112- Bridgebuilder

The Juniculum Hill, on the other side of the Tiber from the rest of Rome, was now placed within the borders of the city to avoid it being taken as an outpost by an enemy, whichever one, we have quite a few of them.

Rome settled inside the Aventine Hill for the first time, which I think we mentioned last time during all the pillaging and the deporting and the screaming, and fortified the Janiculum and brought it in the walls.

Likely as not, they were thinking about defence against the Etruscans, given that it faces north where the Etruscans are.

By absorbing it, Ancus brought a strong defensible point into Rome and simultaneously robbed the Etruscan cities of it.

Let's turn to the Aventine briefly, shall we?

Yeah, okay.

The Aventine is apparently 18 stadia all around, and at the time was covered in all kinds of trees.

In fact, there were a lot of beautiful laurel trees, and one spot on the hill is known as Laurel Grove, or Lauretum in Rome.

However, sadly, the whole thing was in Dionysus' time full of buildings, including a temple to Diana, so goodbye laurel trees.

The Aventine has a deep ravine between it and the other hills of Rome, which was later filled up.

Marcius added this hill because, again, he saw it would be the first line of defence for Rome from an enemy.

And the people from Telani and Politorium we mentioned last episode were specifically settled here.

A wooden bridge was built across the Tiber to connect the Janiculum better to the rest of the city, and apparently this was the first ever bridge across the river Tiber.

Until Dionysus of Halicarnassus' day, the bridge was still preserved as it looked at the time, the people looking upon it as sort of sacred.

Ancus was also supposed to have been the first monarch to move water into the city.

I'm assuming this means aqueduct rather than, let's say, a tsunami, but I don't know for sure.

He also made the protection of Rome stronger on the side of the city that was easiest to get to, building what is called the Quirites Trench.

Now remember, Quirites is an alternative name for Romans themselves, with Romulus becoming the god Quirinus.

Yeah.

All of this population influx from all the people being deported into the city meant that crime was rampant.

Ancus counteracted this by setting up a prison in the middle of the city by the Forum as a deterrent.

It wasn't just Rome getting bigger as a city in the reign of Ancus.

Roman territory also got bigger.

They lost something called the Macean Forest, and now Rome finally had a coastline.

We haven't had one this whole time, and now we actually have contact with the sea.