From the height of Rusellæ you look southward over the wide vale of the Ombrone, with the ruined town of Istia on the banks of that river; but Grosseto is not visible, being concealed by the loftier height of Moscona, which is crowned by the ruins of a circular tower. On the east is a wooded hollow; but on the north lies a wide bare valley, through which runs the road to Siena, and on the opposite heights stands the town of Batignano, of proverbial insalubrity-" Batignano fa la fossa." There resides the present proprietor of Rusellæ, hight Jacobetti. On the west the valley widens out towards the great lake of Castiglione, the Lacus Prelius, or Aprilis, of antiquity, which of old must have been as at present a mere morass, into which several rivers discharged themselves; but it had then an island in the midst, which is no longer distinguishable. 5 4 I did not ascend this height, but Sir Richard Hoare who sought here for the ruins of Rusellæ, describes this tower as built over subterranean vaults, apparently reservoirs. The same traveller speaks of a small house in the plain beneath Rusellæ, belonging to one Franchi, or Franceschi, which has many inscribed tablets built into the wall, but with their faces turned inwards. Classical Tour, I. pp. 50, 68. 5 This lake, or rather swamp. is called "Aprilis," by the Itineraries (see page 212). Cicero (pro Milone, 27) calls it "Prelius," and speaks of its island. Pliny (III. 8) must mean the same when he mentions the "amnes Prille," a little to the north of the Umbro. These " 99 amnes seem to refer to several mouths or emissaries to the lake. The island of which Cicero speaks is by some supposed to have been the hill of Badia al Fango, nearly two miles from the lake, but Repetti (IV. p. 10) considers it rather to have been a little mound now called Badiola, on which are still some remains of ancient buildings, and which he thinks in the time of Cicero may have stood in the midst of the marsh, instead of hard by it, as at present. It is impossible to say of what extent the lake was of old; before the hydraulic operations commenced in 1828 for its "bonification," as the Italians term it, it had a superficial extent of 33 square miles, but it is now reduced by the means taken, and still taking, for filling it up; this is done by letting in the waters of the Umbrone, which bring down abundant deposits from the interior. It would seem from the forcible possession Clodius took of the island in its waters, as related by Cicero (loc. cit.), that this spot was much more desirable as a habitation in ancient times than at present, when it is "the very centre of the infection of the Tuscan Maremma." Repetti gives good reasons for regarding this lake or swamp as originally the bed of the sea. An interesting account will be found in the same writer (II. v. Castiglion della Pescaja is seen on the shore at the foot of the hills which rise behind the promontory of Troja. Scarcely a trace of the necropolis has been discovered at Rusellæ. The hardness of the rock and the dense woods which for ages have covered the hill, in great measure account for this. It is probable that here, as on other sites of similar character, the tombs were of masonry, heaped over with earth. Such is the character of one on the ascent to the city from the south, not far from the walls. It is a chamber only seven feet by five, lined with small blocks of unhewn masonry like the Tirynthian in miniature, and covered with large slabs, about eighteen inches thick. The chamber was originally of greater depth, being now so choked with earth that a man cannot stand upright in it. It can be entered only by a hole in the roof, where one of the cover-slabs has been removed; for the original doorway, which opened in the slope of the hill, and which is covered with a horizontal lintel, is now blocked up. As it is therefore a mere pit, without any indications above the surface, it is not easy to find. From the peculiarity of the masonry, and from the general analogy this tomb bears to those of Saturnia, I do not hesitate to pronounce it of high antiquity. This was the only sepulchre I could perceive, or that I could hear of, in the vicinity of Rusellæ, though many others probably exist among the dense woods below the walls. No excavations have been made on this site within the memory of man.6 Grosseto) of the attempts made at various periods and by different means to reduce the extent of stagnant water, and lessen the unhealthiness of this district. This tomb has a great resemblance in construction, if not in form, to the Sepolture di Giganti of Sardinia, which are long, passage-like sepulchres of rude stones, and covered in with unhewn slabs. De la Marmora, Voyage en Sardaigne, pl. IV. pp. 21-35; and Bull. Inst. 1833, p. 125, et seq. tav d' Agg.; Abeken, Mittelitalien, p. 240, taf. IV. 6a-d. Micali (Mon. Ined. tav. XVII. 11, The walls of Rusellæ, from their stupendous massiveness, and the rude shapelessness of the blocks, are indisputably of very early date, and may rank among the most ancient structures extant in Italy. While those of Cosa and Saturnia, in the neatly joined polygonal style, have been referred to later, even to Roman, times, no one has ever ventured to call in question the venerable antiquity of Rusella; which therefore needs no confirmation from historical sources. The limited extent of the city, only two miles in circumference, and not more than a fourth the size of Volterra, does not seem to entitle it to rank among the Twelve chief cities of Etruria. Yet this honour is generally accorded to it; principally on the ground of a passage in Dionysius, where it is cited in connection with Clusium, Arretium, Volaterræ, and Vetulonia, all cities of the Confederation, as taking part in the war against Tarquinius Priscus, independently of the rest of Etruria ;7 which it could not have done had it not been a city of first-rate importance. This is the earliest mention made of Rusellæ in history. We next hear of it in the year 453 of Rome, in the dictatorship of M. Valerius Maximus, who marched his army into the territory of Rusellæ, and there "broke the might of the Etruscans," and forced them to sue for peace. And again in the year 460, the consul, Postumius Megellus, entered the territory of Rusellæ, and not only laid it waste, but attacked and stormed the city itself, capturing more than 2000 men, and slaying almost as many around the walls. When we next find it mentioned in history, it is among the cities of Etruria, which 8 p. 109) describes a small bronze lamp found near Rusella; which is in no way peculiar, except as coming from this site; for, as far as I could learn, it is all that has yet been found here. Cluver (II. p. 514), however, speaks of sundry marbles, columns, bronze figures, and 7 Dion. Hal. III. p. 189. furnished supplies to Scipio in the Second Punic War. It sent him its quota in corn, and fir for ship-building. It is afterwards mentioned among the Roman colonies in Etruria. It continued to exist after the fall of the Western Empire, and for ages was a bishop's see, till in 1138, its population had sunk so low, and the site was so infested by robbers and outlaws, that its see and inhabitants were tranferred to Grosseto, its modern representative. Since that time Rusellæ has remained as it is now seen a wilderness of rocks and thickets-the haunt of the fox and wild boar, of the serpent and lizard—visited by none but the herdsman or shepherd, who lies the livelong day stretched in vacancy on the sward, or turning a wondering gaze on the stupendous ruins around him, of whose origin and history he has not a conception. 1 Liv. XXVIII. 45. 2 Plin. III. 8. Ptol. p. 72, ed. Bert. 3 Repetti, II. pp. 526, 822. This writer shows that at the period of the transfer of the bishopric to Grosseto, either this latter city could not have been as unhealthy as at present, or Rusellæ could not have been deserted on account of malaria. CHAPTER XLV. TELAMONE.—TELAMON. - dives opum Priami dum regna manebant ; Nunc tantum sinus, et statio malefida carinis. VIRGIL. An.. 22, SOUTH of Grosseto, the next place of Etruscan interest is Telamone, or Talamone, eighteen miles distant. For the first half of the way the road traverses a wide plain, crossing the Ombrone by a ferry. This, the Umbro of antiquity-non ignobile flumen-is a stream of no great width, and ought to be spanned by a bridge. In Pliny's time it was navigable; but for what distance we know not. Passing Alberese and its quarries,2 the road enters a wooded valley, with a range of hills on the right renowned as a favourite haunt of the wild-boar and roebuck— Ubi cerva silvicultrix, ubi aper nemorivagus. Hither accordingly the cacciatori of Rome and Florence resort in the season, taking up their quarters at Collecchio, 1 Plin. III. 8.-Umbro, navigiorum capax, et ab eo tractus Umbriæ. Rutilius (I. 337-341) speaks of the snug port at its mouth. Cluver (II. p. 474) thinks from Pliny's mention of it, that it gave its name to the Umbrians; but Müller (Etrusk. einl. 2, 12) on the contrary considers it to have received its name from that ancient people; and interprets Pliny as meaning that a dis VOL. II. trict on the river was called Umbria. 2 A modern writer opines that Alberese may be the site of the Eba of Ptolemy. Viaggio Antiquario per la Via Aurelia, p. 43. But an ancient etymology is here quite superfluous, for the name is manifestly derived from the limestone-alberese-which is quarried here. S |