[1383] The people of Ulubræ, a small town of Latium, near the Pomptine Marshes; its site is unknown.
[1384] The people of Urbinum; there were two places of that name in Umbria, now called Urbeno and Urbania.
[1385] The name probably by which the city was called in the mystical language of the priesthood. It has been said that this mysterious name of Rome was Valentia; if so, it appears to be only a translation of her name Græcized—Ῥώμη, “strength.” This subject will be found again mentioned in B. xxviii. c. 4.
[1386] Solinus says that he was put to death as a punishment for his rashness. M. Sichel has suggested that this mysterious name was no other than Angerona.
[1387] It is not known whether this mystical divinity was the goddess of anguish and fear, or of silence, or whether she was the guardian deity of Rome. Julius Modestus says that she relieved men and cattle when visited by the disease called “angina,” or “quinsy,” whence her name.
[1388] The Carmental, the Roman, and the Pandanian or Saturnian gates, according to Varro.
[1389] Titus was saluted Imperator after the siege of Jerusalem, and was associated with his father Vespasian in the government. They also acted together as Censors.
[1390] The Lares Compitales presided over the divisions of the city, which were marked by the compita or points where two or more streets crossed each other, and where ‘ædiculæ’ or small chapels were erected in their honour. Statues of these little divinities were erected at the corner of every street. It was probably this custom which first suggested the idea of setting up images of the Virgin and Saints at the corners of the streets, which are still to be seen in many Roman Catholic countries at the present day.
[1391] This was a gilded column erected by Augustus in the Forum, and called “milliarium aureum;” on it were inscribed the distances of the principal points to which the “viæ” or high-roads conducted.
[1392] Supposing the circuit of the city to have been as he says, 132⁄5 miles, he must either make a great miscalculation here, or the text must be very corrupt. The average diameter of the city would be in such case about 41⁄2 miles, the average length of each radius drawn from the mile-column 21⁄4 miles, and the total amount 831⁄4 miles, whereas he makes it but 203⁄4 miles, or little better than an average of half-a-mile for each radius. We may also remark that the camp of the Prætorian cohorts here mentioned was established 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.