Seven hills of Rome

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The Seven Hills of Rome east of the Tiber form the heart of Rome. The Seven Hills of early Rome – the Cermalus, Cispius, Fagutal, Oppius, Palatium, Sucusa and Velia – figured prominently in Roman mythology, religion, and politics. The original city was held by tradition to have been founded by Romulus on the Palatine Hill (Collis Palatinus). The other six are now the Aventine (Collis Aventinus), the Capitoline (Capitolinus), the Quirinal (Quirinalis), the Viminal (Viminalis), the Esquiline (Esquilinus) and the Caelian (Caelius).

A mnemonic device can be used to memorize their names gives them in clockwise order, starting with the Quirinal. One is: Queen Victoria Eyes Caesar's Awfully Painful Corns.

Initially and traditionally, the seven hills were occupied by small settlements and not grouped or recognized as a city called Rome. The denizens of the seven hills began to participate in a series of religious games which started to bond the groups together. The city of Rome thus came into being as these separate settlements acted as a group, draining the marshy valleys between them and turning them into markets and fora.

Of the Seven Hills of current Rome, five (Aventine, Caelian, Esquiline, Quirinal and Viminal hills) are populated with monuments, buildings, and parks. The Capitoline now hosts the Municipality of Rome, and the Palatine Hill is an archaeological area.

The now-famous Vatican Hill (Latin Collis Vaticanus) is northwest of the Tiber and is not one of the Seven Hills of Rome. Likewise, the Pincian Hill (Latin Mons Pincius), to the north, and the Janiculum Hill (Latin Ianiculum), to the west, are not counted among the traditional Seven Hills.

The city of Constantinople (now Istanbul) was built on seven hills, after the city of Rome.

Biblical reference

One possible reference to the Seven Hills of Rome is in the prophetic imagery of the Book of Revelation. Revelation 17 makes reference to the "great harlot" seated on "a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names, with seven heads and ten horns," and the angel, speaking to St. John, says:

The seven heads represent seven hills, upon which the woman sits. (New American Bible)

The angel adds:

The woman whom you saw represents the great city that has sovereignty over the kings of the earth. (New American Bible)

At the time that Revelation was written, the early Christians were persecuted by the Roman Empire, which itself was historically known as the "City of Seven Hills". It is widely believed that the "seven hills" mentioned refer to the seven hills of Rome. The footnotes of Revelation 17 in the New American Bible and the Jerusalem Bible, which are both Catholic translations, say that the seven hills in this chapter are the seven hills of Rome.

External links

• Musesrealm.net Map of the seven hills

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Last updated on Tuesday February 05, 2008 at 09:14:24 PST (GMT -0800)
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