File:Roman cities in Italy and Dalmatia (1910) (14773574881).jpg

Identifier: romancitiesinita00frot (find matches)
Title: Roman cities in Italy and Dalmatia
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Frothingham, Arthur L. (Arthur Lincoln), 1859-1923
Subjects: Cities and towns, Ancient Cities and towns -- Italy Architecture, Roman Italy -- Antiquities Dalmatia (Croatia) -- Antiquities
Publisher: New York, Sturgis & Walton Company
Contributing Library: New York Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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of thePorta Marzia are concerned they are as clearlyEtruscan as those of the Arco dAugusto. Thepeculiar pseudo-Corinthian capitals of the pilas-ters have their analogies in numerous Etruscanmonuments; for example, in Perugia itself onthe urns of the Volumni and other tombs of thenecropolis. Nothing could be farther from thenormal Roman type. The upper open gallerywhich must have crowned the arch has left notrace, and had entirely disappeared even in thesixteenth century. How the gate was related to the medieval cityis shown most fascinatingly if we do a thing thatevery visitor to Perugia should experience: pene-trate through the entrance now cut in the fortresswall below the Porta Marzia stonework into thebowels of San Gallos fortress. He incorpo-rated a quarter of the medieval city within thefoundations of the fortress, leaving its streets,houses, alleys and towers, just as they were, tobe subterranean storerooms for the soldiery! Itis a ghost-like progress that one makes, by torch-
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oC ca; Pi bO ^a t> o es *s; ;-!^^ c+->;-(O S Plate XXVI ^BUC USRARY ROMAN CITIES 139 light, in the dead silence, along the street thatonce wound up into the city from the PortaMarzia, following probably the line of the an-cient street, and coming out on the crest of thehill to cross the rest of the city, past the cathedralsquare and ancient forum, in an almost straightline to the Porta dAugusto. An interesting analogy may have existed be-tween these gates of Perugia and those of Siena.At Siena there lasted through the Middle Agesseveral of the gates of the ancient city whichwere still decorated with carved figures of itsguardian deities and heroes, probably as at thePorta Marzia. A medieval chronicler tells ushow the Sienese, not daring to destroy theseimages, but regarding them as evil demons, wouldevery year on a certain anniversary walk in pro-cession through the city, headed by the bishopand clergy, singing hymns and swinging incense-burners, and that they would visit these

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