Rome is located about halfway down the Italian peninsula. The Apen-nine mountain chain runs like a spine up and down the Italian peninsula, and Rome is on the east side of this line. Rome is on the banks of the Tiber River about 22 km (15 miles) inland as the crow flies.
There are a number of reasons why fhis place was well suited to be the location of a major city, most of which have to do with the Tiber River itself. It is true that most large cities, particularly in the ancient world, grew up alongside rivers. Rivers provide irrigation for growing food, a source of wafer for drinking, a means of transporfation fo connect the city and its inhabitants to the wider world, and can serve as a ready-made sewage system for disposal of wasfe.
The Tiber (Tiberis in Latin, Tevere in Italian) is central Italy's longest river, flowing 409 km from where it starts in the Apennines to where it enters the Mediterranean Sea. At the site of Rome, the river makes a broad, C-shaped bend, and just below this bend is Tiber Island. The point below the island, sheltered by its presence, is the first natural crossing point over the Tiber when moving inland from the coast and as such almost inevitably became the site of a seftlement. Making this spot even more attractive is the fact that this crossing was located along the Via Salaria (Salt Road), so named because the marshes near the mouth of fhe Tiber were a source of salt, an important early trade commodity. Thus the river crossing below Tiber Island was a natural communication node of great importance.
A second feature of the river up to this key point is that it was navigable by vessels up to small-ship size, which meant that Rome would have good access to the sea and to maritime trade and communication without actually having to be on the coast. One problem with the proximity of the river, however, is that the Tiber is prone to flooding, especially in the winter and spring.
The next important geographic feature that made the site of Rome an attractive one for settlement was that a number of hills were located close to the river crossing. One often hears that Rome has seven hills, whereas there are actually more. Hills are another highly desirable feature when selecting where to build a city since they provide natural defensive sites on which to build fortresses for protection and offer locations from which surrounding territory can be observed. High ground can also sometimes offer healfh benefifs to those who live there. The three most important hills in Rome are the ones closest to the Tiber: the Capitoline, the Palatine, and the Aventine.
The Capitoline is the smallest of the hills but is probably the most important. The sides of this hill were fairly steep, and thus it constituted a natural fortress. There are two crests on the hill, with a low saddle
Figure 2.2 Map of the main topographical features of Rome. The original site of Rome was a mixture of small hills and swampy depressions. (Adapted by the author and David West Reynolds, Phaeton Group, Scientific Graphic Services Division, from map of Rome in The Urban Image of Augustan Rome by Diane Favro, 1996, with the permission of Cambridge University Press.)
Between them. At the southwest end are some sharp cliffs overlooking the river, a point known as the Tarpeian Rock. Traditionally, criminals sentenced to death were flung to their doom from the Tarpeian Rock.
The Capitoline got its name from the Latin word for head (caput) because, when digging the foundation for an early temple, the workers supposedly uncovered a perfectly preserved human head. This was seen as a good omen, interpreted as meaning that this spot would become the head of the world. The temple built there became known as the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, after the king of the gods, Jupiter, and the omen of the head. Throughout its history, this hill always functioned as the focal point of some of the most important religious rituals. The largest and most impressive temple in Rome was built here. At the northeast corner was a place called the auguraculum, where a special group of priests known as augurs determined the will of the gods by observing the flight of birds.
The Palatine is the central hill of Rome, around which the others cluster. It is also important because it directly overlooks the crucial Tiber River crossing; therefore, an outpost on the hill could control traffic across this point. The Palatine has a large, flat top of about 25 acres and seems to have been the location of the earliest dwellings as well as being another easily defensible outcrop.
Archaeologists have found the remains of a series of primitive oval huts on this hill. These were crude structures consisting of wooden posts stuck in the ground, with the spaces between filled in with wattle and daub and covered by simple thatched roofs. These huts may be evidence of some of the earliest settlers in the area. The Romans themselves said that the earliest inhabited site was the Palatine, and they preserved through the centuries one of these primitive huts, which they claimed had been the house of Romulus himself. Due to its central position, the Palatine provided easy access to both the crossing and the Roman Forum, which became the political center of the city; therefore, the Palatine became the most desirable place to live. During the republic, aristocratic homes clustered here, and later during the empire, the emperors selected this as the site for their palaces, which eventually expanded until they filled the entire top of the hill.
The Aventine is the southernmost hill that still had good proximity to the political centers and the eventual locations of the main commercial centers. It was a popular residential hill that early in Roman history was specifically granted to those of plebeian stafus, fhough this distinction seems to have dissipated by the empire.
These three hills close to the Tiber are enclosed by an arc of additional hills farther inland. Starting from the north, these hills are the Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline, and Caelian. The Quirinal is a long ridge about two kilometers in length, which seems to have gotten its name from a shrine to the local deity Quirinus. When the inhabitants of Rome merged with the nearby Sabine people, this was supposedly the place where the Sabines lived. The Viminal is another ridge paralleling the Quirinal to the south and was probably the least important of the various hills of Rome. The Esquiline, a large bluff with various ridges extending out from it, was originally the site of a number of cemeteries, which were eventually displaced when the city's boundaries were expanded. The two main spurs sticking out from the Esquiline toward the river are sometimes considered hills in their own right, the Cispian hill and the Oppian hill. Finally, the Caelian is a long, narrow ridge curving to the south of the Esquiline. These are the traditional seven hills of Rome, but there are several others in the city that played important roles.
The PLncian hill runs north-south as a line of high ground that walls off the open end of the great bend in the Tiber River. The low-lying flatlands between the Pincian and the Tiber bend were known as the Campus Martin s.
On the other side of the Tiber is a line of hills known as the Janiculum. In a fashion similar to the Pincian, it forms a wall across the open end of the reverse bend of the Tiber, The Janiculum is actually the highest hill in Rome in terms of altitude and today provides a scenic panorama of the city. In antiquity, the Janiculum was a key observation post from which to spot approaching enemies.
In between the various hills of Rome were a number of small, low-lying valleys, several of which would become important centers of the city. Of these, probably the most significant is the Forum Romanum, nestled in the depression between the Capitoline, the Palatine, and the Quirinal. This was the first marketplace of the city, and the original natural site would have been very swampy, with several streams running through it. Nevertheless, this was where most of the main streets converged.
Another such crossroads was the open space below and between the Palatine and the Aventine on the bank of the Tiber. This area, known as the Forum Boarium, was where the ferry that went across the river landed. Rome's first bridge was built here, spanning the ferry passage. The name of this transportation hub literally means "the cattle market." However, it would have been an unsuitable place to gather cows, and the name is probably derived from a famous early bronze statue of a bull that was erected there.
The Valley of the Circus Maximus is a long, narrow depression that begins between the Aventine and the Palatine and continues inland for several kilometers. A stream originally flowed through the bottom of this valley and emptied into the Tiber. The valley where the Colosseum would be built was a low-lying depression at the end of the Cispian and Oppian hills that was originally the site of a marshy lake.
A key aspect of all these valleys is how wet they were, and drains would have had to be constructed before they could be heavily built up. On the other hand, the areas were so wet because there were so many natural springs, and the presence of these sources of drinking water was another factor that made this an advantageous place to build a city.
Most of the central parts of the city were eventually located in and around this series of valleys, but just outside this central zone were several large, flat fields, which also served important purposes for the ancient city of Rome.
The most important of these by far was the Campus Martius. This large area, about two kilometers across by two kilometers wide, was enclosed by the bend of the Tiber on three sides and the Pincian hill on the other. Its name means "the field of Mars" (the Roman god of war). According to legend, this land had once belonged to the king Tarquinius Superbus, and when he was expelled from Rome, the land was dedicated to Mars. The field was used early on as public pasturage, and a low-lying spot in the center was known as the Palus Caprae, or literally, the "goat swamp." The entire Campus Martius was essentially a floodplain and, whenever the Tiber rose, was one of the first areas inundated. The Romans used this field for a wide variety of festivals and athletic events and, most importantly, as a place of assembly for the citizens. Roman citizens gathered here, grouped according to their centuries (units of 100), either as components in the Roman army prior to going to war or in order to vote. Some early temples were also located in the Campus Martins.
Another important area was the Transtiberim (Trastevere in Italian). Both in Latin and Italian, this name means "across the Tiber" and refers to the triangular, flat area between the Janiculum and the river. Most of the city of Rome always clustered on the left bank, but there was also a small enclave on the right bank in the Transtiberim region.
One final term that refers to a man-made feature rather than to a natural one is the pomerium. This was the sacred boundary of the city, and in a solemn religious ceremony, a bull and a cow were used to plow a furrow in the earth, which demarcated the boundary of the city and held great religious significance. Romulus himself was credited with creating the first pomerium, but as the city grew over time, it was repeatedly enlarged until, by the second century ad, it included all seven hills, the Campus Martius, and the Transtiberim. This boundary was marked with inscribed stones called cippi.
The natural setting and geographical features of the location of Rome are a bit unusual in that a variety of hills, valleys, and flatlands are interspersed along a river within a fairly small area. This landscape would play a central role in the course of the city's development.
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