DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.44944#0513
REGIONES QUATTUORDECIM 445
Marquardt, Staatsverwaltung iii. 203-207; Mommsen, Staatsrecht ii. 1035-
1037; iii. 119-122 ; BC 1906, 198-208 ; CIL vi. 975.) The regions were
fourteen in number, twice as many as the traditional hills of Rome, and
were known originally only by number (cf. Tac. Ann. xv. 4° J Plin. NH iii.
66-67 > Hist. Aug. Heliog. 20; Frontinus 79 ; Suet. Dom. 1; CIL vi. pass.),
but the names found in the Regionary Catalogue became current at
various later periods, doubtless as a result of popular usage 1 (cf. Regio
Palatii, Regio Campi Martii, Suet. Caes. 39, Aug. 5, Nero 12, de gramm.
2 ; and Templum Pacis for Region IV, which could not have been used
at all until after that building was erected by Vespasian.) This division
into fourteen regions continued in force until the seventh century when
an ecclesiastical division into seven regions was introduced and opened
the way for the entirely different organisation of the Middle Ages.
From the Regionary Catalogue it is possible to determine with some
precision, in most cases, the limits of these regions in the fourth century,
but it is a different matter to do this for the Augustan division, inasmuch
as it is certain that the outer boundaries at least had been extended
at some points during the intervening three hundred years, and our
additional information concerning earlier conditions is extremely scanty.
What little there is must be derived from (i) the evidence of terminal
cippi that have been found as to successive extensions of the Pomerium
(q.v.) under Claudius, Vespasian and Hadrian ; (2) Pliny’s description
(NH iii. 66-67) the area of the city in his day—a passage full of difficulty
and uncertainty ; (3) the customs boundary of the city, marked by cippi,
of which five have been found, dating from the time of Commodus (CIL
vi. 1016 a, b, c, 8594, 31227)2; (4) the list of vici on the so-called Capitoline
Base, inscribed in 136 a.d. (CIL vi. 975 ; Jord. ii. 585-598). The line
of the Servian wall was not always a boundary between adjacent regions,
for while III, IV, VIII, XI appear to have always been limited by that
line on the inside, and the same was true of V, VII, IX on the outside,
I, II, VI, XII, XIII embraced ground on both sides. Nor did the wall
of Aurelian and the Augustan or later outer boundaries everywhere
coincide.
The following short description of the regions is based on the latest
and most generally accepted view of their boundaries, as drawn by
Hiilsen (KH ii.).
I, Porta Capena, so called from the gate in the Servian wall, an
irregularly shaped district, beginning at the east corner of the Palatine,
bounded on the west by that hill, and running south to some distance
1 Hiilsen notes that these names occur in no ancient writer, in no official document or
inscription, and not even in any sepulchral inscription : and he is therefore inclined to
believe that they were simply the first names in each region in the original list, from which
the Notitia and Curiosum were taken, and then were placed by careless editing at the head
of the list of buildings in each region. It is further to be noted that, even when they are
those of buildings, they are not repeated in these lists.
2 Four of them are marked ABCD in text fig. 4 (p. 394).
Marquardt, Staatsverwaltung iii. 203-207; Mommsen, Staatsrecht ii. 1035-
1037; iii. 119-122 ; BC 1906, 198-208 ; CIL vi. 975.) The regions were
fourteen in number, twice as many as the traditional hills of Rome, and
were known originally only by number (cf. Tac. Ann. xv. 4° J Plin. NH iii.
66-67 > Hist. Aug. Heliog. 20; Frontinus 79 ; Suet. Dom. 1; CIL vi. pass.),
but the names found in the Regionary Catalogue became current at
various later periods, doubtless as a result of popular usage 1 (cf. Regio
Palatii, Regio Campi Martii, Suet. Caes. 39, Aug. 5, Nero 12, de gramm.
2 ; and Templum Pacis for Region IV, which could not have been used
at all until after that building was erected by Vespasian.) This division
into fourteen regions continued in force until the seventh century when
an ecclesiastical division into seven regions was introduced and opened
the way for the entirely different organisation of the Middle Ages.
From the Regionary Catalogue it is possible to determine with some
precision, in most cases, the limits of these regions in the fourth century,
but it is a different matter to do this for the Augustan division, inasmuch
as it is certain that the outer boundaries at least had been extended
at some points during the intervening three hundred years, and our
additional information concerning earlier conditions is extremely scanty.
What little there is must be derived from (i) the evidence of terminal
cippi that have been found as to successive extensions of the Pomerium
(q.v.) under Claudius, Vespasian and Hadrian ; (2) Pliny’s description
(NH iii. 66-67) the area of the city in his day—a passage full of difficulty
and uncertainty ; (3) the customs boundary of the city, marked by cippi,
of which five have been found, dating from the time of Commodus (CIL
vi. 1016 a, b, c, 8594, 31227)2; (4) the list of vici on the so-called Capitoline
Base, inscribed in 136 a.d. (CIL vi. 975 ; Jord. ii. 585-598). The line
of the Servian wall was not always a boundary between adjacent regions,
for while III, IV, VIII, XI appear to have always been limited by that
line on the inside, and the same was true of V, VII, IX on the outside,
I, II, VI, XII, XIII embraced ground on both sides. Nor did the wall
of Aurelian and the Augustan or later outer boundaries everywhere
coincide.
The following short description of the regions is based on the latest
and most generally accepted view of their boundaries, as drawn by
Hiilsen (KH ii.).
I, Porta Capena, so called from the gate in the Servian wall, an
irregularly shaped district, beginning at the east corner of the Palatine,
bounded on the west by that hill, and running south to some distance
1 Hiilsen notes that these names occur in no ancient writer, in no official document or
inscription, and not even in any sepulchral inscription : and he is therefore inclined to
believe that they were simply the first names in each region in the original list, from which
the Notitia and Curiosum were taken, and then were placed by careless editing at the head
of the list of buildings in each region. It is further to be noted that, even when they are
those of buildings, they are not repeated in these lists.
2 Four of them are marked ABCD in text fig. 4 (p. 394).