Cl IA l’. IV.

ROMAN.

85

strongly fortified. The floors were of timber, not fastened very securely together, so thatthey could be easily removed if necessary.

The city of Rome is of great antiquity : at a very early period it occupied only thePalatine hill , which being cut away at its slopes, a perpendicular face was given to it,strongly fortified by a stone wall built upon its edge. As the inhabitants increased,the original city became the citadel, and buildings were constructed around it. Romawas the name it bore at the time it was inhabited by the Pelasgi, the Tyrrhenians, orSicelians. Around the ancient citadel Romulus added a space, which was inclosed hv awall, called the poma?rium, signifying a suburb, or place admitted to the privileges of thecity. Tacitus (Ann. xii. 24.) says it may be a matter of some curiosity to mark out thefoundations of the city, and the boundaries assigned by Romulus. The first outlinebegan at the ox market, or Forum Roarium, where is still to be seen the brazen statueof a bull, that animal being commonly employed at the plough. From that place afurrow was carried on, of sufficient dimensions to include the great altar of Hercules. Byboundary stones, fixed at proper distances, the circuit was continued along the foot of MountPalatine to the altar of Consus, extending thence to the old Curia?, next to the chapel of theLares, and then to the Roman forum.

Another suburb afterwards was added with a wall of earth toward the Sublira: this wason the Carinae near S. Pietro in Vincoli. At the bottom of the ascent which led to it wasthe Porta Janualis mentioned in the Sabine wars.

The Agonian hill, inhabited by the Quiritcs, and called Quirinal , was a town at a veryearly period ; this was next united with the Capitoline , on which was the citadel. Wherethese two hills joined at the foot stood the Forum Ulpium. The Palatine was separatedfrom them by a marsh or swamp, the Quirinal being at one period occupied by theSabines.

Roma and Quirium were separated by walls, and formed two distinct cities, at first eachhaving its king and senate of an hundred men ; these met together in the comitium situatedbetween the Palatine and Capitoline hills.

After these two cities were united, the Temple of Janus was built, on the way leadingfrom the Quirinal to the Palatine , with a door or gate facing each city ; this temple wa. ckept open in time of war, and shut during peace, the object being, in the one case, to affordsuccour to each other when harassed by an enemy, and, in the latter, to prevent the inhabi-tants of either from quarrelling, the result of too frequent an intercourse. The Via Sacra marks the limits of the two cities; this commenced at the top of the Velia, betweenthe Quirinal and the Palatine , after making a turn, passed between the latter and theCapitoline , and, arriving at the temple of Vesta, it bent across the comitium towards thePalatine gate. This was the Sacred Way, and seems to have served the purpose of the in-habitants of both cities during their religious processions. The cities were afterwards united,and called Populus Rotnanus et Quiritcs.

The Capitoline, Quirinal, and Viminal , were first surrounded with walls and incorporatedwith Rome, and afterwards the other hills. In the age of Tiberius we find the city consi-derably increased, and divided into seven districts — the Palatium , Velia, Germains, Calius,Fagutal , Oppius , and Cispius , which had each its own festivals.

The Velia was the rising ground between the Palatine and the Carina?, where is thetemple of Peace and that of Venus and Rome .

Oppius and Cispius are the hills now called the Esquiline . Cermalus is the land at thefoot of the Palatine , subject to be Hooded from the Velabrum.

The Fagutal district was probably that plain which lay between the Palatine and theCa?lian, the Septizonium and the Coliseum .

These several districts were not encompassed by a wall; and the Romans never reckonedmore than seven hills, or as many regions.

On the side of the Via del Colosseo, Romulus’s pomaerium reached the rising groundthat protected the Carina?; beyond, in the valley, was the village of Subura . The Cispiusand Cafiian hills were fortified by a wall and ditch where the hanks could not be cut downperpendicularly, and the Aventine being insulated was strongly protected. The low landbetween the Palatine and Ca?lian bills was full of springs; these were collected in a ditchcut from the edge of the Aventine to the Porta Capena , and the earth thrown upas a wall to protect it: this was done by the Quirites in the time of Ancus , who,Livy tells us, after the conquest of Politorium, a city of I^atium, first numbered its in-habitants among the Roman citizens. At that time the Romans occupied the groundaround the Palatine, the Sabines the Capitol, and the Albani the Ca?lian. The Aventine was allotted to the new citizens ; and some time after, on the reduction of the Tellenae andFicana, a considerable addition was made to the inhabitants. Ancus afterwards admittedmany thousands of the Latins as citizens, and allotted them ground near the temple ofMurcia, and united the Aventine to the Palatine . The Janieulum was taken in at thesame time, and joined to the city by a wall, and a wooden bridge, the first built over the’Fiber.