108. Of the fourteen regions, or quarters, into which Rome
was divided by Augustus, only one, the Janiculum, lay on the
Tuscan side of the Tiber. But, in the fifth century, the
Vatican suburb formed a considerable city; and in the
ecclesiastical distribution, which had been recently made by
Simplicius, the reigning pope, two of the seven regions or
parishes of Rome depended on the church of St. Peter. See
Nardini Roma Antica, p. 67. It would require a tedious
dissertation to mark the circumstances in which I am
inclined to depart from the topography of that learned
Roman.