136 CARTER— EVOLUTION OF THE CITY OF ROME. [April 22, 



first historical character in the annals of Rome. But though the 

 character of Servius is a real one, legend has added many of the 

 " events " attributed to him. One of these events concerns our own 

 theme — it is the building of the wall of Rome. The tourist knows 

 this wall as the inner of the two walls, of which traces still remain 

 in Rome, that wall of which there are remnants beside the railway 

 station and on the Via Nazionale.-^ -Up to the present the state- 

 ment that Servius built a wall has been accepted as an historical fact, 

 and though it was recognized that the so-called Servian wall as 

 we know it dates from the end of the fourth century before Christ, 

 scholars have almost always assumed that there was another w^all 

 on the same spot and that this previous wall dated from the .Servian 

 age.-* But, as I hope to be able to show in a moment, this is an 

 altogether gratuitous assumption, and serves simply to hinder the 

 understanding of history. In the first place there is absolutely no 

 proof that Servius Tullius built a wall, other than the name " Servian 

 wall " which attaches to a structure obviously of the fourth century. 

 The tradition would in any case be worthless, but we have not even 

 a consistent tradition. A study of the growth of the city as at- 

 tributed to the various kings brings no profit, but exhibits merely a 

 mass of contradictions and inconsistencies.-^ So far as the name 



^ Sections of this wall are constantly being discovered. At the date of 

 writing (April, 1909) a very fine piece has been unearthed near the 

 Spithoever property. 



"* The only exception to this statement known to me is Eduard Meyer 

 (Hermes, XXX., 1895, p. 13) : " dass die Servianische Mauer nicht alter ist 

 als das vierte Jahrhmidert, ist seit O. Richter's Nachweis unumstosslich. 

 Sie umschliesst die Grossstadt der Samniterkriege." That this statement 

 has not been more appreciated is doubtless owing to the fact that it is 

 capable of being understood to apply merely to the date of the actually 

 existing Servian wall, leaving always the possibility that it implies another 

 wall on the same site preceding the " Servian " wall. 



•°In Dionysius of Halicarnassus (4, 13) and in Strabo (p. 234M) 

 Servius Tullius is aid to have added the Esquiline and the Viminal ; but 

 Livy (i, 44, cp. the author of de vir. ill. 7) says that he added the Quirinal 

 and the Viminal and increased the Esquiline ; whereas the Quirinal is else- 

 where (Dionys. 2, 50, Strabo, p. 234M) supposed to have been included in 

 the city of Romulus and Titus Tatius. On the other hand the so-called 

 Servian wall included the Aventine, hence Servius is supposed to have added 

 this hill to the city, whereas a very strong ancient tradition attributed the 



