and dowries come their way. [Illustration: TEMPLE OF SATURN FROM THE BASILICA JULIA IN THE FORUM The Capitol is to the left. The temple is built at the foot of the Capitol hill. See pages 3, 13, 30, 91.] The population of Rome has varied as much as its fortunes. The maximum was reached in the time of the Flavian emperors--2 millions, but even in the time of Augustus the inhabitants probably numbered 1,300,000. A period of three hundred and fifty years, which brings us to the date of the "Peace of the Church," sufficed to decrease this number by more than a million (A.D. 335). After a thousand years of Christian domination the population of the city had sunk to its minimum, 17,000 (A.D. 1377). Even in the reign of the magnificent Leo X. it was not more than 30 or 40 thousand. From the beginning of the seventeenth century when it exceeded 100,000, it steadily increased, till in 1800 the population numbered 153,000. But during the "empire," 1812, it fell to 118,000. Ten years after "the Italians" entered Rome it had increased by 79,000, to 305,000. The last census, 1900, shows a resident population of 450,000--not a third of its classical total--and Naples is still the most densely populated city of Italy. * * * * * The Greek tradition in Rome seems summed in the Palatine, the hill of "Pallas"; but the Capitol, the hill of Saturn, sums Italy itself. The one represents the Roman Empire, the other the Roman Commune--those liberties and that self-government which began with the entry of the _gentes_ and the formation from among them of the Roman Senate, and which were never to be abolished. The Palatine has not been inhabited since the officials of the Exarchate abandoned it in the eighth century; but the life of the Capitol has never been intermitted; it has never ceased to represent all the moments in the life of the Roman people. This distinction is sharply drawn to-day: the Palatine is a hill of majestic ruins visited only by the tourist, the Capitol is still the seat of the municipality of Rome, ascended by every couple for the celebration of their marriage, and its registers signalise every young life born to the city.