Minor, that here were some of the largest, and some of the smallest dioceses, for extent of ground, of any in the world, and yet the same species of episcopacy was retained in all without any variety or distinction. The dioceses of the suburbicary provinces, that lay next to Rome, were generally small, in comparison of those that lay further to the north and west in the Italic provinces. For about Rome the country was extremely populous, and cities much thicker spread, which occasioned so many more episcopal sees to be erected in those provinces above the other. This will plainly appear by taking a view of each particular province, and comparing the dioceses one with another; of which we shall be able to give a more exact account, because so much pains has been taken by learned. men in all ages, especially Cluver and Holstenius, Ferrarius and Baudrand in the last age, to describe minutely and exactly the several places of this country, and their distance from Rome and one another.

But

To begin with Rome itself. This was a very large diocese in one respect, and very small in another. In respect of the city itself, and the number of people that were therein, it might be called one of the greatest dioceses in the world. For Pliny9 speaks of it as the most populous city in the universe, in the time of Vespasian, when it was but thirteen miles about. Lipsius 10, in his book De Magnitudine Romana, and Mr. Mede11, and some others think, that is meant only of the city within the walls; for otherwise it was but forty-two miles in compass when St. John wrote his Revelations in the time of Domitian. And afterward it received considerable additions; for in the days of Aurelian, the historian 12 speaks of it as no

9 L. 3. c. 5. (p. 40. 2.) Moenia ejus [Romæ] collegere ambitu, imperatoribus censoribusque Vespasianis, anno conditæ octingentesimo vicesimo octavo, passus 13,200, complexa montes septem. Ipsa dividitur in regiones quatuordecim : compita earum 265. Ejusdem spatii mensura currente [ leg. currens] a milliario in capite Romani Fori statuto ad singulas portas, quæ sunt hodie numero 37, (ita ut duodecim portæ semel numerentur, prætereanturque ex veteribus septem, quæ esse desierunt,) efficit passuum 30,765. Ad

extrema vero tectorum cum castris prætoriis ab eodem milliario per vicos omnium viarum mensura colligit paullo amplius 70 mille passuum. Quod si quis altitudinem tectorum addat, dignam profecto æstimationem concipiat, fateaturque nullius urbis magnitudinem in toto orbe potuisse ei comparari.

10 L. 3. c. 2. p. 111. (Oper. t. 3. p. 752.) Sed de veteri igitur ambiti, &c.

11 Comment. in Apocalyp. (p.488.) 12 Vopiscus, Vit. Aurelian. p. 647. (int. August. Hist. Scriptor. c. 39.

less than fifty miles in circumference. And before this time the Christians made a considerable figure in it; for Cornelius 13, who lived in the middle of the third century, speaks of fortysix presbyters, besides deacons, sub-deacons, and other inferior clergy, belonging to the Church in his time. And within half an age more we find an account of above forty churches in it: for so many Optatus 14 says there were, when Victor Garbiensis, the Donatist bishop, was sent from Afric to be the anti-bishop there; though there were forty churches and more in the city, yet he could not obtain one of them, to make his handful of sectaries look like a Christian congregation. This, as Baronius and Valesius have rightly observed, was spoken by Optatus not of his own times, but of the time when Victor Garbiensis came to Rome, which was in the beginning of the Diocletian persecution. Whence it may be rationally inferred, that if there were above forty churches in Rome before the last persecution, there would be abundance more in the following ages, when the whole city was become Christian. But as by the vast increase of this city the dioceses were very large within, so for the same reason it became very small without. For that which was at first the territory of Rome, seems afterwards to have been swallowed up in the city itself by the prodigious increase of it. Insomuch that some have thought, that, in the time of Innocent I., the diocese of Rome had no country parishes belonging to it, but that they were all within the city; because in his Epistle to Decentius 15, bishop of Eugubium, he

p. 878.) Muros urbis Romæ sic ampliavit, ut quinquaginta prope millia murorum ejus ambitus teneant.

13 Ep. ad Fab. ap. Euseb. 1. 7. c. 43. (v. 1. p. 312. 8.) 'O ékdikηtis our τοῦ εὐαγγελίου οὐκ ἠπίστατο ἕνα ἐπίσκοπον δεῖν εἶναι ἐν καθολικῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ· ἐν ᾗ οὐκ ἠγνόει, πῶς γάρ ; πρεσβυτέρους εἶναι τεσσαράκοντα ἐξ, διακόνους ἑπτὰ, ὑποδιακόνους ἑπτὰ, ἀκολούθους δύο καὶ τεσσαράκοντα· ἐξορκισταὶ δὲ καὶ ἀνάγνωσται ἅμα πυλωροῖς δύο καὶ πεντήκοντα, κ. τ. λ.

14 L. 2. p. 49. (p. 39.) Missus est igitur Victor: erat ibi filius sine patre, tiro sine principe, discipulus sine magistro, sequens sine antecedente, inquilinus sine domo, hospes

sine hospitio, pastor sine grege, episcopus sine populo. Non enim grex aut populus appellandi fuerant pauci, qui, inter quadraginta, et quod excurrit, basilicas, locum, ubi colligerent, non habebant.

15 Ep. 1. c.5. (CC. t. 2. p. 1247 b.) De fermento, quod die dominica per titulos mittimus, superfue nos consulere voluisti, cum omnes ecclesia nostrae intra civitatem sint constitutæ. Quarum presbyteri, quia die ipsa propter plebem sibi creditam nobiscum convenire non possunt, idcirco fermentum, a nobis confectum, per acolythos accipiunt, ut se a nostra communione, maxime illa die, non judicent separatos.

seems to make this difference between other dioceses and that of Rome, that in the Roman diocese the custom was to send the sacrament from the mother-church to the presbyters officiating in other churches, because all their churches lay within the city; but this was not proper to be done in other places, which had country-parishes 16, because the sacraments were not to be carried to places at too great a distance.'

But however this was, (for learned men are not exactly agreed upon it, and I conceive it to be a mistake,) this is certain, that the diocese of Rome could not extend very far any way into the country-region, because it was bounded on all sides with neighbouring cities, which lay close round it. On the north it had Fidenæ, a bishop's see in those times, though, as Cluver 17 and Ferrarius 18 show out of Dionysius Halicarnassensis, it lay but forty stadia, or five miles distant from it. On the east it was bounded with the diocese of Gabii, which some by mistake place seventy miles from Rome, but Holstenius 19 and Cluver 20, who are more accurate, tell us, it lay in the middle way between Rome and Præneste, about twelve or thirteen miles from each. In the same coast lay Tusculum, but twelve miles from Rome. A little inclining to the south lay the diocese of Subaugusta, close by Rome: here Helena, the mother of Constantine, was buried, whence it was called Augusta Helena. Holstenius21 says, the remains of it are still visible at the place called Turris Pignatara. It was so near Rome, that the writers

16 Ibid. (b.) Quod per parochias fieri debere non puto, quia non longe portanda sunt sacramenta.

17 Ital. 1. 2. (t. I. p. 654. 39.) Situm urbis [Fidenarum] maxime indicavit Dionysius Halicarnassensis, de Romulo loquens, 1. 2. 'Eπì τ Φιδηναίων ἐστράτευσε πόλιν, ἀπὸ τετταράκοντα σταδίων τῆς Ρώμης κειμένην, μεγάλην τε καὶ πολυάνθρωπον οὖσαν τότε.-L. 3. Τετταράκοντα δ' ὄντων σταδίων τῶν μεταξὺ Φιδήνης τε καὶ ̔Ρώμης, ἐλάσας ὁ Τύλλος τὸν îññоν ȧvà κрátos ñaρηv éñì tòv xá

ρακα.

18 Lexic. Geogr. voce, Fidena. (p. 290.) Fidenæ, Fidena Juvenali, Fidene Livio .... a Marco Emilio, quod a Romanis rebellasset, funditus eversa, nunc exiguum castrum,

ab urbe 40. stadiis, teste Halicarnasseosi [leg. Halicarnassensi], di

stans.

19 Annot. in Ortel. (p. 85.) Car. a S. Paul. ad voc. Gabiis. Sunt Gabii [13. ab Urbe milliario] optime, sed via Prænestina, non Salaria.

20 Ital. 1. 3. (t. 2. p. 954. 34.) In via Prænestina, inter Romam et Præneste, fuit ipsum oppidumn Gabii, &c.

21 Annot. in Car. a S. Paul. p. II. (ap. Oper. C. a S. P. p. 52. n. 4.) Subaugusta, &c. Augusta Helena dicebatur. Vestigia exstant ad Turrim Pignataram vulgo dictam, ubi ecclesia fuit Sanctorum Petri et Marcellini. Ibidemque condita fuit Helena Augusta, mater Constantini Magni.

which speak of Helena's interment, commonly say she was buried at Rome, in the church of St. Marcelline, in the Via Lavicana; which is to be understood of St. Marcelline's church in Subaugusta, which lay in the way betwixt Rome and Lavici, whence the way was called Via Lavicana. If we look to the south of Rome down the river Tiber toward the sea, there we find three dioceses in three cities, none of them above three miles from each other, nor above sixteen miles from Rome. These were Ostia, Portus Augusti, and Sylva Candida. The first and second of which lay within two miles of each other; Ostia on the east-side, and Portus on the west-side of the river Tiber, and Sylva Candida a little more west from Portus. The site and distance of Ostia and Portus from Rome we have exactly delivered both from ancient and modern geographers. In Antonine's Itinerary, it is called eighteen; but Holstenius 22 observes, that the ancient miles were shorter than the modern, and therefore both he, and Ferrarius, and others, reckon these places precisely but sixteen miles from Rome. Now these being seaports had probably the chief extent of their dioceses toward Rome, which takes off from the largeness of the former. On the west it was bounded with the diocese of Lorium, which lay in Tuscia, in the Via Aurelia, betwixt Rome and Turres, which Holstenius 23 says was but twelve miles from Rome, and ten from Turres. And many other dioceses lay in the same circle about Rome, not at much further distance. For Nepe, in Tuscia, was but twenty miles from Rome, and Sutrium but four from Nepe. Nomentum, among the Sabines in Valeria, was but twelve miles from Rome, and Tibur, in the same tract, about sixteen. Lavici, in Campania or Latium, was but fifteen; and Tres Tabernæ, according to some accounts, but twenty

22 Annot. in Cluver. Ital. (p. 79.) A Roma in Portum m. p. 19.Others reckon but twelve modern miles. So Lipsius out of Appian. [The citation is incorrect. Holstein mentions Portus as above, but says nothing of the length of the ancient miles. See, however, Cluver. Ital. 1. 2. c. 2. (t. I. p. 487. 30.) A Roma per Portum, &c. See also c. 3. ibid. (p. 521. 34.) Via Aurelia a Roma: Loria 12. Ad Turres 10. Pyrgos 12. And compare afterwards (p. 522. 8.)

BINGHAM, VOL. III.

Cæterum quum hodie per Romanæ ecclesiæ ditiones perque omnem Etruriam milliaria usurpentur prolixiora, &c. The author in this instance seems to have confounded the annotator Holstein with his original, Cluver. ED.]

23 Ibid. (p.43.) [Holstein does not mention the distance of Lorium from Rome. The author probably intended to cite Cluver himself. See the latter part of the foregoing note. ED.]

Z

Of Tuscia and Umbria.

one; and Velitræ so near that, that Gregory the Great united them together. But we shall see more of this in specifying the dioceses of each particular province, and assigning the bounds of such as were most remarkable for their nearness one to another.

2. I shall begin with those provinces which are properly called Roman, in contradistinction to the rest of the Italic dioceses, and in each of these assign both the names and number of the ancient episcopal dioceses, that the reader, who is curious in this matter, may exercise his geographical knowledge in a more particular search into the state of them. The first of these in order is Tuscia and Umbria, which the civil and ecclesiastical account always joins together as one province, though they had distinct bounds upon other occasions. Tuscia was the same that was anciently called Etruria, bounded with the Tiber on the east, and the Marta, [or Macra,] on the west, the Appennine Hills on the north, and the Tuscan Sea on the south; and includes now St. Peter's Patrimony in the eastern part, and the dukedom of Florence or Tuscany in the west. In this province Carolus à Sancto Paulo finds thirty-five ancient dioceses. 1. Portus Augusti, now called Porto. 2. Sylva Candida, now Sancta Ruffina. 3. Nepe, commonly Nepi. 4. Aqua Viva, or Carpenatum Urbs. 5. Phalaris, [or Faleria, anciently Falerii,] now Citta Castellana. 6. Ferentium, Ferento. 7. Polymartium, Bomarso. 8. Hortanum, Horti. 9. Blera, Bieda. 10. Sutrium. 11. Tarquina, [or Tarquinia, anciently Tarquinii.] 12. Salpis; but Holstenius thinks this is mistaken for Sæpinum, in the province of Samnium. 13. Tuscania, Tuscanello. 14. Balneum Regis, Bagnarea. 15. Perusia, Perugia. 16. Urbs Vetus, Orvieto. 17. Clusium, Chiusa. 18. Cortona. 19. Aretium, Arezzo. 20. Volsinium, Bolsena. 21. Centumcellæ, Civita Vecchia. 22. Gravisca, Montalto. 23. Cornetum, [or Cornuetum.] 24. Forum Claudii, Oriolo. 25. Pisa. 26. Luca. 27. Luna. 28. Sena. 29. Florentia. 30. Fæsulæ, Fiezoli. 31. Suana. 32. Manturanum. 33. Rusella, Rosella. 34. Populonia, Porto Baratto. 35. Volaterræ. To which Holstenius adds Volscæ, or Civitas Bulcentina, Castrum Valentini, and Lorium.

Now some of these, as has been already observed, were very near neighbours to Rome, and they were yet nearer to one another. Nepi was but four miles from Sutrium, as Fer