Chapter IX: (a) the Via Appia and the Alban Hills (3)

The modern entrance to the ruins is at the gate of the Villa Braschi, and leads, through an avenue of cypress-trees, in a direction at right angles to the ancient road of approach. The avenue runs across a space which was formerly a large quadrilateral court, 350 feet by 250 feet, surrounded with porticoes, attached to the theatre which stands a little to the side at the end of the avenue. The ancient road from the Ponte Lucano entered this court at the northern angle. The porticoes have now nearly disappeared, but part of them was remaining in Ligorio’s time. They served the same purposes as the great colonnades behind the Theatres of Pompey and Balbus at Rome. The theatre is an oval building, sunk in the slope of the rising ground, the southern side containing the seats for spectators, and the northern being occupied by the orchestra and scena, which has a stage in the form of a long and narrow parallelogram. The plan corresponds exactly to the description by Vitruvius of a Greek theatre, and has, therefore, been called the Greek Theatre by the antiquaries. The Greeks had the orchestra wider and the actual stage much narrower than the Latins. Fragments of the travertine substructions of the scena still remain.

At some distance from this theatre, towards the east, and on the other side of the stream which runs along the Valley of Tempe, is the Latin Theatre, so called because the stage is much broader than that of the theatre just described. Externally it was surrounded with arched porticoes decorated, like the Theatre of Marcellus at Rome, with half-columns, There were probably two tiers of these arches, corresponding to the two divisions of seats. At the sides of the scena there were rooms for the use of the actors and for the machinery, and behind the scena are three rooms, probably corresponding to the three doors in the wall behind the stage. The spectators’ seats are turned towards the south, contrary to the rules of Vitruvius.

Between the two theatres there is a natural rise in the ground, which has been further heightened by the rubbish heaped upon the spot. The ruins here occupy a space in the form of a trapezium, the largest side of which lies towards the north-west, and the shortest towards the south-west. They are now covered with modern buildings belonging to the Villa Braschi.

[Sidenote: Palæstra.]

The northern angle of these ruins shows the remains of a quadrilateral area surrounded by a covered way; and at the eastern angle there is another smaller court, surrounded with a portico, which has a double row of columns on the south-west side. This court is called the Palæstra by Ligorio and Piranesi, and it is supposed by them that the double portico was intended to be used in bad weather, when the athletes could not take their exercise in the unsheltered part of the court. Several statues of athletes, the colossal bust of Isis, now in the Museo Chiaromonti, and a statue of Ceres, were found here. There is a suite of rooms on the north-west side, intended, perhaps, for anointing-rooms, dust rooms, or sparring-courts. On the southern side there is a spacious recess, with niches for statues, and attached to it are two large halls, in the form of a Greek cross, with small recesses at the sides, still retaining some marks of their ancient decorations in stucco and paint. The western angle of these ruins is conjectured to have been the site of the Xystus or covered Palæstra, a cloistered court, with a small square opening in the centre.

The ruins of the Nymphæum lie on the south side of the Palæstra, and are connected with it by some chambers in which the stucco ornaments are still well preserved, and show what elegance of design and workmanship was bestowed even on the inferior parts of the villa. The curved basin of the Nymphæum can be traced, though it is now overgrown with trees, and some of the niches still covered with stucco-work remain. The western side of one of the adjacent rooms, now used as a granary, is ornamented with niches, and Nibby thinks that this, which was the back of the Nymphæum, was arranged so as to present a fountain supplied from the main pipe of the aqueduct. A similar arrangement, he says, may be seen in the remains of the Nymphæum at Ampiglione. The great vase now at Warwick Castle came from Hadrian’s Villa.

[Sidenote: Pœcile.]

The Pœcile lies to the south of the Nymphæum. Between them is a reservoir and the remains of a fountain belonging to some building now entirely destroyed.

[Sidenote: Castra.]

The Athenian Pœcile, of which this is an imitation, was a portico, the walls of which were decorated with the paintings of Polygnotus and Micon. From the description given of it by Pausanias, the Athenian building appears to have been a portico with three sides at least, on one of which the battle of Oenoe was represented; on the second, and longest, the wars of Theseus against the Amazons, and the council of the Greek chiefs after the capture of Troy; and on the third, the battle of Marathon. It thus appears that one of the sides was much longer than the others; and this is the case with the ruin in the Villa of Hadrian, which has three sides, one, 640, on the north, and the others, on the east and west, each 240 feet in length. In Ligorio’s time, 1550, a part of the porticoes, which were of brick, still remained, and some of the paintings corresponding to the Athenian pattern. It is not certain whether there was a similar wall and portico on the southern side. The wall of the northern side, which is the longest, still remains entire. It had a portico on the exterior, which terminated in two circular buildings; and in the centre was the principal entrance to the Pœcile. The present entrance is modern. Both the eastern and western sides are slightly curved. The former contains a recess in the centre connected with the buildings behind. In the centre was an open reservoir of the same shape as the building surrounding it. On the western and southern sides the area of the Pœcile is supported by substructions of masonry, against which are built a number of soldiers’ rooms commonly called the Cento Camarelle. At the corner towards the south-west is a public washhouse, the tubes of which are still in good preservation.

Attached to the north-eastern corner of the Pœcile is a fine building, in the form of a recess, with a semicircular niche turned towards the north, which, from the connection of the Stoic philosophy with the Stoa Pœcile at Athens, has been called the Temple or School of the Stoics. It was possibly a hall for conversation and discussion.

[Sidenote: Library.]

Opening from this school, towards the north-east, is a building in the form of two concentric circles. Between the two circular parts there was a canal filled with water. This edifice was probably a swimming-bath. It appears to have been very highly ornamented with precious marbles and sculptures, most of which were taken to Rome by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, and others to Tivoli by Cardinal Ippolito d’Este. The ruin commonly goes by the name of Theatrum Maritimum. A little farther to the north-east is a quadrilateral court, 200 feet wide, which was surrounded by a portico with Corinthian columns. On the north-west side of this court are the buildings usually supposed to belong to the library, and called the Greek and Latin libraries. They consist of a large number of rooms, more or less preserved, which may have been ante-rooms and chambers for the attendants and librarians. In the centre of the north-western side of the court is a well-preserved Nymphæum, and on the north-east a long corridor with windows towards the south, which may be called a Helio Caminus, or room for basking in the sun, from its resemblance to the place so called by Pliny at his Laurentine villa. The ruins to the north-east of these, towards the Valley of Tempe, are thought by Nibby to be the remains of a suite of rooms belonging to one wing of the imperial palace, but their plan is very imperfectly known.

[Sidenote: Palace.]

The great mass of the imperial apartments were farther to the south-east, and were grouped round three large courts of dazzling magnificence. The most splendid of those, which afforded spoil for generations of plunderers, is called by Piranesi, from the richness of its decorative work, the Piazza d’Oro. Round the courts were numberless suites of rooms and several large recesses, a basilica, and a great hall now called Eco Corintio, formerly supported on vast granite columns, and cased with slabs of the choicest marbles.

[Sidenote: Stadium.]

The Stadium lies in a direction at right-angles to the southern side of the Pœcile. The curved end is towards the south. Between the swimming-bath and the northern, or square end of the Stadium, are some bath-rooms for the use of the athletes, and on the west side stands a temple surrounded by a sacred enclosure formed by two vast semicircular walls ornamented with niches. On the eastern side are more rooms, and a magnificent quadrilateral covered way.

[Sidenote: Thermæ.]

The Thermæ stand between the Stadium and the Canopus. Numerous pipes and conduits for water, and also the arrangement of the various parts of the buildings, show that they have been rightly placed here. There seem to have been two distinct sets of bath-rooms, which are generally called the Terme virili and the Terme muliebri by the Italian antiquaries. The northern group of buildings is connected with the curved end of the Stadium, and contains the usual number of halls and an elliptical Laconicum. The Laconicum of the southern wing is circular, and is connected with a grand central hall similar to that in the Baths of Caracalla at Rome.

[Sidenote: Canopus.]

The place called Canopus lies to the south of the Thermæ, and close to a mass of buildings now utterly destroyed, but in Piranesi’s time thought to be a vestibule of the villa. The Canopus itself consists of an oblong pool of water or euripus excavated in the tufa, with a row of buildings on the west side, and a magnificent nymphæum at the southern end, containing a great number of niches for statuary, and holes for jets of water. At the back of the Nymphæum is a hall called the Sacrarium, in which it is supposed the statue of Serapis stood. A passage of Strabo explains the idea which Hadrian had in forming this canal and Nymphæum. He says that on the grand festival of Serapis, whose temple and oracle were at Canopus, 120 stadia from Alexandria, immense crowds of men and women go down to Canopus from Alexandria by boats on the canal, on the banks of which are pleasant houses of entertainment, where the worshippers stop on their way to feast and dance.[158] The long, broad pool was intended to represent the Canopic canal, and the rooms ranged along the side, the houses of refreshment. A confirmation of this is derived from the character of the statues found here which were almost all those of Egyptian deities.

[Sidenote: Academy.]

To the south-west of the Canopus rise the immense substructions, 1755 feet in length, which supported the highest terrace on this side of the villa. They extend as far as the square tower called Rocca Bruna in Ligorio’s plan. This terrace and hill are supposed to have been the imitation of the Athenian Academy mentioned by Spartianus. There was a gymnasium here, the ruins of which are to be seen in a vineyard at the southern end of the hill, consisting of a large court, a circular temple, and a large recess. Beyond these there was a large square block of buildings supposed by Nibby to have been used for the students and masters of the School of Art maintained by Hadrian, and beyond this again was a spacious Odeum or theatre for musical performances. The raised seat of this is now converted into a vineyard, but the stage is still well preserved. There were, as in the Odeum of Catania, two divisions, and at the top of the central division was a round temple dedicated to the presiding genius of the Odeum; just as in the Theatre of Pompey the Chapel of Victory stood above the seats.

Close to this Odeum are the vast subterranean passages supposed to be the Inferi which Spartianus mentions. The depth at which these lie is only fourteen feet, but they occupy a trapezoidal area, the longest side of which is about one thousand and fifty feet, and the shortest two hundred. Most of these corridors are excavated like catacombs in the natural rock. A brick stamped with the name Cynosarges was found near the aqueduct which runs to the south of the Inferi. There are two other names found in Spartianus, the Lyceum, and the Prytaneum, and Piranesi identifies the Lyceum with a ruined portico at a little distance to the south of the Inferi, and the Prytaneum with some more extensive ruins to the south-east.

After Constantine’s time, the Villa of Hadrian remained in a desolate state, and was abandoned to the caprices of the imbecile Cæsars, who tormented the empire in the fourth and fifth centuries, and to occasional visits from the plundering hordes of Goths, Vandals, and Heruli, who successively ravaged the neighbouring country. In the middle of the sixth century it was completely pillaged and ruined. In the Gothic wars of 546-556 Totila took Tibur after a siege of some months, and revenged himself for the resistance of the Isaurian garrison by putting all to the sword without sparing even the bishop. At the same time Totila broke down all the bridges on the Anio. During that long siege, the Villa of Hadrian with its enormous halls, its vast ranges of rooms, and its advantageous and commanding site at the junction of several roads, offered convenient quarters to the barbarian king and his host. It may be imagined what devastation such tenants would inflict upon the place. In the sixth century the villa fell more and more into ruins; to the disasters of the Gothic wars were added those incurred during the Lombard wars under Astulf. The Lombards were a more savage horde than the Goths, and their object was to destroy the Roman empire utterly, and to divide Italy into dukedoms. These barbarians attacked Rome many times, and ravaged the Campagna, but Astulf distinguished himself above all the rest in these incursions, massacring and burning everywhere without distinction. As we hear that he was encamped near Tivoli, we may conclude that the Villa of Hadrian suffered severely in or about the year 755.

The wars between emperors and popes, and the quarrels between the factions in Rome itself which followed, injured Rome perhaps rather more than the cities of the Campagna. But the greatest damage of all was done to the villa by its being made the quarry whence the churches, the monasteries, and the houses of the wealthy Tiburtines were decorated with marbles, columns, and costly stonework, and when these were filled and could hold no more of the innumerable marble sculptures and statues, they were condemned to the lime-kiln and converted into mortar. After the revival of letters and arts in the fifteenth century, the lamentations poured out in the time of Pius II. (A.D. 1458) over the ruins of the villa are most pathetic. “The lofty vaults of the temples are still standing, and the wonderful columns of the cloisters and magnificent porticoes. The swimming-baths and Thermæ can be traced, where the water of the Anio once mitigated the summer heats. But the hand of time has defaced all these, and the walls once draped with embroidered tapestry and cloth of gold are now clad with ivy; the thorns and briar grow where tribunes sat in purple robes, and serpents crawl, in their kings’ chambers.” In spite of the existence here and there of such love of antiquity, the burning of the Tiburtine marbles into lime continued throughout the sixteenth century, and the levelling of the ground for cultivation has gone on even to the present century.[159]

The same fate attended all the other grand monuments of the Campagna. Rutilius Numatianus, writing probably in 417 in the reign of Honorius, speaks of the buildings of Rome and the aqueducts of the Campagna as if they were still uninjured, but he prefers to return to his native home in Gaul by sea, on account of the bad state of the roads on the coast caused by the Gothic devastations.

[Sidenote: Tibur.]

Ascending from Hadrian’s Villa to the point where the Anio issues from a valley dividing the Æquian from the Sabine Mountains, we find the river winding round a considerable hill, partly clothed with groves of olive, and rising to the height of 830 feet. At the back of this hill the river has forced a passage for itself through the limestone rocks which threaten to impede its exit from the upper valley, and falls in a tremendous cataract down a precipitous cliff of 320 feet in height to the lower level. The water is strongly charged with carbonate of lime, which is constantly being deposited in the shape of masses of travertine in the channels through which the stream runs, especially where the water, in consequence of the violent agitation caused by its rapid descent, parts quickly with the carbonic acid gas contained in it. The course of the stream is from time to time blocked up by its own formations of stone, and it is forced to open new passages for itself. From this cause the city of Tibur, which stands on the hill, close to the point where the river falls to its lower level, has always been subject to violent and dangerous inundations. The great inundation of 1826 proved so formidable that it was at once resolved to divert the course of part of the river and provide it with an artificial outlet. This was effected by boring two tunnels through Monte Catillo on the east of the city, through which any rush of water can be allowed to pass and fall harmlessly into the lower valley. A part of the river water is always allowed to pass through these tunnels, and forms at their lower end a magnificent cascade. Another part passes under the bridge called Ponte S. Gregorio and then rushes through a fantastic grotto of travertine blocks called by the local guides Grotta di Nettuno, and joins the stream from the tunnels at the bottom of the valley. A third portion of the Anio is diverted just above the bridge into canals apparently of very ancient date, which, passing completely through the centre of the town, are used as the motive power of watermills and factories of various kinds, and then fall again into the main stream at various points of the romantic cliffs on the western hill side. These form the wreaths of “snow white foam” so celebrated as the cascades of the Anio, and explain perfectly the expression of Horace:

O headlong Anio, O Tiburnian groves,
And orchards saturate with shifting streams.

But few traces of the ancient walls of the city are left. Nibby is however doubtless right in saying that there can be no question about their course along the northern and eastern sides of the city, where the brow of the hill is steep and perfectly adapted for defence by a wall placed on the edge of the rocky valley of the Anio. The citadel was probably situated in the quarter called Castro Vetere--where the two temples commonly called the temples of the Sibyl and of Drusilla stand, for it is plain that some pains have been taken to isolate this from the remainder of the site. On the western side the limit of the ancient walls is marked by the old gate, and by the fragments of walls which still exist at the point where the direct road from Rome enters the city by the modern Porta del Colle. The course of the walls then excludes the Villa d’Este, and runs across the hill to the Church of the Annunziata and the Porta Santa Croce and the citadel built by Pius II. on the site of the ancient amphitheatre. From thence the walls passed in a straight line down to the river near the Church of S. Bartolommeo. The ancient town did not extend to the right bank of the Anio.

[Sidenote: Temple of Vesta.]

Two ancient temples are still standing in tolerable preservation at Tibur. The first of these is a small round temple perched on the very edge of the precipitous ravine through which the Anio dashes. It has been protected against the violence of the furious torrent by massive substructions, which apparently existed in ancient times and have often been renewed. Ten of the eighteen columns which formerly surrounded the inner chamber still remain.

The details of this temple are rather peculiar in style, and show an originality of invention very rare in Roman architecture. The columns have Attic bases, but the grooves of the fluting are cut in a style which is neither Doric nor Ionic. They terminate above in an abrupt horizontal line, and reach at the foot of the column quite down to the base without any intermediate cylinder. The capitals exhibit a fantastic variety of the Corinthian order, having the second row of acanthus leaves nearly hidden behind the first, and a lotus blossom as the decoration of the abacus. The frieze is ornamented with the skulls of oxen and festoons, in the loops of which are rosettes and pateræ placed alternately. The inner chamber, which is built of opus incertum, is partly destroyed, but the lower half of the door and a window still remain.

From the above description it will be seen that the architecture of the temple appears to belong to the end of the Republican era, but the inscription on the architecture gives us no further hint of the exact date, as the whole of it: with the exception of the words L. CELLIO. L. F., has disappeared. The most probable conjecture as to the deity to whom it was dedicated is that based upon the fact that Vesta was worshipped at Tibur, as is shown not only by two inscriptions found near the spot, but also by the mediæval name of this quarter of the town. The form of the temple also confirms such an opinion.

[Sidenote: Temple of Albunea.]

The second temple stands quite close to this round building, and is now consecrated as the Church of S. Giorgio. Its shape was that of a pseudoperipteral temple, i.e. with the side columns half sunk in the walls, raised on a meagre base of tufa blocks. It had a front, with four Ionic columns, one of which still remains, forming a support to the Campanile. An inscription dedicated to Drusilla, the sister of Caligula, was found here, but no reference as to the name of the temple can be drawn from it. A bas-relief, also found on the spot, represents the Tiburtine Sibyl sitting, and in the act of delivering an oracle. Hence it has been thought that we have in the Church of S. Giorgio the Temple of the Sibyl Albunea mentioned by Horace, Tibullus, and Lactantius, and this seems to be the most probable of the various conjectures which have been hazarded on the subject. The Grove of Tiburnus mentioned by Horace was probably on the right bank of the Anio, but further than this it is impossible to determine its exact position. There was also a grove dedicated to Diana. The Mons Catillus, now Monte Catillo or Monte della Croce, is the height on the right bank of the Anio. The name is at least as early as the time of Servius.

[Sidenote: Villas.]

As may easily be imagined there are numerous remains of ancient villas scattered about the immediate neighbourhood of Tibur, and the local guides, in order to please travellers but without the slightest evidence in support of their assertions, have dubbed them the Villas of Catullus, Horace, Ventidius, Quintilius Varus, Mæcenas, Sallust, Piso, Capito, Brutus, Popillius, and other celebrated Romans.

The most remarkable ruins are those to which the name of Mæcenas has been attached. The greater part of these have been now unfortunately concealed by new buildings and by an iron manufactory, but a fine terrace and parts of the porticoes still remain on the lofty bank of the Anio. The rest is a mere confused mass of vaulted chambers and archways. The Via Tecta, or Porta Oscura, as it is sometimes called, by which the road passes underneath these ruins, was built, as we learn from an inscription now in the Vatican collection, by O. Vitulus and Rustius Flavos. The materials and style show that it can hardly be of a later date than the first century A.D.

[Sidenote: Tempio della Tosse.]

The Tempio della Tosse which probably obtains its name from a vulgar interpretation of the name of the gens Tossia, is a ruin standing in a vineyard at the side of the old road, called the Via Constantina, below the Villa d’Este. It has none of the characteristic marks of an ancient temple, and the large number of windows it contains forbid us to suppose it to be a tomb. The interior of the building is round, the exterior octagonal. It is built of layers of small fragments of tufa intermixed with courses of bricks, materials which point to the fourth century as the earliest possible date of its erection. On the walls are the remains of frescoes of the Saviour and the Virgin, dating probably from the 13th century. These show that, if it was not originally a Christian Church, it was used as one at the time the frescoes were painted.

[Sidenote: Villa of Cassius.]

The ruins of a considerable villa lie near the Porta S. Croce of Tivoli, in the estate called Carciano, from the mediæval name of the Fundus Cassianus, which is stated in a list of the estates belonging to the cathedral at Tivoli to have been the site of a villa of Caius Cassius. Part of these ruins consist of a very ancient structure of polygonal work, but the rest is pronounced by Nibby to belong to the time of the later republic. The casino of the Collegio Greco is now built on the spot, but the plan of the ancient villa can be so far traced as to show that it had several terraces, and looked towards the south-west. In the 16th century there were still eighteen large apartments existing, surrounded with a portico of Doric columns, and also some temples, a theatre, some fountains, and fish ponds. The opus reticulatum of these ruins is peculiar for the alternate arrangement of coloured tufa in its lozenges. An immense number of works of art were dug up here, and the nearly complete destruction of what still remained of the villa in the 16th century, is probably due to the fact of its having been found to be so rich a mine of sculpture.

[Sidenote: Sabine Farm of Horace.]

The Sabine farm of Horace can hardly be passed over here, though it is not strictly included within the district of Tibur. There is no evidence to show that Horace ever had any villa at Tibur in addition to his Sabine farm; indeed his own words seem expressly to imply the contrary. The estate he had was plainly usually called a Sabinum, not a Tiburtinum, and must therefore be looked for at some distance from Tibur. Horace mentions two places in its neighbourhood, Varia, and Mandela, the sites of which can be exactly determined. The ancient list of towns places Varia on the Via Valeria, eight miles beyond Tibur, and precisely at this distance are the remains of an ancient town now covered by the modern village of Vico Varo. But the position of Mandela is more important for ascertaining the site of Horace’s farm, because if we can fix upon it, we then can discover to which of the mountain streams which flow into the Anio the name Digentia belonged. An inscription dug up in 1757 near the Church of S. Cosimato on the Via Valeria, two miles from the village of Bardella, shows that an estate in the modern district formed by the union of Cantalupo and Bardella was called in the later imperial times, or the early Middle Ages, Massa Mandelana.

From this it is plain that the Digentia was the torrent called Mariscella, which joins the Anio between Cantalupo, Bardella and Vico Varo, descending from near Licenza, a small village about six miles from Vico Varo. As to the exact spot where the farm of Horace itself stood in the valley of the Digentia, we cannot be quite certain. The ruins usually pointed out are on a little knoll opposite to the village of Licenza, and on the other side of the stream. These are possibly situated on the spot on which the farmhouse stood, if they do not date so far back as the lifetime of the poet himself. Dennis in Milman’s Horace says, “The ruins consist only of a mosaic pavement, and of two capitals and two fragments of Doric columns lying among the bushes. The pavement has been much ruined by the planting of a vineyard, and can only be seen on removing the earth which covers it. The groundwork is white with a border of animals in black. These are the sole traces now visible (1842), but some fifty years ago, the mosaic floors of six chambers were brought to light, but were covered again with earth, as nothing was found to tempt any further excavation. The farm is situated on a rising ground which sinks with a gentle slope to the stream, leaving a level intervening strip now yellow with the harvest. In this I recognised the sunny meadow which, as the poet says, was in danger of being inundated. The sunny fields were probably then, as now, sown with corn. Here it must have been that the poet was wont to repose on the grass after his meal, and here his personal efforts perhaps to dam out the stream provoked his neighbours’ smiles.” The place is surrounded on all sides by hills, except where the main valley of the Digentia separates them, running nearly due north and south, so that facing down the valley, the sun before midday rests on the right-hand slopes, and in the afternoon on the left hand, thus corresponding exactly to the poet’s description of the site.[160]

The other spots mentioned by Horace as near his farm, are the Chapel of Vacuna, the slopes of Ustica, and the mountain of Lucretilis. The first of these has been placed by the Italian topographers at Rocca Giovane, a village perched on a hill on the west side of the valley about two miles above Cantalupo Bardella. The evidence for this identification is, however, very doubtful.

The Ustica cubans of the poet is commonly with some probability supposed to be La Rustica, which lies on the hill close to Licenza on the eastern side of the valley. Lucretilis is probably a name applied to the whole range of hills connected with Monte Gennaro. Cav. Rosa, however, places it at Monte del Corynaleto just above Rocca Giovane. The name of Fons Bandusiæ has been given to most of the springs in this valley by the enthusiastic admirers of Horace, but it is quite uncertain whether the Fons Bandusiæ was not in Apulia.

(F) THE NORTH-WESTERN DISTRICT.

The principal roads which traversed the Campagna to the north and north-west of Rome are the Nomentana, the Salaria and the Flaminia. These roads offer but little, within the bounds of ancient Latium, which calls for remark.

The Via Nomentana diverged from the Via Salaria at the Collina gate in the Servian walls, and passed through the Aurelian wall at a gate which now stands a little to the south of the modern Porta Pia. The present road follows the line of the ancient Via Nomentana, as may be seen by the ruins of tombs which fringe it beyond S. Agnese. The Chapel of S. Constanza, opposite S. Agnese, is an interesting building of the Constantinian epoch, and the mosaics it contains, including a mixture of Christian and pagan emblems, are very remarkable. The Mons Sacer stands just beyond the bridge over the Anio, and the Villa of Phaon, where Nero ended his life, was at the Vigne Nuove, on a side road which branches off to the right, just beyond the Ponte Nomentano.

The Via Salaria is said to have been so named from the supplies of salt conveyed along it to the Sabine district at the time when the Romans and Sabines were confederates. It is first mentioned in history as the scene of the single combat between Manlius and the gigantic Gaul. The ancient road passed out at the Collina gate, and followed very nearly the same line as the present road along the left bank of the Tiber, as may be seen by the ruins near Serpentara, and by the position of the ancient bridge, the Ponte Salaro, which carries it over the Anio close to Antemnæ. Beyond this, Fidenæ and the Allia are the most remarkable points of interest upon the road in the neighbourhood of Rome. Beyond Malpasso, the ancient road, according to Nibby, diverges to the right, crossing the railway to Ancona.

The Via Flaminia, after passing through the Porta Ratumena at the Tomb of Bibulus, left the Aurelian fortifications at the Porta Flaminia, which stood a little nearer the slope of Monte Pincio than the present Porta del Popolo. It ran to the right of the present street, and then crossed the Tiber at the well-known Milvian bridge, and then diverged to the right along the Tiber valley, while the Via Cassia ascended to the left among the Etruscan hills towards Veii, which lay to the right at the twelfth milestone. The old Flaminian Road lay closer to the river than the modern, which is carried through a cutting in the hills and rejoins it at Tor di Quinto. There are a few rock tombs on the left hand, between the fifth and sixth milestones. One of them has been connected with the poet Ovid by a mistaken inference drawn from the inscription found upon it which bears the name of Q. Nasonius Ambrosius.

The Ponte Molle, which derives its name from an unknown Roman Mulvius, or from the neighbouring hills, carries the Flaminian Road over the Tiber at a distance of two miles from the Porta del Popolo. Some of the foundations of the bridge, and parts of the peperino and travertine stonework in the smaller arches, are ancient. The victory of Constantine over Maxentius, which is usually called the battle of the Pons Mulvius, was gained six miles further along the road.

An inscription cut in a block of travertine has been fixed in the right-hand parapet of the bridge. This inscription records the inspection of the banks of the Tiber by the Censors of M. Valerius and Publius Serveilius, who were Censors in the year B.C. 55.

[Sidenote: Villa of Livia at Prima Porta.]

One of the imperial villas of an early date was placed on the right bank of the Tiber at the ninth milestone on the Via Flaminia in the Veientine territory.

The Via Flaminia is here bordered for a long distance on the left-hand side by tufa rocks of a reddish hue, whence the district had obtained, in Livy’s time, the name of Saxa Rubra. The Cremera, now the Valca, is one of the streams which enter the Tiber in this district, and beyond it, where the road turns to the left, and, leaving the valley of the Tiber, ascends the hill through a cutting, is the stream and hamlet of Prima Porta. On the right of the road here, and between it and the Tiber, lie the ruins of a large villa, the various terraces of which, raised one above the other, occupy the whole of the top of the hill, and command magnificent views of the Sabine and Æquian highlands. There can be no doubt that these ruins are the remains of the villa of Livia called ad Gallinas, mentioned by Pliny and by Suetonius as situated at the ninth milestone on the Via Flaminia. The style of construction in the walls which remain corresponds to that of the Mausoleum of Augustus in the Campus Martius. The reticulated work has that peculiar irregularity about it which indicates the transition from the opus incertum to the more regularly formed opus reticulatum. Nibby had pointed out this spot in 1837 as one in which a rich harvest might be reaped from excavating, but it was not till 1863 that the splendid Statue of Augustus, now in the Braccio Nuovo of the Vatican with other interesting sculptures, was dug up here.[161]

At the same time some rooms were excavated at a depth of ten feet, under the level of the ancient villa. They had apparently been closed at a very early time and filled with earth, in order to erect a building over them. The largest of these was apparently intended as a cool retreat during the summer heats, and the walls are painted with trees and birds, in imitation of a rustic bower. These paintings have attracted great attention as being some of the most ancient now in existence, and also on account of their intrinsic beauty, and the wonderful way in which they have preserved their freshness of colour. The pavement of this painted room was of marble, which was, however, removed when the earth was thrown in at the time of building the rooms above.

The legend about this villa connects it with the death of Nero, relating that the laurel bushes and the white fowls, for which the villa had been celebrated since the days of Livia, withered and died out during Nero’s last days.

[Sidenote: Veii.]

Beyond Prima Porta, to the west, is the site of Veii. This is about twelve miles from Rome, and now bears the name of Isola Farnese. But little remains of the ancient city have been found, but no doubt is now felt by antiquaries that the city occupied the rocky ground between the Cremera and the Fosso de’ due Fossi.

Inscriptions bearing the names of some Etruscan families, especially the Tarquitii, have been found here, and the remains of the ancient citadel, on the spot now called the Piazza d’Armi, are mentioned in some old ecclesiastical documents.

One of the gates must have been at the spot now called the Porta de’ Sette Pagi as the road from Veii to Sutri probably passed out here, and another gate was opposite Isola called the Porta dell’ Arco. A third may have stood towards Fidenæ, where the ancient postern and flight of steps is now to be seen, called La Scaletta. Other remains are to be seen near the site of a gate called by Canina La Spezieria. The Ponte Sodo and the tombs near it are worth attention, as is also the ancient Etruscan tomb called the Grotta Campana, in which a most interesting set of sepulchral ornamentations and cinerary urns has been preserved. The chief monuments of Veii, which have been taken to Rome, are the Ionic columns in front of the Post Office in the Piazza Colonna, the Statue of Tiberius, and the colossal heads of Tiberius and Augustus, now in the Vatican Museum.[162]

INDEX.

A.

Academia, 21, 246

Ædes Publican, Flavian, 22, 24

Æsculapius, temple of, 116

Agger of Servius, 157

Agon Capitolinus, 181

Agrippina, pedestal of, 146, 178

Alba Longa, 207

Alban Hills, 192, 194;
Emissarium or tunnel of, 204

---- Lake, 203

---- Mount, 206

Albanum Cæsarum, 202

Albula, 189

Albulæ Aquæ, 236

Alexamenus, 18

Allia, 257

Altar of Sextius, 16

Amphitheatrum Castrense, 173

Ancient stone work, 163

Anio, falls of, 249

Antoninus Pius, pedestal of column, 178

Appian Road, 194

Aqua Virgo, 135

Arches, 9

Arch of Constantine, 59

---- Dolabella, 174

---- Drusus, 171

---- Gallienus, 77

---- M. Aurelius, 177

---- Severus, 52

---- Silversmiths, 104

---- Tiberius, 46

---- Titus, 31

Architectural styles, 5, 11

Arco dei Pantani, 92

Area Flacciana, 15

Arena of Coliseum, 67

Arricia, causeway at, 208

Arval College, 231

Atta, tomb of, 219

Atticus, tomb of, 198

Atrium, Palatine, 23

Auguratorium, on Palatine, 30

Augustan buildings, 21

Aurelius, M., bas-reliefs from arch, 177

Aventine and Cælian Hills, 161.

B.

Bandusiæ Fons, 256

Basilica, Constantine, 34, 35, 183

---- Julia, 44

----, Palatine, 24

----, Ulpia, 83

Bas-reliefs in Forum, 42, 43

Baths of Agrippa, 134

---- Caracalla, 166, 183

---- Constantine, 100, 183

---- Diocletian, 153

---- Titus, 75

Bibliotheca, 21

Bibulus, tomb of, 97

Brickwork, 12

Bronze cone, 149, 178;
peacocks, 150, 178

Bovillæ, 200

C.

Cæcilia Metella, tomb of, 197

Cælian, houses on, 176

Caffarelli Palace, 98

Caligula, Palace of, 31

Calydonian boar hunt, 181

Campagna, hills of, 191;
population, 192

Capitoline map, 120, 181

Capitolium, 98

Casale Rotondo, 200

Cestius, tomb of, 165

Cicero’s Villa, 218

Circus Flaminius, 123;

---- Maximus, Carceres of, 112

Claudian Aqueduct, 20, 81, 174

Climate, 189

Clivus Victoriæ, 14

Cloaca Maxima, 46, 105

Clodius, Villa of, 201

Cluilia Fossa, 197

Coliseum, 61;
architecture of, 72;
characteristic of builder, 70

Colonnacce, 94

Colossus of Nero, 63

Columbaria, 73, 170

Columns, 10

Column of Marcus Aurelius, 138

---- Phocas, 41

---- Trajan, 84;
cast of, 89

Columna Centenaria, 142

Commodus, Palace of, 176

Constantine, Baths of, 100

Cornelia Gracchorum, 121

Cosmedin, S. Maria in, 111

Cremera, 259

Cryptoporticus, 25

Curtius, bas-relief, 179

D.

Dacian campaigns, Trajan’s, 87

Decebalus, 88

Demosthenes, statue of, 182

Digentia, 254

Dii Consentes, area of, 48

Dogana, in Piazza di Pietra, 136

Domitius Calvinus, pedestal, 26, 28

Domus Aurea of Nero, 73

Doria Palace, 127

Duilian column, inscription on, 179

E.

Egeria, grotto of, 195

Egyptian antiquities, 129, 177

Einsiedlen MS., 51, 76, 100, 125, 138, 148

Eurysaces, tomb of, 81

F.

Fasti Consulares, 179

---- Prænestini, 229

Faustina, the younger, 178

Fidenæ, 257

Fiumicino, 231

Flaminia, Via, 257

Forum Augusti, 92

---- Julium, 91

----, Nerva’s, 94

---- Romanum, 38

----, Trajan’s, 83

Fratres Arvales, 231;
buildings of, 232

Freshwater strata, 187

Frontispicium Neronis, 100

G.

Gabii, 221

Gabinius, Villa of, 218

Galuzze, 79

Gelotiana, Domus, 17

Geology of Campagna, 185

Germalus, 17, 29

Germanicus, House of, 26

Geta, erased, 104, 119

Gladiator or Gaul, dying, 181

Gnomon Obelisk, 137

Gordiana, Villa, 219

Gradus Concordiæ, 51

Graffiti, 18, 70

H.

Hadrian, colossal head of, 178

Hadrian’s Villa, 237;
antiquities from, 181, 183

Heliogabalus, Lavacrum, 36, 58

Horace, Sabine farm, 254

House of Laterani, 173

I.

Imperial monuments, 3

J.

Janus Quadrifrons, 103

Julius Cæsar, Heroon of, 39

Jupiter Pluvius, 141

---- Propugnator, 28

---- Redux, 176

---- Stator, 25

---- Victor, 28

L.

Labicum, 223

Laconicum, 134, 155, 168

Laocoon, 182

Lararium, Palatine, 24

Latifundia, 192

Latin road, tombs on, 211

Latium, towns of, 191, 192

Lautumiæ, 56

Legio fulminata, 141

Lucretilis, 256

M.

Mæcenas, Auditorium of, 80;
Tower of, 102

Mamertine Prison, 55

Mandela, 254

Marcus Aurelius, statue of, 183

Marine strata, 185

Masonry, Roman, 4

Mausoleum of Augustus, 143

---- Hadrian, 148

Maxentius, Circus of, 196

Meta Sudans, 58

Milestones on Appian Road, 183

Miliarium Aureum, 54

Minerva Medica, 78

Mons Sacer, 257

Monte Cavallo, 183

---- Testaccio, 164

Monumental History, 2

Monumentum Ancyranum, 145

Muro Torto, 147

Museum, Kircherian, antiquities in, 183

N.

Navicella, 174

Nemi, Lake of, 208;
Cæsar’s Villa at, 210

Nomentana, Via, 257

Nymphæum, Palatine, 23

O.

Obelisks, 12, 129, 145

Oligarchical monuments, 2

Ostia, 229;
antiquities from, 182

P.

Palatine, Belvedere on, 20;
entrance, 14;
paintings on peristylium, 23, 27;
walls, 16, 17

Pantheon, 130;
plundered, 135

Pedestals, in Forum, 41, 42

Phaon, Villa of, 257

Piazza Navona, 143

Pillar of Antoninus Pius, 138

Plautian Tomb, 236

Pompey, Villa and Tomb of, 201

Pons Ælius, 148

Ponte Lucano, 236

---- Molle, or Milvian bridge, 257

---- di Nono, 221

---- Rotto, 115

---- S. Sisto, 126

Porphyry basin, 182

Porta Capena, 163

---- Chiusa, 159

---- Collina, 257

---- Maggiore, 81

---- Mugionia, 24

---- Ratumena, 97

---- Romanula, 15

---- S. Lorenzo, 81

---- Viminalis, 153

Porticus Catuli, 15

---- Metelli, 120

---- Octaviæ, 119

Portland Vase, 181

Porto, 233

Præneste, 223

Prætorian Camp, 158

Prima Porta, statue of Augustus from, 260;
Villa of Livia, 259

Puteal, in Forum, 39

Q.

Quintiliana, Villa of Commodus, 198, 212;
sculpture from, 200

Quirinal Hill, 101

Quirinale, or Monte Cavallo, Piazza, 101, 183

R.

Rediculus, Divus, 195

Regal Monuments, 2

Republican Monuments, 2

Rienzi, 147

Roma Vecchia, 197, 212

Rostra of Empire, 54

Rutilius, 248

S.

Salaria Via, 257

Salita del Grillo, ruin in, 83

Sallustia, statue of, 172

S. Andrea della Valle, 123

S. Angelo, bridge of, 148

S. Constanza, Chapel of, 257

SS. Cosma and Damiano, 36

S. Maria degli Angeli, 153, 155

S. Maria in Via Lata, 127

S. Nicola in Carcere, ruins in, 117

S. Urbano, 195

Sarcophagi and cippus, 182

Saxa Rubra, 259

Scala Cœli, 29

Schola Xanthi, 49

Scipio, Sarcophagus, 182

Scipios, Tomb of, 170

Sculpture, ancient specimens of, 184

Seneca, Villa of, 197

Septa, 127

Septizonium, 20, 151

Servian Walls, 161

Sessorium, 172

Sette Basse, 212

---- Sale, 75

Site of Rome, 1

Sortes Prænestinæ, 225, 228

Stadium Palatinum, 18

Suovetaurilia, 42, 60, 88

T.

Tabularium, 56

Tarpeian Rock, 99

Tarquin Dynasty, 106, 157, 161

Teatro Correa, 143

Temple of Albunea at Tivoli, 252

---- Antoninus and Faustina, 40

---- Artemis at Nemi, 210

---- Bacchus or Honos, 195

---- Castor, 38

---- Ceres, 110

---- Concord, 50

---- Cybele, 29

---- Fortuna Prænestina, 225

---- Fortuna Virilis, 107

---- Hadrian, 137

---- Isis, 128

---- Jupiter Capitolinus, 98

---- Jupiter Feretrius, 29

---- Jupiter Latiaris, 207

---- Lares Præstites, 29

---- Marcus Aurelius, 139

---- Mars Ultor, 92

---- Minerva, 96

---- Penates, 36

---- Romulus, 196

---- Saturn, 46

---- Serapis, 128

---- Sibyl, or Vesta, at Tivoli, 251

---- Sun, Aurelian’s, 100

---- Venus and Cupid, 172

---- Venus and Rome, 32

---- Vespasian, 49

---- Vesta, 39

---- Vesta or Hercules, 108

Temples, on Palatine, 28

Theatre of Balbus, 122, 183

---- Marcellus, 112

---- Pompey, 123

Theseus and Amazons, 181

Tiber, Island of, 115;
bridges, 116;
water of, 188

Tiberius, House of, 26, 30

Tivoli, or Tibur, 235;
Villas at, 252

Torre Fiscale, 212

---- Paterno, ruins at, 234

---- Pignatara, 221

Torso Belvedere, 182

Totilas, 152, 236, 247

Transitoria, Domus, 34

Transtiberine Walls, 4

Travertine, quarries, 236

Triclinium, Palatine, 22

Trophies, of Marius, 76, 183

Tufaceous stone, 186

Tunnels, subterranean, 206

Tusculum, 214;
gate and walls, 216;
history of city, 217;
theatre at, 215

U.

Ustica, 256

Ustrina Cæsarum, 144, 146

V.

Vacuna, Chapel of, 256

Varia, 254

Vatican Hill, enclosed, 4

V. D. N., 18

Veii, 260

Veii and Campagna, antiquities from, 182

Velabrum, 103

Velia, 31

Vettius Prætextatus, 49

Vicus Tuscus, 39

Vigna Guidi, 169

Villa Mills, 21

Villas, ancient, 190, 193

Vitiges, 149, 152, 193

Volcanic strata, 186

Vota, 60

W.

Wolf, bronze figure, 17, 180

LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET
AND CHARING CROSS.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See Corp. Inscr. Lat. vol. vi. 1, No. 1158.

[2] Cic. de Har. Resp. xv., 33. Vettius, in Cic. ad Att. ii. 24, calls Cicero “vicinus consulis,” i.e. near the Regia.

[3] See ‘Rome and the Campagna,’ ch. viii. p. 160.

[4] Festus, p. 262, “infimo clivo Victoriæ.”

[5] A descent to the right to the Forum has been observed by a French architect. See ‘Le Forum Romain,’ par Dutert; Lévy, Paris, 1876, p. 14. ‘Guida del Palatino,’ p. 71. Valerius Maximus, vi. 3, 1. Cic. pro Dom. 38. 102.

[6] Cic. de Div. i. 45; ii. 32. Liv. v. 32.

[7] Corp. Inscr. i. 632. Wordsworth, Frag. of early Latin, p. 167, 410.

[8] Cic. de Orat. ii. 249.

[9] Cic. ad Att. iv. 3, 3. Liv. xxxiii. 26.

[10] Vacca Memorie 3, Urlichs, in Rheinisches Museum, 1846.

[11] See Henzen, in Bull. dell. Inst., 1867. The name of Domus Gelotiana has been given to this ruin by Visconti. See ‘Rome and the Campagna,’ p. 181.

[12] The marks on the bricks found here bear the names of Clonius and Ermetes, freedmen of the Gens Domitia, but the walls which stand near the meta are constructed of materials which show that they are of later date, and belong to the Restoration of Theodoric, A.D. 500.

[13] Hist. Aug. Severus, 19, 24. See ‘Rome and the Campagna,’ p. 180.

[14] See ‘Rome and the Campagna,’ pp. 174, 200.

[15] Plin. Ep. I. 13.

[16] See ‘The Journal of Philology,’ Cambridge 1869, vol. ii. p. 89.

[17] Stat. Silv., iv. 2, 26.

[18] The name Basilica Jovis, placed here by Rosa, probably refers to a temple and not to this tribunal.

Plin. Panegyr., 47.

[19] ‘Rome and the Campagna,’ p. 34.

[20] Josephus, Ant. Jud. xix. 1, 15.

[21] Gell, N. A. xx. 1, 2.

[22] Suet. Tib. 5.

[23] Orelli, Inscr. 6057, 6058.

[24] See ‘Rome and the Campagna,’ p. 178.

[25] Solinus, i. 18.

[26] Orelli, 2286.

[27] Tac. Hist. i. 27.

[28] Hist. Aug. Ant. Pius, 10; Ant. Phil. 6; Gell. xiii. 20.

[29] See ‘Rome and the Campagna,’ p. 160, Note 1.

[30] See ‘Rome and the Campagna,’ p. 162.

[31] Josephus, Bell. Jud. vii. 5, 7.

[32] See ‘Rome and the Campagna,’ p. 170.

[33] See ‘Rome and the Campagna,’ p. 171.

[34] Parker’s ‘Archæology of Rome,’ vol. ii. p. 98. Jordan, ‘Forma urbis Romæ’; Berlin, 1874, p. 37.

[35] ‘Rome and the Campagna,’ p. 169.

[36] Aur. Vict. Cæs. xl. 26. See ‘Rome and the Campagna,’ p. 166.

[37] Vitruv. v. 1.

[38] ‘Archæology of Rome,’ vol. ii. p. 75.

[39] See ‘Rome and the Campagna,’ p. 163.

[40] Lampridius, Hist. Aug. Ant. Hel. 8, 17, in ædibus aulicis. Parker, ‘Archæology of Rome,’ vol. ii. p. 92.

[41] See ‘Rome and the Campagna,’ p. 100.

[42] Ibid. p. 103.

[43] Eckhel, vii. 37. On the mistaken appropriation of the temple to M. Aurelius, see ‘Rome and the Campagna,’ p. 114.

[44] See Reber’s ‘Ruinen Roms,’ p. 132.

[45] Corp. Inscr. Lat. vol. vi. pt. 1, No. 1200. “Indictionis undecimo Post Consulatum pietatis ejus anno quinto” are the last words of the inscription. “In the eleventh year of his appointment and the fifth year of his reverence the emperor.” See Nibby, ‘Roma antica,’ p. 152; Zell. Epigr. 1226. A D = A Deo.

[46] See Clinton, Fast. Rom. A.D. 608.

[47] Stat. Silv. i. 1. Mr. Parker thinks that this was the pedestal of a statue of Constantine. Archæol. vol. ii. pl. xix.

[48] Nichols, ‘The Roman Forum,’ p. 78.

[49] See ‘Rome and the Campagna,’ Appendix, p. 452.

[50] Gardhausen, ‘Hermes,’ viii. 129. Nichols, ‘Roman Forum,’ p. 67. Ann. dell. Inst. 1872. Mr. Nichols’s explanation does not account for the position of the fig-tree and Marsyas satisfactorily.

[51] Jordan, ‘Forma urbis Romæ,’ pp. 4, 25. The proportion of the length to the breadth is nearly that given by Vitruvius as proper for a basilica.

[52] Juv. Sat. v. 104.

[53] Tac. Ann. ii. 41.

[54] Jordan, ‘Forma urbis Romæ,’ p. 26.

[55] Cic. Phil. ii. 7.

[56] See ‘Rome and the Campagna,’ p. 58.

[57] See ‘Rome and the Campagna,’ p. 91.

[58] See ‘Rome and the Campagna,’ p. xxix.

[59] Cic. Phil. vii. ch. 8. The third Catilinarian oration was delivered here.

[60] Dion. Cass. lxxvii. 12.

[61] Herodian iii. 9, 10, 11. Hist. Aug. Vit. Sev. 9, 16, 17.

[62] See Parker’s Archæol. vol. ii. pl. xi.

[63] See ‘Rome and the Campagna,’ p. 354, Appendix.

[64] See Jordan, Top. Rom. p. 13, Note 20.

[65] Liv. xxxvii. 3. Seneca, Contr. ix. 4, 21.

[66] Corp. Inscr. Lat. i. 591, 592. Mommsen, Ann. Inst. 1858, p. 211. Canina, Rom. Ant. p. 290. Virgil’s use of the plural tabularia is not, therefore, merely poetical: Georg. ii. 502.

[67] Seneca’s letter was written from Baiæ, which seems to place the building he speaks of there and not at Rome. The word “meta” was used by the Latin classical writers in speaking of haystacks or cream-cheeses made in a conical shape. Columella, ii. 19; Mart. i. 44.

[68] See Casaubon’s note on Spartian, Hist. Aug. p. 40; B.C. Tac. Ann. vi. 17; xvi. 22.

[69] The great amphitheatre at El Djemm in Tunis is 480 feet by 420 and 102 feet in height, that at Pola in Istria 437 by 346 feet and 97 feet in height. Shaw’s ‘Travels,’ i. p. 220. Ann. dell’ Inst. 1852. Allason’s Pola.

[70] The tomb of Scipio Barbatus in the Vatican is another curious instance of this mixture of Doric and Ionic decorative forms.

[71] This portico is shown in the medals of Titus and Alexander Severus. The remains of a similar portico exist in the amphitheatre at Thysdrus (El Djemm) in Tunis. See Canina in the Ann. dell’ Inst. 1852, tav. d’Agg. U.

[72] Suet. Vesp. viii. 13.

[73] Gibbon, ‘Decline and Fall,’ ch. lxxi.

[74] Suet. Jul. ii. Propert. iv. ii. 46.

[75] Gibbon, ‘Decline and Fall,’ ch. x.

[76] See Dion Cassius, lxviii. 9-13.

[77] Dion Cass. lvi. 27.

[78] The frieze is described and representations of it are given in the Annali and Monumenti dell’ Inst. 1877.