Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Tirol

The cities and cemeteries of

Dennis, George

1883

Chapter IV Monte Musino and Lago di Bracciano

urn:nbn:at:at-ubi:2-12107 CHAPTER IV.

MONTE MUSINO AND LAGO DI BKACCIANO.

Nor rough nor barren are the winding ways Of hoar antiquity , but strewed with flowers.—T. Wartox.

On Lough Neagh’s banks as the fisherman strays, "When the clear cold eve’s declining, lie sees the round towers of other days In the wave beneath him shining .— Moork.

The next Etruscan town of any note in history northward from Yeii was Sutrium, but there is an intervening district, containing several sites of that antiquity, which merit the traveller’s atten¬ tion. Moreover, this district possesses much geological interest, for it contains no less than four extinct craters, three of them now lakes, and one, the Lago Bracciano, the largest sheet of water in Etruria after the Thrasymene and the “ great Yolsinian mere.” The high-road northwards from Storta pursues the line of the ancient Yia Cassia, of which I was unpleasantly reminded by the large blocks of basalt which had formed the ancient pavement, and were now laid at intervals by the side of the road —proh pudor !—to be Macadamised for the convenience of modern travellers. This is, alas, too often the case in , where the spirit of utilitarianism is fully rife. If a relic of antiquity be convertible into cash, whether by sale or by exhibition, it meets with due attention ; but when this is not the case, nobody cares to preserve it—the very terms in which it is mentioned are those of contempt—it is il pontaccio —or, le muraccia —and “ worth nothing ; ” or, if it can be turned to any account, however base, the most hoary antiquity will avail it nought. Stones are torn from the spots thej'- have occupied twenty, or five-and-twenty centuries, where they served as corroborations of history, as elucidations of national customs, as evidences of long extinct civilisation, and as landmarks to the antiquary—they are torn CHAP . IV .] GALEKA —BACCANO. oo

thence to be turned to some vile purpose of domestic or general convenience. This is not an evil of to-day. It existed under the old governments of the Peninsula as fully as under that of Victor Emmanuel. Let us hope that a government which pro¬ fesses to reverence and prize memorials of the past, will put a stop to such barbarous spoliations and perversions; or the ancient monuments of Italian greatness will ere long exist in history alone. Just after leaving La Storta, a road branches to the left towards Bracciano and its Lake. It follows nearly the line of the ancient Via Clodia, which ran through Sabate, Blera, and Tuscania, to Cosa. The first station on that Way bej^ond Veii was Careise, fifteen miles from Home, represented by the ruined and utterly deserted, but highly picturesque, village of Galera, which stands on a cliff-bound rock, washed by the Arrone, about a mile off the modern road. The only mention of Careise is made by Frontinus and the Itineraries , and there is no record of an Etruscan population here, yet there are said to be remains of ancient walls on the west of the town, and Etruscan tombs in the 2 cliffs around.1 The modem town dates ffrom the eleventh century, and wras a possession of the Orsini family, whose abandoned castle with the tall campanile form the most pro¬ minent features in this scene of picturesque desolation. Two miles beyond La Storta bring you to the Osteria del Fosso, a lonely way-side inn. The stream here crossed is that of I due Fossi, which washes the western walls of Veii. In the wood-hung cliffs around are traces of Etruscan tombs, part of the necropolis of that city. Seven miles more over the bare undulating Campagna to Baccano, the ancient Ad Baccanas, a place like many others in Italy , known to us only through the Itineraries , once a Homan Mutatio, and now a modern post-house, situated in a deep hollow, originally the crater of a volcano, and afterwards a lake, but drained in ancient times, by emissaries cut through the encircling hills. At the eighteenth milestone is one, cut through the rocky soil to the depth of about twenty feet, which Gell seems to think may have been formed in ancient times, but I believe it to be modern, and the work of the Chigi family, the territorial lords of Baccano.3

1 Front, de Aquaed. II ., p. 48. Gell, found that after receiving one or two II . v. Galeria. Nibby II., p. 92 . streamlets , it loses altogether its artificial 2 I followed it for some distance , and character, and so continues till it finds 56 MONTE MUSINO AND LAGO DI BRACCIANO. [chap. iv.

Nothing like the Alban Emissary now exists in the hollow. On the height however towards there are several cuniculi, which drain the water from an upper basin of the crater. They are carried through Monte Lupolo, a lofty part of the crater rim. Here are also a number of holes in the upper part of the hill, said to be of great depth, and called by the peasants t( pozzi,” or wells; probably nothing more than shafts to the emissaries. It was these passages that were mistaken by Zanchi for the cuniculus of Camillus, and which led him to regard this as the site of ancient Yeii. The lake is now represented by a stagnant pond in the marshy bottom of the crater, which makes Baccano one of the most fertile spots in all Italy—in malaria. Fortunately for the landlord of La Posta, summer is not the travelling season, or his inn would boast its fair reputation in vain. This neighbourhood in the olden time was notorious for robbers, so that the “ Diversorium Bacchante’’ passed into a proverb.3 Let the traveller still be wary; though he be in no peril of assault, he may yet fall a victim to some perjidus ccmpo, who thirsting for foreign spoil “ expects his evening prey.” * In the ridge of the surrounding hills are several gaps, marking the spots by which ancient roads entered the crater. On Monte Razzano, the hill above Baccano, are some ruins called, on dubious authority, Fanum Bacchi—though it is probable that the Roman mutatio derived its name from some such shrine. There is a large cave on the said Mount, which is vulgarly believed to contain hidden treasures. From the hills of Baccano, travellers coming from Florence are supposed to get their first view of Rome. But the dome of St. Peter ’s may be distinctly seen in the Campagna horizon, from the Monte Cimino, a distance of forty miles, or twice as far as Baccano. Two miles to the north of Baccano, and to the right of the road to Florence , lies Campagnano; the first view of which, with Soracte in the back-ground, is highly picturesque. It is a place of some size and importance, compared to other villages of the Campagna, and its position, and some caves in the neighbour¬ hood, seem to mark it as of Etruscan origin. A few Roman remains are to be seen in the streets. a natural vent from the crater at Madonna but , as they all sink towards the lake, del Sorbo, three miles to the south -east of they cannot be emissaries : they are either Baccano, where it forms one of the sources natural clefts , or they have been sunk for of the Cremera. I observed other deep roads. clefts opening upon it , and running 3 Dempster , de Etrur . Reg. II ., p. 161. towards the mountains in the same quarter; CHAP. IV.] MONTE MUSINO. 57

From Campagnano a path runs eastward, first through vine¬ yards, and then across a wide valley of corn, to Scrofano, five miles distant. This is a small secluded village, also of Etruscan origin, for the cliffs around it, especially to the west, are full of tombs ; among them are several columbaria. It lies at the foot of Monte Musino, that curious tufted hill which is seen from every part of the Campagna, and is thought to have been the site of ancient religious rites. The name Musino is generally supposed to be a corruption of the Ara Muticc, which was in the territory of Yeii,4 though some place the Ara at Belmonte, nearer the Flaminian Way.5 The hill is conical, of volcanic formation, the lower slopes being composed of ashes and scoriae, strewed with blocks of lava. . It is ascended by broad terraces leading spirally to the summit, on which are the remains of a large circular structure, which, Gell suggests, may have been the Altar. There is also a large cavern near the summit, reported, like that of Monte Bazzano, to contain great treasures ; access to which is said to be debarred by an iron grating—so far within the mountain, however, that no one can pretend to have seen it. The clump of oaks and chestnuts which tufts the hill-top, is sacred from the axe, though the wood on the slopes is cut from time to time ; and the only explanation of this which I could obtain, was, that the said clump preserves Scrofano from the sea-wind, which is deemed unhealthy, and that, were it cut, the wind, instead of pursuing its course at a great elevation, would descend upon the devoted village.6 This seems so unsatisfactory, that I cannot but regard it as a modern explanation of an ancient custom, the meaning of which lias been lost in the lapse of ages and the change of religious faith. The immunity of the clump is in all probability a relic of the ancient reverence for a sacred grove. Gell justly remarks of the artificial terraces round this hill and the building on the sum¬ mit, that this extraordinary labour can only be accounted for by concluding the place was sacred. The analogy, indeed, of the winding road still extant, which led to the temple of Jupiter

4 Plin . II . 98. Dempster (Etr. Reg. II. to the same writer (II . 98) the soil at the p. 140 ) thinks it should have been spelt Araj Mutise was so peculiarly tenacious, “ Murcise,” Murcia or Murtia being that whatever was thrust in could not he another name for the Etruscan Venus. extracted . Nardini (Veio Antico, p. 260) Tertullian , de Spect. cap. VIII . Pliny asserts that the same phenomenon is to be (XV. 36) derives the name of Murcia from observed on the slopes of Monte Musino. the myrtle , which was sacred to that 4 Westphal , Pom . Kamp., p. 135. Goddess—ara vetus fuit Veneri Myrtese, 6 Gell (I, , p. 166 ) gives another version quam nunc Murcinm vocant. According of this "belief. •58 MONTE MUSINO AND LAGO DI BRACCIANO. [chap. iv.

Latialis on the summit of the Alban Mount, is sufficient authority for such a conclusion. The terraces here, however, are too broad for simple roads ; the lower being sixty, the upper forty feet in breadth. Gell imagines them to have been formed for the Salii, •or for the augurs of Yeii—the rites of the former consisting in dancing or running round the altar. The local tradition is, that the Monte was the citadel of Veii,7 though that city is confessed to be at least six miles distant, and it has hence received its vulgar .appellation of La Fortezza ; and the cave is believed to be the mouth of Camillus’ cuniculus. The said cuniculus is also to be seen—so say the village oracles—at a spot two miles distant, on the way to Isola Farnese, called Monte Sorriglio (or Soviglio), in a subterranean passage, wide enough for two waggons to pass, which runs eight miles under ground to , on the Flaminian Way, where Camillus is pronounced to have com¬ menced his mine. These things are only worthy of mention as indicative of the state of local antiquarian knowledge, which the traveller should ever mistrust. In summer it is no easy matter to reach the summit of Monte Musino, on account of the dense thickets which cover its slopes. The view it commands, however, will repay any trouble in the ascent, which is easiest from Scrofano, whence the summit may be a mile distant. The most direct road to Scrofano from Pome is by the Yia Flaminia, which must be left to the right about a mile or more beyond Borghettaccio, where a path pursues the banks of a stream up to the village. It may also be reached through Formello, either directly from the site of Yeii, whence it is six miles distant, or by a path which leaves the modern Via Cassia at the Osteria di Merluzzo, near the sixteenth milestone. From this spot it is about six miles to Scrofano. The ancient name of Scrofano is quite unknown. Its present appellation has no more dignified an origin than a sow (scrqfa■— possibly from an ancient family of that name ),8 as appears from the arms of the town over one of the gateways, which display that unclean animal under a figure of San Biagio, the “Protector”

7 This tradition is probably owing to the tbeir dictum is naturally accepted by their -recorded opinion of Cluverius (Ital . Ant ., hocks. Who, indeed , should gainsay it ? II ., p. 530 ), that Scrofano was the site of “In a nation of blind men, the one-eyed ancient Veii . Such traditions generally man is king, ” says the Spanish proverb. •originate with the priests , who often dabble 8 Nibby (III . p. 77 ) records a derivation, in antiquarian matters , though rarely to which , as he says, “ is not to be despised ;” the advancement of science , being too —certainly not, if Monte Musino were much swayed by local prejudices, —and hallowed ground— Scrofano, a sacro/ano . CHAP. IV.] SCROFANO—SABATE. 59

of tile place. Almost the only relic of early times is a Roman cippus of marble under the Palazzo Serraggi. From Baccano, two tracks, cut in ancient times in the lip of the crater-lake, and retaining vestiges of Roman pavement, run westward to the lonesome little lakes of Stracciacappa, and Mar- tignano (Lacus Alsietinus), and thence continue to the spacious one of Bracciano (Lacus Sabatinus); branching to the right to Trevignano and Oriolo, and to the left to Anguillara and Brac¬ ciano.9 The lake of Bracciano (Lacus Sabatinus), like every other in this district of Italy , is the crater of an extinct volcano. It is nearly twenty miles in circuit, and though without islands, or other very striking features, is not deficient in beauty. Sabate, which gives its name to the lake, is not mentioned as an Etruscan town, though it was probably of that antiquity.1 It must have stood on or near the lake, though its precise site has been matter of dispute. By some it has been thought to have occupied the site of Bracciano, but at that town there are no vestiges or even traditions of antiquity, the earliest mention of it in history being of the fourteenth century. Some have supposed it to have stood on the eastern shore, while others take it to be the city mentioned by Sotion as engulfed of old beneath the waters of the lake.3 It has been reserved for M. Ernest Desjardins, a learned and enterprising Frenchman, who has taken great pains to trace out the stations on the Vise Clodia and .Cassia, to determine its true site. This is at Trevignano, a little village on the northern shore of the lake, lying at the foot of a rock of basalt, now crested by a mediaeval tower.3 M. Desjardins has arrived at this conclusion, both by carefully working out the position of Sabate from the Itineraries , and by finding early Etruscan remains on the spot. He noticed, on issu-

9 The “ Sabatia stagna ” of Silius Italicus Holstenius (ad Cluver. p. 44) and West- (VIII ., 492 ) probably included the neigh¬ phal (p. 156 ) point out some ruins at a bouring lakelets of Martignano and Strac¬ spot more than a mile beyond Bracciano, ciacappa. near S. Marciano or S. Liberato , as those 1 The earliest mention of it is in the year of Sabate, but Nibby declares them to be 367 , after the fall of Veii and Falerii , when the remains of a Roman villa of the early the conquered territory was given to the Empire. Etruscans who had favoured Rome in the Sotion (de Mir. Font. ) says a town was contest , and four new tribes , one called swallowed up by this lake, and that many Sabatina , were formed. Liv. VI. 4, 5. foundations and temples and statues might Fest . v. Sabatina. The town , in fact , is be seen in its clear depths. The not named except in the Peutingerian Table ; 3 discovery is recorded in the Ann. but there can be no doubt of its existence. Inst . 1859 , pp. 34 —60. 2 Cluver II . p. 524 . Nibby I. p. 325. 60 MONTE MUSINO AND LAGO DI I3EACCIANO. [chap. iv.

ing from the gate of the village facing the west, the only gate now remaining, a large fragment of walling of squared blocks of rather regular masonry, which he declares to be in perfect conformity with the Etruscan fortifications of Cortona and Perugia.4 This masonry, which is probably of basalt or other hard volcanic stone, proves the existence of an Etruscan town on this spot, and as there are no other such remains on the shores of the lake, there can be no doubt that here stood Sabate. At the Bagni di Vicarello, three miles beyond, there are abundant remains of Imperial times, villas and baths, which mark the site of the Aquae Apollinares.5 Here in 1852, in clearing out the reservoir of the ancient baths, a most interest¬ ing discovery was made of a large collection of copper coins from the earliest css rude and css signal um of Etruria down to the money of the Empire ; as well as of sundry silver vases—all votive offerings, now preserved in the Kircherian Museum at Home. The Forum Clodii is generally supposed to have stood at Oriuolo, but M. Desjardins places it on the hill above S. Liberato, on the west of the lake, where are some extensive Roman remains. On the ancient road, between this and Bieda stands the ruined town or castle of Ischia, supposed, but on no authority, to be one of the Novem Pagi of antiquity.6 I retain pleasurable reminiscences of a midsummer ramble on the shores of this lake. My path ran first over flats of corn, then falling beneath the sickle—next it led through avenues of mulberries, whitening the ground with their showered fruit, while

4 Nibby (III . p. 287 ) bad previously cement , like those in the walls of Volterra, suspected this to be an Etruscan site from Populonia , Cosa, or Eusellae. I measured this fragment of ancient masonry, which some of these blocks, which are as much he described as composed ‘‘ of irregularly as 3 metres in length . ” Noel des Vergers, squared blocks, joined together as in the Etrurie , I., p. 182. walls of Collatia, Ardea, and other very 6 Desjardins , Ann. Inst . 1859 , pp. 34— ancient cities .” M. Desjardins (op. cit. p. 60. The fact is determined beyond a doubt 48 ) finds fault with this description , and by a number of dedicatory inscriptions in declares there is not the least resemblance honour of Apollo found on the spot. between this fragment and the walls of 6 Westphal (p. 157 ) thinks the Novem the Latin towns on the south of the . Fagi are represented by the neighbouring I cannot add my testimony in this instance, sites of Viano, Ischia , Agliola , Barberano, the walling having escaped my observation &c. But this is mere conjecture. The when I passed that way ; but I can recon¬ only mention of them is by Pliny (N. H. cile these conflicting descriptions by the III . 8), who places them in his list of authority of another French antiquary, Etruscan towns between Nepet and Prse- who describes the walls of Ardea as com¬ fectura Claudia Foroclodii , but as his list posed “ of enormous blocks cut in regular is alphabetical , it gives us no clue to their parallelograms , and put together without position. CHAP . IV .] LAKE 0F BKACCIANO. 61 the whole strip of shore was covered with the richest tessellation of wheat, hemp, maize, flax, melons, artichokes, overshadowed by vines, olives, figs, and other fruit trees, intermingling with that “ gracious prodigality of Nature,” which almost dispenses with labour in these sunny climes—and then it passed the hamlet of Trevignano and the wrecks of Roman luxury at Bagni di Vicarello, and climbed the heights above, where cultivation ceases, and those forest aristocrats, the oak, the beech, and the chestnut, hold undisputed sway. From this height the eye revels over the broad blue lake, the mirror of Italian heavens,—

“ It was the azure time of June, When the skies are deep in the stainless noon—” reflecting, on one shore, the cliff-perched towns of Anguillara and Bracciano—the latter dominated by the turretted mass of its feudal castle—and on the other, the crumbling tower of Trevig¬ nano, backed by the green mountain-pjTamid of Rocca Romana. But the glassy surface of the lake does not merely mirror remains of the olden time, for in its clear depths, it is said, may still be seen the ruins of former days, on certain parts of its shores. There is no doubt that the waters are now higher than in ancient times—proof of which may be seen in a mass of Roman reticu¬ lated work off the shore near Vicarello; and in the fact recorded by Nibby and Desjardins, that the ancient road between that place and Trevignano is now submerged for a considerable distance.

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER IV.

Note.

The stations and distances on the Via Clodia are thus given by the Itineraries.

ANTONINS ITINERARY. PEUTINGERIAN TABLE. Roma Roma Careias . xr.p. xv. Ad Sextum . . M. P. VI. Aquas Apollinaris .xvnr. Careias . VIIII. Tarquinios . . XVII. Ad Nonas . . VIIII. Cosain . XV. Sabate . . — Foro Clodo . . . — Blera . . XVI. Tuscana . . VIIII. Matemo . xir. Faturnia XVIII. Succosa . VIII. Cosa . . . —