Page:The history of Rome. Translated with the author's sanction and additions.djvu/74

54 reality what they were called, the "out-buildings" (ex-quiliæ, like inquilinus, from colere) or suburb: this became the third region in the later city division, and it was reckoned of inferior consideration as compared with the Suburan and Palatine regions. Other neighbouring heights also, such as the Capitol and the Aventine, may probably have been occupied by the community of the Seven Mounts; the "bridge of piles" in particular (pons sublicius), thrown over the natural pier of the island in the Tiber, must have existed even then (the pontifical college alone is sufficient evidence of that), and the tête du pont on the Etruscan bank, the height of the Janiculum, would not be left unoccupied; but the community had not as yet brought either within the circuit of its fortifications. The regulation, which was adhered to as a ritual rule down to the latest times, that the bridge should be composed simply of wood without iron, manifestly shows that in its original practical use it was meant to be a flying bridge, which must be capable of being easily at any time broken off or burnt. We recognize in this circumstance how insecure for a long time and liable to interruption was the command of the passage of the river on the part of the Roman community.

No relation is discoverable between the urban settlements thus gradually formed and the three communities into which from an immemorially early period the Roman commonwealth was in political law divided. As the Ramnes, Tities, and Luceres appear to have been communities originally independent, they must indeed have had their settlements originally apart; but they certainly did not dwell in separate circumvallations on the Seven Hills, and all fictions to this effect in ancient or modern times must be consigned by the intelligent inquirer to the same fate with the battle of the Palatine and the charming tale of Tarpeia. On the contrary, each of the three tribes of Ramnes, Tities, and Luceres must have been distributed throughout the two regions of the oldest city, the Subura and Palatine, and the suburban region as well: with this may be connected the fact, that afterwards, not only in the Suburan and Palatine, but in each of the regions subsequently added, to the city, there were three pairs of Argean chapels. The Palatine city of the Seven Mounts had probably a history of its own; no other tradition of it has survived than simply that of its having once existed. But as the leaves of the