wall of Aurelian, which is erected upon them. The wall of this part of the rampart is neither a mere concrete foundation, nor is it a finished wall intended to be seen. It was, no doubt, originally covered with earth to some height, and is so still in places where it has not been disturbed. The stonework is visible in the garden of the Villa Ludovisi, where it is ten or twelve feet above the level of the soil, standing on a bank, with the foss very distinct inside, some ten feet deep. From the point where Sylla's work breaks off, the fresh stage of continuation seems to be the work of Julius Cæsar. That great man had formed plans on a large scale for enlarging the boundaries of the City by turning the course of the Tiber under the Vatican Mount, and making a new Campus Martius in the meadows at the foot of it; but his premature death put an end to this and other designs for improving the suburbs of Rome. He seems to have only carried onwards the defences along the north side of the Pincian, and past it eastward as far as the Porta Salaria. It is not possible to distinguish the work of his time from that of his successor; they would be similar in construction, and both have been built over and refaced by the later labours of Aurelian. In all probability, Augustus completed the work of Julius Cæsar where left unfinished, and continued the line at least as far as the Porta Tiburtina, now S. Lorenzo. Here the gateway of his period remains, bearing an inscription with his name, which records the restoration of the three aqueducts conducted over the arch. Beyond this gate southward ran the great agger bearing the aqueducts, and there was also the fortification of the Sessorium: these had no imperial additions made to them, being deemed sufficient protection. The next reign, that of Tiberius, produced the Castra Prætoria, designed by Sejanus, minister of that prince: it is a projection from the line of fortification, built upon an old earthwork; and it was calculated to hold twelve thousand men of that formidable body of troops who afterwards so often made and unmade Emperors. The materials of which it is built are very various, the north wall being of that finest brickwork which distinguishes the first century; that of the south wall is chiefly of the large split stones of the times of the Kings, evidently taken from some other place and used again, but not likely to have been carried far on account of their weight. The eastern wall between these was for the most part rebuilt some time in the fourth century, after the fortifications had been dismantled by Constantine in consequence of a mutiny among the guards; but what remains of the older work agrees with the rest of Tiberius' time. When we arrive at the next gate belonging to the Sessorium, namely the Porta Prænestina or Esquilina of Frontinus, the works of the Aqua Claudia, or aqueduct of the Emperor Claudius, are seen to form an important function in the fortifications. From the tower on the north side of this gateway, along both sides of the angle made by the wall on the south side, the lofty structure runs, and fills up the distance between the gate and the Sessorian fortress. There were, however, older defences than his at this point, for in the repaired Wall of Aurelian near it, there are remains of ancient structures in the kingly style discernible. The military amphitheatre, which is half enclosed by the wall of the city, and belonged to this Sessorian Palace, is of brickwork, and of the time of the Claudian Emperors. We have now turned the south-easternmost angle of the city's wall, and move along its southern face westward. There are stone towers occurring in this line which may be of Claudius's reign, or earlier. The walls of the Lateran Palace itself, which was in old times without the city proper, formed an important addition to the fortifications when these were extended to this outer boundary. These towers occur along the defences as far as the Porta Metronia, a gate no longer existing b. The line then makes a sharp angle, and takes a great sweep to the south, enclosing a long promontory standing off from the foot of the Cœlian Hill; and here are the Porta Latina and Porta Appia. The addition of this promontory is attributable to Augustus. Having rounded part of it, and arrived on the southern side of the Pseudo-Aventine, here again we fall in with portions of the old line of regal work. Clau dius, in advancing the line of the Pomerium so as to include the Aventine, seems to have taken in the considerable space on the flat ground outside the Aventine. Hitherto, the Emporium and large commercial store-houses had been outside the walls. The wall of Claudius, which is traceable hereabouts, was, like that of Sylla and of Augustus, made use of by Aurelian for a substructure as far as it was available. Where the wall of Aurelian ceases, that of Claudius is still to be seen, when the water of the Tiber is low, extending along the eastern bank of the river. It seems to have gone up the stream to the Emporium, and no farther; this is a distance of over halfa-mile. We have now made the passage round the whole line of enclosure on the eastern bank of the Tiber, and stand facing the Transtiberine quarter. The Janiculan had been very early occupied as a military post, but it never was included within the city in any sense till the time of Augustus. That prince had re-organized the municipal The arch of the gate remains in the tufa wall on the bridge over the Almo river, which was at that angle. It is intended to make a new "pomerium," or boulevard, at this corner of the city, which lies virtually waste, and to make the entrance into it through the Porta Metronia, restored. F divisions of the city, which from four in the time of Servius became fourteen under him. These divisions, answering to our wards, were known by their numbers, and the Transtiberine quarter was Regio XIV. Thus it was regular'y incorporated into the town as an integral part of it; and it seems tolerably certain that it was walled in. We cannot, indeed, find the same evidence upon this side of the water that Aurelian's wall stood upon an older one, because the remains of that fortification, though traceable, are so meagre here, in comparison with the grand long line around Rome on the eastern bank. This want is owing to the destruction wreaked upon the fortifications by the Goths, who occupied the Janiculan side. They were known to have a special hatred of all military enclosures, and when they once were masters of the city itself, these works, with their gateways, very narrowly escaped total ruin. The evidence as to the enlargement of the area of the Urbs proper from time to time is gathered from the Cippi, or boundary-stones, used to mark out the Pomerium. The space within those Cippi was the Urbs for the time being. Of course, the Pomerium had long ceased, under the late Republic and the Empire, to have any connection with the idea of fortification; it had come to signify the boundary of privilege or jurisdiction attached to the city. Much in the same way, the limits of the city of London, at first extending to the western foss at Lud-gate, were afterwards enlarged farther westward to Temple Bar, without reference to any foss or defence. At Rome, no officer of the State was allowed the honour of extending the Pomœrium, unless he had augmented the dominion of his country. There are preserved Cippi of Sylla restored by Augustus, of Augustus himself, of Claudius, Vespasian, and Titus, and also some which record the restoration of older boundaries by Hadrian. The last-mentioned Emperor had not enlarged the boundaries of the Empire, but had rather reduced them. Although in the long course of Republican victories many great generals had earned this right of extension, none it seems exercised it till Sylla, as undisputed master, ventured to imitate the ambition of the Kings. A Cippus of Augustus from the northern side of Rome, and one of Claudius from the southern side, shew by the positions in which they were found that the limits of Rome in the first century were nearly the same as under Aurelian. With the important exception of the extension of the boundary so as to formally include the Aventine, the changes mentioned in imperial times concern small alterations in the line of the Pomerium; an act which, though it had lost its original importance, was still attended by the observance of ceremonies, and was registered in the public records. The conclusion seems to be safely drawn, that the limits of Rome were not materially different in the time of Claudius from what they were under Aurelian. The length of line within the Pomœrium of Vespasian's time is given in a wellknown passage of Pliny, and is found to approximate closely to the measurements of Aurelian's wall. It may be interesting to mention, that the last instance of the use of the word Pomerium is probably that by Apollinaris Sidonius, who wrote an account of his journey to Rome, A.D. 467, shortly before the final extinction of the Empire of the West. He relates that he visited the shrine of S. Peter's before entering the Pomerium; in other words, he entered Rome from the side of the Vatican, and on crossing the bridge came within the precincts of the city. |