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in the centre was the Comitium, where the legal assemblies of the people were wont to be held. There were several other fora in Rome: the Forum Julium, of Cæsar, the Forum Augusti, of Augustus, were built as the old forum was not sufficient for the great increase of public business which had taken place. The Forum of Trajan, built by the emperor Trajan after the designs of Apollodorus, was the most splendid of all the fora. It was a large rectangular court, surrounded with porticoes, having a double row of columns, and comprehending a basilica, two libraries, and a splendid temple with its enclosure. The column of Trajan was in the centre of a court adjoining the Basilica Ulpia in this Forum. The Forum of Vespasian had in its centre the magnificent temple of Peace, dedicated by Vespasian in A.D. 75, four years after the triumph he celebrated in commemoration of the capture of Jerusalem, on which occasion the building had been begun. A smaller forum was that of Nerva, also called Transitorium. Although these buildings of the emperors were called fora, yet they were in no respect similar in arrangement to the old Forum. Each had its temple in the centre of a walled court surrounded with porticoes, and resembled a Greek temple with its sacred enclosure more than an open market place with buildings of different kinds standing round it. The tribunals were placed and the courts of justice held either in the temples, or in the hemicycles, and the offices of business for bankers, notaries, government officials, or merchants, were under the arcades which ran round the court. The other fora in Rome, were Fora Venalia, only market-places, such as the forum boarium, the cattle market; forum olitorium, the vegetable market; forum piscatorium, the fish market. The forum at Pompeii illustrates the plan laid down by Vitruvius. It is of an oblong form; at one end are the curia, prisons and treasury, at the other end the temple of Jupiter; at the sides are the basilica, the temples of Venus and Mercury, a granary, a chalcidicum, and the whole was surrounded by porticoes.

SECTION VIII.—PUBLIC AND MILITARY ROADS-
BRIDGES-GATEWAYS-AQUEDUCTS.

PUBLIC AND MILITARY ROADS.—Frequent intercourse between different nations led to the necessity of finding means of communication, and thus recourse was had to the plan of laying

down and constructing roads. All nations constructed them with more or less solidity and perfection. Roads and pathways have been constructed in Egypt with much care; but it seems that the Greeks did not give that attention to the laying down of public roads which would have rendered them useful and convenient. The public roads are among the things which Strabo mentions as having been neglected by the Greeks: no people equalled the Romans in this kind of public constructions, which were mainly formed to facilitate military movements. All the works of the Romans,- their roads, their aqueducts, their bridges-speak plainly of their practical, utilitarian spirit. The invention of paved roads was borrowed from the Carthaginians by the Romans.

ROMAN ROADS.-Rome was the central point to which all roads converged, by numerous branches which thus united the most remote provinces. In the early ages of the republic, the construction and superintendence of the roads were committed to the censors. Augustus gave particular care to the construction of roads; he established messengers and, later, couriers. The Romans laid out their roads in a straight line, and avoided all winding by filling up valleys, lowering elevations, tunnelling rocks and mountains, and building bridges. Two trenches (sulci) in the first place indicated the breadth of the road, the loose earth between the trenches was then removed, and this excavation as far as the solid ground (gremium) was filled with materials to the height fixed on for the road. Some Roman roads were near twenty feet over the solid ground. The lowest course, the statumen, was composed of small stones; the second, called the rudus, was a mass of broken stones cemented with lime; the third, the nucleus, was composed of a mixture of lime, clay, fragments of brick and pottery beaten together; on this was placed the fourth course, the summum dorsum, composed of a pavimentum of flat stones, selected for their hardness, cut into irregular polygons, and sometimes into rectangular slabs. When the fourth course, or pavement, was not put on, the surface was a mixture of pounded gravel and lime. The ordinary breadth of the principal Roman roads was from thirteen to fifteen feet. It was divided into three parts, the middle, somewhat larger, was paved and slightly curved; the two lateral parts were covered with gravel; some roads, however, were only

eight feet wide. Foot paths (margines, umbones) were raised upon each side and strewed with gravel. On the principal roads there were frequently to be seen temples, arches of triumph, villas, and especially sepulchral monuments, which recalled to the passers-by the memory of illustrious men, or of memorable events.

We shall now mention the principal military roads, which were the means of communication between Rome and the provinces.

I. The Via Appia, or Regina Viarum, was commenced B.C. 312, by Appius Claudius Cæcus, the censor. It commenced at the Porta Capena, passed through Aricia, Tres Tabernæ, Appii Forum, Terracina, Fundi, Formiæ, Minturnæ, Sinuessa, Casilinum, and terminated at Capua; it was afterwards prolonged through Calatia and Caudium to Beneventum, and thence, through Venusia, Tarentum, and Uria, to Brundusium; this extension being made, it is said, by Trajan. It became not only the great line of communication with Southern Italy, but with Greece, and with the most remote eastern possessions of Rome. At Brundusium there was a magnificent port, which was the principal point of communication with Greece. This road was famous for the number, beauty and richness of the sepulchral monuments with which its sides were lined. A number of them, extending for over eight miles beyond the tomb of Cæcilia Metella, have been lately discovered and brought to light by the energy and skill of the late Commendatore Canina.

II. Via Latina. This road issued from the Porta Capena. It also led to Beneventum, but kept more inland than the Via Appia. It passed through Anagnia, Frusino, Aquinum, Casinum, Venafrum, and joined the Via Appia at Beneventum, Several tombs, painted with great elegance and taste, have been lately discovered on this road, about two miles from Rome.

III. Via Labicana. It commenced at the Porta Esquilina, it passed Labicum, and joined the Via Latina at the station ad Bivium about thirty miles from Rome.

IV. Via Prænestina, formerly Via Gabina, began at the Porta Esquilina. It passed Gabii and Præneste, and then merged in the Via Latina below Anagnia.

V. Via Tiburtina, so called from its leading to Tibur or Tivoli. It issued from the gate of the same name. It was

continued from Tibur, through the country of the Sabines, to Adria under the name of the Via Valeria.

VI. Via Nomentana, so called from its leading to Nomentum, a Sabine town. It began originally at the Porta Collina, and afterwards from the Porta Nomentana. It crossed the Anio about three miles from Rome, and joined the Via Salaria at Eretum. This road was also called Ficulnensis, from Ficulnea, another town of the Sabines, the situation of which has been lately discovered, about seven miles from the Porta Nomentana.

VII. Via Salaria. It ran from the Porta Salaria, so called from the circumstance of the Sabines coming for salt, which gave the name to the road also. It traversed the Sabine and Picenian country to Reate and Asculum Picenum. It then proceeded towards the coast, which it followed until it merged in the Via Flaminia at Ancona.

VIII. Via Flaminia. It began from the Porta Flaminia (del Popolo). It was commenced in the censorship of C. Flaminius and L. Æmilius Papus, u.c. 533. It went by Ocriculum (Otricoli), Interamna (Terni), Fanum Fortunæ (Fano), to Ariminum (Rimini). Then the Via Æmilia began, which was constructed U.c. 567, when M. Æmilius Lepidus was consul. It passed by Bononia (Bologna), Parma, Placentia, Mediolanum (Milan), Brixia (Brescia), Verona, Patavium (Padua), to Aquileia. The Via Cassia struck off from the Via Flaminia near the Pons Milvius (Ponte Molle). It passed near Veii, and then traversed Etruria, until it joined the Via Aurelia at Luna.

IX. Via Aurelia. It issued from the Porta Aurelia, and approached the sea at Alsium (Palo), and then went along the Etruscan and Ligurian coast. It extended as far as Gaul. Via Vitellia also issued from the Porta Aurelia.

X. Via Portuensis. It led from the Porta Portuensis to the Portus Trajani, near the mouth of the Tiber. A branch of this road is called the Via Campana.

XI. Via Ostiensis. It issued from the Porta Ostiensis; keeping the left bank of the Tiber, it led to Ostia, near the mouth of the Tiber. TheVia Ardeatina and the Via Laurentina branched off from this road at a short distance from Rome. The first led to Ardea, the second to Laurentum. The Via Severiana was a continuation of the Via Ostiensis, along the coast through Laurentum, Antium, Circeii, to Terracina.

BRIDGES.—It is evident that bridges, at the early periods of Greece, were never used, as well from the smallness of the rivers as from their almost total ignorance of the use of the arch. If any bridge was used, it is probable that it was built entirely of wood, being nothing more than a wooden platform, supported upon stone piers at each extremity. Mr. Newton mentions an ancient bridge near Cnidus, which he considers to be Hellenic. It is formed by horizontal courses of stone approaching each other gradually, and converging at the apex into an acute angle, instead of a curvilinear arch. The roadway over this bridge is 24 feet wide. It is built of blue limestone of moderate size, and the masonry is certainly Hellenic. At the isthmus of Corinth, near to the Hieron, is a bridge of unquestioned Hellenic work with a true arch.

Roman. The earliest bridges of the Romans were of timber, such was that which joined the Janiculum to the Mons Aventinus, called the Pons Sublicius from the beams (sublices) of which it was composed. The Romans were the first people who availed themselves of their knowledge of the arch to apply it to the construction of bridges. They were thus enabled to erect structures on the grandest scale, and of such solidity that many still remain at the present day in the Roman provinces to attest their strength and utility. The passage way of the Roman bridge was divided into three parts: the centre one, for horses and carriages, was denominated agger or iter; and the raised footpaths on each side (decursoria), which were enclosed by parapet walls. We shall now mention the principal bridges in Rome, and some of the most remarkable in the provinces. Eight bridges across the Tiber are enumerated by P. Victor as belonging to the city of Rome.

I. Pons Sublicius. This was the first bridge ever constructed in Rome. It was so called from Sublices, a Volscian term for the wooden beams of which it was built. It was erected by Ancus Martius, and became celebrated for the feat of Horatius Cocles. It was destroyed by a great flood in the reign of Augustus.*

* It has been commonly assumed that the stone piers now visible in the bed of the river near the foot of the Aventine, belonged to the Sublician bridge. But this seems very unlikely, as the Sublician bridge was always constructed of wood and supported on piles. The most probable account

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