to exercise an influence more lasting even than these.
The ring-wall further embraced the Caelian and the
whole space of the Esquiline, Viminal, and Quirinal,
where a structure likewise but recently brought to
light on a great scale (1862)—on the outside
composed of blocks of peperino and protected by a
moat in front, on the inside forming a huge earthen
rampart sloped towards the city and imposing even at
the present day—supplied the want of natural
means of defence. From thence it ran to the
Capitoline, the steep declivity of which towards the
Campus Martius served as part of the city-wall, and
it again abutted on the river above the island in
the Tiber. The Tiber island with the bridge
of piles and the Janiculum did not belong strictly
to the city, but the latter height was probably a fortified
outwork. Hitherto the Palatine had been the stronghold,
but now this hill was left open to be built upon by
the growing city; and on the other hand upon the Tarpeian
Hill, standing free on every side, and from its moderate
extent easily defensible, there was constructed the
new “stronghold” (-arx-, -capitolium-(10)),
containing the stronghold-spring, the carefully enclosed
“well-house” (-tullianum-), the treasury
(-aerarium-), the prison, and the most ancient place
of assemblage for the burgesses (-area Capitolina-),
where still in after times the regular announcements
of the changes of the moon continued to be made.
Private dwellings of a permanent kind, on the other
hand, were not tolerated in earlier times on the stronghold-hill;(11)
and the space between the two summits of the hill,
the sanctuary of the evil god (-Ve-diovis-), or as
it was termed in the later Hellenizing epoch, the
Asylum, was covered with wood and presumably intended
for the reception of the husbandmen and their herds,
when inundation or war drove them from the plain.
The Capitol was in reality as well as in name the Acropolis
of Rome, an independent castle capable of being defended
even after the city had fallen: its gate lay
probably towards what was afterwards the Forum.(12)
The Aventine seems to have been fortified in a similar
style, although less strongly, and to have been preserved
free from permanent occupation. With this is
connected the fact, that for purposes strictly urban,
such as the distribution of the introduced water,
the inhabitants of Rome were divided into the inhabitants
of the city proper (-montani-), and those of the districts
situated within the general ring-wall, but yet not
reckoned as strictly belonging to the city (-pagani
Aventinensis-, -Ianiculenses-, -collegia Capitolinorum
et Mercurialium-).(13) The space enclosed by the
new city wall thus embraced, in addition to the former
Palatine and Quirinal cities, the two federal strongholds
of the Capitol and the Aventine, and also the Janiculum;(14)
the Palatine, as the oldest and proper city, was enclosed
by the other heights along which the wall was carried,
as if encircled with a wreath, and the two castles
occupied the middle.