Rambles in Rome / An Archæological and Historical Guide to the Museums, Galleries, Villas, Churches, and Antiquities of Rome and the Campagna

by S. Russell Forbes

THE PRÆTORIAN CAMP,

founded by Sejanus, the minister of Tiberius Cæsar, and destroyed by Constantine. The walls consist of brickwork, and have corridors on the inside, decorated with stucco and paintings. The camp was between the Portæ Viminalis and Nomentana, and forms a square projection in the present wall. It was outside the agger of Servius Tullius. The north wall is of the time of Tiberius; the east was rebuilt in the fourth century; the south has been reconstructed out of old square stones, probably material taken from the west or city wall (which has never been found), or from fragments of the Agger of Servius Tullius. To write the history of the Prætorian Camp would be equivalent to writing the history of Rome from Tiberius to Constantine. Here murderers were made emperors, and the empire put up to auction. Hence the Prætorians sallied out to attack the citizens, who in their turn assailed the camp. Here the guilty found asylum, and the innocent death.

Near the camp stood