Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/760

 740 ROMA. Dion Cass. Iv. 26; Paulus, de Offic. Praef. Vigil., D'kj. i. 15.) As these stations were necessarily near the borders of Regions, we find them frequently mentioned in the Notitia and Curiosum. They seem to have been a sort of barracks. But besides the 7 principal stations, the Breviarkmi mentions 14 excubitoria, or outposts, which seem to have been placed in the middle of each ret^ion. The corps of which they were composed were probably supplied from the main stations. The duties of the vigiles were those of a night-police, namely, to guard against fires, burglaries, highway robberies, &c. The first of these duties had anciently been performed by certain triumviri, called from their functions Noc- turni, who were assisted by public slaves stationed at the gates and round the walls. The same office was, however, sometimes assumed by the aediles and tribunes of the people. (Paulus, I. c.) The vigiles were provided with all the anus and tools necessary for their duties ; and from a passage in Petronius (c. 79) seem to have possessed the power of breaking into houses when they suspected any danger. The numbers of the vigiles amounted at last to 7000 men, or 1000 in each cohort. Augustus also established the Cohortes Praetoriae, or imperial guard, of which 9 cohorts were disposed in the neighbourhood of Rome, and 3 only, the Cohortes Urbanae, were permitted within the city. (Tac. Ann. iv. 5 ; Suet. Aug. 49.) These cohorts of Augustus were under the command of the Praefectus Urbi. (Tac. Hist. iii. 64.) It was his successor, Tiberius, who, by the advice of Sejanus, first established a regular Praetorian camp at Rome, a little to the eastward of the agger of Servius, and placed the bands under the command of a Praefectus Praetorio. (Tac. Ann. iv. 2 ; Suet. Tib. 37.) Augustus also paid considerable attention to the method of building, and revived the regulations laid down by P. Rutilius Eufus with regard to this sub- ject in the time of the Gracchi (Suet. Aug. 89); but all we know of these regulations is, that Augustus forbade houses to be built higher than 70 feet, if situated in a street. (Strab. v. p. 235.) The height was subsequently regulated by Nero and Trajan, the last of whom fixed it at 60 feet. (Aur. Vict. £pit. c. 13.) Yet houses still continued to be inconveniently high, as we see from the complaints of Juvenal, in the time, probably, of Domitian, and dangerous alike in case of fire or falling, especially to a poor poet who lived immediately under the tiles: — " Nos urbem colimus tenui tibicine fultam JIagna jiarte sui ; nam sic labentibus obstat Villicus, et veteris rimae quum te.xit hiatuni Securos pendente jubet dormire ruina. Vivendum est illic ubi nulla incendia, nulli Nocte metus. Jam poscit aquam, jam frivola transfert Ucalegon: tabulata tibi jam terlia fumant: Tu nescis; nata si gradibus trepidatur ab imis Ultimus ardebit, quem tegula sola tuetur A pluvia, molles ubi reddunt ova columbae." (iii. 193.) Augustan Rome. — Strabo, who visited Rome in the reign of Augustus, and must have remained there during part of that of Tiberius, has left us the following lively picture of its appearance at that period: " The city, having thus attained such a size, is able to maintain its greatness by the abundance of provisions and the plentiful supply ROMA. of wood and stone for building, which the con- stant fires and continual falling and pulling down of houses render necessary; for even pulling do-n and rebuilding in order to gratify the taste is but a sort of voluntary ruin. Moreover the abundant mines and forests, and the rivers which serve to convey materials, afford wonderful means for these purposes. Such is the Anio, flowing down from Alba (Fucensis), a Latin city lying towards the territory of the Marsians, and so through the plain till it falls into the Tiber: also the Nar and the Tenea, which likewise join the Tiber after flowing through TJm- bria; and the Clanis, which waters Etruria and the territory of Clusium. Augustus Caesar took great care to obviate such damages to the city. To guard against fires he appointed a special corps composed of freedmen; and to prevent the falling down of houses he ordained that no new ones should be built, if they adjoined the public streets, of a greater height than 70 feet. Nevertheless the renovation of the city would have been impossible but for the before-mentioned mines and forests, and the facility of transport. " Such, then, were the advantages of the city from the nature of the country; but to these the Romans added those which spring from industry and art. Although the Greeks are supposed to excel in building cities, not only by the attention they pay to the beauty of their architecture and the strength of their situation, but also to the selection of a fertile country and convenient harbours, yet the Romans have surpassed them by attending to what they neglected, such as the making of high-roads and aqueducts, and the constructing of sewers capable of conveying the whole drainage of the city into the Tiber. The high-roads have been constructed through the country in such a manner, by levelling hills and filling- up hollows, that the waggons are enabled to carry freight sufficient for a vessel ; whilst the sewers, vaulted with hewn blocks of masonry, are sometimes large enough to admit the passage of a hay-cart. Such is the volume of water conveyed by the aqueducts that whole rivers may be said to flow through the city, which are carried off' by the sewers. Thus almost every house is provided with water-pipes, and possesses a never-failing fountain. Marcus Agrippa paid particular attention to this department, besides adorning the city with many beautiful monuments. It may be said that the an- cient Romans neglected the beauty of their city, being intent upon greater and more important ob- jects; but later generations, and particularly the Romans of our own day, have attended to this point as well, and filled the city with many beautiful monuments. Ponipey, Julius Caesar, and Augustus, as well as the children, friends, wife and sister of the last, have bestowed an almost excessive care and expense in providing these objects. The Campus Martins has been their special care, the natural beauties of which have been enhanced by their de- signs. This plain is of surprising extent, affording unlimited room not only for the chariot races and other equestrian games, but also for the multitudes who exercise themselves with the ball or hoop, or in w-restling. The neighbouring buildings, the per- petual verdure of the grass, the hills which crown the opposite banks of the river and produce a kind of scenic effect, all combine to form a spectacle from which it is difficult to tear oneself. Adjoining this plain is another, and many porticoes and sacred groves, three theatres, an amphitheatre, and temples