and on the eastern end of it, close to the Cœlian cliff, were discovered the remains of the Porta Capena, with its tower or fort flanking it, and guarding the entrance of the Via Appia into Rome. It is of great importance to fix this site, so celebrated and so much discussed, and fortunately it was possible by great exertions to do it. Under the Cœlian Hill stands a mediæval tower, now the house of the gardener of S. Gregory's, the foundation of which is built of tufa stones in the style of the walls of the Kings, and reveals the flanking-tower of the gateway. An aqueduct passes through it, and the specus, or channel for it, is cut in that tufa wall. In front of the tower is the wall again of Servius of the usual thickness, twelve feet, and buried about fifteen feet below the present surface of the ground. Against this wall are remains of two aqueducts, one above the other, as is usual in Rome, where a later channel follows the same course as an older one. The lower and earlier is the Aqua Appia, the higher Aqua Marcia. These are carried by arcades against the side of the agger of Servius, which connects the two hills; and the original pavement of the Via Appia, the earliest of the great roads from the capital to the provinces, runs underneath the agger and aqueducts at right-angles to them. Here, then, was the Porta Capena, made at first as an entrance through the foss of the agger, and fortified, and afterwards made to bear the water-courses over its head. But this was the custom in Rome, to carry aqueducts over gateway-arches previously existing, whereever it was convenient; and not only were the principal gates of the city made to convey water, but monumental arches also, as that of Dolabella and that of Drusus. Frontinus says of the Aqua Appia that its whole course was subterranean, except at one spot, where it was carried on visible substructures for sixty passus. In the course of ages it was allowed to fall into decay, so that in Juvenal's time

the arches had become leaky, and the Porta Capena was a moist passage-way. Hence the "veteres arcus" and the "madida Capena" were at this one and the same spot, (Juv. Sat. iii. 11): and Martial also says, "Capena grandi porta qua pluit gutta." But this inconvenient highway was abandoned in the later Empire, and a new one made along the valley, at a little lower level than the present modern road.

The course of the structures of Servius, as traced both between the Esquiline and Cœlian under S. Clement's, and between the Cœlian and lesser Aventine at S. Gregory's, proves conclusively that the King did not build a continuous rampart all round Rome's seven hills, but connected them, where necessary, by short aggers across their intervening valleys, backing up the bank with a wall of stone. To put beyond all doubt the nature of this connecting structure, a series of seven pits was opened from the Cœlian over to the lesser Aventine, upon the line indicated by the arches at the Porta Capena. In every one of these the agger and wall were discernible; and one of them was left, and is kept open by the authorities at Rome, in order that scholars and antiquaries may be able to see for themselves an interesting relic of this celebrated work, which has had so much written about it on conjecture, and was till now so much misunderstood.

The same principle of joining hill to hill was applied to the passage across from one portion of the Aventine to the other. Here, again, the lines of circumvallation do not strike across the valley at the very mouth of it, but are first carried up higher in the gorge, till they converge and meet at the site of the ancient gateway, the Porta Raudusculana, leading to the Ostian gate of Aurelian. When the Aventine was once reached, its scarped cliffs and the Tiber at the foot of the hill became adequate means of defence; and the enclosing operations came to an end.

It should be mentioned here, that during the time when the seven pits remained open, a survey was taken of the whole length of the agger and wall of Servius, and its course marked out by numbers placed at intervals along the walls, these numbers being within sight of each other, or within easy reach. The sites also of the gates were marked, and their names attached, as far as could be gathered from Latin writers. This could never be done again, and a final farewell has been taken of nearly the whole of Rome's third wall of defence. When contemplated as a whole, and its line followed on a good map constructed upon actual discovery, such a series of connecting and enclosing works seems to have been skilfully conceived and admirably carried out. Their great solidity, and the excellence of the materials used, made them virtually imperishable, and only the hand of man could undo them again.

THE AGGER OF TARQUINIUS THE SECOND.

IT has always been, and is

still matter of wonder, that so small a state as kingly Rome could have reared such mighty monuments. But the traditions, backed by the remains, are too strong for the incredulity of scholars; and it has been acknowledged by Niebuhr that the great works, undeniably executed, attest a political body of no mean power. The legends attributed the system of drainage below the Palatine, issuing in the Cloaca Maxima, to the first Tarquin; also the permanent structures for the spectators of the Circus Maximus, and the Mamertine Prison. Of these, the first was really a considerable undertaking; and there seems no reason to doubt Pliny's statement, that great oppression was used in compelling the lower classes of the people to labour upon it; and consequently, suicide was a thing of common occurrence among them, as a refuge from their troubles. Of this king, Dio Cassius also says, " He began the building of the sewers, -a wonderful work, exceeding description. And in my opinion the three most magnificent works in Rome, are the aqueducts, the paved roads, and the sewers." The extensive lines of Servius must have exacted still greater and more prolonged toil in stone and earthwork. Thirdly came an additional enlargement of military defences, attributed to the last of the Kings.

We are bound to see, in the oppression used by these rulers towards their people, indications of foreign domination, and of forced labour under it. Such a power, not of home growth, must of course have been Etruscan. Of the last prince of that line Pliny says, "It (the city) is bounded upon the eastern side 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 wall on the side of which the city lay most exposed to attack from the neighbouring plains." Dionysius says of this work, -" That part of the circuit of Rome by which you go to Gabii, was fortified by him (Tarquin). A large number of people were employed in making an agger, and excavating a great foss, raising the wall higher, and occupying the place with thicker towers; because in this part the city appeared less strong, whereas in all the rest of the circuit it was very secure, and difficult of access." These quotations testify the belief of the writers as to the magnitude of these works.

This additional rampart was added as the usual complement to an entrenched town, which had its outer as well as inner line of circumvallation. The tradition affirmed that this last great agger was never finished, proving too great for the patience of the people, and failing under its own weight; in fact, it seems to have been broken off at both extremities.

But great difficulties have arisen about the agger of Tarquin, and no satisfactory solution has yet been given. In despair of finding any work answering to this description, the passage of Dionysius has been usually interpreted by scholars to apply to the work of Servius. But it would seem hardly possible for that author to say of that king's wall that it lay on the side of Gabii, lying as it does altogether too far to the north. The Esquiline gate, the southernmost in his line of defence, led out into quite another direction of the country. And it is at least threequarters of a mile from the gate leading to Gabii to the agger of Servius, that is the Porta Prænestina. We are not to seek for the work of the last king in any re-arrange