of the reigning Pontiff, practicable, even in a carriage; and having reached the supposed site of Bovillæ, now Fratocchio, plunged into the outspread plain of the Campagna; and after visiting other interesting ruins, reached the principal objects of our search.
These were the sites of Apiolæ and Politorium. If the discovery did not remunerate our toil over the sultry plain, by any gratification of sense, it repaid us at least by moral suggestions.
The walls of each city, if it deserved the name, were clearly traceable. In one instance the enclosure was divided by an interior wall into two divisions, which prompted the application to this town of the plural name, according to the analogy of other ancient cities. A bridge (popularly, il Ponte delle Streghe, the Witches' Bridge), leading to the gate of one, remained entire; its huge blocks of uncemented Alban stone (peperino) still holding fast their places in the unbroken arch.[1] It has since been destroyed.
You may naturally ask me what is the history of these two cities, when were they built, by whom, and wherefore destroyed; and, consequently, how long they have remained desolate.
Almost the only record that remains of their annals is that of their destruction. Livy mentions Apiolæ as having been conquered by Tarquinius Prisons, and after a fresh rebellion destroyed and
- ↑ In Sir W. Gell's 'Map of Rome and its Environs' this bridge is given to Mugilla, another of the cities alluded to in the text. But see Nibby, quoted in the next note.
