I forgot to comment on this! It's very nice, and now I'm sorry I won't get to read this story ;)
I don't have a good picture of what the mountain looks like and how far up the city or this part of it are situated: above some cliffs, but low enough that there are rich gardens. It works better if I think about it a bit, it's probably a matter of which kinds of mountains one is used to. (High mountains without snow on top seem very strange to me ^^ ) I also see the Roman resemblance better now - strange to think of a Roman city set on a mountain.)
But these are moot points anyway since you switched to islands ;)