Page:Regal Rome, an Introduction to Roman History (1852, Newman, London, regalromeintrodu00newmuoft).djvu/29

Rh a style, A part of the Appian, the Salarian and the Valerian Ways is found to rest on polygonal substructions. At Ferentinum of the Hornici a platform of horizontal stone-courses rests on an irregular but well-fitted polygonal basis, which might have been judged the work of a much earlier age; yet a deeply cut inscription informs us that both were erected by the same magistrates, Hirtius and Lollius, probably in the lifetime of Cicero.

We may then dispense with the inquiry, as historically unimportant, whether, as some still maintain, the Pelasgians first brought this art of building into Italy: for, whoever originated it, the Romans, the Latins and the Etruscans were capable of learning it, and did practice it; nor can any great age be ascribed to a building, merely because of its polygonal or Cyclopian style. Indeed Signia in Latium was a colony planted by Tarquin, the last king of Rome, and its Cyclopian walls are fairly to be imputed to him. Finally, the practice of this art of fortification enabled the Latin cities long to maintain their separate independence, and at a later period was one of the principal means by which the Romans upheld their frontier garrisons in the midst of half-subdued and oppressed races.