Studies of Travel: ItalyFreeman, Edward A. (Edward Augustus)
History
Studies of Travel: Italy
Freeman, Edward A. (Edward Augustus)
Italy -- Description and travel
Yet, even without book, we may have been a little surprised both to
find a Thirty-city so far in the heart of the Volscian and Hernican
hills, and to find its warriors marshalled along with such distant
comrades as Tibur and Pedum and "Gabii of the pool." And, when we
come back to our books, a horrible thought presses itself upon us more
and more, a thought that Ferentinum may have no right to any place in
that list at all. The name seems to be Lord Macaulay's guess--among a
hundred other guesses--at the manifestly corrupt name which comes next
before Gabii in Dionysios' list of the Latin cities. Some read as near
to our mark as _Fortinei_; so we may hope for the best; but remembering
where Ferentinum stands, very far from Gabii, we confess that our hopes
are small.
In obedience to the Itinerary, it is from Anagni that we make our way
to Ferentino. And as we go from Anagni to Ferentino, we better take
in the special position of Anagni on the top of its isolated hill.
Till we have gone some little distance, we are hardly conscious that
Anagni is there at all; gradually the bell-tower rises into view, and
the rest of the city follows. A few miles only lead us from the hill
of Anagni to the hill of Ferentino. At the first glance it may be that
the spot which we have reached does not specially strike as "Ferentinum
of the rock." It does not seem to stand on such steep cliffs as many
other hill-fortresses, Norba pre-eminently among them. But, when we
begin to follow the line of the walls, we find out that, whether Lord
Macaulay is right or wrong in speaking of Ferentinum at all, he has
at least chosen his epithet wisely. Ferentinum is Ferentinum of the
rock. Large parts of the wall stand directly on vast masses of rock,
and sometimes rock and wall almost lose themselves in one another.
And the walls of Ferentino certainly yield in interest to none of
our series. They are still standing through the greater part of their
ancient circuit, and for the most part they are of two manifest dates,
differing in material and construction. There is an original lower
part of the wall, built of huge blocks of lias which we may describe as
rude, but less rude than the rudest work at Cori. The height to which
this earliest construction of all reaches differs in different parts,
but it has in most parts been patched and raised, not only by later
repairs of all manner of dates, but long before then by a construction
of very respectable antiquity, which would seem venerable if it were
not for the elder and more massive stones beneath it. The later work
has a general likeness to the walls of Anagnia both in construction
and material, and it is distinguished from the more primitive work
by the same mark. The pilers of the elder stones had no notion of the
arch; the builders of the later wall were perfectly familiar with it.
The only complete opening of the earlier work is a small postern with
merely inclined sides; but in one of the ancient gates, not far from
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account