Servian Wall
You’re looking at the bones of Rome’s earliest great boundary—the Servian Wall (*Mura Servii Tullii*, Mura Serviane). It was built around the city in the early 4th century BC, during the Roman Republic, and it stretches to about 11 km (6.8 mi) in total, enclosing roughly 246 hectares (610 acres). Construction relied on volcanic material: sections used Cappellaccio tuff from the Alban Hills, and the wall could be as much as 10 m (33 ft) high. At its base it was about 3.6 m (12 ft) wide. Livy places the “second iteration”—the one repaired or rebuilt with the superior Grotta Oscura tuff—as completed in 378 BC, after earlier Cappellaccio work needed restoration in the late 390s, possibly after the Sack of Rome in 390 BC. The name points to the sixth Roman king, Servius Tullius, even though the old tradition of a 6th-century defensive wall is considered false. …
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