This liberty, which the ancient Ikuvini had sought by their own virtue from the most ancient times, and perhaps from the very origin of the city, they retained even under the Romans, as far as it was permitted; with whom, if I am not greatly mistaken, they were joined by a most equitable treaty, just like the Camertes, an equally famous city of the Umbrians, a matter which will be discussed in the third chapter.

CHAPTER II.

(a) Pallad. lib. 1. architect. c. XIII. (b) Tom. V. Supplement to both the Thesaurus of Roman and Greek Antiquities, page X.

I. There is scarcely any city that possesses more illustrious monuments of antiquity than the city of Eugubium. Most notable among these is the ancient theater, constructed of large stones, whose immense and splendid remains demonstrate what magnitude and excellence the building once possessed. Palladius (a) and not a few others mention it. Count Antonius Franciscus Berardus, a patrician of Cagli and Eugubium, deeply devoted to the study of the elegant arts and highly skilled in architecture, produced an ichnography ground plan of such a famous work and delineated diagrams of several parts. These, under the care of Count Franciscus Passioneus—brother of Dominicus Passioneus, now Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church—were engraved on copper plates and printed in large folio format in the name of Cardinal Petrus Ottobonus in the year 1739. They were published for the public and have been reissued, a few years ago, in the supplements to both the Thesaurus of Roman and Greek Antiquities, by the efforts of the distinguished Joannes Polenus (b). We publish them here again through the kindness of the same most courteous Count Berardus, who loaned me that very copper plate for this purpose. At the bottom of that plate was the dedicatory epistle of Franciscus Passioneus to Cardinal Ottobonus, which it would not have been right to omit in this place. Then followed a clear explanation of each part depicted in the figures of this table in this manner.