Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/831

Rh TOPOGRAPHY.] ROME 807 republic with Rome for her capital. The rhetorical idea of Cola di Rienzo became heroic in 1849. The constituent assembly (9th February 1849) proclaimed the fall of the temporal power of the popes, and the establishment of a republic which was to be not only of Rome but of all Italy. France, although then herself a republic, assumed the unenviable task of re-establishing the temporal power by force of arms. But the gallant defence of Rome by General Garibaldi covered the republic with glory. The enemy was repulsed, and the army of the Neapolitan king, sent to restore the pope, was also driven off. Then, how- ever, France despatched a fresh and more powerful force ; Rome was vigorously besieged, and at last compelled to surrender. With June 1849 begins the new series of pontifical laws designed to restore the government of Pius IX., whose reign down to 1870 was that of an absolute sovereign. Then the Italian Government entered Rome (20th September 1870), proclaimed the national constitu- tion (9th October 1870), and the Eternal City became the capital of Italy. Thus the scheme of national unity, the natural outcome of the history of Rome and of Italy, impossible of accomplishment under the rule of the popes, was finally achieved by the monarchy of Savoy, which, as the true representative and personification of Italian interests, has abolished the temporal power of the papacy and made Rome the seat of government of the united country. (p. v.) LEADING AUTHORITIES. Ancient History. (1) Monarchy and Republic: Mommsen, Romische Geschichte, vols. i. -iii. (7th ed., Berlin, 1881); Schwegler - Clason, Romische Geschichte, 5 vols., 1867-1876, Tubingen-Halle ; Ihne, Romische Geschichte, 5 vols., Leipsic, 1868-1879 ; Niebuhr, History of Rome, 3 vols. (Eng. tr., 1855), and Lectures on the History of Rome, 3 vols. (Eng. tr., 1849) ; Arnold, History of Rome, 3 vols., 1848, and Later Roman Common- wealth, 2 vols. , 1845 ; Long, Decline and Fall of the Roman Republic, 5 vols., 1864; Drumann, Geschichte Roms, 6 vols., Konigsberg, 1834. (2) Empire: Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs, 6 vols., Brussels, 1732 ; Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 8 vols. (ed. of 1862) ; Merivale, The Romans under the Empire, 8 vols., 1865 ; Champagny, Lcs Cesars, 4 vols., Paris, 1867 ; Momm- sen, Rim. Gesch., vol. v., Berlin, 1885 ; Schiller, Geschichte d, Kaiscrzeit, 2 vols., Gotha, 1883. Duruy, Histoire des Romains, 5 vols., Paris, 1870, and Ranke, Weltgeschichte, vols. ii., iii., iv., Leipsic, 1883, deal with both periods. (3) Antiquities, &c. : Mommsen and Marquardt, Handbuch d. Romischen Alterthiimer ; Mommsen, Staatsrecht, 2 vols. ; Marquardt, Staatsverwaltung, 3 vols. ; Id., Privatleben d. Romer, 2 vols., Berlin, 1871-82 ; Lange, Romische Alterthumer, 3 vols., Berlin, 1863 ; Madvig, Verfassung v. Ferwaltung d. Romischen Stoats, 2 vols., Leipsic, 1881 ; Fried- laender, Sittengeschichte Roms, Leipsic, 1869. Mediaeval. Vitale, Storia diplomatica de' Senatori di Roma, 2 vols., Rome, 1791; Galletti, Del primicerio della Santa Sede Apostolica e di altri ufficiali maggiori del sagro palazzo Lateranense, Rome, 1776 ; Vendettini, Del Senate Romano, Rome, 1782 ; Baronius, Annales Ecclesiastici, continued by Raynaldus, 42 vols. fol. (1738-56), and the recent continuations of Theiner relating to the years 1572-85 ; J. Ficker, Forschungen zur Reichs- und Rechts- geschichte Italiens, 4 vols., Innsbruck, 1868-74 ; Savigny, Geschichte des romischen Rechts im Mittelalter (frequently reprinted and trans- lated into all the principal languages) ; Leo, Entwickelung der Verfassung der lombardischen Stddte, Hamburg, 1824 ; M. A. von Bethmann - Hollweg, Ursprung der lombardischen Stddtefreiheit (Anhang : Schicksale der romischen Stadtverfassung im Exarchat und in Rom), Bonn, 1846 ; Hegel, Geschichte der Stddteverfassung von Italien, Leipsic, 1847; Giesebrecht, "Ueber die stadtischen Verhaltnisse im X. Jahrhundert," at end of vol. i. of Geschichte der deutschen Kaiserzeit, Brunswick, 1863; "Studi e document! di Storia e Diritto," in Annuario di Conferenze storico-giuridiche (Rome, 1880 sq.) ; Archivio della Reale Societa Romana di Storia Patria (the other publications of the same society, as, e.g., the Regesto di Farfa, may also be consulted with advantage) ; J. Papen- cordt, Geschichte der Stadt Rom, Paderborn, 1857 ; Id., Cola di Rienzo, Hamburg, 1841 ; Gregorovius, Geschichte der Stadt Rom (8 vols., Stuttgart, finished in 1872 ; a 4th edition now in the press) ; Reumont, Geschichte der Stadt Rom, 3 vols., Berlin, 1867-68. PART II. TOPOGRAPHY AND ARCHAEOLOGY. Rome 1 is situated (41 53' 52" N. lat., 12 28' 40" E. long.) on the banks of the Tiber, Italy, 14 miles from its present mouth, in a great plain of alluvial and marine deposit, broken into elevations by numerous masses of volcanic matter. The nine or ten hills and ridges on which the city stands are formed of masses of tufa or con- glomerated sand and ashes thrown out by neighbouring volcanoes now extinct, but active down to a very recent period. One group of these volcanoes is that around Lago Bracciano, while another, still nearer to Rome, composes the Alban Hills. That some at least of these craters have been in a state of activity at no very distant period has been shown by the discovery at many places of broken pottery and bronze implements below the strata of tufa or other volcanic deposits. Traces of human life have even been found below that great flood of lava which, issuing from the Alban Hills, flowed towards the site of Rome, only stopping about 3 miles short, by the tomb of Cecilia Metella. The superficial strata on which Rome is built are of three main kinds : (1) the plains and valleys on the left bank of the Tiber are covered, as it were, by a sea of alluvial deposit, in the midst of which (2) the hills of volcanic origin rise like so many islands ; and (3) on the right bank of the Tiber, around the Janiculan and Vatican Hills, are extensive remains of an ancient sea-beach, conspicuous in parts by its fine golden sand and its deposits of greyish white potter's clay. From its yellow sand the Janiculan has been some- times known as the Golden Hill, a name which survives in the church on its summit called S. Pietro in Montorio (Monte d'Oro). In addition to these three chief deposits, at a few places, especially in the Aventine and Pincian Hills, under-strata of travertine crop out a hard limestone rock, once in solution in running water, and deposited gradually as the water lost its carbonic-acid solvent, a process still rapidly going on at Terni, Tivoli, and other places in the neighbourhood. The conditions under which the tufa hills were formed have been very various, as is clearly seen by an ex- amination of the rock at different places. The volcanic ashes and sand of which the tufa is composed appear in parts to lie just as they were showered down from the crater ; in that case it shows but little sign of stratification, and consists wholly of igneous pro- ducts. In parts time and pressure have bound together these 1 The limited space available for the following article is devoted mainly to those buildings of which some remains still exist, to the unavoidable neglect of a large number which are known only from documentary evidence. The plan of the Forum (Plate VII.) and nearly all the cuts have been measured and drawn by the author specially to illustrate this article. scoriae into a soft and friable rock ; in other places they still lie in loose sandy beds and can be dug out with the spade. Other masses of tufa again show signs either of having been deposited in water, or else washed away from their first resting-place and redeposited with visible stratifications ; this is shown by the water-worn pebbles and chips of limestone rock, which form a conglomerate bound together by the volcanic ashes into a sort of natural cement. A third variety is that which exists on the Palatine Hill. Here the shower of red-hot ashes has evidently fallen on a thickly-growing forest, and the burning wood, partly smothered by the ashes, has been converted into charcoal, large masses of which are embedded in the tufa rock. In some places charred branches of trees, their form well preserved, can be easily distinguished. The so-called " wall of Romulus " is built of this conglomerate of tufa and charred wood ; a very perfect section of the branch of a tree is visible on one of the blocks by the Scalse Caci. So great have been the physical changes in the site of Rome Physical since the first dawn of the historic period that it is difficult now changes to realize what its aspect once was. The Forum Romanum, the in site. Velabrum, the great Campus Martius (now the most crowded part of modern Rome), and other valleys were once almost impassable marshes or pools of water (Ov., Fast., vi. 401 ; Dionys., ii. 50). The draining of these valleys was effected by means of the great cloacae, which were among the earliest important architectural works of Rome (Varro, Ling. Lat., iv. 149). Again, the various hills and ridges were once more numerous and very much more abrupt than they are now. At an early period, when each hill was crowned by a separate village fort, the great object of the inhabitants was to increase the steepness of its cliffs and render access difficult. At a later time, when Rome was united under one government, the very physical peculiarities which had originally made its hills so populous, through their natural adaptability for defence, became extremely inconvenient in a united city, where architectural symmetry and splendour were above all things aimed at. Hence the most gigantic engineering works were undertaken : tops of hills were levelled, whole ridges cut away, and gentle slopes formed in the place of abrupt cliffs. The levelling of the Velia and the excavation of the site for Trajan's forum are instances of this. The same works were continued in the Middle Ages, as when in the 14th century an access was made to the Capitoline Arx 2 from the side of the Campus Martius ; up to that time a steep cliff had prevented all approach except from the side of the Forum. 2 By the great flight of marble steps up to S. Maria in Ara CoslL