8 Account of the 



feet above the surface of the Tiber ; that river at its ordinary 

 level, when neither swollen by floods nor reduced by droughts, 

 being at Rome about twenty-two feet above the level of the sea 

 at Ostia. The highest point of the Janiculum is 294 feet above 

 the Tiber. The Vatican Hill is low, being only seventy-eight 

 feet. 



The heights of the hills on the left bank above the surface of 

 the Tiber are as follows : — the Esquiline, 229 feet ; the Pin- 

 cian, "194; the Quirinal, 159; the Viminal, 148; the Palatine, 

 148; the Coelian, 146; the Capitoline, 138; the ^Lventine, 133. 



The high grounds were the first occupied, but a great part of 

 the city was built upon land very little elevated above the level 

 of the river, which, as we know from numerous passages in the 

 classics, frequently overflowed its banks. It has been known 

 in modern times to be swollen to the height of twenty-eight feet 

 above its ordinary level. The pavement of the vestibule of the 

 Pantheon is only twenty-four feet above the ordinary level of 

 the Tiber, and it is situated nearly half a mile from its banks. 

 The basis of the column erected in the Forum in honour of the 

 Emperor Phocas, is only eighteen feet above the river. In 

 that low part of the city situated between the Aventine, Pala- 

 tine, and Capitoline hills, there was a district known by the 

 name of Velabrum, which was very much occupied by markets 

 and shops of various kinds. It was divided into two parts ; 

 the Velabrum majus^ which ran up into the valley between the 

 Palatine and Aventine hills ; and the Velabrum minus, which 

 occupied the lower extremity of the valley between the Palatine 

 and Capitoline hills. There was a tradition that both had 

 existed as shallow lakes, and that they continued as such until 

 they were both drained by one common outlet, when the Cloaca 

 Maxima was formed. The following passages may be quoted 

 as proofs of this tradition. 



1. Tibullus, in the fifth elegy of the second Book, says : 



" At, qua Velabri regio patet, ire solebat 

 Exiguus pulsa per vada linter aqua." 



2. Propertius, in the ninth elegy in the fourth book, " De 



Ilercule et Morte Caci," says : 



" Qua Velahra suo stagiiabant flumine, quaque 

 Nauta per urbanas velificabat aquas." 



