T H E WA L L S , GAT ES E T F AQU D U C S O ROM E . B! T H M A H D IN D L . O S O G ! , . C . L O ND ON JO HN M URR ! L BE M RL E S T RE E T A , A A . 1 899 . PRE F ACE . The follo w ing extracts from the fourth volume of my ! H istory of Italy and her Invaders, are made fo r the co nvenien c e of travellers w ho may desire to read on the sp o t the acco unt there given of the Walls, Gates, and Aqueducts m w ho o n ot ea sil oo m r , of Ro e,but. c uld y find r in th ei baggage fo r a somewhat bulky volume . The City of Ro me was evacuated by the Ostrogo ths, and entered by Belisarius, the general of J ustinian ,on the 9th of 5 3 December, 5 3 6 . Early in March, 7, the Ostrogothic h ost, u nder their King, Witigis, reappeared under its walls, and began the memorabl e siege which lasted for a year and nine days, but ended at last by their marching away, leaving the city untaken . The sto ry of that siege has been given u s by the histo rian Procopius, a civil servant on the staff o f Belisarius, an d will be fo und transcribed at some length in the v olume fro m which I to n o w o n these extracts are taken . refer it ly in o rde r to explain some allusions which migh t oth er w ise perplex the n of reader . I have reprinted here o ly so much my boo k as des c ribes the City (in the year the Walls, an d the Aqueducts o f Ro me . TH OM AS H OD G! IN . 1 — CIT! R OME IN 5 3 6 TH E W L L S . THE OF , AND A OF AU R E L IU S AND HONORIUS . Belisarius seems not to have taken up his ab ode in any of the imperial residences on the Palatine Hill, where the rep re sentati ve o f the Byzanti n e Caesar might naturally have been expected to dwell, but, prescient o f the coming struggle, to have at o nce fi xed his quarters on the Pincian Hill . This ridge on the no rth of Rome, so well kn o wn by every visitor to the modern city, w ho,h o wever short his stay , is sure to have seen the long train o f carriages climbi ng to or returning fro m the fa shi onable drive, a n d w ho has probably stood up on its height in o rde r to o btain the splen did view which it affo rds of the ’ n o t one of o of do me o f St . Peter s, was the riginal seven hills the city,nor fo rmed ,strictly speaking, a part even of imperial e m o H ortuloru m o r Rome . Kn own in arlier ti es as the C llis , Hill of Gardens, it occupied too commanding a p os ition to be safely left o utside the defences ,a nd had therefo re been included within the circ uit of the walls of H o n o rius, so me of the great retain in g walls of the garde n s of M . Q. Acilius Glabrio having d 1 e o o r e e . t , be n inc rp ated with th new fences Here hen in the Advantag e s o f h o 2 t e p siti on . n m o Do mus Pi ciana , the i perial General to k up his abode . - Albeit probably somewhat dismantled, it was d o ubtless still a stately a nd spacio us palace,though it has now disappeared and n m r left o trace behind . I t was ad i ably adapted for his purpose, being in fact a watch - to wer commandi n g a view all ro und the 1 I n h e o f L anci ani w h o con s d s i s give thi s fact o t auth rity o S . , i er th t of the n th R i Its com par wall to bel o g to e epubl can age . paratively early i date s sho wn by th e large masse s of Op us reti cula tum whi ch it con tain s , this di amon d~ sh ap ed style of brickwork n ot havin g been used in R ome t th af er e earli est age of th e E mpire . om s n n i m n i d ri Vari arum The D u Pi cia a s e tioned in Ca ss o o ,iii . ,1 0, where Theo d ori c orders Festus to tran sp ort the marble s whi ch it a ppears have been taken d own from the Pi n cian house quae de d omo Pin ciana cons tat esse deposita to Ravenna . P r e a r a t ons or M e D e ence o ome 6 p i f f f R . 1 o m om n rthern horizon, fro the Vatican to the Mons Sacer . Fr this p o int a ride of a few minutes on his swift charger would bring him to the next great vantage-ground, the Castra Praetoria, whose square enclosure, proj ecting beyo nd the ordinary line o f the H onoria n walls,made a tempting obj ect of attack ,but also a splendid watch -tower for defence,carrying on ’ the general s view to the Praenestine Gate (Porta Maggiore) on - the so uth east of the city . Thus, from these two points,about a third of the whole circuit o f the walls,and nearly all o f that part which was actually attacked by the Go ths, was visible . That the city would have to be defended,and that it would tax all his po wers to defend it successfully,was a matte r that was perfectly clear to the mind of Belisarius, tho ugh the ’ Romans,dwelling in a fool s paradise of false security,deemed that all their tro ubles were o ver when the 4000 G oths marched fo rth by the Flaminian Gate . They thought that the war w o uld inevitably be decided elsewhere by some great pitched m m battle . It see ed to the obvi o us that so skilful a general as Belisarius w o uld never consent to be besieged in a city so little defen ded by nature as was the wide circuit o f imperial Ro me, no r undertake the almost su pe rhuman task of providin g fo r the sustenance of that vast populatio n i n additi o n to his o w n army . Such , however,was the scheme o f Belisarius,who knew that behind the walls o f Rome his little army c o uld o ffer a more ' eflectual resistance to the e n emy than in any pitched battle on o o to the Campanian plains . Sl wly and sadly the citizens aw ke the fact that their hasty defecti on from the Gothic cause was by no means to relieve them from the hardships of a siege . Possibly some of them, in the year of misery that lay befo re them,even envied the short and sharp agony of N eapolis . The commissariat of the city was naturally o ne o f the chief Commi ssari at. ’ om obj ects o f the General s solicitude . Fr Sicily, still the granary of the State, his ships had bro ught and were daily bringing large supplies of grain . These were carried into the 1 he I think that this i s correct, and probably an un derstatement of t h But the o s an d ns of the l s o s extent of t e view . gr ve garde Vi la B rghe e h m c a n d Albani outside th e wall s make it difficult now to say exactly ow u h w as vis ible from the Pincian i n the time of Beli sarius . r M e Wa s Repa i of ll . 536 . great warehouses (hor r ea p ubli ca ) ,which were under the care m m - of the Praefectus An nonae . At the sa e ti e the citizens, sorely gru mbling, were set busily to wo rk to bring into the city the corn and provisions of all kinds that were sto red in the r sur ounding country . Side by side with this great wo rk went on the repair of th e walls,which Belisarius found in many places somewhat ruino us . Tw o hundred and sixty years had elapsed since they were erected by Aurelian and Pro bus, on e hundred and thi rty since they were renewed by H o nori us,and in the latter inte rval they may have suffered not only from the slow foot of time, but from the destroying hands of the s oldiers of Al aric,of Gais eric, ’ f Ri im r o o i o and o c e .