Tusculum

“ Stand upon the grassy mounds of Tusculum, and you will find yourself glowing with enthusiasm for Cicero, and wonder how you could have grown so sleepy over Quousque tandem, &c., in your schoolboy days. Climb up the Trasteverine steep to where the convent of San Onofrio suns itself in the bright blue air of Rome, and while the monks are singing the divine office where the bones of Tasso repose, you may fill your mind with memories of the bard of the crusades, in the chamber where his weary soul found the release it craved. ”

“ Thither the townsmen fled for refuge with their wives and children, after sending messengers to Rome to inform the senate of their plight. With the promptitude which the honour of the Roman people demanded an army was marched to Tusculum under the command of the consular tribunes, L. Quinctius and Ser. Sulpicius. They found the gates of Tusculum closed and the Latins, with the feelings of men who are at once besieging and being besieged, were in one direction defending the walls and in the other attacking the citadel, inspiring terror and feeling it at the same time. ”

“ Josephus (Ant. xviii. 7. § 6) places the imperial villa of Tiberius at Tusculum at 100 stadia from Rome, which, however, lay at some distance to the W. of the town. Festus (s. v. Tuscos) makes Tusculum a diminutive of Tuscus, but there is but slight authority to connect the town with the Etruscans. According to common tradition, it was founded by Telegonus, the son of Ulysses and Circe; and hence we find its name paraphrased in the Latin poets as "Telegoni moenia" (Ov. Fast. iii. 91, iv. 71; Prop. iii. 30. 4; Sil. It. xii. 535) and "Circaea moenia" (Hor. Epod. i. 30) ”

“ The adversaries of Rome, allied with Tarquin, notably Octavius Mamilius of Tusculum, fought against the Romans in the battle of Lake Regillus on July 15, B.C. 499. The Romans won, and the first news of victory was brought to Rome by the miraculous appearance of Castor and Pollux who were seen watering their horses in the Forum at the spring of Juturna. A temple on this spot was then vowed and fifteen years later, B.C. 484, it was completed and dedicated. Tusculum, July 15, and the dedication of the temple in B.C. 484 are seemingly the only historical facts in this legend ”

“ Tusculum had had from of old the right of Roman citizenship, but not completely; its inhabitants now became full citizens. To the people of Lanuvium and of Nomentum, the freedom of Rome was granted, to become full citizens like the Tusculans; and at the same time, their population was enrolled in the census as plebeians, and admitted into the tribes. ”

“ By the usurpation of Cavæ, the Colonna provoked the arms of Paschal the Second; but they lawfully held in the Campagna of Rome the hereditary fiefs of Zagarola and Colonna; and the latter of these towns was probably adorned with some lofty pillar, the relic of a villa or temple. 98 They likewise possessed one moiety of the neighboring city of Tusculum, a strong presumption of their descent from the counts of Tusculum, who in the tenth century were the tyrants of the apostolic see. ”

“ Deeds of violence still continued in Rome; and then followed the death of the prefect Pietro. The nobles of the imperial party, joined with the people, wished to elect Pietro’s son, also nephew to Tolomeo of Tusculum, who then held the position of a potent imperial margrave, had territories stretching from the Sabine mountains to the sea, was the dictator of Tusculum, master of Latium and consul of the Romans. The pope opposed this election to the best of his strength; but the nobles carried the day, and their new prefect received investiture from the emperor. ”

“ Between 383 and 358 we hear of wars with Tibur, Praeneste, Tusculum, Lanuvium, Circeii and the Hernici. But in all Rome was successful. In 382 Tusculum was fully incorporated with the Roman state by the bestowal of the full franchise; [101] in 358, according to both Livy and Polybius, the old alliance was formally renewed with Latini and Hernici. We cannot, however, be wrong in assuming that the position of the allies under the new league was far inferior to that accorded them by the treaty of Spurius Cassius. ”

“ The war was carried on at Tusculum for several months. With one part of his army the consul assailed the camp of the Aequans; he had given part to the Tusculans to aid in the recovery of their citadel. They could never have made their way up to it by force: at length famine caused the enemy to withdraw from it. When matters subsequently came to extremities, they were all sent under the yoke, [32] by the Tusculans, unarmed and naked. While returning home in ignominious flight, they were overtaken by the Roman consul at Algidum, and cut to pieces to a man. ”

“ With regard to Roman antiquities, the difference, or rather the contrast, is still greater. The remains of Tusculum are more considerable than all that is seen in the neighbourhood of Florence, and those form but a small portion of the objects of that nature about Frescati, which again is poor, compared with Tivoli, Palestrina, or Albano. Even their boasted Etruscan walls have by no means the singularity, or the character of antiquity, which we find in those of Latium. The appearance of the modern city, though certainly very fine, shrinks before the magnificence of Rome ”

“ In ascending the hill from Frascati, we pass along by a shady road, passing through the Villa Ruffinella (the property of Prince Angelotti, who has made a new road up to it) . Under the porch are some remains brought from Tusculum.
TUSCULUM.
A city of great antiquity, now in ruins, founded by the son of Ulysses. The remains of the forum, reservoir, and walls can still be traced. The ancient citadel stood on the artificial rock, which is now surmounted by a cross, 212 feet above the city. The view is magnificent. The height is 2400 feet above the sea. ”

“ We find him again in the same story in the Latin town of Tusculum, where it is mentioned as one of the signs of a time of profound peace (Camillus had hurriedly marched against the town on a false report of its having revolted) , that the hum of scholars at their lessons was heard in the market-place. At Rome, as time went on, and the Forum became more and more busy and noisy, the schools were removed to more suitable localities. Their appliances for teaching were improved and increased. ”

“ The Romans, in one of their defeats of the Volsci, found among the captives certain Tusculans, who, upon examination, confessed that the arms they bore were by command of their State; whereupon information being given to the Senate by the general Camillus, he was forthwith commanded to march against Tusculum which doing accordingly, he found the Tusculan fields full of husbandmen, that stirred not otherwise from the plough than to furnish his army with all kinds of accommodations and victuals. ”

“ Then Camillus invited the Tusculan dictator to Rome. When he appeared before the senate in the Curi.i Hostilia, not only were the existing treaties with Tusculum confirmed, but the Roman franchise also was shortly afterwards bestowed upon it, a privilege at that time but rarely conferred. It was this last circumstance, however, together with their unshaken fidelity towards Rome, that drew down upon the Tusculans the hatred and ven- geance of the Latins ”

“ XXXVIII. By his return to Rome with great spoils, he proved that those men were right who had not feared that weakness or old age would impair the faculties of a general of daring and experience, but who had chosen him, ill and unwilling to act as he was, rather than men in the prime of life, who were eager to hold military commands. For this reason, when the people of Tusculum were reported to be in insurrection, they bade Camillus take one of the other five tribunes as his colleague, and march against them. ”

“ TUSCULUM (JULY) BEING quite at leisure in my Tusculan villa, because I had sent my pupils to meet him, that they might at the same time present me in as favourable a light as possible to their friend, I received your most delightful letter, from which I learnt that you approved my idea of having begun—now that legal proceedings are abolished aiid my old supremacy in the forum is lost—to keep a kind of school, just as Dionysius, when expelled from Syracuse, is said to have opened a school at Corinth. ”

“ Meanwhile the Roman barons were growing more and more powerful, and were neither submissive nor faithful to the emperor. On the contrary, they resented his attitude as a master of Rome, and, when he subjected Tivoli to the Holy See, attacked both him and the pope with so much vigour as to put both to flight (16th February 1001) . Thereupon Rome again became a republic, headed by Gregory of Tusculum, a man of a powerful family claiming descent from Alberic. ”

“ These prisoners lie introduced before the Roman senate, in order to prove how the Tuscular.s had abandoned the ancient alliance. So war was declared against Tusculum, and the conduct of it entrusted to Camillus. But the Tusculans would not accept this declaration of hostilities, and opposed the Roman arms in a manner that has scarcely beeri paralleled before or since. When Camillus entered their territory he found the peasants engaged in their usual avocations ”

“ At that period, the Romans, suspecting the Labicans of having en- tered into a league with the Aequi, charged the Tusculans to keep a watch upon them. The.se sus- picions were justified in the following year, when the Labicans, in conjunction with the Aequi, ravaged the territory of Tusculum and encamped upon the Algidus. The Roman army despatched against them was defeated and dispersed, owing to the dis- sensions among its chiefs. iIany of these, however, together with the elite of the army, took refuge at Tusculum ”

“ The enterprise, liowever, was not of such e:isy execution as the expulsion of Her- donius, and several months were spent in combats in the neighbourhood of Tusculum. At length the Tusculans succeeded in recapturing their citadel by reducing the Aequi to a state of famine, whom they dismissed after compelling them to pass unarmed under the yoke. But as they were flying homewards the Roman consul overtook them on Mount Algidus, and slew them to a man. ”

“ ‘But really,’ pursued Mrs Blimber, ‘I think if I could have known Cicero, and been his friend, and talked with him in his retirement at Tusculum (beau-ti-ful Tusculum!) , I could have died contented.’
A learned enthusiasm is so very contagious, that Mr Dombey half believed this was exactly his case; ”

“ Tuscany (2,274) , a department of Italy, formerly a grand-duchy, lies S. and W. of the Apennines, fronting the Tyrrhenian Sea on the W.; mountainous in the N. and E., but otherwise consisting of fertile dale and plain, in which the vine, olive, and fruits abound; silk is an important manufacture, and the marble quarries of Siena are noted; formed a portion of ancient Etruria (q. v.) ; was annexed to Sardinia in 1859, and in 1861 was incorporated in the kingdom of Italy. Capital, Florence.
Tusculum, a ruined Roman city, 15 m. SE. of Rome; at one time a favourite country resort of wealthy Romans ”

“ Aq. 8, seq.) Respecting Tusculum the reader may consult Canina, Descrizione delT antico Tusculo ; Nibby, iJintorni di Jionia, vol. iii.; Gell, Tojwgraphy of Rome and its Vicinity, ed. Bunbury; Abeken, Mit- tel-Italien ; Compagnoni, 3Iem. istoriche delV antico Tusculo. On Cicero's villa, Cardoni, De Tuscid. M. T. Ciceronis ; Znzzer'i, Sopi'a dl una aniica Villa scopertasul Dorso dd Tvsculo. [T. H. D.] TUSCUM MARE. [Tykrhenum Make.] TUTA'TIO, a place in Noricum of uncertain site (It. Ant. p. 277 ; Tab. Pent., where it is called Tutastio.) ”

“ The arrival of the Romans produced a change in the minds of both parties: it turned the Tusculans from great alarm into the utmost alacrity, and the Latins from almost assured confidence of soon taking the citadel, as they were masters of the town, to very slender hope of even their own safety. A shout is raised by the Tusculans from the citadel; it is answered by a much louder one from the Roman army. The Latins are hard pressed on both sides: they neither withstand the force of the Tusculans pouring down on them from the higher ground ”

“ They are mountaineers, a strong race. At pallone one day, I saw muscles "all a-ripple down the back," arms and shoulders, which would have intoxicated the great old "amatore del persona" himself. For their vivacity, it is racial; I think all Tuscans, more or less, retain the buoyant spirits, the alertness as of birds, which crowned Italy with Florence instead of Rome or Milan. Tuscan Art is a proof of that, and Tuscan Art can be studied at its roots in Pistoja: you see there the naked thing itself with none of the wealth of Florence to make the head swim. ”

“ Here again (exquisite as she is in modelling and intensity of expression) you get the enticement of a malformation which is absolutely un-Greek—unless you are to count Phrygia within the magic ring-fence—and only to be equalled by the luxury of Beccadelli. You get that in Sodoma too, the handy Lombard; you have it in Perugino and all the Umbrians (in some form or other) ; but never, I think, in the genuine Tuscan—not even in Botticelli—and never, of course, in the Venetians, Duccio modelled these things while the Delia Robbia were at their Hellenics ”

“ The religion of the Tuscans, in particular, presenting a gloomy fantastic character, and delighting in the mystical handling of numbers and in wild and horrible speculations and practices, is equally remote from the clear rationalism of the Romans and the genial image-worship of the Hellenes. ”