A Study of the Topography and Municipal History of PraenesteMagoffin, Ralph Van Deman
History
A Study of the Topography and Municipal History of Praeneste
Magoffin, Ralph Van Deman
Palestrina (Italy)
There is yet another old road which was lately discovered. It is about
three hundred yards below the city and near the road that cuts through
from Porta del Sole to the church of Madonna dell'Aquila.[77] This road
is made of polygonal stones of the limestone of the mountain, and hence
is older than any of the lava roads. It runs nearly parallel with the
Via degli Arconi, and takes a direction which would strike the Via
Praenestina where it crosses the Via Praenestina Nuova which runs past
Zagarolo. That is, the most ancient piece of road we have leads up to
the southeast corner of the town, but the oldest tombs point to a road
the direction of which was toward the southwest corner. However, all the
roads lead toward the southeast corner, where the old grade began that
went up above the arches, mentioned above, to a middle gate of the city.
The gate S. Francesco also is proved to be ancient because of the old
road that led from it. This road is identified by a deposit of ex voto
terracottas which were found at the edge of the road in a hole hollowed
out in the rocks.[78]
The two roads which were traveled the most were the ones that led toward
Rome. This is shown by the tombs on both sides of them,[79] and by the
discovery of a deposit of a great quantity of ex voto terracottas in
the angle between the two.[80]
THE WATER SUPPLY OF PRAENESTE.
In very early times there was a spring near the top of Monte Glicestro.
This is shown by a glance back at plate III, which indicates the
depression or cut in the hill, which from its shape and depth is clearly
not altogether natural and attributable to the effects of rain, but is
certainly the effect of a spring, the further and positive proof of the
existence of which is shown by the unnecessarily low dip made by the
wall of the citadel purposely to inclose the head of this depression.
There are besides no water reservoirs inside the wall of the arx. This
supply of water, however, failed, and it must have failed rather early
in the city's history, perhaps at about the time the lower part of the
city was walled in, for the great reservoir on the Corso terrace seems
to be contemporary with this second wall.
But at all times Praeneste was dependent upon reservoirs for a sure and
lasting supply of water. The mountain and the town were famous because
of the number of water reservoirs there.[81] A great many of these
reservoirs were dependent upon catchings from the rain,[82] but before
a war, or when the rainfall was scant, they were filled undoubtedly from
springs outside the city. In later times they were connected with the
aqueducts which came to the city from beyond Capranica.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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