BOOK III.] History of Nature. 171 



counted in the Mysteries of the Ceremonies an impious and 

 unlawful Thing : which, after it was abolished, for the faithful 

 Safety thereof, Valerius Soranus pronounced, and soon after 

 suffered the Penalty. I think it not amiss to insert in this 

 Place an Example of the ancient Religion, instituted espe- 

 cially for this Silence: for the Goddess Angerona, to whom 

 is sacrificed on the twelfth Day before the Kalends of January, 

 is represented by an Image having her Mouth bound and 

 sealed up. The City had three Gates when Romulus left it ; 

 or rather four (if we believe most Men that write thereof), 

 its Walls, when the two Vespasians, Emperors and Censors, 

 took the Measure, in the Year after the Foundation of it, 

 828, were in circuit thirteen 1 Miles and almost a quarter. 

 It containeth within it seven Mountains, and is divided into 

 fourteen Regions and 265 cross Streets, called Compita 

 Larium. The Measure of the same space of Ground, running 

 from the Milliarium, erected at the Head of the Roman 

 Forum, to every Gate, which are at this Day thirty-seven in 

 number (so ye reckon once the twelve Gates always open, 

 and overpass seven of the old, which no longer exist 2 ), maketh 

 thirty Miles, three-quarters, and a little more, in a straight 

 Line : but from the same Milliarium 3 , to the utmost ends of 

 the Houses, with the Praetorian Camps, and the clumps 

 (vicos) of all the Streets, it cometh to somewhat above 

 seventy Miles : to which if a Man put the Height of the 

 Houses, he may truly conceive by it a worthy Estimate of it, 

 and confess that the Magnitude of no City in the World 



altar dedicated to the Unknown God; this had, probably, been erected 

 with a reference to the custom above-mentioned, as there is no reason for 

 supposing it confined to the Romans. Wern. Club. 



1 Some read, thirty. 



2 In ancient times the most frequented roads to the city of Rome had 

 double gates. They who came into the city passed through the left-hand 

 gates ; and they who went out took the right-hand gate. (Nardini, 

 " Roma Antica," lib. x. cap. 9.) When Pliny, speaking of the gates of 

 the city, says that twelve of the thirty-seven gates should only be num- 

 bered once, he alludes to such of them as were double in this 



Note in the " Pursuits of Literature" Dia. 4th. Wern. Club. 



3 For figure of the Milliarium, see the end of this book. 



