Rome was divided by Augustus into fourteen regions or parishes, to each of which he appointed a body of public officers whose functions much resembled those of a modern Vestry.[1] The municipal government of the new Rome is an almost exact imitation of that instituted by the founder of the Empire for the old capital. Here are the same number of regions, named numerically and counted in order from east to west, beginning at the end of the promontory. The last two of these, however, are outside the wall of Constantine, that is to say, Blachernae on the north-west and Sycae over the water. To each division is assigned a Curator or chief controller, a Vernaculus or beadle, who performs the duties of a public herald, five Vicomagistri, who form a night patrol for the streets, and a considerable number of Collegiati, in the tenth region as many as ninety, whose duty it is to rush to the scene of fires with hatchets and water-*buckets.[2] At night the main thoroughfares are well lighted by flaring oil-lamps.[3]
One remarkable feature of the city, to be encountered by the visitor at every turn, is an elevated shed which can be approached on all sides by ranges of steps. These "Steps," as they are briefly called, are stations for the gratuitous daily distribution of provisions to the poorer citizens. Every morning a concourse of the populace repairs to the Step attached to their district, and each person, on presenting a wooden tessera or ticket, inscribed with certain amounts, receives a supply of bread, and also a dole of oil, wine, and flesh.[4]; we do not know the]*
