File:The story of the greatest nations, from the dawn of history to the twentieth century - a comprehensive history, founded upon the leading authorities, including a complete chronology of the world, and (14762232591).jpg

Identifier: storyofgreatestn02elli (find matches)
Title: The story of the greatest nations, from the dawn of history to the twentieth century : a comprehensive history, founded upon the leading authorities, including a complete chronology of the world, and a pronouncing vocabulary of each nation
Year: 1900 (1900s)
Authors: Ellis, Edward Sylvester, 1840-1916 Horne, Charles F. (Charles Francis), 1870-1942
Subjects: World history
Publisher: New York : F.R. Niglutsch
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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and slipped away southward, to foray in the heart of the Latin land.Then messengers sped from the hill with warnings to the other cities, and thegarrison marched down to attack the invaders in the rear. In the time of the first Tarquinius there were at least five of these fortifi-cations rising on five of the seven hills, while unprotected houses filled thenarrow valleys between. Servius Tullius is credited with building the greatwall which ran across the valleys, connecting hill with hill and making a com-plete circuit within whose bounds lay the whole of Rome, This wall, whoseruins are still fifty feet high and whose protecting ditch was a hundred feetwide and thirty deep, remained the one great defence of the city till eight hun-dred years later, when the Emperor Severus erected on a wider circuit the wallswhich still surround the city. Before the expulsion of the Tarquins, the centre of Roman defence hadshifted from the Palatine to the Capitoline hill. This renowned height, natu-
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Rome—The Ancient City 309 rally steeper, higher, and more rocky than the Palatine, was made by Romanart a fortress utterly impregnable to assault. Gunpowder was unknown, andstarvation was the only weapon the defenders had to fear. It is worth while to keep in mind the location of these places, because be-tween the two hills, in the valley which the Cloaca Ma.xima had drained, stoodthe Roman Forum, the broad paved square in which the public assemblies wereheld, and in which originated most of the famous events of which we are nowto tell.

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