Roman Mosaics; Or, Studies in Rome and Its NeighbourhoodMacmillan, Hugh
Philosophy
Roman Mosaics; Or, Studies in Rome and Its Neighbourhood
Macmillan, Hugh
Rome (Italy) -- Description and travel
poet Persius, and portions of the wall are still standing. At the
ninth milestone are the tomb and the remains of the villa of the
Emperor Gallienus, slain by a conspiracy among his officers at the
siege of Milan in the year 268. This emperor has left nothing behind
but the memory of his luxury and his vices. When the site of the villa
was excavated by an English artist, Gavin Hamilton, at the end of last
century, the famous statue of the Discobolus and several other
specimens of ancient sculpture were discovered, which are now in the
Vatican Gallery. The ground hereabouts produces a whitish
efflorescence, and emits a most offensive sulphurous smell. It
exhibits the same evidences of recent volcanic activity as the
neighbourhood of Lakes Tartarus and Solfatara on the way to Tivoli.
The road after this descends into a valley, through which the stream
of the Ponticello flows, passing a most massive circular tomb,
reminding one of the mounds of the Horatii and Curiatii; and as it
ascends gradually on the opposite side, two huge sepulchres of the
Imperial period--one on the right hand and the other on the
left--attract notice, and are the last on this part of the route. The
railway to Naples passes across the road at the eleventh milestone,
and disturbs the solemn silence three or four times a day by its
incongruous noise. Beyond this is the osteria and village of
Frattocchie, where the old Appian Way merges into the new, and ascends
continuously to Albano. This neighbourhood is full of historical
associations. It was at Frattocchie that the body of Clodius was left
lying on the road after his fatal encounter with Milo. This fray
furnished the occasion for one of Cicero's most eloquent
speeches,--that in defence of Milo,--which was written, but owing to
the disturbances in the Forum at the time was not delivered. On the
left of the village, near a railway bridge and several quarries of
very old hard lava, is the site of Appiolae, one of the cities of the
Latin League, destroyed by Tarquinius Priscus. All the male population
were killed, and the women and children transferred to Rome; and with
the spoils the Capitolium was completed. The remains of the old city
are very slight, consisting of a wall, a few vestiges of a temple, and
some foundations on a cliff surrounded by a stream, which could be
dammed up and flooded so as to form a fosse. On the right of
Frattocchie are the ruins of _Bovillae_, taken and plundered by
Coriolanus, and deserted in the time of Cicero. Some arches of the
corridor of an amphitheatre, a reservoir for water, tolerably perfect,
and a circus, are still visible. There are also the ruins of a forum.
The view, looking back from this elevated position upon the long
course of the Appian Way, is exceedingly striking. One feels, when
gazing on the long perspective of rugged and mouldering sepulchres,
the full force of the name _Strada del Diavolo_ which the peasants
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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