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The age and disposition of Rome's earliest circuit wall (or walls) have been a subject of discussion since antiquity.1In the archaeology of pre-Imperial Rome, the remains of the city's defensive circuit represent the largest physical monument still available for study, and so they have a signal importance to any understanding of the early city. While the circuit's date and shape may be long debated, a return to the topic of the age of the walls seems appropriate now for two reasons. First, the last several decades have produced an increasing amount of data through new archaeological discoveries as well as through the collation of archival material from earlier excavations: an aggiornamento to the question is in order. Second, and importantly, this study is made timely by the fact that a consensus of sorts recently has started to form around the idea that a full circuit wall surrounded Rome already in the sixth century bc. This paper sets to return a more circumspect approach to the question of the date of Rome's early circuit wall, and, after reviewing the evidence, I side against the existence of a full circuit until the mid-Republic.
As essential as this ultimate verdict, however, is a continuing awareness that the final analysis rests on context and inference, rather than on any indisputable archaeological evidence. An early form of fortifications does seem to have existed, but even considering the evidence of new excavations, there remains considerable room for debate as to its nature. Our view on the circuit wall of pre-Imperial Rome ultimately has as much to do with our opinion on the shape and capacity of the city itself at a given time.
THE HISTORY OF THE DEBATE
Ancient opinions on which of the kings was responsible for which section of the wall varied considerably. An agger on the city's eastern flank was the work of Servius according to Livy (1.44.3), and of Tarquinius Superbus according to Pliny (HN 3.66). Similar discrepancies are easily supplied (Cornell, 1995: 198-9). All ancient authors promoted the same basic concept: Romulus's original wall was expanded piecemeal during each subsequent king's reign as the city incorporated more outlying districts.2Such sources pass silently over any...