Rome

1693. A geographical dictionary representing the present and ancient names by Edmund Bohun.

Rome, Roma, the Capital City of Italy, once the Sovereign and Mistriss of the whole World; the more immediate Capital now of Campagna di Roma. The Emperour Commodus desired to fasten his own Name upon it, by calling it Commodiana; as a Gothish King, called it Gothia; and other Princes the like: But the Name of Rome still has been always preserved by it. This City is seated upon the Tyber; twelve Miles above its fall into the Tyrrhenian Sea to the North-East; one hundred and twenty from Naples to the North; three hundred from Genoua to South; one hundred thirty five from Ancona, and one hundred and forty from Florence.

Long. 36. 30. Lat. 40. 40. //Paris Meridian was used in the book

Though there are great Controversies concerning the Time and the Founder of it, yet the most received opinion is, that it was built by Romulus and Remus; in the first year of the seventh Olympiad, Anno Mundi 3198. seven hundred and fifty years before the Birth of our Saviour. Its Foundations were small and obscure; and not above two Miles in compass; with four Gates, inclosing only the Capitoline and Palatine Mountains. It continued under seven Princes two hundred forty five years: when Sextus, the Son of Tarquinius, ravishing Lucretia a Roman Lady, it so incensed them, that thereupon they not only dethroned Tarquinius; but for many Ages they would not endure the Name, much less the Authority of a King; but lived under Temporary accountable Magistrates, Consuls; two together, yearly elected; with Praetors, Tribunes, Quaestors, Censors, Praefects, and other Magistrates under them. And when extream necessity required it, they created a temporary Dictator with Supreme Authority over all. At this time their Empire was not above fifteen Miles in length: and this Change greatly hazarded the Ruin of the Insant City. In the year of Rome 365. (during the Consular Government), it was taken by Brennus King or General of the Gaules; and all but the Capitol burnt down to the ground: yet it continued a Free State, though sorely shaken by Hannibal about the year five hundred thirty seven; and by their own Domestick Broils under Marius and Sylla, between the years 665. and 672. But, the fatal time being come, Julius Caesar (in the year of Rome 705.) by the Battel of Pharsalia, put an end to that Commonwealth, forty six years before the Birth of our Saviour: making himself to be declared Perpetual Dictator and Emperour; and the Name of the Commonwealth of Rome to be changed into, the Roman Empire. And though the Civil Wars broke out again to the great hazard, not only of their Empire, but Being; yet Augustus, in the Battel of Actium, put a happy Period to them, in 721. and prepared the World to receive the Prince of Peace, by an Universal Peace. He was born under this Prince in the year of Rome 753. and of the World 3950. The times that followed were fatal to Rome; which double dyed her Purple in the Blood of Holy Men, who endeavoured to reduce her from the Vassalage of Doemons to the Knowledge and Service of the True God. To these an end was put by Conslantine the Great, by the Defeat of Maxentius under the Walls of Rome, in the year of Christ, 312. of Rome 1064. This great Prince laid soon after the foundation of the Ruin of Rome, by removing the Seat of the Empire to Byzantium or Constantinople, in the year of Christ 330. which afterwards brought on the Division of the Empire, into the Eastern and Western. Alaricus King of the Goths in 410. (of Rome 1162.) took and spoiled this City. Gensericus, the Vandal, followed him; and in 455. took it the second time. Odoacer took it in 465. Ricimere in 472. Totila in 547. So that in the space of one hundred thirty seven years, it was taken and spoiled by these Barbarous Nations four times. In 580. it was besieged by the Lombards; and preserved by the Emperours Forces, which were sent to relieve it. Leo IV. in 593. bestowed something in the repair of it. Rome was now recovered by the Eastern Emperours. Justinian by Narses his General in Italy, having slain Totila in 553. and three years after, by the taking of Capua, having put an happy end to the Gothick War in Italy. This City continued under those Princes, till 726. when under Gregory II. Italy (by the procurement of that Pope) revolted, because Leo the Emperour had by an Edict prohibited the Worship of Images. The Lombards were very instrumental in this Change. Neither could they and the Popes long agree: but Aistulphus in 753. besieged Rome; and Pope Stephen III. (obtaining no relief from the Emperour against the Lombards) sends for Pepin King of France; who came and delivered him for that time. Desiderius the next King of the Lombards got Rome by a Stratagem in 770. and using his Power tyrannically, Charles the Great (in 774.) was called in; who put an end to the Kingdom of the Lombards, and made the Western Empire once more considerable. The Lombards and these French Princes in order to oblige the Popes by the Ties of Gratitude to them, had at several times bestowed several Territories upon the See of Rome. Charles the Great reserved to himself and his Successors the Approbation of the future Popes; which was confirmed by a Council held at Rome, in 773. This in after-times embroiled the Popes and the Western Emperours, as much as ever the Eastern and the Lombards were. For Charles the Great being crowned at Rome in 800. his Posterity had frequent quarrels with the Popes, (the Clergy and City of Rome) about the Elections of the Popes. The first Invasion was made by Stephen VI. about 817. under Lewis the Gentle; who is pretended to have granted away that Right of electing the Pope, which had been acknowledged in Charles the Great. In 819. Paschal I. a Roman, was chosen Pope against the Will of this Prince. But in 823. Lothaire coming to Rome to receive the Crown, put this Pope to purge himself by Oath; and slew many of the Nobility, for setting him up against the Emperours Will: for which that See bore him no kindness. Gregory IV. in 833. finding Pepin his Son in rebellion against him, and pretending to reconcile them, when he came into Germany, he took part with his Son against the Father; and Pope-like, threatned to excommunicate the Emperour, if he did not resign the Empire to his Son: which Treachery of his, in 839: was severely revenged by Lothaire the Emperour, by taking many Places from him in Italy. In 839. the Saracens sorely distressed the Papacy; which necessitated the Pope to have recourse to the Emperour for Protection, and he had it: In this Invasion, the Saracens wasted the Suburbs of Rome, as they did in 846. which occasioned the building of the Castle of S. Angelo by Pope Sergius II. The Empire being translated from the Franks to the Germans, in the Person of Arnulph (a Natural Son of Carloman;) against him Formosus crowns Guido a Rival, in 891. And in 893. sendeth for Arnulph to come and free Rome from the oppressions of this Guido. Arnulph comes into Italy, and in 906. took Rome. A Schism being about this time in the Church of Rome, there was little done by the Popes, till Berengarius (growing Potent in Italy) necessitated them to seek to Otho I. who being crowned at Rome, in 962. a Council there held in 964. acknowledged the same Right in him, that had been in Charles the Great. Gregory VII. on this account begins a quarrel with Henry IV. Emperour; sets up Anti-Emperours, and excommunicates the Emperour, in 1076. whereupon that Prince thus provoked, besieged Rome in 1081. took it in 1084. and burnt it: and soon after, this Turbulent Pope died in Banishment in great misery. In 1242. Pope Gregory IX. (having excommunicated Frederick II. Emperour, for refusing to give the See of Sardinia to Rome;) and proclaiming a Croysade against the Emperour; that Prince defeated his Army: and following his blow, took Ravenna, Siena, and Faenza (with divers of the Cardinals,) and reduced the See of Rome to a mean condition. Innocent IV. insolently renews the Excommunication against the Emperour in 1242. Whereupon arose the famous Factions of the Guelphs for the Pope, and the Gibelines for the Emperour; which made Italy extremely miserable for some Ages. During part of which times, in 1305. Pope Clement V. removed the See to Avignon in France; where it continued to 1376. upon which arose a Schism between the Popes of Rome and Avignon; not ended, till the Council of Constance; which begun in 1414. In 1408. Ladislaus King of Naples took Rome, and laid its Walls in the dust. In 1494. Charles VIII. of France took Rome. In 1526. Cardinal Pompeius Columna; and in 1527. the Forces of Charles V. took and sacked Rome. Philip II. besieged it, and had certainly taken it, if the Pope had not complyed about 1557. Yet after all these Changes and Calamities, this City at this day is said to be fifteen Miles in compass; very populous; and full of magnificent Buildings, as well Ancient as Modern. They reckon in it above three hundred thousand Souls: besides eight thousand Jews, who are enclosed in a particular quarter by themselves; and obliged every Saturday to hear a Christian Sermon. Houses and Palaces twenty two thousand; Parishes ninety two: forty one National Churches; sixty four Religious Houses for Men; above forty for Women; thirty Hospitals; one hundred and six Societies of Penitents; and divers Colleges. It hath eighteen Gates; three hundred and sixty Towers flanking the Walls; six Bridges over the Tiber; three principal Fountains; and eight Obelisks remaining out of about forty five, it formerly had, rehearsed in the Writings of Antiquaries. The Church of S. Peter, (in which the Body of that Apostle is deposited) built within and without of Marble, in the Figure of a Cross; near one hundred Toises long, sixty six broad in the Branches; with a Dome fifty five Toises high, a Portail twenty four, erected in 1612. by Pope Paul V. to a Portico of the same largness; together with all its Riches, Paintings, Columns, Statues, Altars and Galleries; surpasses the greatest Idea that the mind can well form of Beauty and Grandeur. Then the Library in the Vatican Palace obtains the pre-eminence of all other Libraries in the World. Anciently this City Walls were 50 Miles in compass; with seven hundred and forty Towers in them; and thirty Gates, leading to, and denominating as many broad High-ways, which were paved and adorned with wonderful Magnificence: where the Rests of Tombs yet appear; it being by the Law of the Twelve Tables (in Ʋrbe ne sepelito, neve urito) forbidden to bury in the City. It had anciently eight Bridges; of which Pons Sublicius built by the King Ancus Marcius, and repaired by Aemilius Lepidus, where Horatius C•cles sustained the Effort of the Thuscanes who would have re-established the deposed Tarquinius upon the Throne; and where afterwards the Emperour Heliogabalus was precipitated into the Tiber, is ruined. But Pons Milvius, without the City, is no less remarkable, for the Victory there obtained by Constantine the Great over Maxentius, and the drowning of that Tyrant in the Tiber also. It had anciently eighteen Fountains; eight hundred Baths; an unknown number of Statues, Columns, Colossusses, Obelisks; (the Columns of Trajan and Antoninus are still standing;) and Temples for no less than thirty thousand Gods, by the accounts that Varro and others make of the Gods of the Romans. The Censors have sometimes sold the Common Sink to Gardiners for six hundred thousand Crowns. The number of Inhabitants in Tiberius's time was computed to sixteen hundred thousand, two hundred ninety and one: In Augustus's, much more. Their Army, under the Emperours, ordinarily consisted of two hundred thousand Foot, and forty thousand Horse: their Fleets, of fifteen hundred Galleys, and two thousand Ships. There were one hundred and sixty Granaries in their Empire: And in fine the Empire it self had for its Bounds to the East, Euphrates, the Mountain Taurus, and Armenia; to the South, Aethiopia; to the North, the Danube; and to the West, the Atlantick Ocean. For the Councils that have been celebrated here since Christianity, by Popes and Anti-Popes against one another, against the Schismaticks and Hereticks (so called) of all Ages, and against Emperours and Princes, or the Abuses committed and occasioned by them and any of them; it is not for this place to rehearse so vast a number: Themselves have sometimes proved the greatest Abuse. Of late, the Prosecution of Dr. Michael Molinos, (Author of the Doctrine of Quietism,) and his pretended Abjuration, Septemb. 3. 1687. may be adjudged one of the most remarkable Occurrences that has for many years happened in Rome: of which See the Supplement to Dr. Burnet's Letters. After Pope Innocent XI. the Election fell upon Cardinal Ottoboni, a Venetian, October 6. 1689. who took the Name of Alexander VIII. After him, upon Cardinal Pignatelli: who is called Innocent XII.