra a site in the neighbourhood of
Magliano, and some would identify it
with the newly found city between that
village and the sea ; but there is no
reason to suppose from the only two
notices we have of Caletra, that it was
ever of such importance as that site
would indicate, which corresponds with
far more probability to the ancient
Vetulonia.