Page:The history of Rome. Translated with the author's sanction and additions.djvu/136

116 by the new city wall thus embraced, in addition to the former Palatine and Quirinal cities, the two city-strongholds of the Capitol and the Aventine; the Palatine, as the oldest city proper, was enclosed by the other heights along which the wall was carried, as if encircled with a wreath, and the two castles occupied the middle.

Their work, however, was not complete so long as the ground, protected by so laborious exertions from outward foes, was not also reclaimed from the dominion of the water, which permanently occupied the valley between the Palatine and the Capitol, so that there was a regular ferry there, and which converted the valleys between the Capitol and the Velia and between the Palatine and the Aventine into marshes. The subterranean drains still existing at the present day, composed of magnificent square blocks, which