DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19775#0152
VILLA TORLONIA,
FRASCATI.
ON some hot spring morning one wearies plain, and there, where a hill rose beside the river,
| of the hustle and clatter of Rome, one was to found Roma Immortalis.
looks longingly at the bunches of blue Tusculum saw Rome rise gradually to great-
anemones and crimson cyclamens on the ness. It intermarried with her, it made treaties
flower-stalls, and pictures how they are growing in with her, it fought her in the wide plain below,
the April woods beyond the citv ; and there is Probably it is over by Monte Porzio, in what
keen pleasure in leaving behind the street-cries, looks like an extinct crater, that Lake Regillus
the press and throng of the Corso, and the crowd lay, where that battle was fought when out of
of tourists, and in finding one's self drawing out 40,000 Latins only 10,000 came home, when
into the silent campagna, where the giant aqueducts Rome was only saved by her cavalry, and her
stride across the plain, and the shepherd with his generals voted a Temple to the Great Twin
brown sheep and white dogs are the only living Brethren, who, in the moment when all seemed
beings to be seen. The train winds higher and lost, men had seen riding in their van.
higher among grey olives and pink-flushed almond In the decline of the Republic, and the
trees, and the air feels fresh and pure, as in the rise of the Empire, men began to enjoy leisure,
evening sunset we look back to Rome over that They had the wish to escape from the bustle
wondrous plain and see only the shadowy dome of towns, and, peace reigning between Rome
rising above the purple patch which is the city. and prosperous Tusculum, the delightful slopes
So Tusculum of old for long centuries looked down which lay below the city were singled out, and
upon Rome, for Rome was the most recent rather villas rose in every part, from the smallest to
than the most ancient among the Latin cities. the most sumptuous. The country-side was white
This with them ; the names of great numbers have
"Fatica di Kloda e di sventure, been recovered, and the sites of many determined.
^ Terra Latina" There wag fhe ^ of thg Qctavii, where Vilk
( 1S atin an , , • t , Aldobrandini now stands ; Cato's was at Monte
1 ired out with f^lory and mis-tortune ) .
Porzio, that of Pliny the younger at Centrone.
goes back so far that its origin is lost in fabulous The Javolen; buik where the ruins of fiorghetto
legends. It was said to have been founded by now cicero>s statel school and halls
Telegonus, the son of Ulysses and Circe, and stretched away to Qrotta Ferrata, and on the site
Mauritius, Prince of Tusculum, claimed to be of vnk Torlonia glowed the gardens of Lucullus,
descended from them. It is strange indeed, as mogt famQUS of aU ArchsBologists believe that
one wanders up the lonely paths and slopes that thg andent ^ were kid Qut Qn much the game
he behind Frascati, to think that all over this , ag thoge of a later ^ wkh a succession
wild ground, where the goats crop and the gorse of terraces and marble balustradeSj and arranged
and wild thyme scent the air, rose g0 that thg descending water could be uti]ised to
"The white streets of Tusculum, the greatest possible advantage. Besides all that
The proudest town of all." taste an(J loye Qf luxury coldd d0j LuculklS had
A great, well-ordered city, with its own laws and here his celebrated library, to which Cicero often
civil dignatories, and all around it a rich and had recourse. Here he gave magnificent banquets,
cultivated country-side, with vines and olives, corn with delicacies brought from all parts of the
lands and pasture. On the neighbouring hills the known world ; here, perhaps, he planted those
white walls of other cities glimmered in the cherrv trees, which he was the first to intro-
sunshine, Palestrina, Praneste, the ancient towns duce into Europe, bringing them from Cerasus
of Gabii and Labicum, and on the shores of in Pontus. At his death his superb villa came
the Alban lake that Alba Longa from which, into the hands of the Flavii. In the first century
five hundred years after the founding of Tusculum, it was part of the Imperial domains, and was
a little band of outlaws was to descend into the restored and embellished by Domitian, and though
( 142 )
FRASCATI.
ON some hot spring morning one wearies plain, and there, where a hill rose beside the river,
| of the hustle and clatter of Rome, one was to found Roma Immortalis.
looks longingly at the bunches of blue Tusculum saw Rome rise gradually to great-
anemones and crimson cyclamens on the ness. It intermarried with her, it made treaties
flower-stalls, and pictures how they are growing in with her, it fought her in the wide plain below,
the April woods beyond the citv ; and there is Probably it is over by Monte Porzio, in what
keen pleasure in leaving behind the street-cries, looks like an extinct crater, that Lake Regillus
the press and throng of the Corso, and the crowd lay, where that battle was fought when out of
of tourists, and in finding one's self drawing out 40,000 Latins only 10,000 came home, when
into the silent campagna, where the giant aqueducts Rome was only saved by her cavalry, and her
stride across the plain, and the shepherd with his generals voted a Temple to the Great Twin
brown sheep and white dogs are the only living Brethren, who, in the moment when all seemed
beings to be seen. The train winds higher and lost, men had seen riding in their van.
higher among grey olives and pink-flushed almond In the decline of the Republic, and the
trees, and the air feels fresh and pure, as in the rise of the Empire, men began to enjoy leisure,
evening sunset we look back to Rome over that They had the wish to escape from the bustle
wondrous plain and see only the shadowy dome of towns, and, peace reigning between Rome
rising above the purple patch which is the city. and prosperous Tusculum, the delightful slopes
So Tusculum of old for long centuries looked down which lay below the city were singled out, and
upon Rome, for Rome was the most recent rather villas rose in every part, from the smallest to
than the most ancient among the Latin cities. the most sumptuous. The country-side was white
This with them ; the names of great numbers have
"Fatica di Kloda e di sventure, been recovered, and the sites of many determined.
^ Terra Latina" There wag fhe ^ of thg Qctavii, where Vilk
( 1S atin an , , • t , Aldobrandini now stands ; Cato's was at Monte
1 ired out with f^lory and mis-tortune ) .
Porzio, that of Pliny the younger at Centrone.
goes back so far that its origin is lost in fabulous The Javolen; buik where the ruins of fiorghetto
legends. It was said to have been founded by now cicero>s statel school and halls
Telegonus, the son of Ulysses and Circe, and stretched away to Qrotta Ferrata, and on the site
Mauritius, Prince of Tusculum, claimed to be of vnk Torlonia glowed the gardens of Lucullus,
descended from them. It is strange indeed, as mogt famQUS of aU ArchsBologists believe that
one wanders up the lonely paths and slopes that thg andent ^ were kid Qut Qn much the game
he behind Frascati, to think that all over this , ag thoge of a later ^ wkh a succession
wild ground, where the goats crop and the gorse of terraces and marble balustradeSj and arranged
and wild thyme scent the air, rose g0 that thg descending water could be uti]ised to
"The white streets of Tusculum, the greatest possible advantage. Besides all that
The proudest town of all." taste an(J loye Qf luxury coldd d0j LuculklS had
A great, well-ordered city, with its own laws and here his celebrated library, to which Cicero often
civil dignatories, and all around it a rich and had recourse. Here he gave magnificent banquets,
cultivated country-side, with vines and olives, corn with delicacies brought from all parts of the
lands and pasture. On the neighbouring hills the known world ; here, perhaps, he planted those
white walls of other cities glimmered in the cherrv trees, which he was the first to intro-
sunshine, Palestrina, Praneste, the ancient towns duce into Europe, bringing them from Cerasus
of Gabii and Labicum, and on the shores of in Pontus. At his death his superb villa came
the Alban lake that Alba Longa from which, into the hands of the Flavii. In the first century
five hundred years after the founding of Tusculum, it was part of the Imperial domains, and was
a little band of outlaws was to descend into the restored and embellished by Domitian, and though
( 142 )