- Claudio Bizzarri –
prayer formula.^19 The liberatio (from the verb liberare, “to free”) was the “liberating” of a
place (locus) from “all unwanted or hostile spirits and of all human infl uences,” as part of
the ceremony inaugurating the templum (sacred space). It was followed by the effatio, the
creation of boundaries (fi nes). The verb effari means “to create boundaries (fi nes) by means
of fi xed verbal formulas.”^20
One of the most regular urban layouts is the one that can be seen in Marzabotto, where
several structures, located in the area west of the town, on a slightly raised portion of land,
are altars and the auguraculum from which the priest would have performed the operations
previously described. The orientation of the structures is the same as the one followed in
the regular layout of the streets of the Etruscan settlement, named Misa or Kainua (see
Chapter 15).^21 Located near Pian di Misano,^22 this city has most frequently been taken as
an example of perfect town planning – a settlement that corresponds to the Hippodamean
layout but dates to the fi fth century bc, with a plan that Aristotle would have considered
unsuitable in guaranteeing proper defense in case of attack.^23 Its distinctive feature of
regular organization allows for a rapid and unimpeded movement of men, and potential
invaders would have no problem in entering a city with an urban grid plan. The main
street, up to 15 meters in width, runs from north to south and is intersected by at least
three streets of the same size that constitute the east-west layout of the grid. Parallel to
the plateia that recalls the Roman cardo, are narrower lanes, the stenopoi, creating a regular
grid on which the blocks of dwellings and public areas are located.
The technical instruments that could have been used at the time were very rational
even if simple from a technological point of view. One of the most effective ones is the
groma, a vertical rod with four horizontal cross pieces mounted at right angles. A plumb
line with lead weights hangs down vertically at the end of each arm. They were used in
correctly leveling and guaranteeing the quality of the readings. Sighting along the arms
of the cross (orthogonal arms) intersecting straight lines forming 90° angles could be
established.^24 The center of the groma was their point of origin. Using graduated yards
(stadiae) and a water level, straight lines, always pointing in the same direction, could
be traced even on slopes. Surveying tools of this kind underlie the organization of the
infrastructural network required by a settlement with determined characteristics. There
are two examples in areas that are not urban which help us better understand some of the
chronological and technical aspects: the tunnels of the lakes of Latium and those of the
Roman aqueduct called Buso della Casara, near Valnogaredo at Padua.
With regards to the former, Filippo Coarelli has identifi ed the general historical sphere
in which the subterranean system of sub-horizontal conduits, the cuniculi or tunnels,^25
were adopted. With regards to the great works connected to the overfl ow (scolmatori)
channels^26 of the lakes of Nemi and Albano, these works fall into the area of a hydraulic
culture in archaic Latium, in which the chronology of the two effl uents is an important
element. Since that of Albano is older, there is less information available. Then comes that
of Nemi, also dating to the sixth century bc, and therefore much earlier than the taking of
Veii (396 bc), an event to which reference is traditionally made in view of the stories told
by Livy and Plutarch^27 concerning Veii and the lake of Albano, two things only apparently
unconnected.^28 An explanation for the fl ooding of the waters of the lake in the fourth
century bc might be the result of the improper functioning of a pre-existing conduit
(cause: technical obstruction), or the fact that the religious procedural systems were not
respected (cause: divine punishment). Coarelli solved the problem when he identifi ed
various procedural irregularities both in the election of the military tribunes in Rome