Thomas Ashby

“ FAESULAE (mod. Fiesole, q.v.) , an ancient city of Etruria, on the height 3 m. to the N.E. of Florentia, 970 ft. above sea-level. Remains of its walls are preserved on all sides, especially on the N.E., in one place to a height of 12 to 14 courses. The blocks are often not quite rectangular, and the courses sometimes change; but the general tendency is horizontal and the walls are not of remote antiquity, the irregularities in them being rather due to the hardness of the material employed, the rock of the hill itself. ”

“ The courses vary in height from 1 to 3 ft., and some blocks are as long as 121/2 ft. In this portion of the wall are two drains, below one of which is a phallus. The site of an ancient gate, and the road below it, can be traced; a little farther E. was an archway, conjectured by Dennis to be a gate of the Roman period, destroyed in 1848. The whole circuit of the walls extended for about 12/3 m. The Franciscan monastery (1130 ft.) occupies the site of the acropolis, once encircled by a triple wall, of which no traces are now visible. ”

“ Both the veterans, who soon wasted what they had acquired, and the dispossessed cultivators joined the partisans of Catiline, and Manlius, one of his supporters, made his headquarters at Faesulae. Under the empire we hear practically nothing of it ”