came upon them in A.D. 70, and which is referred to in Lk 2Y^^^-, as deserved. The stittheckedness of the Jews brought upon them a ruin which other subject-races in the Empire had escaped by a wise submission.
The beginnings of Rome are shrouded in obscurity, but the spade has helped to correct and amplify what we learn from history. The city was situated on the left bank of the Tiber, about eighteen miles from its mouth. The original Rome was built only on the Palatine Hill. When the people of Romulus were united with the Sabines, the Capitoline Hill, the Forum, and perhaps part of the Quirinal, were added. Mons Coelius was occupied by Etruscan colonists from the other side of the river, and conquest led to the later inclusion of the Aventine, the Viminal, the Esquiline, and Quirinal Hills, on which early settlements had existed. Tradition has it that one of the kings, named Servius TuUius, built a wall to enclose the now largely extended city. This wall, called the agger, because it was built specially for purposes of defence, remained the wall of Rome till, late in the Empire, in the time of Aurelian (3rd cent. A.D.), a new and extended line of fortification -< was built. Outside the Servian wall there was a trench 100 ft. broad and 30 ft. deep. Within this the wall proper was built of large rectangular blocks, and behind this wall there was an embankment 100 ft. wide and 30 ft. high, pierced by the channels of aqueducts. Portions of the wall have been dis- covered in thirty-seven different places, and it is possible to trace its entire course. Advantage was taken bj' the engineers of all the natural features, and where these were lacking, as on the north- west, the above plan was followed. Between the Cajjitoline and the Aventine the river was thought to afford sufficient protection. The whole circuit of the wall was about 5 miles, and it was pierced by 19 gates. Within there was a large area of vacant spaces, which were gradually built on later, and at the beginning of the Empire the city was not only congested with buildings, but large areas without the wall were also covered with houses. In the year B.C. 10, Augustus divided the city into 14 wards (regiones), and these were in their turn subdivided into smaller quarters (vici). Some of the principal buildings must be referred to. The Roman Forum, an open space measuring over 300 ft. in length and about 150 ft. in breadth, was the centre of political, legal, and commercial life. At one end was the rostra or platform, from which speeches were delivered to the public ; at the other end were shops. On one side were the Curia or senate-house and the Basilica Emilia, a law-court ; along the whole of the other side, with the Sacra Via between, stretched the Basilica Julia, a very large law-court, surrounded by two rows of square columns. Other important buildings in the im- mediate neighbourhood were the Temple of Janus, the Temple of Caesar, the Arch of Augustus, the Temple of Vesta, the Temple of Castor and Pollux, and the Temple of Saturn, where was the treasury, with the Tabularium (record -office) behind. On the top of the Capitoline Hill was the Capitoliiimox g^cesxt temple dedicated to Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, and on the Palatine Hill the principal residence of the Emperor, and the Temple of Apollo containing the public libraries, Greek and Latin. In the Imperial period four additional fora were built, devoted entirely to legal, literary, and religious purposes — the Forum Julitim, begun by Julius Cnesar, the Fortim Augustum built by Augustus, the Forum Transitorium completed by Nerva, and the Forum Trajani built by Trajan, the most splendid work of imperial times. Considerations of space will not allow mention of the markets, circuses, theatres, baths, and gardens, which were characteristic
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features of the city and its life. The great roads whioii converged at Rome, and the aqueducts, can merely be mentioned. V'^arious estimates of the population of Rome in the time of Christ have been given, ranging from 8UO,O0U to 2,U00,UU0 : the latter seems more likely' than the former. All nation- alities in the Kmiiire were represented, and the slave population was very large.
Only a very brief sketch of the progress of the Ronums can be given. Their history is curiously parallel to our own. They were a mixed race, and jmssed through the three stages, pa.storal and agricultural, commercial, and imperial. The kernel of the race was Latin, but there was an early inter- mi.xture with Sabines and Etruscans, the latter, according to tradition, emigrants from Lydia, in Asia Minor. The Romans began as one of the members of the Latin league of which, having be- come presidents, they eventually became masters. After conquering Latium, they were inevitably brought into conflict with the other races of Italy. They rose again after the Gallic invasion and destruction of their city in 390, and by the time their trade interests brought them into conflict with the Carthaginians, about the middle of the 3rd cent. B.C., they were sovereign over most of Italy. The close of that century saw them pos- sessors of Sicily and Sardinia, as well as conquerors over ' Africa.' About this time they began to interfere in Eastern politics, and the Macedonian wars and the conflicts which grew out of them resulted in the conquest of Macedonia and Greece in the same year as they finally became masters of 'Africa.' Ere this they had become possessed of most of Spain. The extension of Roman territory steadily continued, until in the time of Christ it included, roughly, Europe (except the British Isles, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and Russia), the whole of Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, and the north-west of Africa.