DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6552#0246
APPENDIX.
207
pyramidal sepulchre of Porsenna, of which he gives the following
description:—" He was huried without the city (Clusium),1 under
a monument of squared stones ; each side of it was three hundred
feet broad, and fifty feet high. Within the square basis, an
inextricable labyrinth had been constructed; whither whosoever
adventured, without a clue, could not find a passage out. Upon
this square were placed five Pyramids — four in the angles, and
one in the centre — seventy-five feet broad at the bottom, and
one hundred and fifty in height; they were pointed in such a
manner, that at the top there was one brass circle, and cover-
ings for them all, from which bells suspended by chains, when
moved by the wind, give a sound afar off, like the building at
Dodona. Upon this circle four other Pyramids, each of them
one hundred feet high, had been contrived ; above which, upon
one plain, were five other Pyramids — the altitude of which Varro
hesitated to mention ; as, according to the ' Etruscan Fables,' ' it
w-as as much as that of the whole work: with so vain a madness
he sought glory by an expense useful to no man, wasting besides
the wealth of his kingdom, and after all the commendation of the
artificers should be the greatest.' "2
The learned professor then proceeds to describe the dimen-
sions, and construction of the Great Pyramid, which, he says, is
placed on a rocky eminence, situated on the border of the Libyan
desert, and about one hundred feet higher than the adjacent
plain. The mensurations, taken by Thales Milesius, were not
extant; and, in his opinion, the account of Diodorus Siculus was
more correct than those of the other antient authors. Professor
Greaves ascertained that the perpendicular height was four hun-
dred and ninety-nine feet; the inclined, six hundred and ninety-
three feet; and that the base was rather less, although it com-
prised 480,249 square feet ; that the summit terminated in a
small flat or square of 13 and fffo English feet, consisting of
1 Clusium, now Chiusi, in the Val Cliiana, was formerly denominated Camers.
Not a vestige remains of this tomb; but at Albano is an antient monument,
adorned with pyramids, vulgarly called that of the Iloralii and Curiatii, but sup-
posed, with more probability, to be the monument of Aruns, son of Porsenna, who
was killed at the storming of Aricia. These buildings, and the Egyptian forms,
seen in the portals of the Etruscan monuments at Castel d'Asso, and also at Tar-
quinia—and, it may be added, at the excavations in the valley of Cava Dessica,
between Noto and Modica, in Sicily—evidently determine the origin of the Etrus-
cans from Egypt, or from one common source.
3 I'liny, L. 3G. 13.
207
pyramidal sepulchre of Porsenna, of which he gives the following
description:—" He was huried without the city (Clusium),1 under
a monument of squared stones ; each side of it was three hundred
feet broad, and fifty feet high. Within the square basis, an
inextricable labyrinth had been constructed; whither whosoever
adventured, without a clue, could not find a passage out. Upon
this square were placed five Pyramids — four in the angles, and
one in the centre — seventy-five feet broad at the bottom, and
one hundred and fifty in height; they were pointed in such a
manner, that at the top there was one brass circle, and cover-
ings for them all, from which bells suspended by chains, when
moved by the wind, give a sound afar off, like the building at
Dodona. Upon this circle four other Pyramids, each of them
one hundred feet high, had been contrived ; above which, upon
one plain, were five other Pyramids — the altitude of which Varro
hesitated to mention ; as, according to the ' Etruscan Fables,' ' it
w-as as much as that of the whole work: with so vain a madness
he sought glory by an expense useful to no man, wasting besides
the wealth of his kingdom, and after all the commendation of the
artificers should be the greatest.' "2
The learned professor then proceeds to describe the dimen-
sions, and construction of the Great Pyramid, which, he says, is
placed on a rocky eminence, situated on the border of the Libyan
desert, and about one hundred feet higher than the adjacent
plain. The mensurations, taken by Thales Milesius, were not
extant; and, in his opinion, the account of Diodorus Siculus was
more correct than those of the other antient authors. Professor
Greaves ascertained that the perpendicular height was four hun-
dred and ninety-nine feet; the inclined, six hundred and ninety-
three feet; and that the base was rather less, although it com-
prised 480,249 square feet ; that the summit terminated in a
small flat or square of 13 and fffo English feet, consisting of
1 Clusium, now Chiusi, in the Val Cliiana, was formerly denominated Camers.
Not a vestige remains of this tomb; but at Albano is an antient monument,
adorned with pyramids, vulgarly called that of the Iloralii and Curiatii, but sup-
posed, with more probability, to be the monument of Aruns, son of Porsenna, who
was killed at the storming of Aricia. These buildings, and the Egyptian forms,
seen in the portals of the Etruscan monuments at Castel d'Asso, and also at Tar-
quinia—and, it may be added, at the excavations in the valley of Cava Dessica,
between Noto and Modica, in Sicily—evidently determine the origin of the Etrus-
cans from Egypt, or from one common source.
3 I'liny, L. 3G. 13.