At the western corner of the hill opposite to the Janus Quadrifrons stands a large fragment of the most ancient walls of the Palatine. It is constructed of masses of tufa, taken from the hill behind it, and roughly laid together without cement or mortar. These stones appear to have been split from the rock, and not cut by chisel, which shows the antiquity of their construction. The wall of Romulus is the name by which this and the other portions of massive tufa walls round the Palatine are now known. They undoubtedly belong to the earliest defences of the Palatine settlement. [Sidenote: Altar.] Not far from this ancient fragment of wall stands a most interesting relic of primitive superstition, an altar of travertine stone cut in archaic fashion, with volutes resembling those in the well-known tomb of Scipio in the Vatican Museum. The inscription on this altar is as follows: SEI DEO SEI DEIVÆ SAC. C. SEXTIUS, C. F. CALVINUS, PR. DE SENATI SENTENTIA RESTITUIT. This is supposed by some antiquarians to be the altar mentioned by Cicero and Livy, as having been erected in consequence of the voice heard before the Gallic invasion predicting disastrous times.[6] But that altar is said to have been placed above the Temple of Vesta at the end of the Nova Via, which was on the other side of the Palatine. This mode of dedication to an unknown Deity was not uncommon at Rome, and is mentioned by Cato and commented upon by Gellius. The form of the word DEIVÆ shows that the inscription belongs to the earlier Latin.[7] C. Sextius Calvinus, who restored the altar, was probably son of C. S. Calvinus, the Consul of A.U.C. 630, and was the competitor of C. Servilius Glaucia in the year 654.[8] [Sidenote: Germalus.] The north-western end of the Palatine Hill, round which we have been passing, was the spot whence arose the name Germalus which Varro tells us was given to it in memory of the (germani) twin brothers, Romulus and Remus having been cast ashore here from the Tiber waters, and suckled by the wolf. How far the district called Germalus extended over the hill is not known. Cicero speaks of a house belonging to Milo which stood upon the Germalus, and Livy says that a wolf ran through the Vicus Tuscus and the Germalus to the Porta Capena.[9] The bronze figure of the wolf and twins now in the Capitoline Museum is said by Flaminius Vacca, who wrote in 1594, to have been found at no great distance from this place, and Urlichs has shown that this figure is probably the one dedicated by the Ogulnii, ædiles in B.C. 297.[10]