PŌMOĒRĬUM

This word is compounded of post and moerium ( murus ), in the same manner as pomeridiem of post and meridiem , and thus signifies a line running by the walls of a town ( pone or post muros ). But the walls of a town here spoken of are not its actual walls or fortifications, but symbolical walls, and the course of the pomoerium itself was marked by stone pillars, erected at certain intervals. The sacred line of the Roman pomoerium did not prevent the inhabitants from building upon or taking into use any place beyond it, but it was nece ary to leave a certain space on each side of it unoccupied, so as not to unhallow it by profane use. Thus we find that the Aventine, although inhabited from early times, was for many centuries not included within the pomoerium. The pomoerium was not the same at all times; as the city increased the pomoerium also was extended; but this extension could, according to ancient usage, only be made by such men as had by their victories over foreign nations increased the boundaries of the empire, and neither could a pomoerium be formed nor altered without the augurs previously consulting the will of the gods by augury: hence the jus pomoerii of the augurs.