oolitical reform of which it contained the germ, known to us by the name of the Servian constitution, stand in intimate connection with this inward change in the character of the Roman community. But externally also the character of the city cannot but have changed with the influx of ampler resources, with the rising requirements of its position, and with the extension of its political horizon. The amalgamation of the adjoining community on the Quirinal with that on the Palatine must have been already accomplished when the Servian reform, as it is called, took place; and when that reform had united and consolidated the military strength of the community, the burgesses could no longer rest content with the entrenching of the several hills, as one after another they were filled with buildings, and with keeping perhaps the island in the Tiber and the height on the opposite bank occupied so that they might command the river. The capital of Latium required another and more complete system of defence; and accordingly they proceeded to construct the Servian wall. The new continuous city-wall began at the river below the Aventine, and included that hill, on which there have been brought to light quite recently (1855) at two different places; the one on the western slope towards the river, the other on the opposite eastern slope, colossal remains of those primitive fortifications. The portions of wall thus discovered are as high as those of Alatri and Ferentino, built of large square hewn blocks of tufa[errata 1] in layers of unequal height, and have risen as it were from the tomb to testify to the might of a national spirit as imperishable as the rock-walls which it built, and in its continued influence more lasting even than they are. The ring-wall further embraced the Cælian, and the whole space of the Esquiline, Viminal, and Quirinal, where a large earthen rampart, imposing even at the present day, supplied the want of a natural slope. 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 that hill was left open to be built upon by the growing city; and on the other hand upon the Tarpeian Hill, free on every side, and from its moderate extent easily
Page:The history of Rome. Translated with the author's sanction and additions.djvu/134
114
THE HEGEMONY OF ROME IN LATIUM.
[Book I.
