The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria
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Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Tirol The cities and cemeteries of Etruria Dennis, George 1883 Chapter V Sutri - Sutrium urn:nbn:at:at-ubi:2-12107 THE AMPHITHEATRE OF SUTUI, FROM THE ENTRANCE. CHAPTER V. STJTm.—SUTMUM. Gramineum campum, quem collibus undique curvis Cingebant silvse; mediaque in valle theatri Circus erat. Yino. Imaginare amphitlieatrum. quale sola rerum natura possit effingere. Plin. Epist. It was a bright but cool morning in October, whenI left the comfortless inn of Baccano, and set out for Sutri. The wind blew keenly in my teeth ; and the rich tints of the trees wherever they appeared on the undulating plain, and the snow on the loftiest peaks of the Apennines, proved that autumn was fast giving place to winter. About four miles from Baccano on the Yia Cassia is Le Sette Yene, a lonely inn in the midst of an open country. It is one of the largest and most comfortable hotels between Florence and Home, on the Siena road. Close to it is an ancient Roman bridge of a single arch, in excellent preservation. The next place on the Via Cassia three miles beyond Sette Yene, is Monterosi, which does not appear to have been an Etrus¬ can site. It is commanded by a conical height, called Monte di CHAP. V.] MOXMItOSI—RONCIGLIONE. Gfc Lucchetti, crested with some ruins of the middle ages. The view from it well repays the small difficulty of the ascent ; for it commands the wide sea-like Campagna—Soracte, a rocky islet in the midst, lorded over by the snow-capt Apennines—the sharp wooded peak of Rocca Romana on the one hand, and the long sweeping mass of the Ciminian on the other. Monterosi has two inns, both wretched. L’Angelo is said to be the better. Of La Posta I have had unpleasant experience,— animus meminisse liorret! Hence there is a carriageable road fol¬ lowing the line of the old Yia Cassia to Sutri, the ancient Sutrium, seven or eight miles distant ;1 but as very inferior accommodation is to be had there, the traveller who would take more than a passing glance at that site had better drive on to Ronciglione, and visit it thence. Soon after descending from Monterosi, and after passing a. small dreary lake and crossinga stream of lava, the road divides; the right branch leading northward to Nepi, Narni and Perugia ; the other, which is the Siena road, running in a direct line to- Ronciglione, which, as it lies on the lower slope of the Ciminian, is visible at a considerable distance. In truth , it bears quite an imposing appearance, with its buildings stretching up the slope, and its white domes gleaming out from the wooded hill. The celebrated castle-palace of Capraruola, the chef-d'oeuvre of Yignola, also adorns the slope of the Ciminiana few miles to the right. But the beauties of Ronciglione are not to be seen from a distance. The town is romantically situated on the brink of a deep ravine, with precipitous cliffs, in -which many caverns, originally sepulchres, mark the site of an Etruscan town.2 Its memory and name, however, have utterly perished. Ronciglione- has very tolerable accommodation; even a choice of hotels—the Aquila Nera and the Posta—and the traveller will do well to 1 Tie distance of Sutrium from Rome Its present distance is thirty -two miles, was thirty -three miles. hut the measurement is taken from the Via Cassia. modern gate, a mile from tjie Forum, whence the distances were anciently calculated. Itinerart or Peutingerian 2Not“ far from Capraruola,” says- Antoninus . Table. Bonarroti (Michael Angelo’s nephew), “ I Roma Roma saw an Etruscan inscription in letters Baccanas M.P. XXI . Ad Sextum M.P. VI. almost three feet high, carved in the rock, Sutrio XII . , Veios. VI. through which the road to Sutri (as I Forum Cassi XI . Vacanas VIIII. understood) is cut,?but on account of the- Sutrio XII. loftiness of the site distrustihg my copy, Vico Matrini (VII .) I do not venture to give it, ” p. 93, ap. Foro Cassii IIII. Dempst . II. 64 SUTBI. [chap . V. make it his head-quarters for excursions to Sutri , which lies about three miles to the south. It must be confessed, how¬ ever, that the road to it is wretched enough, and if it resemble the ancient approaches to the town, it would incline us to believe that the proverb ire Sutriumto( be prompt) was applied ironically. Like most of the ancient towns in Southern Etruria , Sutrium stood on a plateau of rock, at the point of junction of two of the ■deep ravines which furrow the plain in all directions,3 being ■united to the main-land of the plain only by a narrow neck. The extent of the town, therefore, was circumscribed; the low but steep cliffs which formed its natural fortifications forbade its extension into the ravines. Veii, whose citadel occupied a similar position, crossed the isthmus, and swelled out over the adjoining table-land, just as Rome soon ceased to be confined to the narrow plateau of the Palatine. But the same principle of growth seems not to have existed in Sutrium, and the town appears never to have extended beyond the limits prescribed by nature . It was thus precluded from attaining the dignity of a first-rate city, yet on account of its situation and strong natural position it was a place of much importance, especially after the fall of Veii, when it was celebrated as one of “ the keys and gates of Etruria ;” (claustra portaeque Etruriee) ; Nepete, a town similarly situated, being the other.4 As a fortress, indeed, Sutrium seems to have been maintained to a late period, long after the neighbouring Etruscan cities had been destroyed. The modern town occupies the site of the ancient, and is pro¬ bably composed of the same materials. Not that any of the ancient Sutria tecta are extant, but the blocks of tufo of which the houses are constructed, may well have been hewn by Etruscan hands. Every one who knows the Italians, is aware that they never cut fresh materials, when they have a quarry of ready-hewn stones to their hands. The columns and fragments of sculpture here and there imbedded in the walls of houses, prove that the remains of Roman Sutrium at least were thus applied. There are some fine fragments of the ancient walls on the south side of the town, and not a few sewers opening in the cliffs beneath them. 3 The ground in the neighbourhood of however, classes it among the cities of Sutri is much broken, and some parts Etruria with Arretium, Perusia, and Volsinii, answer to the description given by Livy and Plutarch (Camil.) calls it “ a flourish- (IX. 35)—aspreta strata saxis. ing and wealthy town,” evSalixova xa\ wA oi- 4 Liv. VI. 9 ; IX. 32. Strabo (V. 9), atav n6\ iv. > CHAP. V.] THE WALLS OF SUTRITJM. 65 As the walls of Sutri are similar to those of most of the Etruscan cities in the southern or volcanic district of the land, I shall describe the peculiarity of their masonry. The blocks are arranged so as to present their ends and sides to view in alternate courses, in the style which is called by builders “ old MADONNABE' CARM/Nf HOUGH PLAN OP SUTRI. A. Porta Menona. a. Etruscanwall, nine courses. B. Romana.,, b. seven,, ,, ,, C. di,, Mezza. c. four,, „ ,, T) . Vecehia.,, d. seven,, ,, ,, E. Furia.,, e. ,, Sewers, cut in rock. F. Cathedral. f. Mediaeval bastion. G. H. Piazze. <j. Columbarium. h. Madonna del Parto. English bond,” or more vulgarly, “headers and stretchers;” but as this masonry is of classic origin, I will designate it by the more appropriate term of emplecton, which was applied by the Greeks to a similar sort of masonry in use among them5—a term significant of the interweaving process by which the blocks were wrought into a solid wall. The dimensions of the blocks being the same, or very nearly so, in almost every specimen of this masonry extant in Etruria ,6 I will give them as a guide in future 5 Yitruv . II ., vin . 7. For further 6 The only exceptions I remember are at remarks on emplecton masonry , see Cervetri, where the dimensions are smaller. Appendix. VOL. I. F 66 SUTRI. [chap . V. descriptions, in order that when the term cmplecton is used, it may not be necessary to re-specify the dimensions. This masonry is isodomon, i . e. the courses are of equal height—about one foot eleven inches. The blocks which present their ends to the eye are generally square, though sometimes a little more or a little less in width ; and the others vaiy slightly in length, but in general this is double the height, or three feet ten inches. It is singular that these measurements accord with the length of the modern Tuscan braccio of twenty-three inches. The same de¬ scription of masonry was used extensively by the Bomans, under the kings and during the Bepublic, in Borne itself, as well as in Latium and Sabina, and was brought to perfection in the magnificent wall of the Forum of Augustus ; but that it was also used by the Etruscans in very early times is attested by their walls and tombs ; so that while it is often impossible to pro¬ nounce any particular portion to be of Etruscan or Bcman origin, it may safely be asserted that the style was Etruscan, imitated and adopted by the Bomans.7 Sutri has four gates ; one at the end of the town towards Bonciglione , another at the opposite extremity, and two on the southern side.