Part 5

In ancient ethnography and history there occur numbers, which, in a surprising manner, recur at the most different periods; they are by no means fanciful; to regard them as something mystical, is itself a strange fancy, though there have been men of great intelligence, who have not been able to resist this notion. The number seven which so often meets us in Roman history, is something peculiar which has taken deep root there. There are unmistakeable traces that, previous to the complete union between the Romans and Quirites, Roma on the Palatine, Lucerum on the Caelius, and the town on the Aventine, together with their suburbs, formed one community, which was divided into seven districts, and bore the name of _Septimontium_. These seven hills were afterwards transferred to the whole of the city of Rome. Every one knows the passage in Virgil, _Septemque una sibi muro circumdedit arces_; but these are in part quite different hills from those originally comprised under the name Septimontium, which did not even consist of seven distinct hills.[6] They then were, the Palatine, Capitoline (formerly called Tarpeius), Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline, Caelius, and Aventine. In this sense, and when all were enclosed by one wall, the Aventine also is reckoned as one of the seven hills, though otherwise it is not always regarded as a part of the city. In order not to go beyond the number seven, two very distinct hills, the Cispius and Oppius, were treated as one under the name Esquiline; the Aventine, at least in the opinion of the Romans, was the highest and most considerable of all; in order, therefore, not to leave it out, the two mentioned before were united into one. They can still be clearly distinguished, however much the forms of the hills have otherwise become obscured by ruins and rubbish: even the most indifferent observer will recognise them as two hills.

Within this circumference, Rome was contained after the _agger_ of Servius Tullius was completed. This agger was an enormous work: it ran, almost an Italian mile, from the Colline to the Esquiline gate, and was a moat of one hundred feet in breadth and thirty in depth, the earth of which was thrown up as a mound lined with a wall and fortified with towers. In the time of Augustus this work was not only still discernible, but was used as a promenade, a kind of boulevard, of which Horace says, _aggere in aprico spatiari_; it continued to be admired even in Pliny’s time, while the other walls were already destroyed. At present only few traces of it are visible; but I have no doubt that by excavations the lining wall might still be discovered. In some parts, the agger is still discernible as a continuous hill. Through this agger, then, the whole city became one united place. Although the city became greatly extended, by incorporating with itself suburbs and other hills, yet the additional hills were not counted, and Rome remained the city of the seven hills. One of the additions which the city received, was that of the _mons Pincius_ or _Hortulorum_, on the other side of a wide valley, by which it was separated from the Quirinal: it derived its name from the palace of the Pincii, of which the ruins were to be seen as late as the sixteenth century; it is also remarkable as the place where Belisarius in the sixth century had his head-quarters. Near the Aventine, another hill was added, to which the ancients do not give a distinct name, but which, during the middle ages, was strangely called _Asbestus_, which is perhaps a corruption of an ancient name. If it be not a mere invention, it is probable that a church may have stood there which was called _in Asbesto_. Nibby was the first to notice this, at least he first published it.[7] The suburb beyond the bridge (_trans Tiberim_, _Trastevere_) also was added, and in like manner the _Janiculus_ became a part of the city, as well as another small hill in the neighbourhood of the second Aventine, the greater part of which, however, was outside the city. The number of hills which were regarded as belonging to the circumference of the city, thus already amounted to ten. In the ninth century, when the Borgo was built and St. Peter was fortified, the Vatican hill also was incorporated, so that at present the number of hills belonging to the city amounts to eleven. A great part of them, however, is now uninhabited, being covered by vineyards. But the division into seven parts had taken such firm root, that Augustus, in dividing the city into regions for the purpose of regulating the administration of the police, made fourteen regions; and this was wise and not a pedantic going back to obsolete institutions. This arrangement of Augustus was very necessary, for Rome was at that time little better than a den of robbers, as is usually the case in republics when the free constitution is not kept fresh and adapted to circumstances, when they become too vast, when morality decays, and when there arises a contradiction between the social condition of the nation and its constitution. In such circumstances the condition of a republic is the most fearful that can be imagined. The collective national wealth is never the main thing: I am convinced that in England, if the middle classes are destroyed (and such a middle class scarcely exists, for the people are either very rich or very poor), morals will decay, and that the nation will come to a point, where it can no longer enjoy its liberty, and will perish by internal convulsions: Hume has predicted this long ago. Whoever wishes to promote and preserve freedom, must first ask himself, Is it possible to preserve morality, virtue, and honesty? Have the morals of the people retained their purity? Do they respect themselves, their fellow-men, and God? If this is not the case, liberty is a curse and not a blessing. Such was the case of the Romans under Augustus: terrible as was his government, still there was no other way. In like manner, the revolution of the 18th Brumaire was the most fortunate event for France, and by it Napoleon did more for the country than by his victories. In his circumstances Augustus could not ask himself, “Is it not a handsome thing to preserve the ancient forms?” but, “What is the task I have to accomplish, especially how can I restore security?” For a man’s life was not safe even in his bed. Home and its vicinity were then probably even more unsafe than in our times; no one then could go from Rome to Albano without risking his life, whereas now even in the worst seasons no one has any thing to fear there. Whoever went out in the dark, had reason to be grateful, if he escaped with his life. Augustus, therefore, with a feeling that it could not be otherwise, divided the city into fourteen regions. In like manner the Christians in the earliest times divided themselves into seven deaneries or ecclesiastical regions, which, however, were by no means as distinctly marked as has sometimes been supposed; and it is evident from monuments that the ancient boundaries were not observed in them. This division into seven continued until a late period of the middle ages, and afterwards we find seven Cardinals, and seven civil dignitaries. Even at the present day Rome is divided into fourteen regions; during the middle ages this number was not kept up, but Sixtus V. again made it up by adding the Borgo.

How much have these numbers been trifled with! The seven arms of the chandelier in the temple of Jerusalem, the seven days of the week, and even the seven planets have been pressed into the service to explain them. But such explanations may be found for any number. At the time of the French revolution I knew a good-natured man, who enthusiastically took up every change and demonstrated that, as man has five fingers and five senses, the Directoire and the Council of the Five Hundred was the most perfect form of government. When there were three consuls, he comprehended this too and found it quite natural; and when at last there was only one, he declared that it was all right, for that unity must prevail in nature. Such trifling with numbers is a bad thing.

I have already spoken to you about the physical character of the whole district. The ground is volcanic, the stones are tufo, and the loose soil puzzolano. These volcanic substances are very useful as cement and very durable. Wherever in architectural structures the ancients speak of _arena_, we have to understand puzzolano; we translate it indeed by “sand,” but it is a volcanic sand. Thus we read in Cicero’s speech for Cluentius that a dead body was found in a sand-pit (_arenaria_); such pits were dug very deep and were very extensive. Of the same kind are the catacombs at Rome: they are large subterraneous passages, which, if due care was taken in their construction, did not fall in. In my lectures on Roman antiquities, I have said that these catacombs were the ordinary burial places for the poor. This much may suffice about the hills.

In the earliest times, the Tiber extended between the Palatine and the Aventine, for there the river, as I have already remarked, formed a bay of the sea, and the district between the Tarpeian and the Palatine hills was a marsh, which, when the waters rose high, became a lake: afterwards this place was the _Forum_. The valley between the Palatine and Aventine was always filled with water, independent of inundations, for the river there formed a real bay: this district was called the _Velabrum_. Rome consisted, for the most part, of isolated patches of houses on the hills, for the marsh extended from the Forum to the valley between the Viminal and Esquiline. When you examine the history of the restoration of the city, and inquire as to which district was marshy, you find that even now the place once occupied by the Forum Augusti is called Pantani (marsh). For the purpose of draining this marsh, the Romans built the sewers, which are ascribed to one of the Tarquins—it is uncertain whether to the father or to the son—and which still exist. The intention was to drain the whole of the lower districts between the Palatine, Aventine, Capitoline, Esquiline, and the sea, to facilitate the communication between the several hills, to render the plain fit for agriculture, instead of cultivating only the sides of the hills, and at the same time to make the city inhabitable in regard to fortifications: in like manner London has, within a period of twenty years, become an entirely new city; for many thousands of houses have been bought and pulled down for the purpose of making the streets broader. It was necessary to make an embankment by the river side in order to obtain firm ground behind it, and then to build the great sewers (_cloacae_). We must not conceive these works to be executed according to our dwarfish notions: they were large vaults receiving the waters of the low districts and carrying them into the river; I always feel sorry to be obliged to use an ignoble name for those magnificent works. The marsh then had to be filled up, which is not indeed mentioned by the ancients, but is self-evident. Afterwards, these cloacae were extended at different times, under the Forum as far as the Subura between the Viminal and the Esquiline, so that all those districts were drained by a vast system of sewers. Thus Rome, throughout this extent, was reclaimed as building ground. I shall afterwards have to say something more about these cloacae.

Most Italian towns were in ancient times situated on hills, but were then not surrounded with walls any more than the Epirot towns, but localities were chosen where a hill was naturally inaccessible, or it was made inaccessible by artificial means. The hill Moriah, on which king Solomon built the temple, was originally such a hill, and it still preserves its square form amid its ruins. The ancients at most drew a wall around the base of the hill, which was either a Cyclopean or an Etruscan (i.e., a regular) wall, so as to render it inaccessible;[8] at the top of the hill there was no wall, at most a small bulwark, but in most cases even this did not exist. A sloping road (_clivus_) with two towers at the foot led up the hill, and along it ran a portico, or two walls, usually built in a zigzag. At the top there was another gate which could be closed, and which was generally flanked by two towers, so that the access might be closed both at the foot and at the top. Such was in general the character of the Latin towns, more or less perfect, and built regularly or irregularly according to the nature of the locality; and of this kind must have been the small Latin and Sabine towns out of which arose the eternal city. These places stood quite isolated, and each had its own arx, which perfectly explains Virgil’s expression _Septemque una sibi muro circumdedit arces_; these were the strong places in Rome itself, which are so often mentioned by Livy and Dionysius. Rome, therefore, had not one arx, but seven. These seven arces were then connected by means of the agger, which extended from the Colline to the Esquiline gate. In some parts of this circumference the ancient fortification remained; for example, the Quirinal (which was so high that it was necessary to make a flight of steps, which was transferred in the fourteenth century to Araceli[9]) had one very precipitous side, which required no fortification; but from it to the Capitoline a wall was built. Thence the fortification proceeded to the corner of the Aventine. This course of the ancient walls has been mistaken by all antiquarians, except a few belonging to the sixteenth century; I discovered its real course from the nature of the circumstances; I lived in the neighbourhood, and found the remains, for on the one side of the street there runs a ridge of ruins. This wall alone prevented the Tiber from overflowing the Forum, while outside the gate the inundations were very great; when, therefore, in the seventh century the wall was neglected, the Forum and the adjoining districts, as far as the porta Carmentalis, were completely inundated. In ancient Rome, this could not have happened. The Aventine is still high enough to show, that properly it required no wall, and its precipitous side towards the river may still be seen; but from that point again a wall runs towards the Caelius, for the most part behind the ditch which is now called Marrana, but anciently (Pliny) bore the name of _fossa Quiritium_. Coming from the Campagna this ditch runs along the foot of the Caelius, traverses the valley of the Murcia towards the river, and in the Circus it appears as a Euripus. Of the wall from the Aventine to the Caelius traces likewise still exist in the ridge of ruins in the lanes of that district. This fortification, then, closed the valley between the Caelius and Palatine. The Caelius was probably surrounded by a wall, for its sides cannot have been steep enough to protect it. The wall then proceeded through the valley towards the Esquiline gate, and was thus carried to the point where it joined the agger. This circumference of the city amounted to somewhat more than five English miles, and is known under the name of the wall of Servius Tullius (_recinto di Servio Tullio, murus Servii regis_, in Pliny). The wall did not run round the whole city, for along the Quirinal and the Capitoline there was no real wall. The _insula Tiberina_ is in the reach of the river, which in the west of the city forms the _Campus Martius_, a perfect plain outside the ancient city. At present this plain is covered with scattered hillocks which have been formed by rubbish deposited there; there were also a few marshes, but not as many as Brocchi asserts.

The _Marrana_ is a ditch running from Alba to Rome, respecting which antiquarians are strangely mistaken, and about which the most singular conjectures have been propounded. It is supposed that it is not mentioned in the works of the ancients; while some think that it is the _aqua damnata_, an aqueduct, and others that it is the _aqua crabra_, a beautiful spring, which, however, has its source near Tusculum, and is for the most part consumed there. But the Marrana is nothing but a ditch: in the vale of Grotta ferrata there existed in ancient times a lake, which had two outlets for its waters, one channel being cut through to the Anio, and the other a tunnel cut through the rock. I am sorry to say that I have not seen it myself, but I have read of it in the work, “De aquis et aquaeductibus,” by Fabretti, a scholar of the seventeenth century; his work is very excellent, and I only regret that I did not read it until I had left Rome; it contains a number of original investigations, for the author did not, like many others, confine himself to studying antiquities from books. Fabretti discovered the _Fossa Cluilia_ at the foot of a hill near Frascati, on which are situated the Centroni. They were pointed out to me by an aged peasant, for, wherever it was possible, I tried to make the acquaintance of country people, who very often know something about the ruins which we find mentioned in old books. It has for a long time been the misfortune of foreigners at Rome, not to see more than what is noticed in books. There are, for example, three pillars, remnants of a portico, in a cellar not far from the place in which I lived; and I was apprised of their existence by an old man who was a scholar. Another likewise very interesting ruin exists in a vault under the Capitol; to judge from the style of architecture, it cannot be of a more recent date than the age of Augustus; I have, unfortunately, not seen it myself, but a friend has sent me a description of it. Fabretti calls the tunnel of which I spoke before, an _opus priscae magnificentiae_. This is the _Fossa Cluilia_, by means of which the valley was drained; it is a work of Alban origin; its continuation towards Rome was called _Fossa Quiritium_, and is the present Marrana. From this fact we may, at the risk of not going wrong more than a hundred paces, fix the spot on which the ancients conceived the combat between the Horatii and Curiatii to have taken place: respecting this point also the most erroneous notions have prevailed. By the same means, we are enabled accurately to point out the boundary line of Latium, and the spot where the Romans thought Coriolanus to have been encamped. These facts have occurred to no one, because nobody remembered that, before Appius Claudius made the via Appia, the via Latina was the only road in that direction. The Fossa Quiritium was regarded as the work of Ancus Martius; it runs between the Aventine and Palatine into the Velabrum, and terminates in the cloacae.

In most maps the walls of Rome are seen continued in the form of a triangle beyond the Tiber towards the Janiculus; the walls forming σκέλη proceeding from the Capitol and the Aventine. But this is altogether a mistake. In the age of Augustus, suburbs certainly did exist beyond the Tiber, and I have reasons for supposing that they existed there even at the period of the republic, at least in the seventh century. But it is a mistake to continue the walls so far, for the Romans had long ceased heeding the walls in extending their city. The following circumstance is a proof of this: Rome had only a single bridge across the Tiber, viz. the Pons Sublicius. Now it is said, that the Fabii went out by the Porta Carmentalis, and then proceeded across the bridge into the Etruscan territory. They passed through the Porta Carmentalis because they dwelt on the Quirinal; if they had lived on the Aventine, they would have passed through the Porta Flumentana. The bridge, therefore, evidently lay outside the walls, for otherwise they would have had to pass through two gates, and two gates would have become _nefastae_. Moreover, Varro, “De Lingua Latina,” says, that the carceres of the Circus Maximus were close to the wall of the city,[10] which in his sense is perfectly correct; for the _carceres_ cannot have been more than a stone’s throw from the wall which ran from the Capitoline to the Aventine.

The city was spacious even within the circumference given to it by Servius, but it ever increased, and suburbs sprang up around it. The first trace of such a suburb occurs in the second Punic war. If we possessed the second decad of Livy, we should perhaps find that it existed even at an earlier period. The account of a great conflagration, which occurred during the Hannibalian war, shows that a large and beautiful suburb existed in the district between the Capitoline, Aventine, the Circus Maximus, and the river, that is, in the region of the _Forum olitorium, extra portam Flumentanam_.