Note 587 — LIFE OF C. CÆSAR. (continued 2)

Ostia, the old port of Rome, on the east bank of the Tiber near the mouth of the river. The present Ostia is somewhat farther inland, and was built in the ninth century by Pope Gregory the Fourth. There are extensive remains of the old town, but they are in a very decayed condition. "Numerous shafts of columns, which are scattered about in all directions, remains of the walls of extensive buildings, and large heaps of rubbish covered with earth and overgrown with grass, give some, though a faint, idea of the splendour, of the ancient city, which at the time of its greatest splendour, at the beginning of our era, had eighty thousand inhabitants." (Westphal, Die Römische Kampagne, p. 7.)