Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Tirol The cities and cemeteries of Etruria Dennis, George 1883 Chapter XV Bombarzo urn:nbn:at:at-ubi:2-12107 CHAPTER XV. BOHABZO. Miremur periisse homines ?—monnmenta fatiscunt, Mors etiam saxis nominibusque venit .—Ausonius. Ecce libet-pisces Tyrrhenaque monstra Dicere. Ovid. About twelve miles east of Viterbo, on the same slope of the Ciminian, is the village of Bomarzo, in the immediate neighbour¬ hood of an Etruscan town where extensive excavations have been made. The direct road to it runs along the base of the mountain, but the excursion may be made more interesting by a detour to Fdrento, which must be donfe in the saddle, the road being quite impracticable for vehicles. From Ferento the path leads across a deep ravine, past the village of Le Grotte di Santo Stefano, whose name marks the existence of caves in its neighbourhood,1 and over the open heath towards Bomarzo. But before reaching that place, a wooded ravine, Fosso della Vezza, which forms a natural fosse to the Ciminian, has to be crossed, and here the proverb —Chi va piano va sano —must be borne in mind. A more steep, slippery, and dangerous tract I do not remember to have traversed in Italy. Stiff miry clay, in which the steeds will anchor fast ; rocks shelving and smooth-faced, like inclined planes of ice, are the alternatives. Let the traveller take warning, and not pursue this track after heavy rains. It would be advisable, especially if ladies are of the party, to return from Ferento to Viterbo, and to take the direct road thence to Bomarzo. A diligence runs daily between Viterbo and the railway station at Orte, passing not far from Bomarzo. 1 I could not learn that excavations had -with no great success. He found, however, been made here, though at Monte Calvello, another well -tomb, similar to those of about 14 mile beyond, Ruggieri of Viterbo Ferento, the shaft to which was 127 palms excavated in 1845 for Prince Doria, but deep. CHAP. XV.] THE BY-EOADS OE ITALY. 165 This is a village of considerable size situated on a wooded cliff- bound platform, with an old castle of the Borghese family at the verge of the precipice. It commands a glorious view of the vale of the Tiber, and the long chain of Umbrian and Sabine Apen¬ nines to the east ; of the vast Etruscan plain to the north, with Monte Fiascone like a watch-tower in the midst, and the giant masses of Monte Cetona and Monte Amiata in the far horizon. Like most villages in the old Papal State, Bomarzo is squalid in the extreme ; so that as we rode down its main street, not a house could we see whose exterior promised decent accommodation. We pulled up at one of the best, the Casa Fosci, to which we had been directed as a place where travellers were entertained. One great point of contrast between France and Itaty—I may say, between northern and southern Europe—is that in every French village or hamlet, be it ever so small, there is some one house, often several, where Pierre or Jean so-and-so “ donne a boire et &manger,” or “ loge a pied et a cheval; ” but in Central and Southern Italy such signs are as rare as notices of spiritual refreshment and halting-places for the devotee are abundant. Here and there a withered bush at a doorway shows that wine may be had within ; but as to an inn, except on the great high¬ ways—you might as well look for a club-house. Some one or more of the most respectable inhabitants of these country-towns and villages is always, however—thank Mercury !—ready to entertain the traveller, for a consideration—for what will not an Italian do for gain ?—especially the Homans, who, however unlike in some points, resemble their ancestors in thirst for foreign spoil. “ Omnia Romse cum pretio ”—holds good now as in Juvenal’s day. This occasional Boniface is generally a man of decayed fortunes, and, as in this instance, shows his gentle blood by his courtesy and attention, and by doing everything that the slender resources of a country village will allow, to con¬ tribute to the traveller’s comfort. The ruder sex may be content with their modicum of this, and thank God it is not less, but should ladies desire to explore the antiquities of Bomarzo I can scarcely recommend them to make more than a flying visit. The site of the Etruscan town, which Bomarzo represents, lies on a platform nearly two miles to the north of the village, separated from it by the deep ravine of La Yezza. From the brow of the further height the valley of the Tiber opened beneath us, the royal river winding through it, washing the base of many a .town-capt height, of which that of Mugnano was the nearest 166 J30MARZ0. [CHAP. XV. and most prominent, and that of Orte the most distant, while midway lay the Yadimonian lake, on whose shores the Roman eagle twice soared in triumph, and the fate of Etruria -was doubly sealed as a dependent nation.2 The first ruin which met our eye was some Roman baths, in three parallel vaults of opus incerium, very massive in character. They are clearly of Roman construction ; for cement, though not unknown to the Etruscans , was rarely, if ever, used in their architecture—never to such an extent as to form the principal portion of the masonry. This ruin is without the ancient town, and the platform on which it stands, called Pian della Colonna, is united to that of the town by a narrow neck of land. Here Ruggieri of Viterbo made excavations for Prince Borghese, and found no less than twenty specchj in one tomb,3 On passing this strait , fragments of pottery, bricks, and wrought stone strewn over the ground, showed us we were on the site of former habitation ; but no more definite remains could I perceive than some fragments of red tessellated pavement—probably marking the site of an impluvium, or tank in the court of a private house. The town must have been of very small import¬ ance, for its size is limited by the natural boundaries of cliffs, save at the narrow neck already mentioned ; and the space thus circumscribed forms a single field of no great dimensions. Of the ancient walls not one stone remains on another ; but beneath the brow of the hill on the east lie a few of the blocks, of red tufo, and of the dimensions usual in Etruscan walls in the volcanic district. In the cliff, on the same side, are two sewers opening in the rock, similar to those on other Etruscan sites. The name of this town in Etruscan times we have no means of determining. It has-been supposed to be Mseonia, or Pneonia, but there is no authority for this in ancient writers. By others it has been thought to be Polimartium ; but as this is a name mentioned only in works of the middle ages,4 it may have had no connection with the Etruscan town, but may have been simply the original of the village of Bomarzo. The existence of an Etruscan town on this site had for ages been forgotten, when some years since it was proved by the dis- 2 See Chapter XI . Mugnano claims to fables and the plague . May not his own be the birthplace of Biagio Sinibaldi , a existence be called into question ?—may he famous traveller of the olden time , who not be an European embodiment of the visited Ceylon, Japan , the Eastern Archi - oriental myth of Sinbad the Sailor ? pelago , China, and Tartary, at a date when 3 Bull . Inst . 1845 , p. 21. Europe imported little from the East but 4 Dempster de Etrur. Reg. II . p. 110. chap . xv .J THE ETEUSCAN TOWN —PILLARED TOMB. 167 covery of tombs containing articles of value and interest. Exca¬ vations were commenced in 1830, and have since been carried on .witb various success. The platforms to the south and west of the town seem to have been the chief depositories of its dead. A few tombs are seen in the cliffs beneath the walls, but the greater part are sunk deep below the surface of the ground as at Tarquinii and Yulci, and were entered by long narrow passages, descending obliquely. Though very many have been excavated, few now remain open; the greater part, as at Yeii and Yulci, have been reclosed, in order to save for tillage the few yards of earth occupied by the entrance- passages. Many tombs do not merit preservation, but on the other hand it is well known that some of the most interesting opened in former years in this and other cemeteries are not.now to be entered, and their very sites are.forgotten. The principal group of tombs that still remain open, is on the edge of the hill facing Bomarzo. Two of them merit a few words of description. One is called Grotta della Colonna from a massive pillar of Doric-like simplicity, which supports the ceiling. The chamber is about thirteen feet square, and seven in height, with a roof slightly vaulted, in the form of a camber-arch. The door is of the usual Etruscan form, smaller above than below, like Egyptian and Doric doorways; and the wall on each side of it, within the tomb, is lined with masonry— a rare feature in Etruscan tombs, especially in those of subter¬ raneous excavation.