DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42497#0194
94
The Later Fortifications.
[chap. ii.
boundary properly recorded in the Public Records. Unfortunately
these records do not exist, but we are not wholly without some in-
formation on the subject, as besides the registration in documents,
there were boundary-stones placed (just as we often do in these
days with regard to landed property) to mark the line, and some of
these have been found with their inscriptions.
They also confirm what has been said, as they are near no re-
mains of any wall or fortification, nor in such a position as to give
reason to suppose a wall ever existed along the line where they have
been found.
It is true that there may be reason to suppose that a trench
was dug, in which the cippi were placed, (for they do not seem to
be in the line of streets, and are found low down in the cellars);
and a bank was thrown up within the trench, but this was rather
a line of demarcation than an earthwork for defence.
Of the terminal inscriptions which have been discovered, one is
of the time of Asinius and Gallus, consuls in the year a.u.c. 746,
or b.c. 6; a second, of Augustus, in the seventeenth year of his
power as Pontifex Maximus, or a.d. 7 ; a third, of Claudius, in his
eighth year, or a.d. 49 ; and a fourth, of the time of Hadrian g. This
last exists in its original position in the cellar of a house about
twenty feet below the present surface of the ground.
There is a passage in Vopiscus which has been thought to refer
to the placing of these cippi in a foss.
“After Trajan had conquered the Dacians, he made a foss from the Quirinal
to the Tiber to enclose his forum and temple.”
It is most improbable that this foss had any relation to the forti-
fications, and therefore it is supposed that it refers to the extension
of the jurisdiction of the city, so as to include Trajan’s Forum
and Temple.
It has been attempted to trace certain lines following the course
of the streets, and passing the few cippi which have been found,
but the evidence is very unsatisfactory; and when we examine the
authorities already adduced, we are met by difficulties, even in the
slight information which they afford. The following points, however,
may be worth attention.
The two kings, Tarquinius Priscus and Servius Tullius, who, to-
gether, did perhaps more towards fortifying Rome than any two
successive rulers, either before or after them, are not mentioned in
the three lists of those who advanced the pomcenum of the city,
s See the Appendix to this Section.
The Later Fortifications.
[chap. ii.
boundary properly recorded in the Public Records. Unfortunately
these records do not exist, but we are not wholly without some in-
formation on the subject, as besides the registration in documents,
there were boundary-stones placed (just as we often do in these
days with regard to landed property) to mark the line, and some of
these have been found with their inscriptions.
They also confirm what has been said, as they are near no re-
mains of any wall or fortification, nor in such a position as to give
reason to suppose a wall ever existed along the line where they have
been found.
It is true that there may be reason to suppose that a trench
was dug, in which the cippi were placed, (for they do not seem to
be in the line of streets, and are found low down in the cellars);
and a bank was thrown up within the trench, but this was rather
a line of demarcation than an earthwork for defence.
Of the terminal inscriptions which have been discovered, one is
of the time of Asinius and Gallus, consuls in the year a.u.c. 746,
or b.c. 6; a second, of Augustus, in the seventeenth year of his
power as Pontifex Maximus, or a.d. 7 ; a third, of Claudius, in his
eighth year, or a.d. 49 ; and a fourth, of the time of Hadrian g. This
last exists in its original position in the cellar of a house about
twenty feet below the present surface of the ground.
There is a passage in Vopiscus which has been thought to refer
to the placing of these cippi in a foss.
“After Trajan had conquered the Dacians, he made a foss from the Quirinal
to the Tiber to enclose his forum and temple.”
It is most improbable that this foss had any relation to the forti-
fications, and therefore it is supposed that it refers to the extension
of the jurisdiction of the city, so as to include Trajan’s Forum
and Temple.
It has been attempted to trace certain lines following the course
of the streets, and passing the few cippi which have been found,
but the evidence is very unsatisfactory; and when we examine the
authorities already adduced, we are met by difficulties, even in the
slight information which they afford. The following points, however,
may be worth attention.
The two kings, Tarquinius Priscus and Servius Tullius, who, to-
gether, did perhaps more towards fortifying Rome than any two
successive rulers, either before or after them, are not mentioned in
the three lists of those who advanced the pomcenum of the city,
s See the Appendix to this Section.