DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.786#0513
496
ROME.
[chap. lix.
Chamber of Terra-Cottas.
In the centre of this room stands a beautiful terra-cotta
statue of Mercury, with caduceus and petasus, found at
Tivoli, and of Roman art.1 There are also three fragments
of female statues in marble, from Vulci, and much admired.
Genuinely Etruscan is the small terra-cotta figure of a
youth lying on a couch. From the gash in his thigh, and
the hound at his bed-side, he is usually called Adonis ;
but it may be merely the effigy of some young Etruscan,
who met his death in the wild-boar chase. This is a
sepulchral urn, found at Toscanella, in 1834.2
untold antiquity. As far back as his-
tory extends, the crater has been extinct
and filled with the waters of the lake.
During the siege of Veii, about four
hundred years before Christ, the lake
overflowed, and gave occasion for the
cutting of the Emissary. See Vol. I.
p. 31. Many centuries previous, if we
may believe tradition, Alba Longa was
built on the ridge surrounding the lake
(Dion. Hal. I. p. S3), so that the volcano
must have been extinct at least twelve
hundred years before the Christian era,
possibly even many ages earlier. It
must be admitted, however, that it is
more probable that these sepulchral
relies were placed beneath the volcanic
stratum for greater security, especially
seeing that they were found near the
edge. Yet though not antediluvian, as
was at first conjectured, there can be
no doubt of their very remote antiquity.
All analogy proves this. As the Etrus-
can and Roman sepulchral monuments
were often imitations of temples or
houses, these, which have a much ruder
structure as their type, the shepherd's
hut of skins, show a far more primitive
origin ; and the style of art and the
workmanship confirm this view and
mark them as among the most ancient
relics in Europe, yielding to nothing
from the tombs of Etruria. The ashes
they contain are probably those of the
inhabitants of Alba Longa. The learned,
however, are not yet agreed as to their
antiquity ; for while one party main-
tains them to be antediluvian, another
thinks, from their resemblance to Alpine
huts, that they must have been formed
by some of the Swiss soldiers in the
Pope's service ! Such an opinion I
once heard broached at a meeting of
savans. Bull. Inst. 1846, p. 95.
A detailed account of these disco-
veries has been published by Dr. Ales-
sandro Viseonti, in his " Lettera al
Signor Giuseppe Carnevali d' Albano
sopra alcuni vasi sepolcrali rinvenuti
nella vicinanza dell' antica Alba Longa,
Roma, 1817," — a strange farrago of
facts, quotations, fancies, fallacies, and
leaps at conclusions. For illustrations,
see Visconti's work, and Inghirami,
Mon. Etrus. VI. tav. C 4, D 4.
1 There is a similar figure in marble,
in the Galleria Lapidaria of the Vatican.
2 Museo Gregoriano, I. tav. XCIII. 1«
Abeken takes it to represent Meleager.
Mittelitalien, p. 367.
ROME.
[chap. lix.
Chamber of Terra-Cottas.
In the centre of this room stands a beautiful terra-cotta
statue of Mercury, with caduceus and petasus, found at
Tivoli, and of Roman art.1 There are also three fragments
of female statues in marble, from Vulci, and much admired.
Genuinely Etruscan is the small terra-cotta figure of a
youth lying on a couch. From the gash in his thigh, and
the hound at his bed-side, he is usually called Adonis ;
but it may be merely the effigy of some young Etruscan,
who met his death in the wild-boar chase. This is a
sepulchral urn, found at Toscanella, in 1834.2
untold antiquity. As far back as his-
tory extends, the crater has been extinct
and filled with the waters of the lake.
During the siege of Veii, about four
hundred years before Christ, the lake
overflowed, and gave occasion for the
cutting of the Emissary. See Vol. I.
p. 31. Many centuries previous, if we
may believe tradition, Alba Longa was
built on the ridge surrounding the lake
(Dion. Hal. I. p. S3), so that the volcano
must have been extinct at least twelve
hundred years before the Christian era,
possibly even many ages earlier. It
must be admitted, however, that it is
more probable that these sepulchral
relies were placed beneath the volcanic
stratum for greater security, especially
seeing that they were found near the
edge. Yet though not antediluvian, as
was at first conjectured, there can be
no doubt of their very remote antiquity.
All analogy proves this. As the Etrus-
can and Roman sepulchral monuments
were often imitations of temples or
houses, these, which have a much ruder
structure as their type, the shepherd's
hut of skins, show a far more primitive
origin ; and the style of art and the
workmanship confirm this view and
mark them as among the most ancient
relics in Europe, yielding to nothing
from the tombs of Etruria. The ashes
they contain are probably those of the
inhabitants of Alba Longa. The learned,
however, are not yet agreed as to their
antiquity ; for while one party main-
tains them to be antediluvian, another
thinks, from their resemblance to Alpine
huts, that they must have been formed
by some of the Swiss soldiers in the
Pope's service ! Such an opinion I
once heard broached at a meeting of
savans. Bull. Inst. 1846, p. 95.
A detailed account of these disco-
veries has been published by Dr. Ales-
sandro Viseonti, in his " Lettera al
Signor Giuseppe Carnevali d' Albano
sopra alcuni vasi sepolcrali rinvenuti
nella vicinanza dell' antica Alba Longa,
Roma, 1817," — a strange farrago of
facts, quotations, fancies, fallacies, and
leaps at conclusions. For illustrations,
see Visconti's work, and Inghirami,
Mon. Etrus. VI. tav. C 4, D 4.
1 There is a similar figure in marble,
in the Galleria Lapidaria of the Vatican.
2 Museo Gregoriano, I. tav. XCIII. 1«
Abeken takes it to represent Meleager.
Mittelitalien, p. 367.