Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/485

 CAERE. Greek authors down to a 7pry late period. Roman authorities throw no light on the carlj history of Caere, though it appears in the legendary history of Aeneas as a wealthy and powerful city, subject to the rule of a king named Mezentius, a cruel tyrant, who had extended his power over many neighbouring cities, and rendered himself fonnidable to all his neighbours. (Li v. L 2; Virg. Aen. viii. 480.) The first historical mention of Agylla is found in Herodotus, who relates that the Agyllaeans were among the Tyrrhenians who joined the Carth^- nians in an expedition against the Phocaean colo- nists at AUlia in Corsica; and haying taken many captives upon that occasion, they put them all to death. This crime was visited on them by divine punishments, untU they sent to consult the oracle at Delphi on the subject, and by its advice paid funeral honours to their victims, with public games and other ceremonies. (Herod, i. 166, 167.) It is clear, therefore, that at this time Agylla was a maritime power of some consideration ; and Strabo speaks of it as having enjoyed a great reputation among the Greeks; especially from the circumstance tliat the Agyllaeans refrained from the piratical habits common to most of the other Tyrrhenian cities. (Strab. L c.) This did not, however, pre- serve them at a later period from the attacks of Dionyiius of Syracuse, who, having undertaken an expedition to the coasts of Tyrrhenia under pre- tence of putting down piracy, landed at Pyrgi, the seaport cf Agylla, and plundered the celebrated temple of Lucina there, from which he carried off an immense booty, besides laying waste the adjoin- ing territory. (Stmb. v. p. 226 ; Diod. xv. 14.) Caere plays a much lesb important part in the history of Rome than we should have expected from its proximity to that city, and the concurrent tes- timonies to its great wealth and power. From the circumstance of its being selected by the Romans, when their city was taken by the Gauls, as the place of refuge to which they sent their most precious sacred relics, Niebuhr has inferred (vol. i. p. 385) that there must have been an ancient bond of close connexion 6etween the two cities; and in the first edition of his history he even went so fiu: as to suggest that Rome was itself a colony of Caere; an idea which he afterwards justly abandoned as untenable. Indeed, the few notices we find of it prior to this time, are far from indicating any pe- culiarly friendly feeling between the two. Accord- ing to Dionysins, the Caerites were engaged in war against the Romans under the elder Tarquin, who defeated them in a battle and laid waste their territory; aiul again, after his death, they united their arms with those of the Veicntines and Tar- quinians against Servius Tullius. (Dionys. iii. 58, iv. 27.) Caere was also the first place which afforded a shelter to the exiled Tarquin when ex- pelled from Rome. (Liv. i. 60.) And Livy him- self, after recounting the service rendered by them to the Romans at the capture of the city, records that they were received, t» conseqttence ofU, into relations of public hospitality (ut hos|Htium public^ fieret, v. 50), thus seeming to indicate that no such relations previotisly existed. From this time, how- ever, they continued on a friendly footing, till b. c. 353, when sympathy for theTarquinians induced the Caerites once more to take up arms against Rome. They were, however, easily reduced to submission, and obtained a pcaco for a hundred years. Livy | CAERE. 4^ represents this as freely granted, in consideration of their pa.st services; but Dion Cassius informs us that it was purchased at the price of half their territory. (Liv, vii. 20; Dion Cass. fr. 33. Bekk.) It is probable that it was on this occasion also that they received the Roman franchise, but without the right of sufi'rage. This peculiar relation was known in later times as the Caerite franckise, so that " in tabulas Caeritnm referre," became a pro- verbial expression for disfranchising a Roman citizen (Hor. Ep, i. 6, 62 ; and Schol. ad loc. and we are expressly told that the Caerites were the first who were admitted on these terms. (Gell. xvi, 13. § 7.) But it is strangely represented as in their case a privilege granted them for their services at the time of the Gaulish war (Strab. v. p. 220; Gell. I. c), though it is evident that the relation could never have been an advantageous one, and was cer- tainlyin manyother cases rather inflicted as a punish- ment, than bestowed as a reward. Hence it is far more probable, that instead of being conferred on the Caerites as a privilege immediately after the Gallic War, it was one of the conditions of the disadvantageous peace imposed on them in B.c.35d, as a punishment for their support to the Tarqui- nians. (See on this subject, Niebuhr, vol. ii. p. 67, vol. iii. p. 185; Madvig. de Colon, p. 240; Mommsen, Die R&mische Tribua^ pp. 160, 161; Das Romische Mvmzwesenj p. 246.) It is uncer- tain whether the Caerites afterwards obtained the full franchise; we are expressly told that they were reduced to the condition of a Praefecture (Fest. 8,v, praefecttirae); but during the Second Punic War they were one of the Etruscan cities which were forward to furnish supplies to the armament of Scipio (Liv. xxviii. 45), and it may hence be in- ferred that at that period they still retained their nominal existence as a separate community. Their relations to Rome had probably been adjusted at the same period with those of the rest of Etruria, con- cerning which we are almost wholly without in- formation. During the latter period of the Republic it appears to have fallen into decay, and Strabo speaks of it as having, in his time, sunk into com- plete insignificance, preserving only the vestiges of its former greatness; so that the adjoining watering place of the Aquae Caeretanae actually surpassed the ancient city in population. (Strab. v. p. 220.) It appears, however, to have in some measure re- vived under the Roman empire. Inscriptions and other monuments attest its continued existence during that period as a flourishing municipal town, from the reign of Augustus to that of Trajan. (Gruter, Inscr, p. 214. 1, 226. 4, 236. 4, 239. 9; Bua. dln»i. Arch, 1840, pp. 5—8; Nibby, Din- tomi di Romaj vol. i. p. 342 — 345.) Its territory was fertile, especially in wine, which Martial praises as not inferior to that of Setia. (Mart. xiii. 124; Colum. R. R. iii. 3. § 3.) In the fourth century it became the see of a bishop, and still retained its existence under its ancient name through the early part of the middle ages; but at the beginning of the thirteenth century, great part of the inhabit- ants removed to another site about 3 miles off, to which they transferred the name of Caere or Ceriy while the old town came to be called Caere Vetus^ or Cerve^f by which appellation it is still known. (Nibby, /.c. p. 347.) The modem village of Cervetri (a very poor- place) occupies a small detached eminence just without the line of the ancient walls. The ouUino H H 2