Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/746

 726 ROMA. Boarium." Bunsen, however, has assumed from the omission that the line of wall never proceeded be- yond the Sacellum Larum, and that, indeed, it was not needed; the remaining space being suiBciently defended by a marsh or lake which surrounded it. {Besclir. vol. i. p. 138.) But, as the Sacellum Larum lay on high ground, on the top of the Velian ridge, this could not have been a reason for not canying the wall farther; and even if there was ■ marsh lower down, we cannot but suppose, as Becker ob.serves (de Mur. p. 14), that the pomoe- rium must have been carried on to its termination. Indeed the Porta Romanula, one of the gates of the Eomuleiin city, lay, as we shall presently see, on the NV. side, a little to the N. of the spot whence Tacitus commences his description; and if there was a gate there, a fortiori there was a wall. The line described by Tacitus is that of the fur- row, not of the actual wall ; but, in the case at least of a newly founded city, the wall must have very closely followed this line. The space between them — the wall being inside — was the pomoerium, literally, " behind the wall " (post moerum = mu- rum); and this space could not be ploughed or cul- tivated. The line of the furrow, or boundary of the pomoerium, was marked by stones or cipiti. The name pomoerium was also extended to another open space within the walls which was kept free from buildings. The matter is very clearly explained by Livy in the following passage: — " Pomoerium, verbi vim solum intuentes, postmoerium interpretantur esse. Est auteni magis circa murum locus, quem in condendis urbibus olim Etrusci, qua murum duc- turi essent, certis circa- terminis inaugurato conse- crabant : ut neque interiore parte aedificia moenibus continuarentur, quae nunc vulgo etiam conjungunt; et extrinsecus puri aliquid ab humano cultu pateret soli. Hoc spatium, quod neque habitari neque arari fas erat, non magis quod post murum esset, quam quod murus post id, pomoerium Eomani ap- pellarunt: et in urbis incremento semper, quantum moenia processura erant, tantum termini hi conse- crati proferebantur " (i. 44). Every city founded, like Rome, after the Etruscan manner, had a po- moerium. The rites observed in drawing the boun- dary line, called " primigenius .sulcus " (Paul. Diac. p. 236, Jliill.), were as follows : the founder, dressed in Gabinian fashion (cinctu Gabino), yoked to a plough, on an auspicious day, a bull and a cow, the former on the off side, the latter on the near side, and, pro- ceeding always to the left, drew the furrow marking the boundary of the pomoerium. There was a mys- tical meaning in the ceremony. The bull on the outside denoted that the males were to be dreadful to external enemies, whilst the cow inside typified the women who were to replenish the city with in- habitants. (Joann. Lydus, de, Mens. iv. 50.) The furrow represented the ditch; the clods thrown up, the wall; and persons followed the plough to throw inwards those clods which had ftiUen outwards. At the places left for the gates, the plough was lifted up and carried over the profane space. (Varr. L. L. v. § 143, Miill.; Plut. Q.R. 27, Rom. 11.) The whole process has been summed up in the following vigorous words of Cato : — " Qui urbein novam con- det, tauro et vacca aret ; ubi araverit, murum facial ; ubi portam vult esse, aratrum sustollat et portet, et portam vocet." (a/). Isidor. xv. 2, 3.) The religious use of the pomoerium was to define the boundary of the auspicia urbana, or city au- spices. (Varr. /. c.) So Gellius, from the books of ROMA. the Roman augurs: "Pomoerium est locus intra agrum effatum per totius urbis circuitum pone muroa regionibus certis determinatus, qui facit finem urbani auspicii " (xiii. 14). From this passage it appears that the pomoerium itself stood within another district called the "' ager effatus." This was also merely a religious, or augural, division of territory, and was of five kinds, viz. the ager Ro- manus, Gabinus, peregrinus, hosticus, and incertus, or the Roman, Gabinian, foreign, hostile, and doubtful territories. (Varr. v. § 33, Miill.) These agri or territories were called " etfati," because the augurs declared (effati sunt) after this manner the bounds of the celestial auguries taken beyond the pomoe- rium. (Id. vi. § 53, Miill.) Uence in this sense the Ager Romanus is merely a religious or augural division, and must not be confounded with the Ager Romanus in a political sense, or the territory actually belonging to the Roman people. It was the territory declared by the augurs as that in which alone auguries might be taken respecting foreign and mili- tary affairs ; and hence the reason why we iind so many accounts of generals returning to Rome to take the auguries afresh. (Liv. viii. 30, x. 3, xxiii. 19, &c.) It is impossible to determine exactly how much space was left for the pomoerium between the fur- row and the wall. In the case of the Romulean city, however, it was probably not very extensive, as the nature of the ground, especially on the side of Jlons Caelius, would not allow of any great divergence from the base of the hill. Besides, the boundaries already laid down on the N. side, as the Sacellum Larum and Aedes Vestae, show that the line ran very close under the Palatine. This question depends upon another, which there is no evidence to determine satisfactorily, namely, whether the wall crowned the summit of the hill or ran along its base. The former arrangement seems the more probable, both because it was the most natural and usual mode of fortification, and because we should otherwise in some parts hardly find room enough for the pomoerium. Besides, one at least of the gates of the Romulean city, as we shall see further on, was approached by steps, and must therefore have stood upon a height. There seems to be no good authority for Niebuhr's assumption {Hist. vol. i. p. 287, seq.) that the original city of Romulus was defended merely by the sides of the hill being escarped, and that the line of the pomoerium was a later enlargement to enclose a suburb which had sprung up round about its foot. It is surprising how Niebuhr, who had seen the ground, could imagine that there was room for such a suburb with a pomoerium. Besides, we are ex- pressly told by Tacitus {I. c.) that the line of the pomoerium which he describes was the beginning of building the city (initium condendi). Indeed Nie- buhr seems to have had some extraordinary ideas respecting the nature of the ground about the Palatine, when he describes the space between that hill and the Caelius, now occupied by the road called Via di S. Gregorio, as " a wide and con- venient plain!" {Hist. i. 390, cf. p. 391.) An obscure tradition is mentioned indeed by Greek writers, according to which there was a Roma Quadrata distinct from and older than the city ot Romulus (Tpo Se t^s ixiyar]s ravTris 'Pci^uijs, ^v f/CTKTe 'Pccfj.vos TTtpl T^v ^av(fTvov oiKiav «» opei noA.aTi(jD, reTpdyoovos tKrlaQt) 'Pci>fj.ri iraph Pwfj.ov ^ 'Vtifj-ovs iraKaiOTtpou tovtwv, DioD Cass. Fr. Vales. 3, 5, p. 10, St. ; cf. Tzetzes, ad Lycophr. v. 1 232). But, as Becker observes {Handb.