Agger

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Agger is the Roman word for an embankment or rampart, from the Latin aggero meaning to heap up, make a mound.

It is especially used for the raised and cambered embankment carrying a Roman road. The agger was constructed by excavating the line of the road, building a firm foundation, refilling and compressing the soil, adding more soil from digging drainage ditches (fossa) on one or both sides of the road, then surfacing with graded layers of stone and cobbles. The course of a Roman road can often be traced today by the distinctive line of the agger across the landscape.

Agger is also the name given to a particular part of the Servian walls of Rome. The Agger protected the city on its most vulnerable side, the Campus Esquilinus. It consisted of a double rampart bearing formidable fortifications.