DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42497#0044
IV
PREFACE.
which he believed to have been a wolf’s cave, under the north-west
corner of the Palatine Hill. Such a cave still remains, with a fine
stream of water gushing out into it, and with ruins of vaulted
chambers of the time of Augustus in front of it.
Again, on the top of the Palatine, nearly over this cave, we have
a wall of the earliest character of any wall in Rome, a continuation
of which can be traced by portions of it still remaining and now
made visible, on three sides of an oblong space at the north end
of the hill. The earliest part is immediately opposite to the Hill of
Saturn, occupied by the Sabines before the arrival of the Romans.
There is also a wide and deep trench or foss across the hill on the
southern side of this oblong space, and on both sides of the trench
or valley there are remains of very early tufa walls; on the north
side also, the part nearest to the enemies’ quarter, are the lower
parts of towers begun and left unfinished, and then used as foun-
dations for later buildings.
On the Hill of Saturn are considerable remains of the great public
building originally called the Capitolium, erected when it was agreed
to make that hill the Capitol of the new city, consisting then of the
two hills only. There are also considerable remains of the wall that
enclosed these two hills, which is mentioned incidentally only by
Dionysius; but this sort of incidental notice is more valuable even
than a direct statement of the fact would be : he takes it for granted,
as a thing that every body knows, that the temple of Castor and
Pollux was built at the north-east corner of the Palatine Hill, “when
the two hills were enclosed in one wall.” The walls of that period,
which we find to have been fifty or sixty feet high, and twelve feet
thick, are not easily obliterated; but they are often misunderstood,
and they have been so in this instance. Of this wall of the second
City of Rome, the junction with the eastern cliff of the Hill of Saturn
was brought to light in 1872, under a house in the Via di Marforio.
This wall was one of enclosure for municipal purposes, the boun-
dary of the new City, but not much intended as a fortification. An
account of it is given in an Appendix to our third chapter on the
“ Historical Construction of Walls.”
The other hills were fortified when they were first inhabited each
as a separate fortress; but they were not included in the boundary
of the City until the time of Servius Tullius. Each of these separate
fortresses can be traced by existing remains of tufa walls of that
early period. On the Aventine, where the Latins were settled after
the conquest of their principal city of Alba Longa, these remains
are very important and interesting,- as we can there see more
PREFACE.
which he believed to have been a wolf’s cave, under the north-west
corner of the Palatine Hill. Such a cave still remains, with a fine
stream of water gushing out into it, and with ruins of vaulted
chambers of the time of Augustus in front of it.
Again, on the top of the Palatine, nearly over this cave, we have
a wall of the earliest character of any wall in Rome, a continuation
of which can be traced by portions of it still remaining and now
made visible, on three sides of an oblong space at the north end
of the hill. The earliest part is immediately opposite to the Hill of
Saturn, occupied by the Sabines before the arrival of the Romans.
There is also a wide and deep trench or foss across the hill on the
southern side of this oblong space, and on both sides of the trench
or valley there are remains of very early tufa walls; on the north
side also, the part nearest to the enemies’ quarter, are the lower
parts of towers begun and left unfinished, and then used as foun-
dations for later buildings.
On the Hill of Saturn are considerable remains of the great public
building originally called the Capitolium, erected when it was agreed
to make that hill the Capitol of the new city, consisting then of the
two hills only. There are also considerable remains of the wall that
enclosed these two hills, which is mentioned incidentally only by
Dionysius; but this sort of incidental notice is more valuable even
than a direct statement of the fact would be : he takes it for granted,
as a thing that every body knows, that the temple of Castor and
Pollux was built at the north-east corner of the Palatine Hill, “when
the two hills were enclosed in one wall.” The walls of that period,
which we find to have been fifty or sixty feet high, and twelve feet
thick, are not easily obliterated; but they are often misunderstood,
and they have been so in this instance. Of this wall of the second
City of Rome, the junction with the eastern cliff of the Hill of Saturn
was brought to light in 1872, under a house in the Via di Marforio.
This wall was one of enclosure for municipal purposes, the boun-
dary of the new City, but not much intended as a fortification. An
account of it is given in an Appendix to our third chapter on the
“ Historical Construction of Walls.”
The other hills were fortified when they were first inhabited each
as a separate fortress; but they were not included in the boundary
of the City until the time of Servius Tullius. Each of these separate
fortresses can be traced by existing remains of tufa walls of that
early period. On the Aventine, where the Latins were settled after
the conquest of their principal city of Alba Longa, these remains
are very important and interesting,- as we can there see more