204 pliny's natueal histoet. [Book III. 



eastern side it is bounded by the agger of Tarquinius Su- 

 perbus, a work of surpassing grandeur ; for he raised it 

 so high as to be on a level with the walls on the side 

 on which the city lay most exposed to attack from the neigh- 

 bouring plains. On all the other sides it has been fortified 

 either w4th lofty walls or steep and precipitous hills \ but so 

 it is, that its buildings, increasing and extending beyond all 

 bounds, have now united many other cities to it^. 



Besides those previously mentioned, there were formerly 

 in the first region the following famous towns of Latium : 

 Satricum^, Pometia\ Scaptia, Politorium*, Tellene, Tifata, 

 CsBnina^ Ticana^, Crust umerium, Ameriola^, Medullum^, 

 Corniculum^", Saturnia^\ on the site of the present city of 



or little better than an average of half-a-mile for each radius. We may also 

 remark that the camp of the Prsetorian cohorts hero mentioned was 

 estabhshed by the emperor Tiberius, by the advice of Sejanus. Ajasson's 

 translation makes the measurement to be made to twelve gates only, but 

 the text as it stands will not admit of such a construction. 



J The Aventine, Csehan, and Quirinal hills. 



2 Such as Ocriculum, Tibur, Aricia, &c. 



' Near Antium. Casale di Conca stands on its site. 



* Suffissa Pometia. It was destroyed by the consul Servilius, and its 

 site was said, with that of twenty-two other towns, to have been covered 

 by the Pomptine Marsh, to which it gave its name. 



* A town of Latium destroyed by Ancus Martins. 



^ An ancient city of Latium, conquered by Romulus ; on which occa- 

 sion he slew its king Acron and gained the spolia opima. Nibby sug- 

 gests that it stood on the Magugliano, two miles south-east of Monte 

 G-entile. Holstein says that it stood where the present Sant' Angelo or 

 MonticeUi stands. 



7 Also destroyed by Ancus Martius. A farm called Dragonello, 

 eleven miles from Rome, is supposed to have stood upon its site. Tel- 

 lene was also destroyed by the same king. Tifata was a town of Cam- 

 pania. 



^ A city of Latium, which was conquered by Tarquinius Priscus. It 

 has been suggested that its ruins are visible about a mile to the north of 

 Monte Sant' Angelo. 



^ A Sabine town, the people of which were incorporated by Tarquinius 

 Priscus with the Roman citizens. It is supposed to have stood on the 

 present Monte Sant' Angelo. 



^^ An ancient city of Latium, subdued by Tarquinius Priscus, on which 

 occasion Ocrisia, the mother of Servius Tullius, fell into the hands of the 

 Romans as a captive. It was probably situate on one of the isolated 

 hills that rise from the plain of the Campagna. 



" Both Virgil and Ovid allude to this tradition. 



