THE SEVEN HILLS OF ROME.

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re-echoed the shouts with which the people assembled in the Campus Martius greeted a favourite,

and now the glorious basilica of St. Peter, and the palace of the Popes, called the Vatican, stand in the plain at its foot. The long ridges of the Vatican and the Janiculus rise to a much greater height than the hills on the opposite bank. "The hills of Rome" -says Arnold-"are such as we rarely see in England, low in height, but with steep and rocky sides. In early times the natural wood remained in patches amidst the buildings, as at this day it grows here and there on the green sides of the Monte Testaccio." Their elevation was far more conspicuous in ancient times than now,* when the valleys between them have been raised generally fifteen or twenty feet, and in some places considerably more. Their precipices have been scarped down, and their natural outlines obliterated, more or less, by time and building; and it is only here and there that the steep sides remain unaltered, as in the cliff at the southwest angle of the Capitol, called, with doubtful correctness, the Tarpeïan rock.

This general outline of the site of Rome requires to be filled up somewhat more in detail, but only so far as to prepare for a better understanding of the history; for it is quite beyond our province to touch upon those questions of topography, which have been disputed with an animosity as fierce as if the Romans and Sabines were once more fighting for their respective hills. The central one of the whole group of hills is the PALATINE, which was also the seat of the original Latin city of Rome. It rises above the Capitoline and Aventine by about fifteen feet, but is lower than the four eastern hills. Its shape is a tolerably regular lozenge, looking northwest

* The following table of heights, as determined by Sir George Schukburg, is taken from Mr. Dyer's elaborate and invaluable article, "Rome," in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography:

towards the Capitol, across the valley of the Vicus Tuscus; west, over the low ground already noticed, to the Tiber and Mount Janiculus; southwest to the Aventine; southeast to the Cælian; and northeast to the group formed by the Esquiline, the Viminal, and the Quirinal. In the valley which skirted this side, beginning from the eastern face of the Capitoline, lay the Forum and the Sacra Via, along which the triumphal processions of the conquerors of the world ascended to the Capitol. This part of the valley is slightly divided from its eastern prolongation, which runs between the Esquiline and the Cælian, by a small hill, projecting like a bastion from the northeastern face of the Palatine, called Velia, over which the Via Sacra passed. Of the hills around the Palatine on the east and north, the Cælian stands alone; the other three or more properly four-are but the branches of one mass, which slopes down on the north and east to the Anio and one of its tributary brooks; while on the west, the Quirinal and the southern branch of the Esquiline curve inwards like the horns of a harbour, enclosing within their sweep the Viminal and the southern branch of the Esquiline. The two arms of the Esquiline were originally reckoned as separate hills, the southern or principal being named Oppius, and the smaller offshoot Cispius. The Capitoline, the smallest but most famous of the whole group, originally called the Saturnian hill,* stands out like a detached prolongation of the Quirinal towards the river, from which it is distant about 300 paces. It was originally almost close to the Quirinal, till Trajan scarped off a portion of the latter, to enlarge the valley for his Forum. The Capitoline has a saddle-like depression, dividing its top into two summits; of which the northern was probably the Capitol, and the southern the Arx, or citadel of Rome. Lastly, the Aventine stands out, to the southwest of the group formed by the other six-in an isolation, which, as we shall see, is not without political significance -with the Tiber sweeping round its western base. Its shape is similar to the Palatine; but it is somewhat larger. Such was the surface of the ground on which Rome was built. The extent of the city, first, when its different parts were united under the kings, and finally, as it existed under the emperors, is shown on our map by the two lines of walls, which bear the names of Servius Tullius and of Aurelian. But the original

*The Capitolum itself, from which the hill was named, was the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, the chief Roman sanctuary, to which the triumphing generals carried up the spoils of their victories.