Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/758

 738 ROMA. permit. Servius had formed the different Vici into religious corporations somewhat analogous with our parishes, with an appointed worship of the Lares, and proper feasts or Compitalia. During the Re- public these corporations became a kind of political clubs, and were often made the engines of designing demagogues. (Preller, Regunien, p. 81.) Au- gustus, in his new distribution, also adopted the scheme of embodying the Vici as religious corpora- tions, and for this purpose erected chapels in the crossways, and set up images of the gods ricatim, as the Apollo Sandaliarius and the Jupiter Tragoedus. (Suet. Aug. 57.) Many bases of these statues have been discovered. By the term Vicus we are to understand a certain collection of houses insulated by streets running round all its sides ; whence the term came also to be applied to the streets themselves (•' altero vici appellantur, cum id genus aedificiorum definitur, quae continentia sunt in oppidis, quaeve itineribus regionibusque distributa inter se distant, nominibusque dissimilibus discriminis causa sunt dispartita," Fest. p. 371, et ibi Miill). Coinpitum, which means properly a cross-road, was also, especially in ancient times, only another name for Vicus ; and thus we find Pliny describing Rome as divided into Compita Larum instead of Vici (iii. 9). The Vici and Compita, regarded as streets, ■were narrrower than the Viae and Plateae. (Suet. Avg.A5 Amm. Marc, xxviii. 4. § 29.) They were named after temples and other objects. The Vici were composed of two classes of houses called respec- tively insulcm and domus. The former vrere so called because, by a law of the XII. Tables, it was ordained that they should be separated from one another by an interval of 2^ feet, called ambitus, and by later authors circuittis (Varr. L. L. v. § 22, Miill.; Paul. Diac. p. 16, 111 Miill.) This law, which seems to have been designed for purposes of liealth and for security against fire, was disregarded during the Republic, but again enforced by Nero when he rebuilt the city (Tac. Ann. XV. 43); and there is an ordinance on the subject by Antoniims and Verus (^Dig. viii. 2. 14). By insulae, therefore, we are to understand single houses divided by a small space from the neighbouring ones, not a complex of houses divided by streets. The latter division formed a Vicus. Yet some insulae were so large and disposed in such a manner that they almost resembled Vici (vide Fest. p. 371, et ibi Miill). The insulae were inhabited by the middling and lower classes, and were generally let out in floors (" coena- cula meritoria," Dig. xix. 2. 30). It appears from the same authority that they were farmed by persons who underlet them ; but sometimes the proprietors kept stewards to collect their rents. Insulae were named after tlieir owners, who were called " domini insularum " (Suet. Caes. 41, Tib. 48). Thus we hear of the insula Eucarpiana, Critonia, Arriana, &c. (vide Gruter, 611. 13 ; Murat. 948. 9.) Rent w;is high (Juv. iii. 166), and investments in houses consequently profitable, though hazardous, since the principle of insurance was altogether unknown. (Gell. XV. 1, 2.) Crassus was a great speculator in houses, and was said to possess nearly half Rome. (Plut. c. 2.) The domus, on the contrary, were the habitations or palaces of the rich and great, and consequently much fewer in number than the insulae , the proportion in each Region being as 1 to 25 or 30. The domus were also commonly insulated, but not by any special law, like the insulae. They were also composed of floors or stages, but were occupied by a single family (Petron. 77); though parts of them, ROMA. especially the postica, were sometimes let out (Plaut Trin. i. 2. 157; Suet. Nero, 44, Vitell. 7). The number of insulae and domus in each Vicus would of course vary. Augustus appointed that each should be under the government of magistrates elected from its plebeian inhabitants (" magistri e plebe cujusque viciniae lecti," — where vicinia has its origi- nal meaning of the householders composing a Vicus, Suet. Aug. 30). Hence Livy calls them " infi- mum genus magistratuum " (xxxiv. 7). They were called Magistri, Magistri Vicorum, Curatores Vi- corum, and Magistri Larum, and their number varied from two to four in each Vicus. In the Basis Capitolina each Vicus has 4 Magistri ; but the Notitia and Curiosum mention 48 Vico-magis- tri in each Region, without reference to the num- ber of Vici. On certain days, probably the Com- pitalia (Ascon. in Cic. Pis. p. 7), these magistrates were allowed to assume the toga praetexta, and to be attended by two lictors; and the public slaves of each Region were at their command, who were commonly at the disposal of the aediles in case of fire. (Dion Cass. Iv. 8 ; Liv. I, c.) The principal duties of their office were to attend to the worship of the Lares, re- censions of the people, &c. For Augustus restored the Ludi Compitalicii and the regular worship of the Lares in spring and summer (Suet. Aug. 31), and caused his own Genius to be added to the two Lares which stood in the aedicula or chapel of each com- pitum. (Ov. Fast. v. 145.) The Vicomagistri likewise superintended the worship of the popular deities Stata Mater and Vulcanus Quietus, to whom, as protectors against fire, chapels were erected, first in the forum, and afterwards in the diiferent streets. (Fest. p. 317, Mull.; cf. Preller, Regimen, p. 84.) A certain number of Vici, varying according ta the Notitia and Curiosum from 7 to 78 constituted a Regio ; and Augustus divided Rome into 14 of these Regions. The 4 Sei-vian Regions were followed in the first 6 of Augustus. In determining the bounda- ries of the Regions Augustus seems to have caused them to be measured by feet, as we see them enume- rated in the Notitia and Curiosum. The limits appear to have been marked by certain public buildings, not by cippi. We may safely assume that Augustus in- cluded the suburbs in his city, but not within a pomoe- rium, since the PorticusOctaviae is mentioned, as being outside of the pomoerium, although it lay far within the 9th Region. (Dion Cass. liv. 8.) The Regions appear at first to have been distinguished only by numbers; and officially they were perhaps never distinguished otherwise. Some of the names of Regions found in the Notitia and Curiosum are post- Augustan, as those of Isis and Sera pis and Forum Pacis. The period when names were first applied to them cannot be determined. They are designated only by numbers in Tacitus and Frontinus, and even in the Basis Capitolina which belongs to the time of Hadrian. We find, indeed, in Suetonius " Regio Palatii" (^Aug. 5, Ill.Gramm. 2); but so also he says " Regio Martii Campi," which never was a Region {Caes. 39, Nero, 12) ; and in these in- stances Regio seems to be used in its general sense. The boundaries of the Regions cannot be traced with complete accuracy; but, as it is not our inten- tion to follow those divisions when treating of the topography of the city, we shall here insert such a general description of them as may enable the reader to form some notion of their situation and relative size. Regio /., or Porta Capena, embraced the