The suburbs, he endeavors to show, both up to the time of Aurelian, and after his reign, were neither so extensive, nor so populous, as generally supposed.

M.
Dureau de la Malle has but imperfectly quoted the important passage of Dionysius, that which proves that when he wrote (in the time of Augustus) the walls of Servius no longer marked the boundary of the city.

In many places they were so built upon, that it was impossible to trace them.

There was no certain limit, where the city ended and ceased to be the city; it stretched out to so boundless an extent into the country.Ant.Rom.iv.13.

None of M.de la Malle's arguments appear to me to prove, against this statement, that these irregular suburbs did not extend so far in many parts, as to make it impossible to calculate accurately the inhabited area of the city.