Sabine, and Etruscan elements, provided in the Capitol with a
fortress and a center for a common worship. Between the
three hills lay a marshy valley which could be drained to
provide a common center for economic and political life.
The Cloaca Maxima, the great culvert which drains the
Roman Forum, can still be seen entering the river by the
Tiber Island, through a monumental archway of Augustan
date.

Once established, the new city flourished because of other
advantages of its site. The Tiber Island, lying in the river
just below the Capitol, offered a fine position for a bridge.
Here was the sacred Pons Sublicius, built and maintained by
a priestly college which derived its name from that function
-- the pontifices or bridge builders. Early Rome and the Tiber
Island can be compared to early Paris and the Ile de la
Cité. The route that crossed the Tiber here was an im-
portant one, connecting Etruria and Campania, the two
most flourishing regions of Italy. Northeast, another important
route led up the Tiber Valley, and thence by easy passes
across the Apennines to the valley of the Po. At Ostia, near
the mouth of the river, were important workings of salt, one
of the prime commodities of the time. So Rome flourished as
a center of commerce and trade by the end of the sixth cen-
tury, though she was to have a long struggle to win control
of the Tiber valley from her rival, the Etruscan city of Veii.

This urban life could only be supported on a basis of
agriculture. The extent of the first farmlands of the Roman
people can be judged by the Ambarvalia, a sacred procession
conducted by the priestly college of the Arval Brethren to
bless the crops of each year. Four of the stopping places of
the procession are known, set five or six miles from the city
on the roads radiating south and east. A territory, then, on
the right bank of the river, some twelve miles long and about
six in depth, with a bridgehead north of the river including
the Janiculum and Vatican hills, this was the first countryside
(rus) which fed the city of Rome. Later it was extended to
cover most of the plain of Latium.

It was not an easy land to farm. Only after the construction
of an elaborate drainage system could the soil be made dry
for crops and healthy for man and animals. At the end of
the nineteenth century, archaeologists explored the amazing
system of channels (cuniculi) cut in the tufa which extend
over practically the whole of the Roman Campagna. They
are about five feet deep and two or three feet wide, and
represent a major piece of engineering carried out under
central direction and maintained by successive generations.

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