De Regionibus Urbis Romaethe name prefixed to an enumeration of the principal buildings and monuments of ancient
Rome, distributed according to the regions of Augustus, which has generally been respected
as a work of great authority by Italian local antiquaries, from Nardini downwards. Bunsen,
however, in his
Beschreibung der Stadt Rom (vol. i. p. 173,
8vo. Stutt. 1830), after a careful examination into the history of this tract and of the
similar production ascribed to
SEXTUS
RUFUS, has arrived at the conclusion that, in their present state,
they cannot be received as ancient at all, but must be regarded as mere pieces of patchwork
fabricated not earlier than the fifteenth century. To this opinion Becker in his
Handbuch der Römischen Alterthümer fully subscribes, and
does not hesitate to characterise them as wilful impostures. (Consult the excellent papers
on the Topography of Rome by E. II. Bunbury, published in the
Classical
Museum, and especially the remarks in No. X. p. 328.)
Editions
The De Regionibus Urbis Romae, as this production is
usually entitled, was first printed by Joannes de Tridino, at Venice, 4to. 1505, in a
volume containing also Beda de Temporibus; it
will be found under its best form in the Thesaurus Antiquitatum Romanarum
of Graevius, vol. iii. p. 37. fol. Traj. ad Rhen. 1694.