Parker, John Henry: The archaeology of Rome (1,text): I. The primitive fortifications (Oxford [u.a.], 1874)

20

Primitive Fortifications.

[chap. i.

religious ceremonials; they marked out the line of the trench or
foss with the plough; and the earth thrown out from that foss
would make a bank within it, and was called a wall.
Several writers refer to the pomozrittm. Varro writes :—
‘ ‘ Many built cities in Latium according to the Etruscan rite, that is, the
cattle being yoked—a bull and a cow, so that the cow is on the inner side —
they traced round a furrow with the plough. They were accustomed to do this,
in accordance with their religion, on an auspicious day, so that they might be
defended by their foss and wall. The space whence they dug out the earth they
called a foss, and what was thrown up within they called a wall; next, that which
formed the circle was called the principucm urbis ; that which was beyond the wall
was called the pomcerium, and by its circuit the Auspicia Urbana are bounded.
The cippi [or boundary stones] of the pomcerium are standing both round Aricia
and round Rome. Wherefore also those towns which first were marked out by
the encircling plough are from the Orbis et Urvus called U rbes, and therefore all
our Colonice are called in ancient writings Urbes, because they were founded in
the same manner as Rome, and therefore Colonice and cities are [said to be]
built because they are placed within apomcerhim m.”
Aulus Gellius writes to the same purpose :—
“What the pomcerium was, the Augurs of the Roman people define in their
books on the Auspicia by a meaning of this kind. The pomcerium is a space
marked out in certain directions within the prescribed ground along the whole
circuit of the city, and this constituted the boundary of the Urbanum Auspicium n.”
Livy gives the following account of the word :—
‘ ‘ Those who consider merely the literal meaning of the word pomcerium, in-
terpret it as the space beyond the wall, {post-murum}; but it is rather a space
about [i. e. on each side of] the wall, which the Etruscans of old, on the founding
of cities, consecrated with Augural rites, marking out the exact limits within which
they intended the wall should run; so that both on the inside no buildings should
be carried up to the wall (as many now commonly are actually joined to it), and
also that on the outside some ground should be left free of cultivation. This space,

m The Latin both of Varro and Aulus
Gellius is very obscure, and in parts the
text is probably corrupt. Above, it has
been attempted to give the sense, but
the original of each is here printed for
the sake of reference. ‘ ‘ Oppida con-
debant in Latio Etrusco ritu multi,
id est junctis bobus, tauro et vacco
interiore aratro circumagebant sulcum.
Hoc faciebant religionis causa die au-
spicato ut fossa et muro essent mu-
niti. Terram unde exculpserant fos-
sam vocabant et introrsum factum mu-
rum. Postea qui fiebat orbis, urbis
principium, qui quod erat post murum
Postmoerium [Pomerium alia MSS.]
dictum, ejusque ambitu auspicia urbana
finiuntur. Cippi pomeri stant et circum

Ariciam et circum Romam. Quare et
oppida quae prius erant circumducto
aratro, ab orbe et urbo [urvo alia MSS.]
Urbes ; et ideo colonise nostras omnes
in literis antiquis scribuntur urbeis
[urbes alia MSS.] quod item conditae
ut Roma, et ideo colonial- et urbes con-
duntur [conditur aliaMSS.], quod intra
pomerium ponuntur. ” (T. Varro de
Ling. Lat., lib. v. c. 32.)
u “ Pomcerium quid esset, augures
Populi Romani, qui libros de auspiciis
scripserunt, istiusmodi sententia definie-
runt: pomcerium est locus intra agrum
[aggerum\ effatum per totius urbis cir-
cuitum pone muros regionibus certis de-
terminatus, qui facit finem urbani au-
spicii.” (AulusGellius, lib. xiii. cap. 14.)