Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/756

 736 EOJIA. though soon to become formidable to its neighbours, was not yet secure from their attacks. The latter, enclosing an area more than twice as large as that defended by the Servian walls, betokened the capital of a large state, which, after becoming the mistress of the world, was beginning to totter under the weight of its own greatness, and found itself compelled to resort to the same means of defence which had pro- tected its infancy — no longer, however, to ward off the attacks of its immediate neighbours, but those of the remotest tribes of Asia and Europe. Thus the history of the city, during this period of eight centu- ries, reflects in some degree the history of the Roman people, and exhibits tiie varying fortunes of the greatest of all human empires. Unfortunately, how- ever, the materials even for a slight sketch of so vast a subject and so long a period are scanty and inadequate ; nor, even were they more abundant, would our present limits allow more than an attempt to draw such an outline as may torve to illustrate the topography of the city. Tarquin the Proud, the last of the Roman kings, seems to have effected little for the city, except by completing or improving the works of his prede- cessors. Of these the most important was the temple of the Capiti^line Jove, the description of whicb will be found in the second part of this article. The expulsion of the Tarquins (b. c. 510) restored to the Roman people the use of the Campus Martius. This ground, which from the earliest times had probably been sacred to JIars (Dionys. v. 13), had been appropriated by the Tarquins, and at the time of their expulsion was covered with the crops which they had sown. The unholy nature of this property prevented its distribution among the people, like that of the other royal goods. Tlie corn was ordered to be cut down and thrown into the Tiber ; and ac- cording to the legend its quantity was so great that it caused the island afterwards known as the Insula Tiberina, or that of Aesculapius. (Liv. ii. 5 ; Dio- nys. I.e. Plut. Puhl 8.) The defeat of the Etruscans under Aruns, who had espoused the royal cause, was, according to the usual principle of the Romans of incorporating the vanquished mitions, the means of adding a fresh supply of citizens, as there will be occasion to relatJ in another place. We have little or nothing to record respecting the history of the city from this period till its capture by the Gauls b. c. 390. After the fatal battle at the Allia, the Romans returned dispirited. The city, together with the older inhabitants, was aban- doned to its fiite; many families escaped to Veil and other neighbouring towns ; whilst the men of an age to bear arms occupied the Capitol, which they prepared to defend. The flight of the Vestal virgins, who succeeded in escaping to Caere, is connected with a topographical legend. Being unable to carry away all their sacred utensils, they buried some of them in casks {doUolis), in a chapel near the house of the Flamen Quirinalis ; whence the place, which seems to have been near the Cloaca Maxima, in the Forum Boarium, obtained the name of DoUola, and was lield so sacred that it was forbidden to spit upon it. (Liv. V. 40; Val. Max. i. 1. § 10.) Varro, however {LL. V. § 157, Jliill.), did not recognise this .story, but attributed the name either to some bones having been deposited there, or to the burial at au earlier period of some sacred objects beb-'nging to Numa I'ompilius. The Gauls entered the city unopposed, and through ROMA. the open Porta Collina. (Liv. v. 4L) The time during which they held it is variously given at from six to eight months. (Polyb. ii. 22; Flor. i. 13; Plut. Cavi. 30; Serv. Aen. viii. 652.) Their attempt on the Capitol is alluded to elsewhere. They set fire to and otherwise devastated the city; but perhaps we are not to take literally the words of Livy and other writers, to the effect that they completely destroyed it (v. 42,43; Flor. i. 13; Plut. Cam. 21). It is at least apparent, from Livy's own narrative (c. 55), that the Curia Hostilia was spared ; and it seems probable that the Gauls would have preserved some of the houses tor their own sakes. 'e niay, how- ever, conclude, that the destruction was very great and terrible, as otherwise the Romans would not have discussed the project of emigrating to Veii. The IJnnness and judicious advice of CamiUus per- suaded them to remain. But the pressing necessity of the case, which required the new buildings to be raised with the greatest haste, was fatal to the beauty and regularity of the city. People began to build in a promiscuous manner, and the materials, afforded at the public expense, were granted only on condition that the houses should be ready within a year. No general plan was laid down ; each man built as it suited him; the ancient lines of streets were disregarded, and houses were erected even over the cloacae. Hence down to the time of Augustus, and perhaps later, the city, according to the forcible expression of Livy (v. 55), resembled in arrange- ment rather one where the ground had been seized upon than where it had been distributed. It may be inferred from a statement of Cornelius Nepos, as quoted by Pliny, that the greater part of the city was roofed with shingles. (" Scandula contectam fuisse Romam, ad Pyrrhi usque bellum, annis cccclxx., Cornelius Nepos auctor est," xvi. 15.) Livy in- deed mentions the public distribution of tiles, but tliese perhaps may have been applied to other pur- poses besides roofing, such as for making the floors, &c.; and the frequent and destructive fires wluch occurred at Rome lead to the belief that wood was much more extensively used in building than is cus- tomary in modern times. Within a year the new city was in readiness ; and it must have been on a larger scale than before the Gallic invasion, since it had acquired a great accession of inhabitants from the conquered towns of Veii, Capena, and Falisci. Those Romans who, to avoid the trouble of building, had occupied the deserted houses of Veii were re- called by a decree by which those who did not return within a fixed time w-ere decl.ared guilty of a capital ofience. (Liv. vi. 4.) The walls of Rome seem to have been left uninjured by the Gauls, notwith- standing Plutarch's assertion to the contrary. {Cam. 32.) We nowhere read of their being repaired on this occasion, though accounts of subsequent restora- tions are frequent, as in the year b. c. 351 (Liv. vii. 20), and again in 217, after the defeat at Trasimeni'. (Id. xxii. 8.) Nothing can convey a higher notion of Roman energy than the fact that in the very y^ar in which the city was thus rising from its ashes, the Capitol was supported by a substructure of squaie and solid masonry, of such massiveness as to excite wonder even in the Augustan age. (Liv. /. c; Plin. xxxvi. 24. s. 2.) The censorship of Appius Claudius Caecus, b. C. 312, forms a marked epoch in the progress of the city. By his care Rome obtained its first aqueduct, and its first regularly constructed high-road, the Aqua and Via Appia. (Liv. ix. 29.) Eut the