Editing Aventine Hill (section)

==Location and boundaries==
[[File:Seven Hills of Rome.svg|thumb|left|Schematic map of Rome showing the [[Seven hills of Rome|seven hills]] and [[Servian Wall]].]]

The Aventine Hill is the southernmost of Rome's seven hills. It has two distinct heights, one greater to the northwest (''Aventinus Major'') and one lesser to the southeast (''Aventinus Minor''), divided by a steep cleft that provides the base for an ancient roadway between the heights. During the [[Roman Republic|Republican era]], the two hills may have been recognized as a single entity.<ref>Lawrence Richardson, ''A new topographical dictionary of ancient Rome,'' Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992, p.47 [https://books.google.com/books?id=K_qjo30tjHAC&dq=Aventine+etymology&pg=PA47 googlebooks preview]. Richardson asserts the single identity of the two heights as Aventine during the Republican era as commonly accepted in modern scholarship. O. Skutsch, "Enniana IV: Condendae urbis auspicia", ''The Classical Quarterly, New Series'', Vol. 11, No. 2 (Nov., 1961), pp. 252-267, argues that they were originally considered and named as separate hills: the Aventine was the northwestern height only, and the slightly lower southeastern height was ''Mons Murca''.</ref>

The [[Augustus#Octavian becomes Augustus|Augustan reforms]] of Rome's urban neighbourhoods (''[[Vicus (Rome)|vici]]'') recognised the ancient road between the two heights (the modern Viale Aventino) as a common boundary between the new Regio XIII, which absorbed Aventinus Maior, and the part of Regio XII known as Aventinus Minor.<ref>Lawrence Richardson, ''A new topographical dictionary of ancient Rome,'' Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992, p.47 [https://books.google.com/books?id=K_qjo30tjHAC&dq=Aventine+etymology&pg=PA47 googlebooks preview]. Richardson asserts the single identity of the two heights as Aventine during the Republican era as commonly accepted in modern scholarship. O. Skutsch, "Enniana IV: Condendae urbis auspicia", ''The Classical Quarterly, New Series'', Vol. 11, No. 2 (Nov., 1961), pp. 252-267, argues that they were originally considered and named as separate hills: the Aventine was the northwestern height only, and the slightly lower southeastern height was ''Mons Murca''.</ref>