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The Ancient Road Systems of the Central and Northern Ager Faliscus. (Notes on Southern Etruria, 2)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

M. W. Frederiksen  and
J. B. Ward Perkins
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Extract

The modern Via Cassia, now as in antiquity the great arterial road up through the heart of south-eastern Etruria, after crossing the Fosso dell'Olgiata less than a kilometre to the west of the north-western gate of Veii, climbs steadily for about 7 km. to cross the Monti Sabatini, the line of extinct volcanic craters that runs eastwards from Lake Bracciano, forming a natural northern boundary to the Roman Campagna. After cutting through the southern crest of the crater of Baccano, with its magnificent views southwards and eastwards over Rome towards Tivoli, Palestrina and the Alban Hills, the road drops into the crater, skirts round the east side of the former lake, and climbs again to the far rim, before dropping once more into the head of the Treia basin, on its way to Monterosi and Sutri.

From this vantage-point a whole new landscape is spread out before one (pl. XLVII). To the west and north-west, the tangle of volcanic hills that forms the northern limit of the Monti Sabatini, rising at its highest point to the conical peak of Monte Rocca Romana (612 m.); beyond and to the right of those, past Monterosi and filling the whole of the north-western horizon, some 10–15 km. distant, the spreading bulk of Monte Cimino (1053 m.), with its characteristically volcanic, twin-peaked profile; to the north and north-east, the gently rolling woods and fields of the Faliscan plain, deceptively smooth, stretching away to the distant Tiber.

Type
Research Article
Information
Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 25 , November 1957 , pp. 67 - 203
Copyright
Copyright © British School at Rome 1957

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References

1 Undertaken with the help of a generous grant from the T. W. Greene Fund of Oxford University, made through the Craven Committee.

2 PBSR, xxiii, 1955, pp. 44–72Google Scholar.

3 The survey of Ponte Nepesino and that of Torre dell'Isola were undertaken by my wife and myself in September-October, 1956. Mrs. Gillian Webster and Captain Anthony Weston-Lewis spent several days helping us at Ponte Nepesino. M. R. G.

For the history of Nepi, , see further CIL, xi, p. 481Google Scholar; Tomassetti, iii, pp. 135–154.

For the ancient cemeteries, see in particular the following: to the north, Not. Scav., 1910, p. 222 (‘Vigna Pentriani’) and Ibid., 1918, pp. 16–19; to the west, Not. Scav., 1910, pp. 199–207 and 221–222 (‘Contrada Sante Grotte’ and ‘Contrada Gilastro’); to the south, Ibid., pp. 207–229 (‘Contrada La Massa’). See also below, pp. 180–1.

For the Papal aqueduct and fortifications, see pp. 181–2.

4 Bullettino di Paletnologia Italiana, n.s. x, 1956, p. 157Google Scholar; excavated in 1955 and as yet unpublished; and Monumenti Antichi, xxvi, 1920, col. 5Google Scholar, respectively. The Grotta Fabbrece, mentioned in the last article, is only 3 km. downstream from La Torre.

5 The reports by Pasqui and Cozza are to be found in Not. Scav., 1887, pp. 170 ff., 262 ff. 307 ff.

6 Mistakenly printed ‘Mignale’ in the 1940 edition of the 1: 25,000 map.

7 Blakeway, , Journal of Roman Studies, xxv, 1935, 146Google Scholar.

8 Pliny, , HN 3, 51Google Scholar.

9 Hal., Dion., Ant. Rom. 1, 21Google Scholar.

10 See Bormann, , Arch.-epigr. Mitteilungen aus Österreich-Ungarn, xi, 1887, 103 ffGoogle Scholar. J. Bayet, in the appendix to the vol. v of the Budé edition of Livy, points out the political cohesion of ‘Etruria Tiberina’, as clearly shown by tradition: Faliscans frequently co-operate with Veii in Livy, e.g. 5, 8, 13; 16 ff. while in 5, 17, 6, they plead together in the concilium Etruriae. Livy's mistake in 5, 8, 5, ‘duo Etruriae populi,’ was an easy one to make. Veii's fall was soon followed by the capture of Capena and Falerii.

11 Zon. 8, 18: cf. Strabo 5, 226; Pol. 1, 65, 2.

12 Beloch (Rom. Gesch., p. 610 f.) infers from Pliny, , HN. 7, 19Google Scholar, that the area near Soracte and the Tiber was confiscated; this seems a probable conjecture.

13 CIL xi, p. 465, Beloch, Röm. Gesch., p. 515 f.

14 CIL xi, 3930.

15 See Barnabei, , Mon. Ant. iv, 1894, c. 15 ff.Google Scholar; he would place an earlier, pre-Greek settlement on the heights of Montarano, involving thus two moves before the accepted site of the town; but Montarano has no defences, and the traces of habitations may be strays. For tombs there, Not. Scav., 1908, p. 18.

16 No report was published of these excavations, but the material will be found in Della Seta, Museo di Villa Giulia, p. 177 ff.; cf. Andrén, Etrusco-Italic Terracottas, p. 93.

17 Not. Scav., 1903, p. 454–5.

18 Lib. Col., p. 217, 5 (Lachmann): colonia Iunonia quae appellatur Faliscos a triumviris assignata. Pliny, HN 3, 52Google Scholar.

19 Beloch, Röm. Gesch., p. 610 f.

20 See CIL, xi, p. 517; Mommsen, , Gesamn. Schr., v, pp. 217, 238Google Scholar; recently, Degrassi, , Mem. Acc. Lincei, Cl. mor. stor. fil., VIII, ii, 6, p. 290 fGoogle Scholar.

21 Del Frate, p. 20.

22 See Pasqui, Not. Scav., 1886, p. 8; 1887, p. 92 ff.; Röm. Mitt., ii, 1887, p. 22 ff.Google Scholar; L. R. Taylor, Cults of Etruria, p. 71 ff; Deecke, pp. 37, 83 ff; Andrén, p. 80 ff; and Stefani in Not. Scav., 1947, p. 69 ff. The full bibliography is given in Andrén.

23 CIE ii.2, 8036–69; Mengarelli, Röm. Mitt., 1907, p. 296 ff; Bull. Comm. Arch., 1911, p. 62 ff; Andrén, p. 104 ff; Stefani, Not. Scav., 1948, p. 102 ff.

24 Not. Scav., 1948, p. 109.

25 Bull. Ist., 1875, 133; cf. Gamurrini in Not. Scav., 1887, p. 101 ff.

26 There are medieval remains on Monte Lombrica and a medieval chapel of S. Susanna still stands on the left of the road.

27 Cf. del Frate, p. 79.

28 Cf. Pasqui, Not. Scav., 1887, p. 93.

29 Pasqui, loc. cit.; Dennis, i, p. 95.

30 Del Frate, p. 49, speaks of a tower, which is not to be seen now.

31 So Pasqui, op. cit., tav. II, fig. l, ‘d’; also his notes in the Villa Giulia; but cf. below.

32 Bull. Comm. Arch., 1911, p. 62 f.; Not. Scav., 1948, p. 102.

33 We wish to express our thanks to His Excellency the Bishop of Civita Castellana for his courtesy in allowing us to study this important monument, and for the active interest with which he followed the work.

34 The paving appeared about five years ago; we are indebted to Sig. Bracci for this information.

35 There are few, if any, traces of antiquity along the only reasonable alternative line, that which follows the plateau to the north of the Fosso dell'Isola.

36 Cf. H. Bulle, ‘Die Geleisestrassen des Alterturns.’ Sitzb. d. Bayerischen Akad. d. Wiss., phil-hist. Klasse, 1947, 2, p. 124 ff.

37 CIL, xi, 3126, cf. 3138; see also below, p. 190.

38 Not. Scav., 1887, p. 93.

39 The name ‘Cava Furiana’ was given to it by the earlier antiquaries, who identified Civita Castellana with Veii and took this to be Camillus's tunnel.

40 Amores, iii, 13.

41 CIL, xi, 3100, 3125.

42 Gamurrini, Not. Scav., 1887, pp. 101–107, who read hinc in l. 11, understood the procession to move from the ara, which he identified with the shrine in the Fosso dei Cappuccini, to the temple, a short distance away. But the right reading is more likely to be huc, that is the victims are being led towards the altar (see Munari's edition, La Nuova Italia, Firenze, 1951); and this ara per antiquas facta sine arte manus is the archaic shrine immediately adjoining the temple (Stefani, Not. Scav., 1947, pp. 72–74).

43 Dennis (i, p. 105) records a gate at this point; it can no longer be seen.

44 Not. Scav., 1889, pp. 151–154.

45 Not. Scav., 1881, pp. 134–136.

46 E.g. claiming that this was the site of Fescennium or of Aequum Faliscum; see Dennis, i, pp. 120–121.

47 For the Roman bridge (the last traces of which were destroyed in 1896), the ferry on the same site, and the Ponte Felice, see Ashby and Fell, p. 162; also Martinori, Via Flaminia, pp. 90–91.

48 For the name, see below.

49 Monumenti antichi, iv, 1894, cc. 95–104Google Scholar.

50 Perkins, J. B. Ward, ‘Etruscan and Roman roads in southern Etruria,’ JRS, xlvii, 1957, pp. 139–143Google Scholar.

51 PBSR, xxiii, 1955, pp. 45–58Google Scholar.

52 Livy 10, 47.

53 Ashby and Fell, p. 133, n. 2. Possibly to be identified with the ruins beside the Via Flaminia at the crossing of the Rio Fratta.

54 It is recorded, but not by name, in the Tabula Peutingeriana, which gives the successive stations as Vacanas, Nepe, Faleros, Castello Amerino, Ameria.

55 e.g. Garrucci, Dissertazioni Archeologiche, 1864, pp. 36–38.

56 e.g. iii, pp. 154–156, where he lists over 150 estate-names recorded from the immediate neighbourhood of Nepi. Many of these names appear to have survived from classical times.

57 See p. 165.

58 This provision suggests that the Roman viaduct across the Treia on the line of the old Via Flaminia was still functioning. If so, it must have gone out of use quite soon afterwards.