Parker, John Henry: The archaeology of Rome (1,text): I. The primitive fortifications (Oxford [u.a.], 1874)

14 Primitive Fortifications. [chap. I.
a general rule. At the bottom, or sometimes on the slope of the
bank, half way down, of such a fossa, it was the custom to make
a via, or road, called a foss-way; on the banks of the foss, build-
ings were erected; and when in process of time the foss was filled
up, chiefly to make the gradients more easy for the convenience
of carriages on four wheels, as these came into more general use,
the lower parts of these buildings were of necessity buried, as we
see in all parts of Rome.
To understand, then, the primitive fortifications of Rome, we must
compare them with others of the same period, or of the same cha-
racter; much light may also be derived from other earthworks of
much later date, made after the Roman tradition by people who
had learned from them. The Etruscans had usually a slip of land
on the outside of their fortifications, protected by a mound and
ditch, equivalent to the pomcerium of Rome, and the Romans are
distinctly said to have borrowed their plan of the fortifications from
the Etruscans. Not that this arrangement is peculiar to the Etrus-
cans, but it belongs to their period, and is continued as a general
rule in all later fortifications, being almost a necessary part of them.
At Arricia, where the name of pomcerium is also applied in the same
manner, the space between the scarped cliff and the outer foss may
be very distinctly seen from the new bridge opposite to it.
There are certain general principles of fortificationc which appear
to be natural, as we find them of all periods and in all countries,
from the Etruscan cities downwards. These are,—
1. To take advantage of the nature of the ground and improve
upon it. The dwellings to be defended are usually placed on the
top of a hill or promontory.
2. The edges of the hill in the upper part, if not naturally cliffs, are
cut or scarped into vertical cliffs to the depth of from twenty to
thirty feet.
3. At the foot of the cliff is a slope, often divided into terraces,
and at the bottom of the slope, if there is not a natural stream,
a deep foss, or ditch, or trench is made. This is either filled with
water or dry, according to the situation ; it is more often dry. All
primitive fortifications are on so gigantic a scale that they are often
mistaken for the work of nature only, especially these great ditches,
which are often called valleys d.
4. At the inner edge of this great ditch was a bank, or paling, or
c See “Military Architecture,” by at the bottom, the trench is generally
Viollet-le-Duc. artificial.
d When there is no stream of water