When completed they were about six miles
in length, enclosing an area sufficient to accommodate the chief
buildings of the city and living space for a population of perhaps
200,000 people.
The defenses were designed to prevent interference or intrusion into the
life of the Romans. Behind them the inhabitants constructed temples, a
forum, palaces and other public buildings, bringing in clean mountain
water by an aqueduct that eventually reached a length of 44 miles,
constructing an extensive system of drains and sewers that disposed of
city wastes, building a network of roads that eventually gave the Romans
access first to all parts of Italy and later to the entire Mediterranean
Basin. They also replaced the wooden bridges over the Tiber and other
rivers by stone bridges carried on stone piers and arches.
Early in their building activities the Romans learned to make a cement
so weather-resistant that many of their constructs are still usable two
thousand years after the Romans built them. These and similar building
operations made Rome one of the show places of the Graeco-Roman world.
They also provided for the Romans a level of stability and security far
beyond that of their neighbors in that part of the unstable Italian
peninsula.
At the time Rome was founded, presumably about 700 B.C., the Italian
peninsula was occupied by a large number of principalities, kingdoms and
tribal nomads, newly arrived from eastern Europe and Asia.
Pages:
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41