40. Plin. Hist. Natur. iii. 5 [ 9]. To confirm our idea, we
may observe that for a long time Mount Caelius was a grove
of oaks, and Mount Viminal was overrun with osiers; that in
the fourth century the Aventine was a vacant and solitary
retirement; that till the time of Augustus the Esquiline was
an unwholesome burying-ground; and that the numerous
inequalities remarked by the ancients in the Quirinal
sufficiently prove that it was not covered with buildings.
Of the seven hills, the Capitoline and Palatine only, with
the adjacent valleys, were the primitive habitation of the
Roman people. But this subject would require a dissertation.