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_.
It is natural that in a city like Rome, which had already become the
capital of a great empire, the empty spaces within the walls were
gradually filled up, and that the ancient _luci_, especially about
the Esquiline, were more and more cleared away and filled up with
buildings. The extension of large cities generally takes the direction
of the principal streets: when, for example, cities like Paris and
London extend, the newly-built houses follow the lines of the main
streets, and are continued outside the gates; the streets thus become
lengthened, and are intersected by cross roads. But this system had at
Rome to contend with a difficulty, which is generally overlooked. It
was customary with the ancients, not only at Rome but also in the Greek
cities, to build sepulchres outside the gates on both sides of the road.
The ruins of Pompeii show this distinctly. It was accordingly impossible
to continue the buildings there, without destroying the tombs. The
sepulchral monuments at Rome were subsequently destroyed by barbarism
and fanaticism; as most of them were of marble and other costly stones,
they were demolished for the sake of plunder. The district of the tombs
has now a frightful appearance: the via Appia looks like a corpse, and no
one visits it. During summer, when one might be inclined to go there, the
country is covered with corn-fields, and in winter herds of cattle graze
there; and the herdsmen are generally accompanied by large dogs which
attack strangers with great fury; Goethe was in danger of losing his
life in that district. The herdsmen are suspected of sometimes causing
strangers to be torn to pieces in order to be able to rob them, whence
it is necessary to arm one’s self when visiting the district. From an
eminence in the neighbourhood you can see the course of the ancient road
to a considerable distance, and along it you see nothing but tombs in
ruins. Some of them, as we know from Boissard’s description, were entire
as late as the sixteenth century; but the Romans have demolished and
carried away every thing, and not a stone of any value has been left. The
whole of this road was a succession of tombs, it was a real necropolis
like that of Alexandria. Hence Rome was always extended between two
diverging roads, and gardens were thus formed between the open country
and the fields. In ancient Rome you must well distinguish between _horti_
and _villae_; at present we make no distinction, and the name _villa_
is applied to a house in a garden, even within the walls of a city; but
in ancient times a villa was always at a considerable distance from
the city. _Horti_, on the other hand, still called _orti_, originally
signified mere orchards in the vicinity of the city. Such _horti_ were
bought by the wealthy at the time when the city became too confined, and
having purchased many of them together they built palaces with suitable
pleasure grounds in those districts between the great high roads. Thus
Scipio, in the work “De Re Publica,” is said to have made up his mind
to be _in hortis_. I have discovered the _horti Aemilii_, which were
situated on the border of the Campus Martius. Such studies and inquiries
make a residence at Rome extremely attractive. In the first year I could
not see my way clearly, but afterwards, when I had once discovered the
thread, I became quite at home there. Had it not been for my family and
the education of my children, whom I was anxious to have brought up in
the German way, I could never have resolved to quit Rome, because ancient
Rome became daily more clear and vivid before my mind, while modern Rome
disappeared more and more from my view; the climate also agreed very
well with me. The large palaces, to return to my subject, were situated
outside the ancient walls. It is a most erroneous opinion that the palace
of Maecenas was situated on the spot afterwards occupied by the Thermae
of Titus; for it was outside the wall in the Campus Esquilinus.
The city now became extended in various ways. Industrious artizans
established themselves by the river-side, and also on the other side
of it (_trans Tiberim_). That this latter district was inhabited as a
distinct quarter as early as the time of Augustus, is evident from the
fact, that he made it a separate region; and this is at the same time a
proof that it was thickly peopled. For although most other regions were
of nearly equal extent, this one was comparatively small, which arose
from the circumstance, that the great mass and the condition of its
inhabitants required a more watchful vigilance of the police. This is
the reason why that region was smaller than those in other parts. For
opposite reasons, another region near the Porta Capena, in which the
population was more dispersed, and which contained more palaces, was made
unusually large. Suburbs existed as early as the Punic wars, and in the
time of Marius and Sulla, the whole city was surrounded with suburbs; the
ancient walls were then forgotten, and it seems that, for the purpose of
removing all impediments of communication, even the gates were taken off
their hinges. Along the river there was no obstacle, hence buildings
were erected there under the Capitoline and Palatine.[11] It is commonly
imagined that the whole district at the reach of the Tiber was called
Campus Martius, but the Campus occupied only a part of it. At the foot
of the Quirinal, too, buildings were erected, and all these enlargements
may have narrowed the Campus Martius. In other parts the gardens were
isolated, not forming a connected quarter. One suburb was situated at the
distance of a Roman mile from the city, on the Appian road; it was even
outside the Aurelian wall, which is still standing, and was called _ad
Martis_.
When the city had become thus enlarged, there followed the conflagration
of Nero, the effects of which have not yet been made clear, but I hope
some time to be able to give a satisfactory account of it. The Palatine,
a part of Caelius and the district about the Circus were, perhaps,
completely reduced to ashes; so also the Via Flaminia on the west of the
Capitol; but other parts were less injured.
In Pliny (iii. 9), we meet with the strange expression: _Moenia ejus
collegere ambitu Imperatoribus Censoribusque Vespasianis, anno conditae
DCCCXXVII. pass. XIIIMCC._, an expression which proves in a striking
manner that an accurate knowledge of language and etymology cannot be
dispensed with, even in matters which we observe with our own eyes.
It has been unjustly inferred from this passage, that in the reign of
Vespasian Rome was provided with walls, and those, too, of a much wider
circumference than those of Servius. This arose from ignorance of the
fact that, according to the most ancient Roman usage, _moenia_ always
signifies “buildings.” In like manner, Virgil’s expression, _Dividimus
muros et moenia pandimus urbis_, contains no tautology, as was well-known
to the ancient grammarians, for the meaning is: “we break the walls,
and thereby lay open the buildings of the city.” So also Florus, who
sometimes follows the ancient usage, says: _hic igitur et moenia muro
amplexus_. We must accordingly understand the passage of Pliny as
comprising the whole complex of Rome, as it was measured in the time of
Vespasian, which, of course, is a variable magnitude. As it is generally
understood, the expression would be as absurd, as if I were to say: the
walls of the city of Cologne, in 1828, were of such or such an extent,
having, of course, had the same circumference two hundred years ago.
Rome had long since been extended beyond the ancient walls, which were
now, in fact, in the midst of the city; the towers had been taken down,
and people built houses there, the interdicts against building on the
pomoerium being no longer attended to. In like manner the foundations
of the ancient walls of London may still be discerned among the houses.
From Frontinus’ work on Aqueducts, we see how, though the police was
excellent, abuses had crept in, although not as many as at present,
because the lower administration was not carried on in so servile a
manner; when an experienced man was entrusted with the superintendence,
things went on fairly, but if not, every one took the greatest liberty.
Such was the case at Rome, until Frontinus came forward as a reformer.
The disorder was then so great that any one built a house wherever he
pleased, without asking whether he had a right to do so or not; and hence
the city ever continued to extend. I have made a series of observations
on the origin of particular buildings, in order to see approximately,
how the city became enlarged under the several emperors. In the reign
of Augustus, the Campus Martius was principally chosen for the erection
of large buildings: there Agrippa built his Thermae and the Pantheon,
and Augustus his Mausoleum; for the Campus was no longer the plain for
reviewing the citizens, nor were the mock-comitia of the centuries held
there any longer, but it was confined to a small plain near the river, as
may be seen from Pliny’s panegyric on Trajan. This part of the Campus,
according to a regulation of Agrippa, was watered throughout the summer,
and hence always presented a green lawn. The summer is at Rome much more
terrible than winter, for the grass is scorched to its very roots; in
September it is green, but in July and the dreadful month of August,
all the foliage is scorched and covered with dust, so that it presents
the most melancholy appearance, and the grounds, like the fields, are,
nearly as in Egypt, a picture of death.—In the time of Trajan the Romans
built in the same way as is now done in London, where people do not only
enlarge the town, but spare no expenses in embellishing it. Enormous
works were undertaken in the interior, merely to gain ground. To make
room for the Forum of Trajan, a part of the Quirinal was taken down, and
many houses were demolished to gain the magnificent space, so that it
cost many millions before the foundations could be laid. Antonine erected
in the Campus Martius his basilica, his column, and other edifices. Rome
was, in fact, ever increasing down to the third century. Even in the time
of Alexander Severus, although there existed men of great intelligence,
very few seem to have suspected that the nation was in a state of decay,
and that a destructive storm was approaching. Dangers in which the empire
might have perished did not become visible until the reign of Decius,
when the German tribes, the Goths, Alemanni, and Longobards (Juthungi)
crossed the boundaries of the empire. They penetrated as far as the river
Po, and as Marius had conquered the Cimbri, so Aurelian defeated those
tribes in the north of the Po, and saved Italy. Aurelian now found it
necessary to surround the city with a new wall, which was essentially
the same as the present one. He did not comprise all the suburbs within
its circumference, but was guided by the course of the hills; the whole
of the _Collis hortulorum_, however, and the mighty ravine in the
neighbourhood were drawn into it and fortified. This wall was exceedingly
strong: in the east he was obliged, as Servius had done before, to raise
it to a great height.
This was the circumference of Rome, until Leo IV. drew the Vatican
into the city and surrounded it with a wall. In the sixteenth century
the Vatican was connected with Trastevere by means of the Lungara; and
thus arose the present circumference, a fact which cannot be denied,
although it has been inferred that the wall was fifteen Roman miles in
circumference.[12] The present walls are altogether restorations, and
probably no part of them belongs to Aurelian. Under the later emperors
they again fell into decay; previous to the siege by the Goths, Honorius
ordered them to be cleared of the heaps of rubbish which had accumulated
by the side of them, and to be restored (_egestis immensibus ruderibus_).
Afterwards one third of the wall was demolished by Totilas. Very few of
the gates belonging to the time of Honorius now exist, as is clear from
the inscriptions; they can be clearly distinguished from those which were
built in the sixth century under Gregory the Great, who restored them in
every way, for the purpose of protecting the city against the Lombards.