_Pomptine Marshes_. See also Westphal's two
valuable maps of the Campagna di Roma, and his accompanying Memoir,
Berlin and Stettin, 1829.]
[Footnote 587: Ostia, the old port of Rome, on the east bank of the
Tiber near the mouth of the river. The present Ostia is somewhat
farther inland, and was built in the ninth century by Pope Gregory the
Fourth. There are extensive remains of the old town, but they are in a
very decayed condition. "Numerous shafts of columns, which are
scattered about in all directions, remains of the walls of extensive
buildings, and large heaps of rubbish covered with earth and overgrown
with grass, give some, though a faint, idea of the splendour, of the
ancient city, which at the time of its greatest splendour, at the
beginning of our era, had eighty thousand inhabitants." (Westphal,
_Die Roemische Kampagne_, p. 7.)]
[Footnote 588: The reformation of the Kalendar was effected in B.C.
46. Dion Cassius (43. c. 26) says that Caesar was instructed on this
subject during his residence at Alexandria in Egypt. The Egyptians had
a year of 365 days from a very early date (Herodotus, ii. 4). In this
year (B.C. 46) Caesar intercalated two months of 67 days between
November and December, and as this was the year in which, according to
the old fashion, the intercalary month of 23 days had been inserted in
February, the whole intercalation in this year was 90 days.
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