Ancient Rome had an enormous number of customs and traditions.

Some of them have been passed down to us in the name of our months or the letters of the Latin alphabet.

However, they also had a lot of customs which to us seem very strange. One of the strangest and most powerful

to the Romans were the tradition surrounding the Roman city limits, aka

the Pomerium. Learn more about the Roman Pomerium and how seriously the Romans took it on this

episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. To understand what the Roman Pomerium was and why it was so important we have to go back to the

founding of the city of Rome, or at least the legends of its founding.

The legend holds that the city was founded by its namesake Romulus and the center of the city was on the Palatine Hill.

The Palatine Hill, for those of you who have been there or who are familiar with the city, is the hill that overlooks the forum in the Coliseum.

When he founded the city he took a plow and with it created the boundaries of the city.

The line that he plowed which defined the city limits became the Pomerium.

The date that he plowed this trench, April 21st, is still

celebrated today as the founding of Rome. The word Pomerium is a contraction of the Latin

words post and Moarium, which simply means beyond the walls.

Supposedly, this was an ancient Etruscan tradition and it would have been something that many

cities and towns on the Italian peninsula would have done.

The Pomerium, however, wasn't really the city limits of Rome. It only served as the

legal and religious boundary for the city. Ancient Rome was an enormous city. You often hear

people talking about the seven hills of Rome.

In average everyday use, this sprawling metropolis was Rome, more at least about the areas

inside the city walls. However, the Pomerium was much smaller. It did not encompass

all seven hills, as the Eventine Hill, for example, was outside of the Pomerium. The

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