Karen asked:

What is the English translation of "arx axiom"?

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Wow, what a question! Nice! First, it seems to have been the title for a now-defunct (as far as I can
tell) Christian magazine, in which it meant something like the "original fortress".

This comes from "arx": (akra). A height within the walls of a city. The same city could have several
arces, as was the case with Rome; but, as there was generally one principal arx, the word came to be
equivalent to Acropolis (q.v.). At Rome one of the summits of the Capitoline Hill was especially known
as the Arx, the German school of topography placing it on the northeast summit (Arx Caeli) and the
Capitolium (q.v.) on the southwest (Palazzo Caffarelli). At Rome the Arx was the regular place for
taking the auspices (Livy, i. 18; x. 7); outside the wall the haruspex turned towards it if it was in sight
(Livy, iv. 18). See Haruspex.

And, of course, "axiom", which is a first principle, first assumption, or something like that.

So you see that one could loosely translate it as "first fortress", given that the highest point within a
city is it's fortress... a debatable point, but anyway... this is supported by the following: "ARX
IANICULENSIS" is the name given by modern topographers to the fortifications that were probably
erected on the Janiculum, near the later porta Aurelia, when the first stone bridge, pons Aemilius, was
built across the Tiber in 179 B.C. (see IANICULUM and literature cited).

There's also: "Arx": the northern part of the Capitoline hill, separated from the southern part, the
CAPITOLIUM proper (q.v.), by a depression (v. ASYLUM) which was the citadel of Rome after the
city had expanded sufficiently to include the Quirinal and Viminal hills-that stage of the growth
commonly known as the City of the Four Regions (P1. 41-44). The height of this part of the hill was
about 49 metres above sea-level, and its area about one hectare. This arx, also called arx Capitolina
1 (Liv. vi. 20. 9; xxviii. 39. 15; Val. Max. viii. 14. 1; Tac.Hist. iii. 71), preserved its military importance
down to the first century A.D. (see Aberystwyth Studiesv. (1923) 33-41, for proof that Sabinus 2 held
the arx, and not the temple of Jupiter), though it had no permanent garrison. In the early days
sentinels were posted here while the comitia were being held in the campus Martius, to watch for the
signal displayed on the Janiculum of an approaching enemy (Cass. Dio xxxvii. 28). Another
signal-vexillum russi co

So there you go. Here's where I got the information: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/. Go to the
"dictionaries" link. This Perseus site is a FABULOUS resource, and EVERYBODY interested in
antiquities should know about it.

Steven Ravett Brown