Mediæval and Rome occupies chiefly the plain, known as the Campus Martius of ancient times, nearer the river, and on the slopes of the Pincian Hill, to the north, extending thence eastward to the Quirinal and Viminal. The smaller part of Rome, on the right or west bank, comprises the Borgo, or district, containing St. Peter’s, the Vatican, the Castle of St. Angelo, and the Janiculum Hill, to the north, with the Trastevere quarter, to the south.
The entire city is surrounded by a wall fourteen miles in circuit, with thirteen gates, the wall on the left bank being substantially identical with Aurelian’s Wall, built in the third century; while the Leonine Wall round the Borgo was extended in the early sixteenth century.
Modern Features and Districts.—The business part of the city occupies the plain on the bank between the hills and river, traversed by the Via del Corso, the principal thoroughfare in Rome, about a mile in length, leading from the Porto del Popolo to the foot of the Capitoline Hill, where is situated the great National Monument to Victor Emmanuel. From the Piazza del Popolo two great streets diverge on either side of the Corso, the Via di Ripetta to the right, skirting the Tiber, and to the left the Via del Babuino, leading to the Piazza di Spagna, whence the Scala di Spagna, the resort of artists’ models, ascends to the Pincian Gardens, on the site of the gardens of Lucullus, which command a splendid view of the city, and form the fashionable drive and promenade.
Of the new streets the most important are the Via Venti Settembre, the Via Cavour, and the Via Nazionale. The older foreign quarter lay at the foot of the Pincian, around the Piazza di Spagna, but the healthier sites on the slopes and summits of the Quirinal and Esquiline are now more frequented.
Rome abounds in open Squares (Piazzas) adorned with fountains, obelisks, or statues. Eleven Egyptian obelisks still ornament the gardens and piazzas of Rome, brought by Augustus and others. That in the Piazza of St. John Lateran, one hundred and four feet in height, is the largest in existence. It was erected at Thebes by Thothmes III., and removed by Constantine to the Circus Maximus. The triumphal arches of Septimius Severus, of Titus, and of Constantine are still conspicuous. Of the bridges over the Tiber, three are ancient.
The antiquities are legion, some of the most interesting are clustered within the area from the Colosseum to the crest of the Capitoline Hill.
SITE OF THE FORUM OF TRAJAN
The Forum consisted of three parts: the forum proper, the huge Basilica Ulpie, and the temple of Trajan, with it colonnaded inclosure. It was once the grandest building in Rome. Trajan’s Column, still standing, is a Roman Doric column of marble, on a square basement, the total height, exclusive of the present statue of St. Peter, being one hundred and twenty-seven and one-half feet. The entire shaft is occupied by vigorous and lifelike reliefs ascending in a spiral, representing Trajan’s campaigns. The reliefs contain about two thousand five hundred human figures, besides those of animals and inanimate objects.