Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Tirol The cities and cemeteries of Etruria Dennis, George 1883 Chapter III Castel Giubileo - Fidenae urn:nbn:at:at-ubi:2-12107 f rum a Sketch by & W Loo/ie, ii~A. THE AMO AND PONTE SALARO. CHAPTER III. CASTEL OIDBILEO.—F1BENJE. tot vacuas nrtes !—Lucan. Revolving , as we rest on the green turf, The changes from that hour when He from Troy Went up the Tiber. Rogers. If from Yeii the traveller follow the course of the Cremera for five or six miles it will lead him to the Tiber, of which it is a tributary . In the cliffs of the lonely but beautiful ravine through which it flows he will observe in several places sepulchral caves, particularly at the end nearer Yeii ; and on reaching the mouth of the glen, he will have, on the right, the ruin-capt heights which are supposed by Nibby and Gell to have been the site of the Castle of the Fabii. Exactly opposite the mouth of this glen, and on the other bank of the Tiber, rises the hill which was once crowned by the city of Fideme. This, though beyond the bounds of Etruria Proper , being on the left bank of the Tiber, was an Etruscan city,1 and in all probability a colony of Yeii ; for Livy speaks of the consanguinity of the inhabitants of the two cities, though 1 Liv . I. 15 . Strab. V. , p. 226 . Plutarch (Romul .) says Fidense was claimed by Yeii. 44 ITDEN -ZE. [chap . III. some writers assign to it a Latin origin.2 It seems at least to have been dependent on Yeii, and was frequently associated with her in opposition to Eome. Its history, indeed, save that on several occasions it fell into the hands of the Romans, is almost identical with that of Yeii. The traveller who would visit the site of Fidenae had better do so from Rome ; for unless, like Cassius, he be prepared to “leap into the angiy flood And swim to yonder point,” he will find no means of crossing “ the troubled Tyber ; ” and rapid and turbulent is the current at this point, as it was in ancient times.3 It is but a short excursion—only five miles— from Rome, and the road lies across a very interesting part of the Campagna. There are indeed two roads to it. One, the carriage road, runs direct from the Porta Salara, and follows the fine of the ancient Yia Salaria. But the traveller on foot or horseback should quit the Eternal City by the Porta del Popolo, and leaving the Florence road on the left, take the path to the Acqua Acetosa. Here a green hill—one of those bare, square table-lands, so com¬ mon in the .Campagna—rises on the right. Ascend it where a broad furrow in the slope seems to mark the line of an ancient road. You are on a plateau, almost quadrangular in form, rising steeply to the height of nearly two hundred feet above the Tiber, and isolated, save at one angle where it is united to other high ground by a narrow isthmus. Not a tree—not a shrub on its turf- grown surface—not a house—not a ruin—not one stone upon another, to tell you that the site had been inhabited. Yet here once stood Antemnse, the city of many towers—turrigerse An- femme,4—one of the most ancient of Italy .— -Antemnaque prisoo Crustumio prior.5 Dionysius 2 (II., p. 116) says that ordinary confusion between the Tuscans and Fidense was originally a colony of Alba, Tyrrhenes. Miiller (Etrus. Einl. 2. 14) formed at the same time as Nomentum thinks there must have been in the and Crustumeria. Virgil, Ain. VI. 773. population of Fidense the same three Steph, Byz. sub voce. Solinus (Polyhistor, elements as in that of Rome—Etruscans, II., p. 13) says it was settled by Ascanius Latins, and Sabines. Livy (I. 27) makes himself. According to Plutarch (Romul.), it clear that the native language of the Fidense, in the time of Romulus, was Fidenates was not Latin. possessed by the Sabines. Niebuhr (II ., 3 Dionysius(III . p. 165) notices this fact. p. 455, trans .) thinks the Fidenates were 4 Virg. 2Ed. VII . 631. originally Tyrrheni, and that when Livy 5 Sil. Ital. VIII . 37. cf. Dion. Hal. calls them Etruscans, it is through the II ., p. 103. CHAP. III.] CAMPAGNA SCENES AND SOUNDS. 45 Not a trace remains above ground. Even the broken pottery, that infallible indicator of bygone civilisation, which marks the site and determines the limits of habitation on many a now deso¬ late spot of classic ground, is here so overgrown with herbage that the eye of an antiquary would alone detect it . It is a site strong by nature, and well adapted for a city, as cities then were; for it is scarcely larger than the Palatine Hill, which, though at first it embraced the whole of Pome was afterwards too small for a single palace. It has a peculiar interest as the site of one of the three cities of Sabina, whose daughters, ravished by the followers of Romulus, became the mothers of the Roman race.6 Antemnse was the nearest city to Rome—only three miles distant —and therefore must have suffered most from the inhospitable violence of the Romans. It was a bright spring morning when I first visited the spot. All Rome was issuing from its gates to witness the meeting of the huntsmen at the tomb of Caecilia Metella. Shades of Flaccus and Juvenal ! can ye rest amid the clangour of these modern Circenses? Doth not the earth weigh heavy on your ashes, when “ savage Britons,” whom ye were wont to see “ led in chains down the Sacred Way,” flaunt haughtily among your hearths and altars ?—when, spurning the sober pleasures of the august and solemn city, in the pride of their wealth and power, they startle all Rome from its propriety »by races and fox-hunts, awakening unwonted echoes among the old sepulchres of the Appian Way, and the ruined aqueducts of the Campagna? Here, beyond the echo of the tally-ho, I lay down on the green sward and gave myself up to enjojunent. Much was there to afford delight—the brightness and beauty of the scene —the clear blue sky—the genial warmth of the sun, by no means oppres¬ sive, but just giving a foretaste of his summer’s might—there was the interest of this and other sites around—and there was Livy in my hand. No one can thoroughly enjoy Italy without him for a companion. There are a thousand sites and scenes which might be passed by without interest, but which, once touched by the wand of this magician, rise immediately into life and beauty. Be he more of a romancer than historian—I care not ; but prize him as among the first of Roman poets. To read him thus, reclining on the sunny sward, with all the influ- 6 Liv. I. 9, 10; Dionys. II., p. 101; Plut. Romul. The other two were Canina, and Crustumium. 46 ITDENJE. [CHAP . III. ences of nature congenial, and amid the scenes he has described, was perfect luxury. Here no sound— Confus ® sonus urbis et illsetabile murmur— told of the proximity of the city. Rome seldom, save on great festive occasions, raises her voice audibly. Never does she roar tempestuously like London, nor buzz and rustle like Paris or Naples—at the most she utters what Carlyle would call, “ an inarticulate slumberous mumblement.” “ The City ’s voice itself is soft , like Solitude ’s.” She is verily more “ blessed ” in the want than in the possession of the “ noise and smoke” of Horace’s time.— Omitte mirari beat® Fumum et opes strepitumque Rom ®. Far beneath me, at the foot of the steep cliff which bounds Antemnae to the north, flowed the Anio, not here the “ head¬ long” stream it shows itself at Tivoli, and higher up its course,7 but gliding soberly along to lose itself in the Tiber.8 Beyond it, stretched a long level tract of meadow-land, dotted with cattle ; and, bounding this, a couple of miles or more distant, rose another eminence crested by some building and jutting out from the adjoining heights till it almost overhung the Tiber. This was Castel Giubileo, the site of the ancient Fidense. On the low hills to the right, Romulus, when at war with that city, laid his successful ambush.9 But in the intervening plain was fought the desperate conflict between the Romans and the allied forces of the Yeientes and Fidenates, in the reign of Tullus Hostilius. With Livy’s vivid page before me, it required little imagination to people the scene anew, and to picture the Romans encamped at the confluence of the streams at my feet, and the army of Veii crossing the Tiber, and joining the troops of Fidenae in yonder plain. Tullus Hostilius marches his forces along the Tiber to the encounter. Mettus Fuffetius, his ally, the leader 7 “ Praeceps Anio. ” Hor. I. Od. 7, qui Anio influit in Tiberim. ” cf. Servius 13 . Statius , Sily . I., 5, 25. (ad 2En. VII . 631 ) and Festus (v. Am- 8 Yarro(de Ling. Lat. V. 28) says the nenses ). pame of the city was derived from its . 9 Liv . I. 14 . Dion. Hal . II ., p. 117. position . “ Antemnae, quid ante amnem Plut . Romul. Frontin . Strat. II . 5. 1. CHAP. III .] SITE OF ANTEMN2E. 47 of the Albans, meditating treachery, and willing to throw his weight into the heavier scale, is creeping up the hills on the right, where with his army he remains a spectator of the combat, till fortune befriends the Romans.