Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/776

 756 ROMA. of the agger. But besides these, Strabo (/&. p. 234) mentions another lying between them, the Pokta ViMiSALis; which is also recorded by Festus (p. 376) anil by Frontinus (^Aq. 19). It must have lain behind the SE. angle of the baths of Diocletian, where an ancient road leads to the rampart, which, if pro- longed, would run to the Pokta Clausa of the walls of Aurelian, just under the southern side of the Castra Praetoria. It is clear from the words of Strabi), in the passage just cited (^vnb fieffcp 5e rijJ Xw/J-o-Ti rpiTT] iarl ttiiKt] bfxcLvufxos T<f OviixivaXio) A(i<f)^), that there were only three gates in the agger, though some topographers have contrived to find room for two or three more in this short space, the whole length of the agger being but 6 or 7 stadia (Strab. /. c; Dionys. ix. 68), or about f of a mile. Its breadth was 50 feet, and below it lay a ditch 100 feet broad and 30 feet deep. Ptemains of this immense work are still visible near the baths of Diocletian and in the grounds of the Villa Negroni, especially at the spot where the statue of Eoma now stands. Survey tinder Vespasian and Cii'cuiiiference of the City. — In the preceding account of the gates in the Servian wall we have enumerated twenty, including the Porta Triumphalis. Some topographers have adopted a still greater number. When we consider that there were only nine or ten main roads leading out of ancient Rome, and that seven of these issued from the three gates Capena, Esquilina, and Collina alone, it follows that five or six gates would have sufHced for the main entrances, and that the re- mainder must have been unimportant ones, destined only to afford the means of convenient communication with tiie surrounding country. Of those envnnerated only the Collina. Viminalis, Esquilina, Caelimontana, Capena, Trigemina, Carmentalis, and Ratumena seem to have been of any great importance. Never- theless it appears from a passage in Pliny (iii. 9) that in his time there must have been a great number of sinaller ones, the origin and use of which we shall endeavour to account for presently. As the passage, though unfortunately somewhat obscure, is of considerable importance in Roman topography, we .shall here quote it at length : " Urbem tres portas habentem Romulus reliquit, aut (ut plurimas tra- dentilius credamus) quatuor. Jloenia ejus ecUegere ambitu Imperatoribus Censoribusque Vespasianis anno conditae Dcccxxvii. pass, xiiiji.cc. Com- plexa montes septem, ipsa dividitur in regiones quatuordecim, compita Larium cclxv. Ejusdem spatium, mensura eurrente a milliario in capite Romani fori statute, ad singulas portas, quae sunt hodie numero triginta septem, ita ut duodecim semel numerentur, praetereanturque ex veteribus septem, quae esse desierunt, efficit passuum per directum xxxjm.dcclxv. Ad e.xtrema vero tec- torum cum castris Praetoriis ab eodcm milliario per vicos omnium viarum mensura colligit paulo amplius .septuaginta millia passuum." Now there seems to be no reason for doubting the correctness of this account. Pliny could have had no reason for exag- geration, against which, in the account of the Ro- mulean gates, he carefully guards himself. Again, he seems to have taken the substance of it from the official report of a regular survey made in his own time and in the reign of Vespasian. The only room for suspicion therefore seems to be that his test may liavc been corrupted, and that instead of thirty-seven as the number of the gates we should insert some smaller one. But an examination of his figures does ROJIA. not tend to show that they are incorrect. The survey seems to have been made with a view to the three following objects : 1. To ascertain the actual circumference of the city, including all the suburbs which had spread beyond the walls of Servius. It is well known that moenia signifies the buildings of a city as well as the walls (" muro moenia amplexus est," Flor. i. 4, &c.), and therefore this phrase, which has sometimes caused embarrassment, need not de- tain us. Now the result of this first measurement gave IZ^IQQpassus, or 13^ Roman miles — a number to which there is nothing to object, as it very well agrees with the circumference of the subsequent Aurelian walls. 2. The second object seems to have been to ascertain the actual measure of the line of street within the old Servian walls. The utility of this proceeding we do not immediately recognise. It may have been adopted out of mere curio.sity; or more probably it may have been connected with questions respecting certain privileges, or certain taxes, which varied according as a house was situ- ated within or without the walls. Now the sum of the measurements of all these streets, when put together as if they had formed a straight line (" per directum"), amounted to 30,765|;«^52/5,or30 Roman miles and about f. Such we take to be the meaning of "per directum;" though some critics hold it to mean that the distance from the milliarium to these gates was measured in a straight line, as the crow flies, without taking into the calculation the windings of the streets. But in that case it would surely have been put earlier in the sentence — "mensura eurrente per directum ad singulas portas." This, however, would have been of little consequence except for the distinction drawn by Becker (Handb. p. 185, note 279), who thinks that the measurement proceeds on two different prin- ciples, namely per directum, or as the crow flies, from the milliarium to the Servian gates, and, on the contrary, by all the windings of the streets from the same spot to the furthest buildings outside the walls. Such a method, as he observes, would afford no true ground of comparison, and therefore we can hardly think that it was adopted, or that such was Pliny's meaning. Becker was led to this conclusion because he thought that " per vicos omnium viarum " stands contrasted with "per directum;" but this contrast does not seem necessarily to follow. By viae here Pliny seems to mean all the roads leading out of the thirty-seven gates ; and by " ad extrema tectorum per vicos omnium viarum" is signified merely that the measure was further extended to the end of the streets which lined the commencements of these roads. Such appears to us to be the meaning of this certainly somewhat obscure passagat Pliny's ac- count may be checked, roughly indeed, but still with a sufficient approach to accuracy to guarantee the correctness of his text. If a circumference of 13^ miles yielded 70 miles of street, and if there were 30 miles of street within the Servian walls, then the circumference of the latter would be to the former as 3 to 7, and would measure rather more than 5^ miles. Now this agrees pretty well with the accounts which we have of the size of the Servian city. Becker, following the account of Thucydides (ii. 13), but without allowing for that part of the walls of Athens described as unguarded, with the whole circuit of which walls Dionysius (iv. 13, and is. 68) compares those of ancient Rome, sets the lat- latter down at 43 stadia, or 5f miles. On Nolli's great plan of Rome they are given at a mea-