DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.847#0104
VEIL
gates, viz: 1, Port Romana; 2, Porta delArce;
3, Porta di Fidena ; 4, Porta di Flaminia; 5, Porta
Capena; 6, Porta del Fiume ; 7, Porta del Ruseello;
8, Porta di Sutri; and 9, Porta Nepete, or Ponte Sodo;
with the roads leading to them. Now the greater
number of these roads are obliterated, and their
fine Etruscan pavement lies in powder upon the cart
and carriage ways around. The idle neglect that
has attended Veii is remarkable. Whilst the Roman
colony yet occupied the ancient Forum in the reign
of Adrian, a. d. 117, Florus would write, "Who
now knoweth the situation of Veii ? In our annals
alone is it to be found." And yet four miles of wall,
the foundations of which were perfect, presented
themselves within a few yards of that portion which
was inhabited by his own people! Propertius, with
more correctness and not less poetry, tells us that in
his day the shepherds fed their flocks within the
ancient walls.
" Nunc intra muros pastoris buccina lenti cantat.''
The Imperial Romans got out of acquaintance with
Veii the ruin, and Veii the village, because the Via
Cassia constructed in a.u.c. 628, which superseded
the Via Vejentina, led them near it instead of
through it, and they gradually arrived at a poetical
doubt that it had ever existed.
Modern antiquaries,misled by them, and by a spirit
either of invention or contradiction, threw aside the
authority of Strabo, who placed it truly twelve miles
from Rome, and that of tradition, which still
retained its site where it had ever been, and placed
it at Civita Castellana, on the authority of an inscrip-
gates, viz: 1, Port Romana; 2, Porta delArce;
3, Porta di Fidena ; 4, Porta di Flaminia; 5, Porta
Capena; 6, Porta del Fiume ; 7, Porta del Ruseello;
8, Porta di Sutri; and 9, Porta Nepete, or Ponte Sodo;
with the roads leading to them. Now the greater
number of these roads are obliterated, and their
fine Etruscan pavement lies in powder upon the cart
and carriage ways around. The idle neglect that
has attended Veii is remarkable. Whilst the Roman
colony yet occupied the ancient Forum in the reign
of Adrian, a. d. 117, Florus would write, "Who
now knoweth the situation of Veii ? In our annals
alone is it to be found." And yet four miles of wall,
the foundations of which were perfect, presented
themselves within a few yards of that portion which
was inhabited by his own people! Propertius, with
more correctness and not less poetry, tells us that in
his day the shepherds fed their flocks within the
ancient walls.
" Nunc intra muros pastoris buccina lenti cantat.''
The Imperial Romans got out of acquaintance with
Veii the ruin, and Veii the village, because the Via
Cassia constructed in a.u.c. 628, which superseded
the Via Vejentina, led them near it instead of
through it, and they gradually arrived at a poetical
doubt that it had ever existed.
Modern antiquaries,misled by them, and by a spirit
either of invention or contradiction, threw aside the
authority of Strabo, who placed it truly twelve miles
from Rome, and that of tradition, which still
retained its site where it had ever been, and placed
it at Civita Castellana, on the authority of an inscrip-