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Vergilian Cities of the Roman Campagna

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Bertha Tilly
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Extract

The tract of country bordering on the area of the Anzio beach-head, part of the wider Roman Campagna, stretching from the confines of Ardea to the banks of the T Tiber, is the scene of the dramatic action of the last six books of the Aeneid, the field of strife whereon is played to its finish the struggle for the foundation of the Roman race, and for the birth of Rome. On this soil still remain the Vergilian city of Ostia, which lies near the Tiber's mouth and was the port of Rome in antiquity, of Ardea and Lavinium, ancient settlements standing on the last seaward tufa ridge of the Alban massif and having their origin in the early Iron Age, and of Laurentum, the site of which was early lost in classical times, and cannot yet be located with any certainty.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 19 , Issue 75 , September 1945 , pp. 125 - 134
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1945

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References

1 Aen : VII, 157-9.

2 Ashby, Journal of Roman Studies, 1912, p. 192 sq.

3 Aen : VIII, 337 sq.

4 For a detailed account of the area sacra see Paribeni Monumenti Antichi, 1916, p. 442 sq.

5 Carcopino, Mélanges de l’École de Rome, 1911, p. 193 sq.

6 C.I.L., XIV, 375.

7 Aen: VII, 24-5.

8 Aen: VII, 117 sq.

9 Aen: 111, 255.

10 Aen: VII, 141-3.

11 Aen: VII, 109-10.

12 Aen : VII, III. Spelt was the ancient food of the Romans and was constantly used in ritual.

13 Aen: VII, 113.

14 See Carcopino, Vergile et les Origines d’Ostie, 1919, p. 673 ; Boas, Allard Pierson Stichtung Archaeologisch Historische Bydragen VI, 1938, p. 234.

15 Aen : VII, 157-9.

16 Aen : VII, 233 ; IX, 641-4 ; X, 26, 74, 213, 247. The epithet nascens leaves no possible doubt that the reference is to Aeneas’ settlement and not to Phrygian Troy.

17 This account is taken from Tenney Frank, American Journal of Philology, 1924, 45, p. 64 sq.; also from Calza, Guida di Ostia, p. 26.

18 Säflund, Le Mura di Roma Repubblicana, 1932, p. 238 sq.

19 He considers that the Fidenae tufa to be seen on the Palatine represents restoration work following the defeat at Trasimene.

20 Calza, Notizie degli Scavi, 1923 ; cf. T. Frank, loe. cit. p. 65.

21 T. Frank, loc. cit. p. 65 ; Wilson, Papers of the British School at Rome, XIII, p. 43.

22 T. Frank, loc. cit. p. 65.

23 Strabo, V, 231, 232.

24 Polybius, III, 22.

26 Nibby, Analisi della carta dei dintorni di Roma 18482, 1, p. 440.

26 H. Last, Cambridge Ancient History, VII, pp. 487, 503.

27 Boëthius, Bolletino dell’ Associazione degli Studi Mediterranei, June-July 1931, p.2 ; Pigorini, Bolletino Paletaologico Italiano, 1882, VIII, p. 114 ; Pasqui, Notizie degli Scavi, 1900, p. 54.

28 Boëthius, loc. cit. R. MacIver, Villanovans and Early Etruscans, 1924, p. 70 sq. ; Åberg, Bronzezeitliche und Früheisenzeitliche Chronologie, 1930, p. 216.

29 Boëthius, loc. cit. p. 3.

30 Pasqui, loc. cit. p. 56 sq.

31 Boëthius, loc. cit. p. 14.

32 Säflund, loc. cit. pp. 124, 131.

33 Aen : VII, 411-13.

34 Strabo, V, 232.

35 Strabo V, 232.

36 Aen : VII, 416-19. Pliny N.H. XXXV, 115, see on this passage Boèthius loc. cit. p. 4

37 Servius, ad Aen : 1, 44, describing a picture to be seen in the temple which recalled the passage in the Aeneid where Pallas sets the Greek fleet on fire.

38 Boèthius, loc. cit. Aug : 1930, pl. 11 ; June-July 1931, p. 5.

39 Andrèn, Bolletino dell’ Associazione Internazionale degli Studi Mediterranei, June-July 1931, p. 17 sq. and drawings.

40 Cicero, D.N.D., III, 47.

41 The site has been identified beyond doubt from several inscriptions of the Imperial age, bearing the name Laurentes Lavinates ; see especially C.I.L., XIV, 2069 (Dessau, ibid. p. 186) and 2070 sq.

42 Dionysius of Halicarnassus, V, 12.

43 IV, sq. Varro, R.R., 11, 11.

44 Vergil however locates the prodigy on the banks of the Tiber, Aen : VIII, 815.

45 Platner and Ashby, Topographical Dictionary of Rome, 1929, Casa Romuli.

46 LIX.

47 LVII, cf. Servius, ad Aen : XI, 316.

48 LXIII.

49 Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 11, 52, 3 ; 53, 1. Titus Tatius is said to have been murdered in the act of sacrificing to the Penates at Lavinium.

50 Dionysius of Halicarnassus, III, 34, 3 ; Festus, p. 276.

51 Lanciani, Monumenti Antichi, 1903, pp. 164 sq.

52 Strabo V, 232.

53 Servius, ad Aen : II, 296.

54 Macr. : III, 4, 11.

55 Daniel, Servius, ad Aen : III, 12.

56 Ascanius, in Scaurianum, 21

57 Servius, ad Aen : VII, 150 ; Macr. Sat, III, 4, 11.

58 C.I.L. X, 797 ; and Altheim, A History of Roman Religion, translated Mattingly, 1938, pp. 140-1. For Vergil’s treatment of the Penates, see Cyril Bailey, Religion in Virgil, 1935, p. 32 sq.

59 Lucan Phars. VII, 393-6.