Upon the best conjectures, the Porta Septimiana was near the Palazzo Corsini. Donatus supposes, and Nardini is unwilling to contradict him, that the gardens of Geta were near the villa Farnesina, and consequently about the site of the Corsini palace.99

The interesting objects comprised in the general survey which has now been taken from the tower of the Capitol will merit a more detailed and attentive description; but whoever desires to study with advantage the remains of the ancient city, should refer each particular object to some general plan of this nature. It seems also but a small part of the study of antiquities to visit those remains of ancient grandeur as mere curiosities, without applying them to the illustration of those writings the knowledge of which forms so essential a branch of every liberal education; and even the enthusiasm which is sometimes kindled in the classical mind

nium et Thermæ Severianæ, ejus denique etiam Jani in Transtyberina regione ad portam nominis sui, quorum forma intercidens statim usum publicum invidit.” Spartian. ibid. cap. xix.

The "horti spatiosi" mentioned in the preceding note might be bequeathed by Severus to his younger son Geta, or even called by his name during the lifetime of his father. As Geta had no opportunity of laying out gardens, it is fair to identify the "horti Geta" with the "horti spatiosi" prepared by his father. It is very probable those gardens were annexed to the demesne of the imperial palace, which may in some measure account for the passage in Herodian, lib. iv. p. 139. Καὶ τὰ βασιλεία διελόμενοι [scilicet, Caracalla et Geta], ἐν πλατεία καὶ πόλλῃ οἰκήσει, καὶ πάσης πόλεως μείζονι, καθ ̓ ἑαυτὸν ἑκάτερος διάγοι & Boλoro. See a note in Gibbon's Roman Empire, about the beginning of chap. vi.

99 Compare Donatus, de Urbe Roma, lib. iii. cap. 23.; and Nardini, Roma Antica, tom. iii. p. 342.

may be excused in a person who visits, but for once in his life, the city which has ruled the world, and nourished the geniuses of Scipio, Cicero, and Virgil. And scarcely will the spectator, whose apprehensions are less lively when he has taken this review of a world no more existing but in the annals of mankind, descend from the Campidoglio without a degree of interest excited by the scenes whose parting glory still sheds a light around them.

80.

DISSERTATION THE THIRD.

ON THE VIA APPIA AND ITS ENVIRONS; WITH SOME PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.

"An tu egressus porta Capena, quum Calatini, Scipionum, Serviliorum, Metellorum sepulcra vides, miseros putas illos ?” CULAN. i. cap. 7.

·CIC. QUESTION. TUS

THE investigation of truth is a delightful exercise for the human mind, and often the hope of but a partial discovery of it is sufficient to encourage research. Happy, indeed, is it for us that this precious pearl does not tarnish by time, nor lose its beauty though discovered through the obscurity of ages. If this were so, how often must the laudable task be relinquished of endeavouring to search it out; and, consequently, of how much that is really valuable must mankind be deprived. We are far from being deterred from this enquiry by the difficulties to be encountered in prosecuting it; nor should we think, in the subject we are about to enter upon, to arrive at the truth without a patient investigation for such have been the ravages of time and war, such the desolation made by rapine and plunder, such the intestine divisions of Rome when she had lost her imperial majesty', that very

1 Such are the causes of the decay of Rome enumerated by Mr. Gibbon (Decline and Fall, &c. ch. last, vol. xii.). Lord Byron

few of her ancient remains can now be recognised without the skill of the architect or the learning of the antiquary. Far, however, should this be from justifying the clamours that a fashionable indolence would raise against the study of antiquities: for this pursuit, like every other, only becomes a subject of disgust or ridicule when it wanders through the intricacies of a dry criticism, or bedecks its objects with the ornaments of fancy. It is the peculiar aim of these Dissertations, neither to torture the evidence which the light of antiquity may afford, nor to magnify it by an extravagant imagination. And it will, in the first place, be necessary to give a concise statement of the materials which are left to guide us in this closer survey of the topography and antiquities of Rome.

During the ages of the republic, the distribution of the city into four tribes as made by King Tullius remained unaltered2; but when Augustus became

has seized upon them (Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto IV. 80.), and Mr. Hobhouse ably illustrated them (notes of the Fourth Canto to stanza lxxx.).

2 Servius Tullius named his four tribes or districts, not from their origin or any casual circumstance, but from the parts of the city which they inhabited. Those who lived in the plain places about the Calian Mount he called the Suburran tribe, because it was under the ancient city, (or, as Varro says, called from a village Sucusanam!) The second district was the Esquilian, which comprehended all the hills or eminences known by the name of Esquiliæ. The third occupied the Quirinal and Viminal hills, and was called Collina. The fourth comprised almost all the space which the three ancient tribes of Romulus occupied; viz. the Palatine and Capitoline hills, with the Forum: it was called Palatina. For a more detailed account of this division of Rome, see Onuphrio Panvinio, Urb. Rom. Descrip. lib i. p. 74.

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sole master of the empire, he materially changed the face of the city, as well as the condition of the state. It was the boast of that prince in his last moments, that he found Rome of brick and had left it of marble3: and it must be allowed, in many respects, he added much to the convenience of the city. Amongst other improvements he divided Rome, including, of course, the four districts of Servius Tullius, - into fourteen wards or regiones *;" and, according to the testimony of Pliny, those "regions" contained 265 "compita," which in modern terms may be called " squares or "places." In the great conflagration of the city which happened in the reign of Nero, we are informed by an historian that, out of fourteen regions, three were entirely destroyed, seven partially burned, and only four remained untouched by the fire. 4 From hence it appears this division of Rome remained the same in the age of Tacitus; and the fourteen regions are traced down to the time of Hadrian for there is now existing at Rome a marble altar dedicated to that emperor by the

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Vicomagistri," or inspectors of the streets of the fourteen regions. † From Hadrian to Valentinian,

3" Urbem neque pro majestate imperii ornatam, et inundationibus incendiisque obnoxiam, excoluit adeo, ut jure sit gloriatus, marmoream se relinquere quam lateritiam accepisset." Suet. in vita Aug. cap. xxix.

*See Note O.

4 66 Quippe in regiones quatuordecim Roma dividitur: quarum quatuor integræ manebant, tres solo tenus dejectæ ; septem reliquis pauca tectorum vestigia supererant, lacera et semiusta." Tacit. Ann. lib. xv. cap. 40.

See Note P. The fourteen regiones are mentioned by Lampridius, in vit. Alex. Sev. cap. 33.