The memory of Veii306 was almost obliterated in the time of Florus. The flock had fed in the streets, and the ploughshare had furrowed the sepulchres of the Veientes307.

The history of Veii is too imperfect, to throw any light, prior to the existence of Rome. We are only informed, that Morrius, king of Veii, was descended, by HalÆsius, from Neptune; and that there was a king Veius, a king Menalus, and lastly, in the time of Camillus, an elected king named Tolemarius.

Veii was a powerful city of Etruria; large enough to contend with Rome in the time of Servius Tullus; and Dionysius of Halicarnassus says, that it was equal in extent to Athens; and Sir W. Gell quotes a passage from a fragment of the same writer, published by Mai at Milan, 1816, in which he speaks thus of Veii and its territory:—“The city of Veii was not inferior to Rome itself in buildings, and possessed a large and fruitful territory, partly mountainous, and partly in the plain. The air was pure and healthy, the country being free from the vicinity of marshes, and without any river, which might render the morning air too rigid. Nevertheless, there was an abundance of water; not artificially conducted, but rising from natural springs, and good to drink.” (Lib. xii. frag. 21).

In the course of three hundred and fifty years it carried on no less than sixteen wars with Rome, but was at last taken and destroyed by Camillus, after a siege of ten years. This was the most important of the conquests of the infant republic. Its situation was so eligible, that the Romans, after the burning of their city by the Gauls, were long inclined to emigrate there, and totally abandon their homes; and this would have been carried into execution, but for the authority and eloquence of Camillus308.

“It is lamentable,” says Sir W. Gell, “that in a country so little cultivated, interesting traces of antiquity, tending to confirm the truth of history, should be suffered to disappear almost without record, for the sake of a miserable and narrow stripe of corn, and a few volcanic stones for mending the roads. The site of the citadel of Veii affords ample testimony to the accuracy of the description of Dionysius, who says it stood upon a high and precipitous rock. Not far from the road (from Rome) several large square blocks, concealed by soil and bushes, may easily be detected by persons accustomed to antiquarian researches. A heap of ruins are seen, supposed to have been a temple dedicated to Juno; and among these lay, in 1830, a piece of marble, relating to the family of Tarquitia, a race of celebrated Tuscan augurs, from whose books the soothsayers took their lessons, even so low down as the last war of the emperor Julian with the Persians.”

There exists, also, a large tumulus, supposed to be the tomb of Propertius, king of Etruria, founder of the city.

In a rock under the ancient wall are several niches, which have the appearance of places for urns, or votive offerings; not of Roman construction, but Etrurian. There are, also, evident traces of one or two bridges; and on the summit of a hill, at the distance of three miles, is another tumulus.

In another part the rugged extent of the rocks, with the bushes, and the difficulty of carrying away the blocks, have preserved portions of the ancient wall of the Etruscan Veii. These are ten or eleven feet in length, and some more than five feet in height. One of the most singular facts attending this wall, is a bed of three courses of bricks, each three feet in length, intervening between the lower course of the wall, and the rock upon which it is built. It requires only a very moderate knowledge of the subject to convince us, that the construction of this wall has no resemblance to anything remaining at Rome, nor yet at Nepi, Falerii, or Tarquinii, where the ramparts were in smaller blocks, and nearly regular. The style of the fortifications at Veii bespeak a much higher antiquity.

Added to what we have already stated, there are vestiges of ancient fortifications and aqueducts, and traces of roads; also fragments of an ancient citadel. There are, also, tombs in a glen near, and upon the rock, called Isola, exhibiting every kind of sepulchral excavation; caves, columbaria, and tombs without number. This was, no doubt, the metropolis of Veii.

There are, also, the remains of other tumuli, which appear to have been the common receptacle of those slain in battle, rather than of remarkable individuals. These all mark the date of Veii in the elder times; but a statue of Tiberius found here, of course denotes the age of the empire.

“The remains of this once populous Etruscan city,” says Sir William Gell, “have, in the course of the last ten years, suffered so lamentably from spoliations, perpetrated or permitted by the owners of the soil, that it is necessary to take particular notice of such relics as still attest the existence of a place of so much importance in the early history of Italy.”

This he has done, in his work entitled “The Topography of Rome, and its Vicinity;” and from that work we glean most that is stated in this abstract309.