30. From an old article: "I was pleased to observe on Ponza the relics
of a great pre-Roman civilization. Above the town, where the cemetery
now stands, is a likely site for a citadel, and on examining it from the
sea I noticed, sure enough, a few blocks of prehistoric structure of the
so-called Cyclopean type underneath a corner of the cemetery wall. There
is a portion in better preservation between the 'Baths of Pilate' and
the harbour, where a little path winds up from the sea. The blocks are
joined without mortar, and some of them are over a metre in length. This
megalithic wall may be taken to be contemporaneous with similar works of
defence found in various parts of Italy, but I believe its existence on
Ponza has not yet been recorded. Livy says that Volscians inhabited the
island till they were supplanted by the Romans, and a tradition
preserved by Strabo and Virgil locates here the palace of the
enchantress Circe, who transformed the companions of Ulysses into
bristly swine...." Some one may have anticipated me here again, as did
Salis-Marschlins in the eighteenth century with those roses of Passtum
whose disappearance Ramage, like every one else, laments--those roses
which I thought I was the first to re-discover. They grow on the spot in
considerable quantities, though one needs good eyes to see them. They
are not flourishing as of yore, being dwarfs not more than a few inches
in height. One which I carried away and kept three years in a pot and
six more in the earth grew to a length of about sixteen feet, and is
probably alive at this moment, I never saw a flower.
31. For the abject condition of these slaves (such they are) see Chapter
VII of The Roman Campagna by Arnaldo Cervesato.