As we slowly descended the mountain, we looked down through the woods to S. Romana at its eastern flank, near which are the deep fissures in the limestone called 'di meri,' whence pestilential vapours are said to arise. Pliny mentions these exhalations from Soracte as fatal to birds, and quotes Varro, who speaks of a fountain on Soracte four feet in width, which flowed at sunrise, and appeared to boil, and of which, when birds drank, they died. By Servius a story is told of some shepherds who were sacrificing to Pluto, when the victims were carried off from the very altar by wolves. The shepherds pursuing them came upon the cave whence the pestilential vapours issued, which destroyed all who came within their reach. A malady ensued, and the oracle declared that the only remedy was to do as the wolves did-to live by plunder.1 Hence they were called Hirpini Sorani-Pluto's wolves, from hirpus, which was Sabine for a wolf, and Soranus,2 another name for Pluto; and, accordingly, robbers there always were on Soracte till the forests which clothed the whole neighbourhood were for the most part cut down in the middle of the nineteenth century. With the robbers the wolves and bears, which abounded on the sides of the mountain, disappeared, many persons being still alive who have had adventurous escapes from them. Cato says that there were also wild goats upon Soracte, of such wonderful activity that they could leap sixty feet at one bound! 3 From S. Oreste (1300 feet) one looks across a wooded country to the village of Rignano, about 3 miles distant. It claims to be the birthplace of Cesare Borgia. Fragments of ancient columns and altars abound there, and in the piazza is preserved a curious primitive cannon, inscribed Magister Franciscus Cueva Fecit. Rignano, which for centuries belonged to the Savelli, gives a title to the eldest son of Duke Massimo. The church of S. Abbondio rests on a line of ancient wall. Seven miles south-east of Rignano is a hill crested by the ruined church of S. Martino, which occupies the site of the important Etruscan Metropolis Capena, the faithful ally of Veii; indeed Cato says that Veii was founded by the Capenates. The citadel was strongly defended by nature, being situated on an insular rock connected with the neighbouring heights by a kind of isthmus, and consequently was almost impregnable. It was never taken by siege, but capitulated to the Romans, after joining with the Falisci in a vain attempt to succour Veii. 'After the fall of Veii, Valerius and Servilius marched to Capena; and, the inhabitants not daring to quit their walls, the Romans destroyed the country, and particularly the fruit-trees, for which it was celebrated.'Livy, v. 24. 1 Aen. xi. 785. 2 Deccke considers that Soranus is the equivalent of Soractnus, (Falisker, p. 93.) 3 Cato ap. Varron. Re Rust. ii. cap. 3., quoted from Dennis, Vol. I. p. 135. There are some small remains of the foundations of walls and towers, and of reticulated work, visible here and there amid the thickets of wild-pear, descendants of the fruit-trees mentioned by Livy, which are covered with blossom in spring. 'Placed, like Alba and Gabii, upon the rim of a volcano, Capena assumed the form of a crescent; the citadel was on the highest point westward, and communicated by a steep path with the Via Veientana. This road may be traced in the valley below, running towards the Grammiccia and the natural opening of the crater on the east; and it was only here, as the remains testify, that carriages could enter the city. 'On ascending from this quarter, a fine terrace is observed, which is evidently placed on the top of the ancient walls. The squared blocks with which the place is strewed, show that these were parallelograms of volcanic stone. They may yet be traced by their foundations round the summit of the hill. 'Capena has something in it altogether peculiar: the situation, though commanding, seems singularly secluded, the country is once more wholly in a state of nature; nothing of animated life, except here and there flocks of goats or sheep, feeding on some green eminence or in the valleys below, which are spotted with such innumerable patches of underwood, that, were it not for the browsing of these animals, it would soon become a forest. The desolation is complete: Silvanus, instead of Ceres, is in full possession of the soil.'-Gell, Topography of Rome." 'The view from the height of Capena is wildly beautiful. The deep hollow on the south, with its green carpet: the steep hills overhanging it, dark with wood-perhaps the groves celebrated by Virgil: the bare swelling ground to the north, with Soracte towering above: the snow-capped Apennines in the eastern horizon: the deep silence, the seclusion; the absence of human habitations (not even a shepherd's hut) within the sphere of vision, save the distant town of S. Oreste, scarcely distinguishable from the gray rock on which it stands-it is a scene of more singular desolation than belongs to the site of any other Etruscan city in this district of the land.'-Dennis, 'Cities of Etruria.' The stream of the Gramiccia probably once bore the name of Capenas. 'Itur in agros, Dives ubi ante omnes colitur Feronia luco, The site of Capena is best visited on horseback, and may be reached from Rome by leaving the Via Flaminia on the left at the Monte della Guardia. About three miles from Capena, on the Tiber, is Fiano, with the fifteenth century castle of the Duke of that name. This village is supposed to mark the site of the Flavinium of Virgil:: Hi Soractis habent arces, Flaviniaque arva, Quique tuos, Flavina, focos, Sabatia quique -Sil. viii. 492. N Six miles north of Civita Castellana is Corchiano (Locanda di Giov. Campana: 1300 inhabitants), on the ancient Via Amerina, a picturesque village occupying an ovoidal Etruscan site, and surrounded, like almost all the towns of Etruria, with mysterious ravines full of now-mutilated sepulchres. One of these, half a mile distant, on the way to Falleri, is inscribed Larth. Vel. Arnies, in Etruscan characters. The private museum of Feliciano Crescenzi is worth a visit. Three miles further is Gallese (Locanda Rinaldi : Station 2 miles), beautifully situated on a rock at the junction of two ravines. Canon Nardoni has written a work to prove that this is the Aequum Faliscum, mentioned by Strabo, Virgil, and Silius. It contains some obscure Roman remains, and there are many Etruscan tombs in the neighbouring valleys. The Palace belongs to the Duca d'Attemps, and the church contains some pictures. In the former Violante Caraffa was murdered by her husband, the Duke of Paliano. Six miles north-west of Corchiano lies Vignanello (Albergo di Luigi Picconi), and four miles beyond it Soriano (Surianum), both Etruscan sites.1 The castle at the latter built by Niccolo III. 1278 is a grand edifice, but now used as a Provincial Gaol. Dennis believed that he has identified the fragments of a city, half covered with wood, but marked by the ruined church of S. Silvestro ('a mile and a half west of Ponte Felice, on the way to Corchiano'), with the lost town of Fescennium, mentioned by Dionysius and Virgil, and celebrated in the history of Latin poetry for the nuptial songs called Carmina Fescennina, to which, according to Festus, it gave its name. 1 For all these places see Dennis' Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, vol. ii, CHAPTER XXII MONTI CIMINI-NEPI, SUTRI, AND CAPRAROLA. (These most interesting places may be visited from Rome by means of the Roma-Viterbo Railway, or by motor-car, or else by sleeping at Capranica (Albergo Bedini), a healthy spot set on a hill. The old-fashioned route may, however, be still found attractive.) IT is a delightful drive of about an hour and a half_through the forest from Civita Castellana to Nepi. The road passes near the picturesque castle and Benedictine church of Castel S. Elia, the latter a curious early Christian building, situated on a rock and occupying the site of a temple of Diana, and covered internally with frescoes by the brothers Johannes and Stephanus and their nephew Nicolaus, of Rome. "The exact period in which these artists executed the decorations of S. Elia cannot be ascertained; but they were men who combined the imitation of forms and compositions characteristic of various ages of Roman art, with a technical execution which can only be traced as far back as the tenth century. Their work though it has suffered from the ravages of time, and restorers, illustrates a phase hitherto comparatively unknown. They seem to have been men accustomed to mosaics, for they mapped out their colours so as to resemble that species of work. They used, not the thin water-colour of the early catacomb painters at Rome or Naples, but the body-colour of the later artists, who painted in the chapel of S. Cecilia in S. Calisto and the figures of Curtius and Desiderius in the catacomb of S. Januarius. On a rough surface of plaster they laid in the flesh tones of a uniform yellowish colour, above which coarse dark outlines marked the forms, red tones the half-tints, and blue the shadows. The lights and darks were stippled on with white or black streaks, and a ruddy touch on the cheeks seemed intended to mark the robust health of the personage depicted. The hair and draperies were treated in the same manner. They were painted of an even general tone streaked with black or white lines to indicate curls, folds, light, and shadow. The result was a series of flat unrelieved figures, which were, in addition, without the charm of good drawing or expression. In the semidome of the apsis, the Saviour was represented standing with his right arm extended, and in his left hand holding a scroll. On his right S. Paul in a similar attitude was separated from S. Elias by a palm on which the phoenix symbolised Eternity. S. Elias, in a warrior's dress, pointed with his left hand to S. Paul. To the Saviour's left S. Peter, whose form is now but dimly visible, and probably another saint were depicted. A background of deep blue, spotted with red clouds of angular edges, relieved the figures. This was in fact an apsis picture similar to those in the numerous churches of Rome, and in arrangement not unlike that of SS. Cosmo e Damiano. The form of the Redeemer indeed, his head, of regular features, with a nose a little depressed and the flesh curiously wrinkled, his high forehead, and long black hair falling in locks, his double-pointed beard, tunic, mantle and sandals, had a general likeness with those of SS. Cosmo e Damiano. The saints, on the other hand, in their slender forms, S. Elias with his small head and long body, were reminiscent of later mosaics, whilst their attitude and movement, their draperies, depicted with lines, their defective feet and hands, were not unlike those of SS. Nereo ed Achilleo. The Neo-Greek influence might be traced in other parts of the paintings of S. Elia. Beneath the green foreground, where the four rivers gushed from under the feet of the Saviour, and the Lamb stood pouring its blood into a chalice, an ornament separated the paintings of the semidome from those in the lower courses of the apsis. In the uppermost of these, Jerusalem, and in the intervals of three windows, twelve sheep in triple groups, between palms, were depicted. Bethlehem, no doubt, closed the arrangement on the right, but is now goné. In the next lower course, the Saviour sat enthroned between two angels and six female saints, amongst which S. Catherine in a rich costume and diadem and S. Lucy may still be recognised. The rich ornaments, the round eyes and oval faces, of these female saints, were not without admixture of the foreign element which had left its impress on Rome in the seventh and eighth centuries. Still, the angels with their hair bound in tufts and their flying bands were of regular features. The painters covered the sides of the tribune with three courses of pictures, fragments of which remain. On the upper to the right, the prophets with scrolls, on the second, martyrs with the chalice, on the third, scenes from the Old Testament. On the left the lowest course was likewise filled up with biblical subjects taken from the Revelation. The aisles and nave were also doubtless painted, but the pictures have unfortunately disappeared. The painters inscribed their names as follows beneath the feet of the Saviour in the apsis-Joh. FF. Stefanu frts picto. . e .. Romani et Nicholaus Nepr Johs. The paintings of S. Elia are far more instructive and interesting than those of a later date, and even than the mosaics of the eleventh century at Rome.'-Crowe and Cavalcaselle. The pavement is of the 13th century. The castle is of the 12th, and its restorations of the 16th century. It is now become a national monument. Nepi, on the consular Via Amerina, is the ancient Nepete. (Alberghi di Giovanni Faggioli and Francesco Crivellari. Carriages from and to Civita Castellana for the railway, 10 lire.) Its position is no higher than that of the surrounding plain, but like other Etruscan sites it is cut off by deep ravines, so as to gain severe insulation. At the entrance of the town the gorge is crossed by a bridge and by a double aqueduct built by Paul III. (1534–50) in the sixteenth century. Below this a rivulet tumbles over the cliffs into the ravine. The walls display remains of the distinct periods: Etruscan, Roman, and sixteenth century. The best portion of the Etruscan stands near the Porta Romana and is built of the local tufo. The piazza at the highest point of the town within has a handsome municipio, with a fountain and a wide portico decorated with Roman altars, inscriptions, and fragments of sculpture found in the neighbourhood. The Duomo (1831) has a fine saracinesque campanile; its first bishop was S. Romanus (A.D. 46), and tradition ascribes the foundation of the see to S. Peter. At the Roman entrance to the town stands the picturesque castle, with a double gateway. Outside this there is a charming spot; the great machicolated towers built by San Gallo for Paul III., hang over the edge of the cliffs, against which rises an old mill, and, below, a waterfall sparkles and loses itself in a mass of luxuriant evergreens. Turning to the right are some grand remains of Etruscan fortifications, probably the same |