The Capitoline was the seat of administration — the Capitol. State acts, deeds, documents, etc., were advertised there by hanging or (posting* copies, engraved on bronze, on a statue or shrine.
The Quirinal, the northernmost of the seven summits, is a long narrow eminence beginning at the Forum of Trajan, at the base of the Capitoline and stretches northeastward toward the Porta Pia. It was the site of the Thirtpk Janus Quirinns (a Sabine god) surrounded by a sacred grove. Here Martial, the epigram matist, lived in a third floor apartment is a narrow street and greater folk had their pal aces— the Flavii and the Cornelii-»at some number in the Vicus Corneliortun. In Tro jan's time the Quirinal was joined to the Capi toline by a steep, high ridge which sloped to the Forum Romanum on the southeastern side and to the Campus Martius in the opposite direction. Trajan cut it away. The building of chief importance on this hill is the Quirinal Palace erected to be a summer residence of the popes. It is now the palace of the king.
The Viminal, like the Esquiline, was out the Servian wall, adjacent to the Quirinal and in appearance a part of it, except when viewed from near S. Maria Maggiore. It ex tends to the Esquiline and gets its name from the water willows (vimina) once abundant there. The line of separation between the bases of the Quirinal and the Viminal was marked b' the massive Tower of Nero (the Torre Mili Ise) and the walls of the Forum of Augustus. The most striking remains on the Viminal are the ruins of the Baths of Diocletian near the railway station. The great baths of Thermal were peculiar features of the city and were used not only for bathing purposes, but for games and athletic sports and contained assent hly rooms, fibraries, promenades, etc. The therme of Caracalla, Titus and Diocletian were the most magnificent and largest.
The Aventine Hill takes its rise from where the old Sublician bridge spooned the Tiber and extends to the Circus Maxilnus, which sepa• rated it from the Palatine. The name• des rived from King Aveatinus Silvius, according to the most credited but still disputed etymol ogy. It is the and most picturesque of the • hills. The Roman home of Saint Paul's friend Aquila was on the Aventine 2nd overt looked the Circus Maximus. Here, tradition says, Peter and Paul taught the Christian faith in an oratory discovered in 1776 near the pres ent church of S. Prisca. Aquila and Priscilla
were buried in the cemetery of Priscilla, which was also the burial place of Pudens, whose house was on the southern slope of the Viminal, where its remains were discovered in 1870 The Liber Pontificolis confirms the tradition that pieces of furniture used by Saint Peter were long preserved in the house and church of Pudens.
There were other hills of profound interest to students of the history of the imperial city. The Janiculum was the chief of these, rising abruptly on the right bank of the Tiber and declining gently into the Campagna in the direction of Civita Vecchia, the ancient Centum Vellae. Ancus Marcius, fourth of the Roman kings, connected it with the rest of the city by means of the Pons Sublicius, the first bridge over the Tiber and the scene of the de fense of Rome by Horatius Codes, who kept the bridge against Tarquinius Superbus and his Etrurian ally, Lars Porsena.
The Ramnes settled the Palatine, the Lu ceres the Callan and the Sabina all the other eminences. These tribes were the three chief racial ingredients of the Roman people. The Servian wall enclosed all these hills except the aquiline, the Vtengal tiod•the Janis:ashen. The Aurelian • was built to extend atilt{ further the defenses- of Rome, thtn. threatened by the northern tribes The menace of the -G was tesponaible•for the purpose to enclose not only the city proper,: but a part of the suburbs be yond the •Tiber, aa a. sniiitary necessity. The suburbs were,re the mercy of the barbarians who had' already overspread whole provinces and devastated ae far as Rosie, (which had now descended its bins to the, nuenclotted • Campus Martha.' Aurelian, with the support of the senate, commented: the wall which bears his name in 271. The Ein.siede'M Manteratiins (9th century) enumerate 383 towers, same of which remained until near the end of the last century, notably near the site of the Ludovisi Gardens. It also records the names of the 14 gates in this wall, of which six are in use now: Porta Flans inia, now Porta del Popolo; Porta S. Lorenzo (the ancient P. Tiburtina), Porta Maggiore (P. Praenestina), Porta S. Sebastian (P. Appia), Porta G. Paolo (P. Ostiensis) ; on the Janicu lum, Porta Aurelia These gates, which dis close the course of the wall, date generally from the time of Honorius (379-395).