A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

The City of Rome 331
wines. . . . Furthermore, the whole country round Venafrum,
and bordering the plains, is rich in olives.
IV.
Rome
In the interior the first city above Ostia is Rome—the Situation,
only city built on the Tiber. Its position was fixed by Strabov. 3.7.
necessity rather than choice. We may add that those who
afterward enlarged it were not at liberty to select a better
site, as they were prevented by what was already built. . . .
It seems to me that the first founders were of the opinion,
in regard to themselves and their successors, that the
Romarhs had to depend not on fortifications but on arms
and valor, for safety and wealth, and that walls were not a
defence to men, but men were a defence to walls. At the
time of its founding, when the large and fertile districts
about the city belonged to others, and while it lay easily
open to assault, there was nothing in its position which
could be looked upon as favorable; but when by valor and
labor these districts became its own, there succeeded a
tide of prosperity which surpassed the advantages of every
other place.
Notwithstanding the prodigious increase of the city, Buildings,
there has been plenty of food, and of wood and stone for
ceaseless building, made necessary by the falling down of
houses, by fires, and by sales, which seem never to cease.
These sales are a kind of voluntary destruction of houses;
each owner tears down and rebuilds one part or another
according to his own taste.
For these purposes the many
quarries, the forests, and the rivers which convey the
materials, offer wonderful facilities. . . .
To avert from the city damages of the kind referred to,
Augustus Cassar instituted a company of freedmen to lend
assistance at fires; and to prevent the falling of houses,