ABSTRACT
Horace is distinct in describing 'a close valley in the midst of hills', but the ground for many miles round Poggio Mirteto is free of every thing. The ancient Scholiast formerly cited says 'Blandusiae fonte sacrificium promittit in agro Sabino, ubi villam possidebat', an authority which, because it was ancient, has misled every enquirer and made them consider this fountain as one of the marks by which Horace's Sabine villa was to be found. Biondi gives the name of Mandela to Poggio Mirteto, without any authority, and that of Digentia to the Rio del Sole, which runs from Poggio Mirteto, although there are within this unbounded valley five or six rivulets which might equally claim that honour. The valley is of an oval figure, and longest from south to north; at the northern part indeed a little bending to the northwest.
