The Palatine originally was a hill of modest height, in shape fairly rectangular, some 1400 feet on the side. Here according to firm tradition was that first settlement by the Alban shepherds led out by Romulus. The hill seems to have been encompassed by its own crude wall, and presently it figured as the earliest “Rome,” often called from its squarish configuration _Roma Quadrata_. Time fails to count the various memorials such as the “House of Romulus,” alleged to have survived since this primitive time. Note should be made, however, of certain small but very old temples such as those of Victoria, Viriplaca, and Orbona,[149] which are now carefully preserved amid surroundings of artificial magnificence. After the growth of the Republic the Palatine became one of the most fashionable residence sections of the city. Public leaders liked to mount the roofs of their mansions and see the whole Forum with the familiar Senate House spread out at their feet. Here were erected the earliest of those sumptuous mansions wherein the aristocracy invested their spoils from the great conquests. Marcus Scaurus had his pretentious dwelling on the Palatine, and so did Catiline, and Marcus Antonius, and Cicero. Last but not least, Hortensius the Orator, Cicero’s professional rival, erected an extremely fine dwelling here shortly before his death in 50 B.C., which mansion was later purchased by Augustus when he had assumed the government and desired a suitable residence; and thus it was that the Palatine became the “Palace” of the Emperors. [Illustration: ARCH OF TITUS: part of Palatine visible to the left.] =245. Extension of the Imperial Buildings: Central Position of the Palatine.=--Augustus, posing merely as the “First Citizen” among his fellow Quirites, and with a studious abhorrence of the outward forms of monarchy, had avoided establishing anything like an Imperial court; but he was, of course, entitled to a large senatorial mansion. In addition to his private residence elaborate offices had also to be provided for the great corps of secretaries and clerks through whom he governed half the provinces and controlled the army. This corps of bureaucrats has grown with every new accretion to imperial power; furthermore, Augustus’s pretence of democratic simplicity has been utterly discarded following the extravagances of Caligula and Nero. One enormous building has, therefore, been added to another. The last private dwellings upon the hill have been condemned, and the Cæsars now control every inch of the Palatine, making it so completely the abode of majesty that “palace” will remain across the centuries as the name for any seat of princely authority.