The population of ancient Rome has been estimated In ways—by the extent of the area within the city wall, by the amount of corn consumed in a year, by the number of habitations, etc. What the area was is uncer tain, the extent of the walls being a matter of controversy. In the Augustan period, at the beginning of our era, the consumption of corn —6000,000 bushels in a year—indicated a population of 4950,000 lb have housed this lumber —.allowing 40 persons to the, house-r. would hare acquired 48,750 habitations; but of the acts number of domiciles at. this time theft is no recond, Four hundred years later, in the reign of. Theodosius . (395-425)-, wet have the fest vetoed• of the kind, 48,382 houses. Ju• venal advised the poor to emigrate from the miserable, dark lodgings, the smoke and other hardships of the city to better homes at the same price in the Italian villages. Houses were built to dangerous heights in order to accommodate the body of the Roman people and the estimate of 40 persons to each habita tion may not be too large. The fact that there were no more houses in Rome at the end of the 4th century than there were at the begin ning of the first should be pondered in the light of the sharp fluctuations of population which, for one reason and another, took place in the early centuries of the Christian era. Merivale's guess at the population was 300,000, Dureau Lainalle's 500,000, Gibbon's 1,200,000 and Donovan's 1,950,000. For an interesting discussion of Roman population, consult Story, di ch. xxi.
Public edifices rather than private, life in public in preference to domestic pursuits in the were beets characteristic of the Roman genius which developed a political system of collectivism — centralization, state initiative and domination. The Athenian emphasis on the dividual was reversed in Rome. There the unit counted for nothing; the utilities were for the populace. Under this system a wonderful city came into being, the greatest instrument of popular service that was created before the Christian era. At the beginning of the 4th century there were in Rome, 18 public fora, 30 parks and gardens and 8 camp or commons principally used for athletics. To these are to be added the covered ways which sheltered the people from sun and rain, the colonnades and temples which served them in many ways and the public baths for their refreshment — it large ones and 926 small, capable of receiving 60,000 bathers at one time. Noteworthy among these were the baths of Agrippa, with the cele brated Pantheon (q.v.), the (temple to all the gods,* adjacent. Through all these utilities and many others the currents of Roman life ran from century to century of development well-balanced life, expanding constructively and making Rome indeed eternal, and, Jerusalem excepted, the most interesting spot on the globe.
In the fora —the kind called vocalic; — they trafficked in cattle, corn, fish; in the fora Judi ciolia brokers and money-lenders pursued their calling in offices in the porticoes and buildings which enclosed them. The great forum—not the largest, but called the Forum Romanum Magnum was built between the Palatine and the Capitoline hills. Before its founding this valley was a small lake, with a ferry; later, a morass with its wet and dry seasons-- in the latter the scene of occasional battles between denizens of the surrounding hills — and finally ideally prepared for its future use by drainage accomphshed through the great sewer, Cloaca Maxima, discovered in 1872. The Foram first became useful in the 6th century ac., as the ontununity assembling place,' serving more am ply than the area Capitolina which had previ ously been used. In view of its august history one learns with surprise how small its area was. (We say to ourselves, is it possible the Roman world, even of Caesar's time, could have transacted its business in such restricted limits?* Its greatest length at any time, anti quarians agree, did not exceed 671 feet, its greatest width (under the Capitol) 202 and its least 117, at its eastern end. Under the em pire it was but 375 feet long and 150 feet wide at the Capitoline end. It was habitually so encroached upon by the statues and monuments that the senate from time to time required it to be cleared. Lucius 1Ernilius Paulus, with a part of the spoils of the Gallic War, purchased adjacent property and enlarged the forum on the northern side. Caesar, drawing on the same fund, bought more space, removed houses north and west of the Curia and gave Rome the Forum Julium. Augustus extended the area northward and Vespasian, Domitian and Nerva, each as he came upon the scene, enlarged east ward until the Forum Transitorium and the Forum Pads were created. Trajan cut away a spur of the Quirinal on the northwest side of the Forum of Augustus and completed the development projected by Paulus and Caesar with the vast Trajan or Ulpian Forum. we from some vantage point look down and stir• vey all these imperial fora, together with their original parent, the one forum alone now com pletely exposed for us, that surprise above ad verted to would not partake of the nature of a disappointment. . . . We should survey a space covering many thousands of square yards, amazingly rich with temples, basilicas and columns, white with dazzling Marbles and white robed people, golden with gilt bronze statues, and here ' and there' beautifully green with favored and sacred trees End flowers.* (Bad dele•y).