Part 3

"The city was difficult of access, having a strong garrison on the hill where the Capitol now stands" (Plutarch, "Romulus," 18).

This hill was taken by treachery, and was not previously occupied by the Sabines. It was called the Hill of Saturn, but after its capture the Tarpeian Hill.

"While the Sabines were passing at the foot of the Capitoline Hill, to view the place, and see whether any part of the hill could be taken by surprise or force, they were observed from the eminence by a virgin"--"Tarpeia, in execution of her promise, opened the gate agreed upon to the enemy, and calling up the garrison, desired they would save themselves"--"After the retreat of the garrison, the Sabines, finding the gates open and the place deserted, possessed themselves of it" (Dionysius, ii. 38, 39).

After peace was agreed upon, the two kings, Romulus and Titus Tatius, reigned jointly, and surrounded the Palatine and Capitoline Hills with a wall. The other hills, at this period, were not walled.

SECOND WALL--THE WALL OF THE KINGS.

We give it this title because it was built by the two kings jointly; considerable portions still remain on the Palatine, under S. Anastasia, and near the Forum of Augustus. The walls of Romulus and Tatius would naturally be of similar construction to the original wall of Romulus; there was but little difference in this short time.

"Romulus and Tatius immediately enlarged the city.... Romulus chose the Palatine and Cœlian Hills, and Tatius the Capitoline, which he had at first possessed himself of, and the Quirinal Hills" (Dionysius, ii. 50).

Numa erected the Temple of Vesta "between the Capitoline and Palatine Hills; for both these hills had already been encompassed with one wall; the Forum, in which this temple was built, lying between them" (Dionysius, ii. 66).

The other hills were inhabited, and surrounded at different times with walls, forming fortresses outside the city for the defence of the city proper.

Numa "enlarged the circuit of the city by the addition of the Quirinal Hill, for till that time it was not enclosed with a wall" (Dionysius, ii. 62).

Ancus Martius "made no small addition to the city by enclosing Mount Aventine within its walls, and encompassing it with a wall and a ditch. He also surrounded Mount Janiculum with a wall" (Dionysius, iii. 44).

Florus says: "He [Ancus Martius] encompassed the city with a wall." Again: "What kind of a king was the architect Ancus? how fitted to extend the city by means of a colony [Ostia], to unite it by a bridge [the Sublicius], and secure it by a wall?"

"The Quiritian trench also--no inconsiderable defence to those parts, which from their situation are of easy access--is a work of King Ancus" (Livy, i. 33).

THIRD WALL--AGGERS OF SERVIUS TULLIUS.

These seem to have been commenced by Tarquinius Priscus, and completed by Servius Tullius, and so called by his name.

"He [Tarquinius Priscus] was the first who built the walls of the city [of which the structure was extemporary and mean] with stones, regularly squared, each being a ton weight" (Dionysius, iii. 68).

Tarquinius (616 B.C.) "intended also to have surrounded the city with a stone wall, but a war with the Sabines interrupted his designs" (Livy, i. 36).

"He set about surrounding with a wall of stone those parts of the city which he had not already fortified, which work had been interrupted at the beginning by a war with the Sabines" (Livy, i. 38).

"He [Servius] surrounded the city with a rampart, trenches, and a wall, and thus extended the Pomœrium," 578 B.C. (Livy, i. 44).

"As the Esquiline and Viminal Hills were both of easy access from without, a deep trench was dug outside them, and the earth thrown up on the inside, thus forming a terrace of six stadia in length along the inner side of the trench. This terrace Servius faced with a wall, flanked with towers, extending from the Colline to the Esquiline gate. Midway along the terrace is a third gate, named after the Viminal Hill" (Strabo, v. 3).

"Tullius had surrounded the seven hills with one wall" (Dionysius, iv. 14).

The seven hills were not surrounded, strictly speaking. Each hill formed a bastion, and aggers, or curtains of earth faced with stone, were built across the valleys, uniting these bastions. The Esquiline, Viminal, and Quirinal, being ridges jutting out of the table-land and not isolated hills, had one long agger built across their necks.

"Some parts of these walls, standing on hills, and being fortified by nature itself with steep rocks, required but few men to defend them, and others were defended by the Tiber.... The weakest part of the city is from the gate called Esquilina to that named Collina, which interval is rendered strong by art; for there is a ditch sunk before it, one hundred feet in breadth where it is narrowest, and thirty in depth. On the edge of this ditch stands a wall, supported on the inside with so high and broad a rampart that it can neither be shaken by battering-rams nor thrown down by undermining the foundations. This rampart is about seven stadia in length and fifty feet in breadth" (Dionysius, ix. 68).

This grand agger can be traced almost in its entire extent, as also the smaller aggers. There seems to have been no wall--that is, stone or earth fortification--between the Aventine and Capitoline, the Tiber being considered a sufficient defence.

"The city, having no walls in that part next the river, was very near being taken by storm" (Dionysius, v. 23) when Lars Porsena advanced to attack the city, after having taken the Janiculum, intending to cross the river by the only bridge, which, as we know, was defended by Horatius Cocles, and broken down by the Romans in his rear.

The walls of Servius Tullius were strengthened at the time of the war with Gabii.

"Tarquinius Superbus was particularly active in taking these precautions, and employed a great number of workmen in strengthening those parts of the city walls that lay next to the town of Gabii, by widening the ditch, raising the walls, and increasing the number of the towers" (Dionysius, iv. 54).

"On the eastern side it is bounded by the Agger of Tarquinius Superbus, a work of surpassing grandeur; for he raised it so high as to be on a level with the walls on the side on which the city lay most exposed to attack from the neighbouring plains. On all the other sides it has been fortified either with lofty walls or steep or precipitous hills; but so it is that its buildings, increasing and extending beyond all bounds, have now united many other cities to it" (Pliny, iii. 9).

"After Camillus had driven out the Gauls, both the walls of the city and the streets were rebuilt within a year" (Plutarch, "Cam." 32).

"The legions being brought to Rome, the remainder of the year was spent in repairing the walls and the towers," 350 B.C. (Livy, vii. 20).

"They received a charge from the senate to strengthen the walls and towers of the city," 217 B.C. (Livy, xxii. 8).

After the republic was firmly established, and the boundaries of the state enlarged, the walls of the city became obsolete, and it was to all intents and purposes an open city until the time of Aurelian.

"All the inhabited parts around it [the city], which are many and large, are open, and without walls, and very much exposed to the invasion of an enemy. And whoever considers these buildings, and desires to examine the extent of Rome, will necessarily be misled, for want of a certain boundary that might distinguish the spot to which the city extends, and where it ends. So connected are the buildings within the walls to those without, that they appear to a spectator like a city of an immense extent" (Dionysius, iv. 13).

FOURTH WALL--THE WALL OF AURELIAN.

From the time of Servius to Aurelian the city, though much enlarged, had no new wall, though the boundaries had been extended. To continue our last quotation from Dionysius, who died 7 B.C., this is evident.

"But if any one is desirous to measure the circumference of it by the wall--which, though hard to be discovered, by reason of the buildings that surround it in many places, yet preserves in several parts of it some traces of the ancient structure--and to compare it with the circumference of the city of Athens, the circuit of Rome will not appear much greater than that of the other" (Dionysius, iv. 13).

The Pomœrium, or city bounds, was enlarged, as we know, by several emperors, some of their _cippi_, or boundary-stones, being still _in situ_; but there was no wall. Where the roads crossed the line of the Pomœrium, gates were built, between which there were no walls. The Romans considered the rivers Tigris, Euphrates, and Danube, the desert and the ocean, as the walls of Rome.

"When he [Aurelian] saw that it might happen what had occurred under Gallienus, having obtained the concurrence of the senate, he extended the walls of the city of Rome" (Vopiscus, in "Aur.," 21).

"Thus also Rome was surrounded by walls which it _had not before_, and the wall begun by Aurelian was finished by Probus" (Zosimus, i. 49).

Other quotations might be given to show that Aurelian surrounded the Rome of the empire with walls which it had not before his time. He incorporated with his wall everything that stood in his way,--tombs, aqueducts, palaces, camps, and amphitheatre. It was commenced and finished in nine years, and had twenty-two gates, nineteen of which still remain.

These present walls have been in part rebuilt, repaired, and strengthened at different intervals, as occasion might require, from the time of Honorius, who improved and added to the existing gates, to that of Totila, who "resolved to raze Rome to the ground. So, of the circuit of the walls he threw down as much in different places as would amount to about a third part of the whole" (Procopius, "Bello Gothico," iii. 22).

Belisarius "made hasty repairs," after which the Popes stepped in and took up the tale, and put up inscriptions, so that there should be no mistake about it. Leo IV. built the walls of the Leonine city, to protect it from the Saracens, besides repairing the Aurelian walls. The Leonine walls can still be traced, the ruins standing boldly out in the landscape at the back of the Vatican.

The present wall on the Trastevere side was built by Innocent X. and Urban VIII. The complete circuit of the present walls is between twelve and thirteen miles; they contain twenty gates, ancient and modern, nine of which are closed.

Whilst the Romans considered the defences of the city to be the Tigris, Euphrates, Danube, desert, and ocean, their power was at its zenith; but when for the defence of their capital it was necessary to surround it with a wall, "the decline and fall of the Roman empire" had already begun.

THE GATES.

In the third wall of Rome we learn from different authorities that there were in all eighteen gates, commencing from the northern point at the river bank,--Flumentana, Carmentalis or Scelerata, Catularia (afterwards Ratumena), Fontinalis, Sangualis, Salularis or Salutaris, Collina or Agonalis or Quirinalis, Viminalis, Esquilina, Mæcia or Metia, Querquetulana, Cœlimontana, Firentina, Capena, Lavernalis, Randuscula, Nævia, Trigeminia. The sites of most of these have been identified. These names are culled from various authors, no one author having given us a list of them.

Pliny gives us an account of the number of the gates in his time--thirty-seven in all--which has puzzled a great many writers; but, studying them on the spot, the description of Pliny is very plain and easily to be understood. He says (iii. 9):--

"When the Vespasians were emperors and censors, in the year from its building 827, the circumference of the Mœnia 'boundary' reckoned thirteen miles and two fifths. Surrounding as it does the seven hills, the city is divided into fourteen districts, with two hundred and sixty-five cross-roads, under the guardianship of the Lares. The space is such that if a line is drawn from the mile column placed at the head of the Forum to each of the gates, which are at present thirty-seven in number, so that by that way enumerating only once twelve gates, and to omit the seven old ones, which no longer exist, the result will be a straight line of twenty miles and seven hundred and sixty-five paces. But if we draw a straight line from the same mile column to the very last of the houses, including therein the Prætorian encampment, and follow throughout the line of all the streets, the result will then be something more than seventy miles."

The gates may thus be analyzed:--

3 in Roma Quadrata } 4 in City of Two Hills } the 7 old ones to be omitted.

18 in the Agger of Servius Tullius.

12 double--that is, 12 in the outer boundary built over the roads where they crossed the Pomœrium, corresponding with twelve in the line of Servius, thus making in all,--

37, as mentioned by Pliny.

Of the twelve gates in the outer boundary, eight still remaining are composed of work of an earlier date than the Wall of Aurelian. The twelve may thus be named: the four gates of the Prætorian camp (two of these partially remain, showing brick-work of Tiberius), Porta Chiusa or Viminalis, Tiburtina, Esquilina now Maggiore, Lateranensis, Latina, Appia, Ardeatina, Ostiensis.

Pliny (iii. 9) tells us that Tarquinius Superbus raised an outer agger on the eastern side of Rome. Traces of this still remain, and the tufa stones have been reused in Aurelian's work, whilst the Porta Chiusa is partly formed on the inside of these blocks, and was probably the work of the last of the Tarquins. The Porta S. Lorenzo, or Tiburtina, bears inscriptions of Augustus and Vespasian; Porta Maggiore, of Claudius, Vespasian, and Titus; whilst Porta Lateranensis and Porta Ardeatina were undoubtedly built, as the construction shows, by Nero; and the inner arch of the Porta S. Paolo, or Ostiensis, is of the time of Claudius.

Tacitus (xii. 23) says: "The limits of the city were enlarged by Claudius. The right of directing that business was, by ancient usage, vested in all such as extended the boundaries of the empire. The right, however, had not been exercised by any of the Roman commanders (Sylla and Augustus excepted), though remote and powerful nations had been subdued by their victorious arms."

"With regard to the enlargement made by Claudius, the curious may be easily satisfied, as the public records contain an exact description" (xii. 24).

ROMAN CONSTRUCTION.

When we speak of construction, we mean the material used in building and the way it is put together. The different historical periods of building are now classed into distinct dates, which have been arrived at by observing the material used, and the way it is used, in buildings of which there is no doubt as to the date of erection, and comparing it with others. The early Greek Period in Italy is marked by massive walls of masonry--walls built from the stone of the vicinity, the blocks being rough as hewn out of the quarry,--polygonal. The later Greek Period and the Etruscan are identical, being formed of square blocks of stone, headers, and stretchers. In the time of the kings of Rome the stones were squared, and were of tufa, lapis ruber, tophus. In the earliest walls they are close jointed; in the second period the edges are bevelled.

During the Republic the stones were also squared, but the material was of peperino. Lapis Albanus and other forms of working up the material were introduced. Pieces of stone, fixed together with cement, gave a new kind of wall called _opus incertum_. This was improved upon by facing the outside of the small pieces of stone and making them of one uniform size--small polygonal. Then the stones were cut into wedge shapes: the point being inwards, and being laid in regular rows it has the appearance of network, and is called _opus reticulatum_. This work, introduced in the last years of the Republic, went out of fashion after the time of Tiberius, but was revived by Hadrian, who always set his reticulated work in bands of brick like a picture frame, thus distinguishing his from the earlier work, the inside of the walls in those cases being concrete. The earliest brick building which we have is the Pantheon. Thus it was under Augustus that brick was first used by the Romans. It was his boast that he found Rome of brick, and left it marble; which is only true in a certain sense, for he did not build of solid marble, but cased veneering marble on to the brickwork.

One period of Roman brickwork can easily be distinguished from the others by measuring the number of bricks in a foot, and noticing their uniformity of size. This, of course, does not refer to ornamental brickwork. The brickwork of Nero is the best in the world--thin narrow bricks, tiles, with very little mortar between them. Before his time it was not quite so good; but after, it gradually declined till the cement is as thick as the bricks.

The stone used during the Empire was travertine, _lapis Tiburtinus_, but brick was the material generally used then. They are of two colours, red and yellow, according to the clay from which they were made. The walls were not of solid brick all through; but the interior was made of pieces--rubble-work--the outside course being entire brick, whilst at every four or five feet all through the construction were laid the great tie-bricks to keep the rubble-work from shifting. The brickwork was called _opus lateritium_. The great tie-bricks are usually stamped with the names of the consul or emperor and the maker, and these date the walls by measuring the number of bricks there are in a foot. In the fourth century another system--_opera decadence_--came into vogue, and walls were built with layers of brick and pieces of tufa-stone a little larger than our English bricks. This work continued down to the thirteenth century, when _opera Saracenesca_--tufa-stones without the bricks between--came into use. In the stone walls no cement was used; one stone was simply placed upon another, its weight keeping it in its place, and clamps were inserted to keep it from shifting. In the walls of Roma Quadrata we know of no clamps having been found; but in the wall of the two kings wooden clamps were found. In the walls of Servius Tullius iron clamps were found; and in the Colosseum clamps can still be seen in several places where pieces of the facing of the stone have been split off.

Tufa is found all over the Campagna, and is of volcanic origin. When the Alban Hills were active volcanoes, the ashes and scoriæ thrown up fell into the sea, now the Campagna. The pressure of water on it formed it into stone: where there has been a great pressure, it is very hard; where little pressure, it is softer; and where there was no pressure, it still remains a sort of sand--this mixed with live lime is the celebrated Roman cement. The softer tufa was used by the Greek colonists, and the hard stone by the kings of Rome. Some tufa from the neighbourhood of Gabii is dark gray, the other is brown and reddish. Peperino is also volcanic. It was ejected in the shape of hot mud from the volcano, and on cooling formed a good stone: this comes from the Alban hills, and was used in the time of the Republic.

Travertine comes from Tivoli, and is a petrifaction formed by the action of lime and sulphur on vegetable decay. This was not used as a building material to any great extent before the time of Cæsar. It is white, and becomes yellow on exposure. Silex is another volcanic stone very little used for building, but entirely for paving the roads both ancient and modern. This came out of the volcano as a red-hot stream of lava, and on cooling down became a capital paving material. The bed of the road was first properly prepared, and then it was paved with polygonal blocks of blue basalt called silex. The stones fitted close to one another. Many of the roads are in a good condition to this day; the best specimen is opposite the Temple of Saturn in the Forum, B.C. 175. This stone is used for _opus reticulatum_ in some of the tombs on the Appian Way and at the Temple of Hercules; also for concrete.

TABLE OF CONSTRUCTION.

_TUFA OF THE KINGS._

STYLE. SPECIMEN. DATE.

Polygonal Tusculum ---- { Veii ---- Opus quadratum. First period, { Gabii ---- squared edges { Palatine Hill 753 B.C.

{ Second Wall of Rome 746 B.C. Second period, bevelled edges { Aventine Hill 600 B.C. { Ostia 600 B.C.

_PEPERINO OF THE REPUBLIC._

{ Tomb of Scipio 298 B.C. Opus quadratum { Temple of Hope 240 B.C. Opus incertum Temple of Cybele 191 B.C. Opus incertum, polygonal Emporium 190 B.C. Opus quadratum Tabularium 78 B.C.

_TRAVERTINE AND BRICK OF THE EMPIRE._

{ Tomb of Cecilia Metella 78 B.C. { Theatre of Marcellus 13 B.C. Opus quadratum { Arch of Dolabella 10 A.D. { Colosseum 80 A.D.

{ Muro Morto 80 B.C. { Tomb of Augustus 10 B.C. Opus reticulatum { Palatine Tiberius' House ---- { Palatine Germanicus' House ---- { Hadrian's Villa ---- { Hadrian's Ostia ----

Opus lateritium-- { Pantheon Augustus. Bricks, 6 to foot { Prætorian Camp Tiberius. { Palace Caligula. Bricks, 8 to foot Aqueduct Nero. Bricks, 7 to foot Palace Domitian. Bricks, 6 to foot Temple of Venus and Rome Hadrian. Bricks, 7 to foot Nymphæum, on Palatine M. Aurelius. { Baths Caracalla. { Nymphæum Alexander { Severus. Bricks, 5 to foot { Walls of Rome Aurelian. { Thermæ Diocletian. { Basilica Constantine.

Bricks and tufa { Circus of Maxentius 300 A.D. { House of Gregory 590 A.D. Opera Saracenesca S. Sisto Vecchio 1200 A.D. Opus Spicatum Herring-bone pavement. Opus Signinum Cement for reservoirs, etc.

[Illustration: PLAN OF ANCIENT ROME]

RAMBLE I.

PIAZZA DEL POPOLO -- THE OBELISK -- S. MARIA DEL POPOLO -- THE CORSO -- S. LORENZO IN LUCINA -- POST OFFICE -- ENGLISH CHURCH -- COLUMN OF MARCUS AURELIUS -- MONTE CITORIO -- PARLIAMENT HOUSE -- OBELISK -- TEMPLE OF NEPTUNE -- S. MARIA IN VIA LATA -- THE SEPTA -- THE DORIA GALLERY -- TOMBS OF ATTIA CLAUDIA AND BIBULUS -- THE MAMERTINE PRISON -- THE FORUM OF JULIUS CÆSAR -- THE ROMAN FORUM AND ITS RUINS -- THE VIA SACRA -- TEMPLES OF ROMULUS, VENUS AND ROMA -- TEMPLE OF THE PENATES -- HOUSE OF JULIUS CÆSAR -- BASILICA OF CONSTANTINE -- S. FRANCISCA ROMANA -- THE PALATINE HILL AND THE PALACE OF THE CÆSARS -- ARCH OF TITUS -- THE TEMPLE OF THE SUN -- THE FORUM OF CUPID -- PEDESTAL OF NERO'S COLOSSUS -- META SUDANS -- ARCH OF CONSTANTINE -- THE COLOSSEUM.

THE CENTRE OF ROME.

THE PIAZZA DEL POPOLO