Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1267

 TUSCULUM. Latins. (/J. 33.) Servius Sulpicius and L. Quinc- tiu.s, both military tribunes, were the Roman com- manders on this occasion : and on some rare gold coins, still extant, of the former family, are seen on the obverse the heads of Castor and Pollux, deities peculiarly worshipped at Tusculum (Cic. Z>«V. i. 43; cf. Festus, s.v. Stroppus), and on the reverse tiie image of a city with the letters tvscvl on the gate. From this period till the time of the great Latin war we have little to record of Tusculuin except the frustrated attempt of the Veliterni on its terri- tory (Liv. iv. 36) and the horrible devastations committed on it by the Gauls, when in alliance with the Tiburtines, in B. c. 357. (Id. vii. 11.) After their long attachment to Rome we are totally at a loss to conjecture the motives of the Tusculans in joining the Latin cities against her. The war which ensued is marked by the well-known anec- dote of Titus Manlius, who, being challenged by ( teminus Mettius, the commander of the Tusculan cavalry, attacked and killed him, against strict orders to the contrary; for which breach of military discipline he was put to death by his father. (Id. viii. 7.) The war ended with the complete subju- gation of the Latins ; and by the famous senatus- consultum regulating the settlement of Latium, the Tusculans were treated with great indulgence. Their defection was ascribed to the intrigues of a few, and their right of citizenship was preserved to them. (/6. 14.) This settlement took place in b. c. 335. In 321 the Tusculans were accused by the tribune, M. Flavius, of having supplied the Veliterni and Privernates with the means of carrying on war against Rome. There does not appear to have been any foundation for this charge; it seems to have been a mere calumny; nevertheless the Tusculans, with their wives and children, having put on mourn- ing habits, went in a body to Rome, and implored the tribes to acquit them of so odious an imputa- tion. This spectacle moved the compassion of the Romans, who, without further inquiry, acquitted them unanimously; with the exception of the tribe Pollia, which voted that the men of Tusculum should be scourged and put to death, and the women and children sold, agreeably to the laws of war. This vote remained indelibly imprinted on the me- mory of the Tusculans to the very latest period of the Roman Republic; and it was found that scarce one of the tribe Papiria, to which the Tusculans be- longed, ever voted in favour of a candidate of the tribe Pollia. (lb. 37.) Tusculum always remained a municipium, and some of its families were distinguished at Rome. (Id. vi. 21—26 ; Orell. rnscr. 775, 1368, 3042.) Among them may be mentioned the gens Mamilia, the Porcia, which produced the two Catos, the Fulvia, Coruncania, Juventia, Fonteia, &c. (Cic. p. Plane. 8, p. Font. 14; Corn. Nep. Cat. I; Val. Max. iii. 4. § 6.) Hannibal appears to have made an unsuccessful attempt upon, or perhaps rather a mere demonstra- tion against, Tusculum in B.C. 212. (Liv. xxvi. 9 ; cf. Sil. It. sii. 534.) In the civil wars of Ma- rius and Sulla, its territory seems to have been dis- tributed by the latter. (Auct. de Cohniis.) Its walls were also restored, as well as during the wars of Pompey. Ve have no notices of Tusculum under the Empire. After the war of Justinian and the in- roads of the Lombards, Tusculum regained even more than its ancient splendour. For several cen- TUSCULUM. 1243 turies during the middle ages the counts of Tus- culum were supreme in Rome, and could almost dispose of the papal chair. The ancient city remained entire till near the end of the 12th cen- tury. At that period tlicre were constant wars between the Tusculans and Romans, the former of whom were supported by the Gorman emperors and protected by the popes. According to Romualdus, archbishop of Salerno (apud Baronlum, vol. xix. p. 340), the walls of Tusculum were razed in the pon- tificate of Alexander III. in the year 1168; but perhaps a more probable account by Richard de S. Germane (ap. Muratori, Script, t. vii. p. 972) as- cribes the destruction of the city to the permission of the German emperor in the year 1191. Towards the end of the Republic and beginning of the Empire, Tusculum was one of the favourite re- sorts of the wealthy Romans. Strabo (v. p. 239) de- scribes the hill on which it was built as adorned with many villas and plantations, especially on the side that looked towards Rome. But though the air was salubrious and the country fine, it does not appear, like Tibur, to have been a favourite resort of the Roman poets, nor do they speak of it much in their verses. The Anio, with its fall, besides other natural beauties, lent a charm to Tibur which would have been sought in vain at Tusculum. Lucullus seems to have been one of the first who built a villa there, which seems to have been on a magnificent scale, but with little arable land attached to it. (Plin. xviii. 7. s. 1.) His parks and gardens, how- ever, which were adorned with aviaries and fish- ponds, extended to the Anio, a distance of several miles; whence he was noted in the report of the censors as making more use of the broom than the plough. (lb. and Varr. R. R. i. 13, iii. 3, seq.; Columella, i. 4.) On the road towards Rome, in the VIgna Angelotti, is the ruin of a large circular mau- soleum, 90 feet in diameter inside, and very much resembling the tomb of Caecilia Metella on the Via Appia. It evidently belongs to the last period of the Republic; and Nibby (Dintorni, p. 344) is inclined to regard it as the sepulchre of Lucullus, mentioned by Plutarch (Vit.Lwc.43), though that is commonly identified with a smaller mausoleam between Fras- cati and the Villa Rujinella. Besides the villa of Lucullus, we hear of those of Cato, of Cicero and his brother Quintus, of JIarcus Brutus, of Q. Horten- sius, of T. Anicius, of Balbus, of Caesar, of L. Crassus, of Q. Jletellus, &c. It would now be vain to seek for the sites of most of these; though it may perhaps be conjectured that Cato's stood on the hill to the NE. of the town, which seems to have been called Mons Porcius from it, and still bears the name of Monte Porzio. So mucli interest, however, is attached to the villa of Cicero (Tusculanum), as the favourite retirement in which he probably composed a great portion of his philosophical works, and especially the Disputations which take their name from it. that we shall here present the reader with the chief par- ticulars that can be collected on the subject. Re- specting the site of the villa there have been great disputes, one school of topographers seeking it at Grotta Fen-ata, another at the Villa Rvjiitclla. Both these places lie to the W. of Tusculum, but the latter nearer to it, and on an eminence, whilst Grolta Ferrata is in the ])lain. We have seen l'roM Strabo that the Roman villas lay chiefly on the W. side of tiie town; and it will be found further ou that Cicero's adjoined those of Lucullus and Ga- binius, which were the most splendid and remarkable,