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

64

Primitive Fortifications.

[chap. 1.

easily traced now than it could in the time of the Empire, although
unfortunately considerable parts of the old walls are now concealed
in monasteries or nunneries, and cannot be seen or examined.
The Pulchrum Littus was a stone wall supporting the bank of
the Tiber from the line of the Aventine to that of the Capitol, along
the low ground between the Palatine and the river. Considerable
portions of this wall exist, and are in the style of the later kings,
agreeing perfectly with the time of Tarquinius Priscus, who is re-
corded to have made the Circus Maximus0 by draining the marsh
between the Palatine and the Aventine, and whoever did that must
have built this wall. The stream that runs through the valley
between the Palatine and the Aventine, originally formed the marsh
by being dammed up at the lower end, and now serves as a drain to
it, as it must always have done, for its natural course is through that
valley. The mouth of this stream passes through the Pulchrum
Littus into the Tiber, and the opening for it has evidently been left
in the original construction, and not cut through afterwards. This
opening is now under a vault with a tower and other buildings thrust
out into the river, but it is so near the mouth that it can be seen
from it. This sort of doorway in the wall of the Pulchrum Littus
has been originally open at the top, or covered with a flat stone
only; the present concrete vault is probably of the time of the
Republic, or it may be medieval. The following is the legendary
history:—
“ He [Tarquinius Superbus] then applied himself to works of peace, with a de-
gree of spirit which even exceeded the efforts he had made in war, so that the
people enjoyed little more rest at home than they had during the campaigns ; for
he set about surrounding with a wall of stone those parts of the city which he had
not already fortified, which work had been interrupted at the beginning by the
war of the Sabines. The lower part of the city about the Forum, and the other
hollows that lay between the hills, from whence it was difficult to discharge
the water by reason of their situation, he drained by means of sewers drawn on
a slope down to the Tiber.
“He [Tarquinius Priscus] also began the sinking of the sewers; these are
trenches through which the water collected from every street is conveyed into the
Tiber, a wonderful work exceeding all description11.”
“He [Brutus] there made a speech no way consonant to that low degree of
sensibility and capacity which until that day he had counterfeited ; recounting the
violence and lust of Sextus Tarquinius, the shocking violation of Lucretia’s chas-
tity, and her lamentable death ; the misfortune of Tricipitinus in being left child-
less, who must feel the cause of his daughter’s death as a greater injury and cruelty
than her death itself; to these representations he added the pride of the king him-
self, the miseries and toils of the commons, buried under ground to cleanse sinks
c Livii Hist., lib. i. c. 35. d Dionys. Halic., Ant., lib. iii. c. 68.