The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1892-04-04

uHO, TcIlNIuh III cicCtiNc SoHdiIiot W
day, and Is still tho principal sewer Of
Rome. This shows that tho Romans
know how 10 do good masonry work.
They know how to build immense and
enduring arches. Tho arches In the
ancient auucduc,s OF Rome md in tho
Colosseum arc tho wonders OF the world
to-day. They also knew how to build
roads, aud the famous ppian Way from
here to Brindisi, 100 miles, was the
model for tho National road from
Washington via Wheeling TO St Louis
Mr.. Clay delighted TO speak Of our road
rs 4 great Appian Way. Tho Appian Is
now $500 years old and Is still Il great
national highway.
Just alow Rome camo 10 be built on
tho precise spot whore 1t stands IS cas-.
lily enough understood after 4 survey Of
tho situation. All cities have what the
French call q rdiS0n Feird for their
existence. For instance, tho raiSon
d'dm In tho case Of tho unpretcnd.
ing little city OF Wheeling would
be tho previous existence Of tho
island in tho middle OF tho river in
conjunction with Wheeling creek and
its fine valley TO the eastward There
Typographical features no doubt cahght
the eye Of The pioneer Iancs Il century.
and 4 quarter ago just, suspect, rs tho
seven hills here, SO c!ose'to u navigable
river, caught the eyes OF Romulus,
Remus ind Company mt u. somewhat
earlier period. At nil cycnts;=I hay0
lately happened upon tho following cx-
PLANTATION, corroborativc Of this idea, in
a speech made by Calnillus in his day,
as reported in Livy. He used tho fol.
lowing words: 5G.Us
"Not without reason did gods and men
select this site Tor tho foundation OF
Rome. Here were beautiful hills, a ICON.
v~onicnt river, equally adapted to inland.
and maratimc trade; tho sea not too far
of to prevent aSbrisk international
trade, nor yet so nGgras 10 expose Rome
to the langer OF q sudden attack from
foreign vessels; q sitcSin the centre OF
the peninsula; q site made, rs it were,
on purpose to allow the city to become
tho greatest city IN the, world" 20" .era
Notwithstanding these advantages OF
location, US thus summed up, I presume
that Romulus and isshephords had 10
idea OF tho future OF Rome when thoy
laid the still existing walls at the Pala-
tine hill. The idea Of tho gods. having
a partnership intcrestin the matter was
IN after discovery. They had not her
invented any considerable number OF
gods, and those they had invented had
not been assigned to duty in a~ispociic
way. The practical fact is that they
were shepherds, and like Abraham and
Lot, their prototypes J.; saw = well water
cd country here on theright and LETT
banks Of the Tiber, the. present fever
stricken plains Of the Agro Romano.
Their idea seems to havo been to
perch high on these! hills asa refuge
against envious neighbors anlS the mot
less hostile fever OF the outlying prair-
les. 1t is doubtful whether they- ex-
pected so much, growth and outcome
from their sQuatter. settlements as the
Ianes did from theirs at Wheeling!
There was At that time no special rage
for town building or corner lot profits.
Aside from the defensive advantages OF
these hills and the availability OF the
river, which also has an island in it,
the location would seem to have been 4
sanitary mistake, Tor the river flowed in
all around th%eSpalasinc, Capitoline and
Aventine hills ESPECIALLY in frcshet
times, which were not seldom and
made 4 dreadful mess of marsh and
swamp until the days OF the great
drain to which l have alluded. Even
now, and since I have been here, the
site OF the still existing Pantheon has
been under watcr!!Ii Iilhave seen all APP
proach to it cut OF by. the back water OF
tho sewers.
Ii~EAt.TiEFULNESs OF ONE
Rome, like Wheeling, has very high
and dry locations and also very low
and exposed ones. Il want, as You see,
to preserve all the analogy there is be-
tween the two. Places Whether an
other and better situation for Rome
could have been found further inland
is 4 much disputed point. Whether the
Agro Romano has always been a deadly
fever breeder is also another much dis
putcd question. Whatever may have
been the facts III the very earliest days
rs regards its llcalthiulness l am salts
fled that Tor the last two thousand years
ut least, which is certainly Il good while,
this so-called AgroI Romano, or cam
pagna, has been practically rs uninhab-
itab!o as it is to-day. l judge so from
finding 4 remark OF .Cicero's in regard
to it, iE which he spoke oft (thc city,
as 4 health:ul city in q pcstilcntial re-
.ion. In his De RGpublica he speaks
OF it as in rcgions pestilenti satubris, which
ought to be accepted as good authority
for he had q villa on the eastern edge
OF the campaona at Tusculum. There
are, however, plentyo people here who
maintain that the present condition of
this vast scope OF countryaround Rome,
on the two sides OF tiielTiber,iis due in
part 10 the successive bnrbaric invas.
ions in the last days OF the empire and
Just afterwards, ,butSmore essentially to
the more recent ineffective governments
OF the popes, by which it twas for 4 long
period given over to bandittisln and
fcuds, and thus allowed to allsutterly
away from what it traditionally was in
the first six centuries oi:Rome's exist.
encc. piA,aga5
They point you to the fact (somc OF
the guides and lecturers here dotothat
great villas we're built there during the
empire, after the Christian era. such,
for instance, as the villa OF IIadrian,
saying nothing OF lesslprctentious villas
and homes "a great humber in the az
grcsatel and that the grounds around
them were everywhere beautifully,
e!aborately and~eXpcnsively laid out
and adorned las onn can plainly see by
existing rnir.s), and that therefore the
plain Inference is thatif. Rome and the
campagnn had had good government
the %countrv woull not pnu, In , ,y,pto