Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/289

* ROME. 263 ROME. of stone besides the old pile bridge. By the end which appear in the Roniuleiaii legend as the eon- of the Republic the old Servian walls had been overrun in almost all directions and had even disappeared from view in great measure. The best opportunity for building was out on the Camiriis Martius_. the 'parade ground,' which lay between the Quirinal and Capitol to the cast and the great bend of the Tiber to the west. Accord- ingly that became the site both of many private residences and of great jiublic buildings of vari- ous sorts. Augustus <livided the city for admin- istrative purposes into 14 numl)ered 'regions.' of which 13 were on the right bank and the fimr- teenth on the left, and this division continued for centuries after his day. But the external limits of his city are diflicuit, if not impossible, to de- termine. ' Tlicy. however, extended beyond the later walls of" the city in some (lirecti(nis. The population of the city reached its maximum in the stilucnt parts of the primitive conmionweallh, suggest the idea that Itiimc arose out of an uninl- ganiation of three separate cantons, 'ihe exist- ence of a Sabine element, represented by the Titles, is indeed admitted; but its introduction is thrown back to a |>eriod long anterior to the foundation of the city, when the Honniii clans were still living in their open villages, and noth- ing of Home existed but its •stronyliolil' on the Palatine. Nor is there anything to imlieate that it materially alVected the Latin charai-ter or the language, polity, or religion of the eonnnonwcalth which was subsequently formed. The motives which probably led to the building of Rome also led to its rapid development. That the Palatine Hill was the oldest portion o( the city is attested by a variety of circumstances. Not only does it hold that rank in the Itomnleian rly Empire, though the oft-quoted estimate of legend, but on it were situated the oldest civil and 2.000.000 is undoubtedly much too great. religious institutions. The Romuleian myth of Rome had remained a defenseless city for cep- (.],e establishment of an asylum on the Capitoline turies until the Emperor Aurelian {..D. 270-'275) (ggg Capitol), for homicides and runaway began and Probus (a.d. 276-281) finished a line gjaves, with its sequels — the rape of the of massive fortifications, which, restored in 40.'! Sabine women, the wars with the Latins) of by Honorius and later by Belisarius and by a Coenina, Antemna;, and Crust umeriuni, and es- mimber of the popes, and added to on the right ppcially with the Sabines of Cures under their bank by Leo IV. (847-855) to include the great settlement around and near the Basilica of Saint Peter and the Vatican Palace, remain the present walls of Rome. The walls of Aurelian doubtless aimed to include as far as. possible the actually inhabited city, but were curiously irregular in outline, being carried, where possible, along the edges of elevations for additional inaccessibility from the outside and also making use of older structures as far as possible. On the right bank, however, the fort on the Janiculum was connected with the Tiber by two lines of wall running northeast and southeast respectively to the near- est points of the river by about the shortest practicable route. The internal commotions of Italy in the cen- turies immediately following and the devastation of the region by the barbarian invasions caused a great diminution in the numlier of Rome's in- habitants, and the cutting of the aqueducts led to the necessary abandonment of residences on the higher ground and to the massing of the people. "poor and powerful alike, ujiou the ground near the Tiber. So the Campus JIartius and the Trastevere opposite became the centre of popula- tion through the Middle Ages (and are still the most thickly settled portions of the city), while three-fourths of the city was given over to deso- lation and finally became the vineyards and gar- dens of the wealthv classes. History of Rome Dikixg the Eari.ie.st or Recal Period. According to the myth of Romu- lus (q.v. ) . Rome was an offshoot from Alba Longa, l)ut the most rational view of the eity'soriginis that which is suggested by a consideration of its site. It derived its name from nimnn. an old «ord for river— the 'River City;' and it probably sprang into existence as a frontier defense again.st the Etruscans, and as an emporium for the river traffic of the country; but whether it was founded bv a Latin confederacy or by an in- dividual chief is beyond the reach of con- jecture. The date fixed upon for the commence- ment of the citv bv the formation of the I'omce- riiim, April 2L 753 B.C., is perfectly valueless. The three 'tribes,' Ramnes, Titles, and Luceres, King Titus Tatius, and the tragic fate of Tarpeia — is historically worthless: except, perhaps, so far as it shows us how from the beginning the Roman burghers were engaged in constant feuds with their neighbors fiu- the aggrandizement of their power. The entire history of the 'regal perio<l.' in fact, has come down to us in so mythical and legendary a form, that we cannot feel absolutely certain of the reality of a single incident. That such personages as Xnma Pompilius. Tullus Hostilius. Ancus Martins. Lucius Taiquinius Priscus, Servius Tullius, and Lucius Tarquinius Superbus ever existeil. or. if they did, that the circumstances of their lives, their institutions, their conquests, their reforms, were as the ancient narrative descrilies them, are things which no critical scholar can believe. The destruction of the city records by the Cfauls. when they captured and burned Rome in the fourth century n.c. de- prived the subsequent chroniclers of authentic in- formation in regard to the past, and forced them to rely upon treacherous reminiscences, on oral tradition, on ballads, and on all the multifarious fabrications of a patriotic fancy, that would n.-it- urally seek compensation for political disaster in the splendor with which it would invest its primeval history of the State. From the very beginning of the city— anntmlly different from the phhs is not true, and seems based merely on the mythical account of what followed the' destruction of Alba Longa by Tullus Hostilius. The name plebs is doubtless of ator origin than rlicnics: but both are applicable to the" same persons. The constitution of the State was simple. All the burgesses were politically on a footing of equality. From their own r.inks was chosen the King (rex), who was therefore