1909] CARTER— EVOLUTION OF THE CITY OF ROME. 141 



With the capture of the city by the Gauls, Rome enters upon 

 her period of inviolabihty for ahnost exactly eight hundred years, 

 and the thought suggests itself irresistibly that the reputation for 

 inviolability thus gained may have been a large factor in pre- 

 serving her inviolate. Even in these early days the city began to 

 be " that so holy spot, the very Rome." 



Rome, April 2, 1909. 



