Roman cities in Italy and Dalmatia . it crossed a torrentby a bridge which even as it stands is of the Re-publican age,—perhaps pre-Appian,—for it isconstructed of three superposed lines of archi-volts like the Cloaca Maxima. It followed thehillside to Norba, rising to its gates in zigzagsand then passing out and down to the narrowvalley of the Visciola. Its line can be traced notonly to Setia but beyond until it debouches abovethe Amaseno valley in front of Privernum. I do not believe that any one before myselfhad tracked continuously the line of this pre-Appian highway. I had it surveyed ove
Roman cities in Italy and Dalmatia . it crossed a torrentby a bridge which even as it stands is of the Re-publican age,—perhaps pre-Appian,—for it isconstructed of three superposed lines of archi-volts like the Cloaca Maxima. It followed thehillside to Norba, rising to its gates in zigzagsand then passing out and down to the narrowvalley of the Visciola. Its line can be traced notonly to Setia but beyond until it debouches abovethe Amaseno valley in front of Privernum. I do not believe that any one before myselfhad tracked continuously the line of this pre-Appian highway. I had it surveyed over theentire stretch from Cora to Setia. It was noeasy job to trace it on account of the many earlypolygonal retaining walls that still lined the hill-side and others that in the distance fooled oneinto thinking them ancient. It is now quite ageneral opinion that these ancient retaining wallswere the foundations for lines of buildings alongthe hillside. I shall refer to them later. Ofcourse the highway was also supported by a hne. c 1^ oo X 6 /. Plate X --^ ROMAN CITIES 77 of walls which differed from the roughest of theearly city walls only in their superior certain preliminary rambles from Norbaas a center I started from Cora to really make aconsecutive tracing of the road and walked allthe way to Terracina. When I got there myshoes were all askew and my feet huddled intotheir right sides from walking steadily on a steepslant for four days in one direction, so that whileI was inclined to give myself up for my returnto the luxury of the stuffy diligence, I wasobliged, in order to restore their shape, to walkback along the same hillsides! ]\Iy consequent intimacy with these hillsidescertainly had one good result. Nothing elsewould have given me so strong and close a senseof the antique life here in prehistoric times. Inthinking of these cities we must eliminate ourideas of modern life and even of Roman life—the life of the city. For these Latins, Hernicansa
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectarchitectureroman
