Hill and the imperial Fora. Regio IX., or Circus Flaminius, embraced the space between the Tiber on the west, the Via Lata on the east, and the Servian wall on the south. Its northern boundary, as we have already said, cannot be determined, but it may perhaps have extended as far as the Antonine column. Regio X., or Palatium, comprised the Palatine Hill. Regio XI., or Circus Maximus, comprehended the valley in which the Circus lay, the Forum Boarium, and the Velabrum. Regio XII., or Piscina Publica, adjoined the preceding region on the west, and the first region, or Porta Capena, on the east, and stretched probably from Mons Cælius, on the north, to the line afterwards traced by the Aurelian walls on the south. Regio XIII., or Aventinus, embraced that hill and the strip of ground beneath it to the Tiber. Regio XIV., called Transtiberina or Transtiberim, was of vast extent, as it embraced the whole suburb on the right bank of the Tiber, including the Janiculum, Mons Vaticanus, and the Insula Tiberina. Each region contained more or fewer subdivisions called Vici, whose number varied from seven or eight in the smallest regions to seventy-eight in the largest, or Transtiberina. A vicus was a complex of houses contained between streets running all round it; its inhabitants formed a vicinia. Another and more ancient name for a vicus was Compitum; and Pliny speaks of Rome as divided into Compita Larum instead of vici.1 After the example of Servius Tullius, Augustus formed the vici into religious corporations. In each vicus was an ædicula, or little temple, containing the images of two Lares, to which Augustus caused to be added his own Genius; and at certain seasons their worship was celebrated with proper feasts called Compitalia. From each vicinia plebeian magistrates were elected, two or four according to its size, called Magistri or Curatores Vicorum, and Magistri 1 H. N. iii. 9. 2 Suet. Aug. 30 sq.; Ov. Fast. v. 145. Larum; whose office it was to see that the worship of the Lares was regularly celebrated, to take the numbers of the inhabitants during the census, and other duties, we may suppose, somewhat analogous to those of parish officers and overseers in modern times. These magistrates were of the very lowest class; yet on the occasion of certain solemnities they might wear the toga prætexta, and were attended by two lictors. Chapels were also erected in the different vici to Stata Mater and Vulcanus Quietus, who were supposed to be deities that protected against fire. When fires occurred, the public slaves attached to each region were at the disposal of the vicomagistri as well as of the ædiles. Augustus also caused statues of the greater gods to be erected in the vici; as the Apollo Sandaliarius and Jupiter Tragœdus mentioned by Suetonius 2 as very valuable works of art, which he had purchased out of the strenæ, or new-year's presents made to him. The bases of several of these statues have been discovered. Augustus perhaps borrowed the idea from the statue of Vertumnus, the national Etruscan deity, which stood at the top of the Vicus Tuscus near the Forum.3 The administration of the regions, on the other hand, was intrusted to a magistrate of a higher kind, chosen annually by lot from among the ædiles, tribunes, or prætors; to whom the government of one, and sometimes apparently two or three regions was assigned. He was not assisted, as the vicomagistri, by a corporation. There seem also to have been certain subordinate officers in each region, as curatores, denunciatores, and præcones, or public criers; as well as a number of imperial slaves and freedmen, who discharged the functions of clerks, messengers, porters, and the like. The supreme administration of the whole city was vested in the præfectus urbi. We must remember that under the Empire 1 'Infimum genus magistratuum.' -Liv. xxxiv. 7. 2 Aug. 57. 3 Cic. Verr. ii. i. 59; Prop. iv. 2, 5. this was a very different office from what it had been under the Republic. In some respects the functions of the præfectus in the imperial times must have answered to those of the modern mayor; but he had a much more extensive and absolute jurisdiction, and instead of being elected by his fellow-citizens he was appointed by the emperor, and often held his office for life. A reform in the municipal police, which must have been very much wanted, was also made by Augustus. Seven divisions of policemen, called cohortes vigilum, each commanded by a tribune, and the whole under the superintendence of a præfectus vigilum, were so placed that each division might take two regions as their beat. Their barracks, or stations, were consequently near the borders of regions, and hence we find them frequently mentioned in the Notitia, as they served to mark the boundaries. There were likewise fourteen excubitoria, or outposts, in the middle of each region. Each cohort seems to have contained 1,000 men, making a total of 7,000-a formidable body of police. They appear to have discharged the duties of firemen as well as of police officers, and were provided with all the arms and tools necessary in both capacities. A fire in such a town as Rome must indeed have been terrific, and we learn from the allusions to them in ancient authors that they were frequent as well as devastating. Imagine on such occasions the fate of the poet in the garret of one of those tall Roman houses! Juvenal speaks feelingly on the subject, as if from practical experience. The third story might be on fire, and the unhappy man at top know nothing of it, such was the gulf between them, till actually aroused by the flames: Tabulata tibi jam tertia fumant: Tu nescis; nam si gradibus trepidatur ab imis, 1 Sat. iii. 199. Besides the cohortes vigilum, Augustus also created an imperial guard, consisting of twelve prætorian cohorts. A military despotism was thus firmly established; for besides this formidable guard, the cohortes vigilum, with the numerous body of slaves attached to their service, might also be relied on in case of disturbance. Augustus, indeed, saved appearances. Only three cohorts of the guard were allowed within the city, and were placed under the command of the præfectus urbi; while the remaining nine cohorts were cantoned in the neighbourhood of Rome. But Tiberius brought them into the city, placed them under the command of a præfectus prætorio, and established a camp for them near the Servian agger.1 The number of inhabitants who populated this vast hive is a subject of great difficulty, and has been very variously estimated. A population of about two million souls, including slaves and foreigners, is perhaps the most probable estimate. For the reasons which have induced the author to draw this conclusion the reader is referred to Dr. Smith's Dictionary of Ancient Geography, vol. ii. p. 746 sqq. During the domestic broils which agitated the last halfcentury of the Republic, the temples and public buildings of Rome were suffered to fall to decay. A terrible fire which had occurred about B. c. 50, had also laid desolate a great part of the city; and the damage does not appear to have been made good at the time of the accession of Augustus.2 The ambitious chiefs who aimed at seizing the supreme power founded a more striking claim to popularity by erecting new structures of their own than by repairing ancient ones; unless indeed these belonged to the more conspicuous and venerable class of Roman monuments, like the Capitoline temple or the Curia 1 Tac. Ann. iv. 2, 5; List. iii. 64; Suet. Aug. 49, Tib. 37. c. 2. 2 Orosius, lib. vi. c. 14, lib. vii. Hostilia; the restoration of which, and the inscription recording the restorer, were of themselves passports to fame. But Augustus, who, after attaining quiet possession of supreme power, was not influenced by such motives, naturally turned his attention to the state of the ancient edifices. The restoration of order, decent morals, and the appearance at least of religion, all terribly shaken by the recent convulsions and disorganisation of society, was, merely as a means and instrument of government, among Augustus' first cares. The dilapidated condition of the temples is alluded to by Horace as a notorious and crying shame: Cur eget indignus quisquam, te divite? quare Templa ruunt antiqua deûm ? cur, improbe, caræ And the same author, in one of his odes, in furtherance no doubt of the views of his sovereign and patron, threatens the Romans with divine vengeance so long as they should leave them unrepaired: Delicta majorum immeritus lues, It appears from the Monumentum Ancyranum that among the ancient monuments which Augustus entirely rebuilt were, the Lupercal, the Porticus Octavia in the district of the Circus Flaminius, which he permitted to retain the name of its original founder Octavius; the temple of Jupiter Feretrius in the Capitol; of Quirinus, on the Quirinal, which had been burnt down in B. c. 49; and the temples of Minerva, of Juno Regina, of Jupiter, and of Libertas, on the Aventine. The first two of these temples were undoubtedly separate and distinct buildings. We have already had occasion to record how that of 1 Sat. ii. 2, 103 sqq. 2 Od. iii. 6. |