The name Central Etruria is applied in this article to the region which is, roughly speaking, bounded by the river Mignone on the south, by the Ciminian Hills and the Plain of Viterbo on the east, by the Lake of Bolsena and the River Fiora on the north, and by the Roman Maremma on the west (fig. 1). Even now it is sparsely populated and covered with scrub; and the peculiar conformation of the ground has from the earliest times imposed on its scattered inhabitants special conditions of choice both for the position of their cities and for the type of their sepulchres.

The present aspect of this vast region is very strange. It may be compared to the Roman Campagna, but to a Campagna the monotonous desolation of which is relieved by frequent ravines, carving the landscape into fantastic and romantic pictures.

In attempting to estimate the rate of the Imperial Post in the first two centuries, two points must be borne in mind. The first of these is that the object chiefly aimed at was not speed, but the certainty of arrival within a reasonable and calculable time. It was as an instrument of government, and a means of centralising the administration of the Empire, that Augustus instituted the Imperial Post. This is clear enough from the whole scheme of his administrative system, and is accepted by ancient writers generally, though expressed most clearly by Procopius, in the period when the Byzantine government had demonstrated the full use which might be made of the institution. ‘The earlier Emperors, in order to obtain information as quickly as possible regarding the movements of the enemy in any quarter, sedition or unforeseen accidents in individual cities, and the actions of the governors or other persons in all parts of the Empire, and also in order that the annual tributes might be sent up without danger or delay, had established a rapid service of public couriers throughout their dominions according to the following system. As a day's journey for an active man they fixed eight ‘stages,’ or sometimes fewer, but as a general rule not less than five. In every stage there were forty horses and a number of grooms in proportion. The couriers appointed for the work, by making use of relays of excellent horses, when engaged in the duties I have mentioned, often covered in a single day, by this means, as great a distance as they would otherwise have covered in ten.’

The drawings (plates XII–XVIII) which accompany this article were prepared during my tenure of the Rome Scholarship at the British School at Rome; and, while they may be sufficient for the architect or the layman to obtain a better realisation of the original state of the monument, it has been thought that an attempt should be made to discuss, in greater detail than it is possible to present on the drawings, the various considerations and data upon which an essay in the restoration of an ancient building must necessarily be based. To this end the following article has been prepared.

I wish to acknowledge, with many thanks, the valuable help and advice which I have received from Dr. Thomas Ashby, late Director of the British School at Rome, especially in connexion with the first section of the article, and also the suggestive criticisms which I received from Dr. Ashby and Prof. Ch. Hülsen during the preparation of my drawings.

(1) In connexion with the two Antonine types of Britannia with the legionary standard, described in my paper on ‘Britannia on Roman Coins of the Second Century A.D.’ (J.R.S. xiv, p. 149 and note 2, plate xxiv, 5, 6), it should have been mentioned that there are two other provinces, besides Britannia, which are represented with this attribute instead of the usual vexillum. Both the Dacia of Hadrian (Cohen, Les monnaies de l'empire romain, 2, 11, pp. 150, 151, nos. 526–533) and her Trajanic predecessor (ibid. p. 31, nos. 125–127) hold a legionary standard, the former in her right hand, the latter in her left, and the same attribute appears in the Dacia Felix of Traianus Decius (Cohen, 2, V, p. 188, nos. 30–36). Secondly, Traianus Decius' Pannoniae types (ibid. pp. 193–4, nos. 79–89) have the legionary standard, contrasting in this respect with the Pannonia type of Aelius Verus, where the Province holds a vexillum (ibid. pp. 260–1, nos. 24–33). It is possible that the representation of the legionary standard, as opposed to the vexillum, in the case of these three provinces—Britannia, Dacia and Pannonia—may have had some special significance.