Parker, John Henry: The archaeology of Rome (1,2): Illustrations to I. The primitive fortifications. II. The walls and gates of Rome. III. The historical constructions of walls (Oxford [u.a.], 1874)

HILLS OF ROME.

The Aventine.

Plate XXL
Wall of the Latins on the Aventine. A portion with an
arch inserted at a later period, but still of an early character; the
arch is attributed by the local antiquaries (apparently with reason)
to the time of Hannibal, when he rode up to the walls of Rome,
and threw his javelin over them in defiance. It is supposed to have
served as an embrasure for a catapult. Behind it (as shewn in the
upper view) is a mass of concrete, on which a catapult might very
well have been fixed. The bed of concrete, with the wall of large
blocks of tufa in front of it, is twelve feet thick, and the height of
this wall has been measured by dropping down a measuring line,
and found to be fifty feet. The wall stands upon a ledge of the tufa
rock cut to receive it. In front of it are very remarkable wells, fifty
feet deep, on the outer bank of the great foss. These wells appear,
on comparing them with similar wells found in Aquitaine, to have
been used for the purpose of interment. Cinerary urns, with ashes
in them, were found at the bottom of such Avells in Aquitaine.
The lower view shews the outside of the arch, and in that part ot
the Avail the insertion is clearly seen. The arches are both of tufa,
but not from the same quarry. The Avail seems to be made of blocks
cut from the rock itself on the spot, the more red kind of tufa comes
from a quarry at a short distance only, nearly under the church
of S. Prisca.