Ave Roma Immortalis, Vol. 2 Studies from the Chronicles of Rome
Arenula'--'fine sand'--'Renula,' 'Regola'--such is the derivation of the name of the Seventh Region, which was
bounded on one side by the sandy bank of the Tiber from Ponte Sisto to the island of Saint Bartholomew, and
which Gibbon designates as a 'quarter of the city inhabited only by mechanics and Jews.' The mechanics were
chiefly tanners, who have always been unquiet and revolutionary folk, but at least one exception to the general
statement must be made, since it was here that the Cenci had built themselves a fortified palace on the
foundations of a part of the Theatre of Balbus, between the greater Theatre of...