Ancient Rome was built upon seven hills, which are now scarcely
discoverable on account of the vast quantities of rubbish with which the
valleys are filled. Pliny estimates the circumference of the city in his
time at 13,000 paces (which nearly agrees with modern measurements), and
the population at 3,000,000. Rome was filled with magnificent public
edifices, temples, theatres, amphitheatres, circuses, naumachiæ,
porticos, basilicæ, baths, gardens, triumphal arches, columns, sewers,
aqueducts, sepulchres, public and private palaces, etc.
In the time of the Cæsars, fourteen magnificent aqueducts, supported by
immense arches, conducted whole rivers into Rome, from a distance of
many miles, and supplied one hundred and fifty public fountains, one
hundred and eighteen large public baths, the artificial seas in which
naval combats were represented in the Colosseum, and the golden palace
of Nero, besides the water necessary to supply the daily use of the
inhabitants. One hundred thousand marble and bronze statues ornamented
the public squares, the temples, the streets, and the houses of the
nobility: ninety colossal statues raised on pedestals; and forty-eight
Egyptian obelisks of red granite, some of the largest size, also adorned
the city.
Such was ancient Rome, "the Eternal City." Although visited for more
than a thousand years by various calamities, she is still the most
majestic of cities; the charm of beauty, dignity, and grandeur still
lingers around the ruins of ancient, as well as the splendid structures
of modern Rome, and brilliant recollections of every age are connected
with the monuments which the passing traveler meets at every step.