Chapter VIII

.; and among other finds we may note the Amphiaraos krater at Berlin,[239] of Corinthian style. Excavations went on for many years from 1831 onwards, and yielded also some interesting later vases, including examples with the signatures of Nikosthenes, Xenokles, Pamphaios, Euphronios,[240] and Charitaios, and the famous vase representing the oil-merchant.[241] Jahn[242] gives a list of the most important red-figured vases found here. At _Selva la Rocca_, near Monteroni in the same neighbourhood, the Duchessa di Sermoneta excavated a series of Greek painted vases of all periods. Other sites in Etruria on which vases have been found are Doganella,[243] Ferento near Viterbo,[244] Capannori,[245] Montepulciano,[246] Pitigliano,[247] Poggia Sommavilla on the border of the Sabine territory,[248] S. Filippo dei Neri, Tragliatella.[249]

But the discoveries made on all the other Etruscan sites combined are surpassed, both in number and interest, by those of =Vulci=, a name which eighty years since was scarcely known, but now represents to us one of the most important cities of antiquity. The site is represented by the modern Ponte della Badia, a district of about five miles in circumference round the bridge over the stream Fiora, between the estates of Canino and Montalto. The former estate lay on the left bank, distinguished by a hill named Cucumella.

The discovery of painted vases here was brought about purely by accident, about the year 1828. Some oxen in ploughing broke through into an Etruscan tomb containing two broken vases, and thus the local landlord, the Prince of Canino, was led to further researches. In the course of four months he discovered about 2,000 objects in tombs on one small plot of ground, and subsequently other explorers joined in emulating his good fortune. The number of painted vases alone discovered during the year 1829 is reckoned at over 3,000, according to the elaborate report published by Gerhard in the _Annali_,[250] describing and classifying the results. It would not be too much to assert that nine-tenths of the painted vases that have been brought to light in Etruria are from this site. Most of those now in the British Museum are from Camposcala, on the Montalto estate; but many are from the collections formed by Lucien Bonaparte, the Prince of Canino, who continued to excavate intermittently for many years, though the numbers of the finds materially diminished after the first great discovery.

In recent years the only important excavations on this site have been those conducted by M. Gsell on the estate of Musignano, at the expense of the proprietor, Prince Torlonia. The object was to exhaust the site by sporadic diggings over the three principal areas of Ponte della Badia, Polledrara, and Cucumella. In all 136 tombs were opened, ranging from the period of “well-tombs” (about the ninth or eighth century B.C.) down to the chamber-tombs of the early fifth century.[251] Besides local pottery of all kinds they contained imported Greek fabrics from the Geometrical ware down to the red-figure period. The later included Corinthian vases of various kinds, a good “Tyrrhenian” amphora, and one of the “affected” B.F. style, a cup signed by Tleson and one in the style of Epiktetos, and Etruscan imitations of B.F. fabrics.

M. Tyszkiewicz, the great collector, in his entertaining _Souvenirs_,[252] tells a curious story of the fate of one of the vases found in M. Gsell’s excavations:—

“One day I received a visit from a country fellow, who said he had come from the neighbourhood of Canino, and brought with him a vase painted in the early Corinthian manner, the names of the figures being indicated by Greek inscriptions. The man declared he had discovered it in a tomb which had fallen in after heavy rains. The price asked was very reasonable, and the bargain was soon concluded. At that time M. van Branteghem ... was one of the most eager buyers of Greek vases, and he was so envious of my acquisition that I had real pleasure in giving it up to him. A little while after this, there called on me at my house a member of the French School in Rome, M. Gsell.... He began by asking me if I had not lately purchased a vase, which he closely described, and which proved to be the very one I had bought from the native of Canino. Now M. Gsell inspected so attentively the excavations under his care that it was impossible, he assured me, for the workmen to have stolen anything. All objects found were registered as soon as they were taken out of the tombs, and were locked up every evening in a warehouse. However, one day M. Gsell perceived that one had disappeared. He sent for the supposed thief (one of his superintendents), and by means of threats extracted a confession of the theft, and the name of the amateur to whom the vase had been sold. In conclusion, M. Gsell entreated me to let him have the vase.... Having parted with the vase, I felt the situation very embarrassing, but I told my interlocutor what had happened, and why I had handed the vase over to M. van Branteghem. The distress of M. Gsell on hearing this news touched me to such a degree that I ended by telling him that, knowing M. van Branteghem to be a gentleman, I would inform him he had become the owner of stolen goods, and throw myself on his mercy. The same day I wrote to the Belgian amateur and made a clean breast of the matter, and the vase was returned as quickly as possible. The vase was replaced in the museum of the Prince Torlonia at the Lungara.

“Years passed away, when one morning I was told that a peasant, who was waiting in the hall, desired to show me an antique work of art. This was an event of daily occurrence—indeed, it happened several times every day, and usually I found that the object for whose sake I had been disturbed was either quite uninteresting or else a fraud. But this time—astonishing fact!—I was shown the very vase that I had restored to the French School, and had afterwards seen at the Lungara Museum. Once again it had been stolen!”

The tombs in which the vases were found were mostly small grottoes hollowed in the tufa, and with a few exceptions only a few feet underground. There was nothing remarkable in them except the vases, for they were neither spacious nor decorated, nor finished with splendid ornaments like the tombs of Corneto and of Magna Graecia. Some had seats for holding the objects deposited with the dead; others pegs for hanging the vases on the walls. The wonder was to find such fine specimens of art in tombs so homely. These vases were of all styles and epochs from early Corinthian of about the seventh century to the Decadence. Besides these, an immense number of vases painted black only, without any subject, and others of the black _bucchero_ ware, were discovered in the various tombs, along with bronzes, ivories, and other objects peculiarly Etruscan.[253]

This vast discovery naturally attracted the attention of Europe. Notwithstanding the obvious fact of their possessing Greek inscriptions, and the light thrown upon them by the researches of Winckelmann, Lanzi, and other enlightened scholars, the Italian antiquaries, fired with a mistaken patriotism, insisted on claiming all the vases as Etruscan fabrics. The history of this error, long since discredited, is briefly summarised in the Introductory chapter.[254]

* * * * *

Turning now to Southern Italy, _Latium_ need not detain us long. It is true that Greek vases have from time to time been found at Rome, or at any rate fragments, as in the recent excavations in the Forum[255]; but few of these are of importance except as historical data. When Rome is given as the provenance of a vase, it probably implies nothing more than that it has been acquired from some dealer in that city. At Civita Lavinia Lord Savile found some fragments of painted pottery of different periods. Alba Longa is famous as the site whence the hut-urns, elsewhere discussed, have been obtained; but on the whole Rome and the cities of Latium seem to be quite barren in regard to finds of pottery. With the three main divisions of the southern half of Italy the case is quite different. It is true that there has been no Vulci in these districts, and indeed that no scientific excavations have taken place compared with those in Etruria; yet the yield of vases from these parts is extraordinarily large. In the eighteenth century the neighbourhood of Naples, Paestum, etc., was a favourite hunting-ground with dilettanti, such as Sir William Hamilton, who appear to have acquired their large collections chiefly from Campanian tombs; but unfortunately they have left no record of the sites on which these vases were found. In the Samnite district and north of the Apennines pottery-finds are almost unknown; while the barbaric regions of Bruttii and Calabria are only represented by a few late painted vases of the rudest local fabrics.

It may be noted that as a general rule the Greek colonies on the coast, which maintained from the earliest times a constant intercourse with Greece, have yielded from their tombs a fair proportion of the older Greek fabrics, whereas the inland cities are more remarkable for their remains of the later Athenian and local wares, being of more recent origin.

Beginning with Campania, we take first the famous colony of _Cumae_, the most ancient in Magna Graecia, which was founded by the Chalcidians of Kyme in Aeolis at an unknown date, but not later than the eighth century. Vases of all periods have been found here, though not in great numbers. The earliest belong to the infancy of the colony, and include the famous lekythos of Tataie found in 1843, and now in the British Museum.[256] It bears an inscription in the Chalcidian alphabet. But the majority of the finds belong to the period when there appears to have been a flourishing local fabric, about the third century B.C. They are the most typical representatives of the Campanian style, and may be studied to best advantage in the Raccolta Cumana of the Naples Museum, where they are collected together.[257] Many of these were found in 1842. Cumae was famous for its pottery even in Roman times,[258] and specimens of Roman ware with reliefs have been found here, as also at the neighbouring Puteoli (