Mommsen continues to rely upon dubious etymology to make historical conjectures, but several times seems aware of the relative unimportance of such speculation. The exercise, though, exposes further his disturbing belief in nationalism as virtue:
“The irrational opinion that the Roman nation was a mongrel people finds its support in that division [note: the three tribes of Rome, the Ramnes, the Luceres, and the Tities], and its advocates’ have striven by various means to represent the three great Italian races as elements entering into the composition of the primitive Rome, and to transform a people which has exhibited in language, polity, and religion, a pure and national development such as few have equalled, into a confused aggregate of Etruscan and Sabine, Hellenic and, forsooth! even Pelasgian fragments.”
His language and tone show a disgust for a mixing of ethnicities and cultures, and a clear belief in the virtue of the nation.
What’s more interesting (and lasting) is his argument that Rome’s importance arose from its probably status as the emporium of Latium, being perfectly suited (despite the geographical shortcomings) due to it’s central location and accessibility, while still being easily defended. This easily connects the city to Caere, the major trade center of the Etruscans (and though Mommsen doesn’t say, this would help to explain their later interest in the city of Rome).
He shows how the city evidently (and in accordance with Roman tradition) grew around the Palatine hill at its center (known as Roma Quadrata, or ‘square Rome’). He delineates the major regions of the city–the Palatine region, the Subura, and the suburban region of the Esquiliae–while noting their relative importance.
The Quirinal he treats as ‘a second city,’ once independent from the first, principally through redundancies on the Palatine and Quirinal hills in terms of temple structures and priestly colleges, and the absence of the Quirinal in the original reckoning of the seven hills, and further suggests that defensive structures indicate hostility between the two.
Mommsen recognizes that the development of the city was a long process (even reminding us that ‘Rome was not built in a day’), fraught with conflict among rival factions, but can not let himself accept ethnic variety. Multiculturalism has always contributed to the development of great cities. His bent for nationalism leads him to reject the notion (which the Romans accepted) that the Quirinal was peopled by Sabines from Cures, and though he can not adequately discredit the claim, calls it ‘totally wanting’ and ‘baseless speculation.,’ despite acknowledging the citation of the Roman antiquarian Varro. Allowing for an admixture of ethnicities would make Mommsen bristle.