the
escutcheon, and it would naturally occur to the stranger that the small
marble shields, still visible here and there at the corners of old
streets, must be the coats of arms of Roman families that held property
in that particular neighbourhood. But this is not the case. They are the
distinctive devices of the Fourteen Rioni, or wards, into which the
city was divided, with occasional modifications, from the time of
Augustus to the coming of Victor Emmanuel, and which with some further
changes survive to the present day. The tablets themselves were put up
by Pope Benedict the Fourteenth, who reigned from 1740 to 1758, and who
finally brought them up to the ancient number of fourteen; but from the
dark ages the devices themselves were borne upon flags on all public
occasions by the people of the different Regions. For 'Rione' is only a
corruption of the Latin 'Regio,' the same with our 'Region,' by which
English word it will be convenient to speak of these divisions that
played so large a part in the history of the city during many successive
centuries.

For the sake of clearness, it is as well to enumerate them in their
order and with the numbers that have always belonged to each. They are:

I. Monti,
II. Trevi,
III. Colonna,
IV. Campo Marzo,
V. Ponte
VI. Parione,
VII. Regola,
VIII. Sant' Eustachio,
IX. Pigna,
X. Campitelli,
XI. Sant' Angelo,
XII. Ripa,
XIII. Trastevere,
XIV. Borgo.

Five of these names, that is to say, Ponte, Parione, Regola, Pigna and
Sant' Angelo, indicate in a general way the part of the city designated
by each. Ponte, the Bridge, is the Region about the Bridge of Sant'
Angelo, on the left bank at the sharp bend of the river seen from that
point; but the original bridge which gave the name was the Pons
Triumphalis, of which the foundations are still sometimes visible a
little below the AElian bridge leading to the Mausoleum of Hadrian.
Parione, the Sixth ward, is the next division to the preceding one,
towards the interior of the city, on both sides of the modern Corso
Vittorio Emmanuele, taking in the ancient palace of the Massimo family,
the Cancelleria, famous as the most consistent piece of architecture in
Rome, and the Piazza Navona. Regola is next, towards the river,
comprising the Theatre of Pompey and the Palazzo Farnese. Pigna takes in
the Pantheon, the Collegio Romano and the Palazzo di Venezia. Sant'
Ang