DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61894#0293
Ch. VIII.
THROUGH ITALY.
263
particular, bending' over an abundant fountain,
spreads such a luxuriancy of foliage, and forms
a shade so thick and impenetrable as would have
justified Plato’s partiality and Scsevola’s enco-
miums.
From Grotta Ferrata we proceeded to the hills
that hang over Frescati, the summit of which
was once crowned w ith Tusculum, whose eleva-
tion and edifices of white stone made it a beau-
tiful and striking object in Roman landscape* *,
and communicated its name to all the rural re-
treats (and there were many) in its neighborhood.
This town survived the hostilities of the barba-
rians, and w?as doomed to fall in a civil contest by
the hands of the Romans themselves, about the
year 1190. Its ruins remain scattered in long
lines of wall, and of shattered arches, inter-
mingled with shrubs and bushes, over the sum-
mit and along the sides of the mountain. The
The scene of these Dialogues is laid in Crassus’s Tuscu-
lan villa, the same, if I mistake not, which was afterwards
Sylla’s and then Cicero’s.
* Superni villa candens Tusculi.
Horace here appropriates to the villa of his friend a qua-
lity, which it possessed in common with the town, and all
the great buildings in the same situation^
THROUGH ITALY.
263
particular, bending' over an abundant fountain,
spreads such a luxuriancy of foliage, and forms
a shade so thick and impenetrable as would have
justified Plato’s partiality and Scsevola’s enco-
miums.
From Grotta Ferrata we proceeded to the hills
that hang over Frescati, the summit of which
was once crowned w ith Tusculum, whose eleva-
tion and edifices of white stone made it a beau-
tiful and striking object in Roman landscape* *,
and communicated its name to all the rural re-
treats (and there were many) in its neighborhood.
This town survived the hostilities of the barba-
rians, and w?as doomed to fall in a civil contest by
the hands of the Romans themselves, about the
year 1190. Its ruins remain scattered in long
lines of wall, and of shattered arches, inter-
mingled with shrubs and bushes, over the sum-
mit and along the sides of the mountain. The
The scene of these Dialogues is laid in Crassus’s Tuscu-
lan villa, the same, if I mistake not, which was afterwards
Sylla’s and then Cicero’s.
* Superni villa candens Tusculi.
Horace here appropriates to the villa of his friend a qua-
lity, which it possessed in common with the town, and all
the great buildings in the same situation^