LAPIS is put for a mile; thus, ad tertium lapidem, the same with tria millia passuum ab urbe, Plin. xv. 18. Liv. xxvi. 10. Ats maller distances, there were stones for travellers to rest on, and to assist those who alighted to mount their horses, Plutarch. in Gracch. See p. 214.

The public ways (PUBLICÆ VIE) were named either from the persons who first laid them out, or the places to which they led thus, VIA APPIA, and near it, Via NUMICIA, which also led to Brundusium.

Via AURELIA, along the coast of Etruria; FLAMINIA, to Ariminum and Aquileia; CASSIA, in the middle between these two, through Etruria to Mutina, Cic. Phil. xii. 9. Cat. ii. 4. EMILIA, which led from Ariminum to Placentia, Liv. xxxix. 2.

Via PRENESTINA, to Præneste; TRIBURTINA, vel TIBURS, to Tibur, Horat. Sat. i. 6. 108. OSTIENSIS, to Ostia; LAURENTINA, to Laurentum, Plin. ep. ii. 16. SALARIA; So called, because by it the Sabines carried salt from the sea, Festus, Martial. iv. 64. 18. LATINA, &c.

The principal roads were called PUBLICÆ, vel MILITARES, consulares, vel prætoria; as among the Greeks, Baotixa, i. e. regia; the less frequented roads, PRIVATE, agrariæ, vel vicinales, quia ad agros et vicos ducunt, Ulpian.

The charge of the public ways was-intrusted only to men of the highest dignity, Plin. ep. v. 15. Augustus himself undertook the charge of the roads round Rome, and appointed two men of Prætorian rank to pave the roads; each of whom was attended by two lictors, Dio. liv. 8.

From the principal ways, there were cross-roads, which led to some less noted place, to a country villa, or the like, called DIVERTICULA, Suet. Ner. 48. Plin. 31. 3. s. 25. Serv. ad Æn. ix. 379. which word is put also for the inns along the public roads, Liv. i. 51. Donat. in Ter. Eun. iv. 2. 7. hence for a digression from the principal subject, Liv. ix. 17. Juvenal. xv. 72.

But places near the road where travellers rested (quò diverterent ad requiescendum), are commonly called DIVERSORIA, whether belonging to a friend, the same with Hospitia, Cic. Fam. vi. 19. or purchased on purpose, Ib. vii. 23. or hired, (meritoria), then properly called CAUPONE, Horat. ep. i. 11. 12. or TABERNE DIVERSORIE, Plaut. Truc. iii. 2. 29. and the keeper, (Institor), of such a place, of an inn or tavern, CAUPO; those who went to it, DIVERSORES, Cic. Inven. i. 4. Divin. 27. Hence commorandi natura diversorium nobis, non habitandi dedit, Id. Sen. 23.

In later times, the inns or stages along the roads were called MANSIONES; commonly at the distance of half a day's journey from one another, See p. 358. and at a less distance, places for re

lays, called MUTATIONES, where the public couriers, (publici cursores vel VEREDARII), changed horses.

These horses were kept in constant readiness, at the expense of the Emperor, but could only be used by those employed on the public service, without a particular permission, notified to the innkeepers by a diploma, Plin. ep. x. 14. 121. The Romans had no public posts, as we have.

The first invention of public couriers is ascribed to Cyrus, Xenophon. Cyrop. viii. p. 496. Edit. Hutchinson. Augustus first introduced them among the Romans, Suet. Aug. 49. Plutarch. Galb. But they were employed only to forward the public desp tches, or to convey political intelligence, Plin. ep. x. 120. It is surprising they were not sooner used for the purposes of commerce and private communication. Lewis XI. first established them in France, in the year 1474: but it was not till the first of Charles II. anno 1660, that the post-office was settled in England by act of parliament, Rapin, vol. 2. 622. fol. ed. and three years after the revenues arising from it, when settled on the Duke of York, amounted only to L. 20,000, lb. 680.

Near, the public ways the Romans usually placed their spulchres; See p. 459.

The streets of the city were also called VIE, the cross-streets, VIE TRANSVERSE, Cic. Verr. iv. 53. thus, Via SACRA, Horat. Sut. i. 9. Nova, Ovid. Fast. vi. 395, &c. paved with flint, Juvenal. iii. 270. yet usually dirty, Id. 247. Mart. vii. 60. 6. v. 23. 6.

The Roman ways were sometimes dug through mountains, as the grotto of Puzzoli, Crypta Puteolana, between Puteoli and Naples ; and carried over the broadest rivers by bridges, (hence facere pontem en fluvio; fluvium ponte jungere, vel committere; pontem fluvio imponere, indere vel injicere.)

The ancient bridges of Rome were eight in number: 1. Pons SUBLICIUS, vel Emilius, so called, because first made of wood, (from sublicæ, stakes, Liv. i. 33.) and afterwards of stone, by Emilius Lepidus; some vestiges of it still remain at the foot of Mount Aventine; 2. Pons FABRICIUS, which led to an isle in the Tiber, (insula), first built of stone, A. U 692. Dio. 37. 45. And 3. CESTIUS, which led from the island: 4. SENATORIUS, vel Palatinus, near Mount Palatine; some arches of it are still standing: 5. Pons JANICULI, vel -aris, so named, because it led to the Janiculum; still standing: 6. Pons TRIUMPHALIS, which those who triumphed passed in going to the Capitol; only a few vestiges of it remain: 7. Pons ELIUS, built by Elius Hadrianus; still standing; the largest and most beautiful bridge in Rome: 8. Pons MILVIUS. without the city; now called Ponte mollè.

There are several bridges on the Ano or Teverone; the most considerable of which is Pons NARSIS, so called, because rebuilt

by the eunuch Narses, after it had been destroyed by Totila, king of the Goths.

About sixty miles from Rome, on the Flaminian Way, in the country of the Sabines, was Pons NARNIENSIS, which joined two mountains, near Narnia, or Narni, over the river Nar. built by Augustus, of stupendous height and size : vestiges of it still remain; one arch entire, above 100 feet high, and 150 feet wide.

But the most magnificent Roman bridge, and perhaps the most wonderful ever made in the world, was the bridge of Trajan over the Danube; raised on twenty piers of hewn stone, 150 feet from the foundation, sixty feet broad, and 170 feet distant from one another, extending in length about a mile. But this stupendous work was demolished by the succeeding Emperor Hadrian, who ordered the upper part and the arches to be taken down, under pretext that it might not serve as a passage to the Barbarians, if they should become masters of it; Dio. lviii. 13. but in reality, as some writers say, through envy; because he despaired of being able to raise any work comparable to it. Some of the pillars are still standing.

There was a bridge at Nismes (Nemausum), in France, which supported an aquæduct over the river Gardon, consisting of three rows of arches; several of which still remain entire, and are esteemed one of the most elegant monuments of Roman magnificence. The stones are of an extraordinary size, some of them twenty feet long; said to have been joined together, without cement, by ligaments of iron. The first row of arches was 438 feet long; the second, 746; the third and highest, 805; the height of the three from the water, 182 feet.

In the time of Trajan, a noble bridge was built over the Tagus or Tayo, near Alcantara in Spain; part of which is still standing. It consisted of six arches, eighty feet broad each, and some of them 200 feet high above the water, ex ending in length 660 feet.

The largest single arched bridge known, is over the river Elaver, or Allier, in France, called Pons veteris Brivatis, near the city Brioude, in Avergne, from Briva, the name of a bridge among the ancient Gauls. The pillars stand on two rocks, at the distance of 195 feet. The arch is eighty-four feet high above the water.

Of temporary bridges, the most famous was that of Cæsar over the Rhine, constructed of wood, Cas. B. G. iv. 17.

The Romans often made bridges of rafts or boats, joined to one another, Cæs. B. G. i. 12. viii. 14. Flor. iii. 5. and sometimes of empty casks or leathern bottles, Herodian. viii. Zozim. iii. Lucan. iv. 420. as the Greeks, Xenoph. Cyr. iii.

THE

LIMIT'S of the EMPIRE.

HE limits which Augustus set to the Roman Empire, and in his testament advised his successors not to go beyond, Tacit. Ann.

i. 11. Dio. lvi. 33. & 41. were the Atlantic Ocean on the west, and the Euphrates on the east ; on the north, the Danube and the Rhine; and on the south, the cataracts of the Nile, the deserts of Africa and Mount Atlas; including the whole Mediterranean Sea, and the best part of the then known world. So that the Romans were not without foundation called RERUM DOMINI, Virg. Æn. i. 282. and Rome, LUX ORBIS TERRARUM, ATQUE ARX OMNIUM GENTIUM, Cic. Cat. iv. 6. TERRARUM DEA GENTIUMQUE Roma, CUI PAR EST NIHIL, ET NIHIL SECUNDUM, Mart. xii. 8. CAPUT ORBIS TERRARUM. Liv. 1. 16. xxi. 30. CAPUT RERUM, Tacit. hist. ii. 32. Liv. i. 45. Domina ROMA, Horat. od. iv. 14. 44. Princeps urbium, Id. ii. 13. REgia, Ep. i. 7. 44. PULCHERRIMA RERUM, Virg. G. ii. 534. MAXIMA RERUM, Æn. vii. 602. Sed quæ de septem totum circumspicit orbem montibus, IMPERII ROMA DEUMQUE, (i. e. principum v. imperatorum) LOCUS, Ovid. Trist. i. 4. 69. Dumque suis victrix omnem de montibus orbem prospiciet domitum, MARTIA ROMA, legar, ib. i. 7. 51. CAPUT MUNDI RERUMQUE POTESTAS, Lucan. ii. 136. Septem URBS alta jugis TOTO QUE PRÆSIDET ORBI, Propert. iii. 11. 57.

Agreeably to the advice of Augustus, few additions were made to the empire after his time. Trajan subdued Dacia, north of the Danube, and Mesopotamia and Armenia, east of the Euphrates, Eutrop. viii. 2. The south of Britain was reduced by Ostorius under Claudius, and the Roman dominion was extended to the frith of Forth and the Clyde, by Agricola, under Domitian, Tacit. Agric. 23. But what is remarkable, the whole force of the empire, although exerted to the utmost under Severus, one of its most warlike princes, could not totally subdue the nation of the Caledonians, whose invincible ferocity in defence of freedom. (DEVOTA MORTI PECTORA LIBERÆ, Horat. od. iv. 14. 18.) at last obliged that emperor, after granting them peace, to spend near two years in building, with incredible labour, a wall of solid stone, twelve feet high, and eight feet thick, with forts and towers, at proper distances, and a rampart and ditch, from the Solway frith, to the mouth of the Tyne, above sixty-eight miles, to repress their inroads.*

The wall of Severus is called by some MURUS, and by others VALLUM. Spartianus says it was 80 miles long, in vita Serveri, 18. & 22. Eutropius makes it only 32 miles, viii. 19. See also Victor. Epit. xx. 4. Orosius, vii, 17..Herodian, iii. 48. Beda, Hist. i. 5. Cassiodorus, Chronicon. Cambden, p. 607. edit. 1594. Gordon's Itinerary, c. 7.-9. p. 65-93. Gough's translation of Cambden, v. iii. p. 211.

*Severus, in penetrating this country, is said to have lost no less than fifty thousand men, ( pupinda as), Dio. l. lxxvi. c. 13. Mr. Hume must have overlooked this fact, when he says, that the Romans entertained a contempt for Caledonia, Hist. of England, vol. 1. p. 10. 8vo. edit.