Chapter C: Vibius . C. F. Rufinus . M. Cocceius . Nerva . Cos . Ex . S. C (2)

"The prows from the six ships captured from the Antiates were ordered to be placed as decorations on the Suggestum in the Forum, which was hence called Rostra" (Livy, viii. 14; Florus, i. 11; Pliny, xxiv. 11).

"The Rostra stood on the Comitium in front of the Curia" (Varro), from which the orators harangued the people assembled in the open air; and it was evidently only a temporary structure, probably of wood, and not a building like the other two Rostra. It stood upon a circular basement, but the top was square; on the outside were fixed the brazen beaks which belonged to the captive vessels of the Antiates. About the Rostra were placed the statues of the ambassadors put to death by Lar Tolumnius, king of Veii, and others who suffered on similar occasions; the three Fates, Horatius Cocles, Camillus, Hercules, the father of Vitellius, and others who deserved well of their country.

"When Caius Gracchus brought in his bill to regulate the courts of judicature, there was one thing very remarkable: whereas the orators before him, in all addresses to the people, stood with their faces towards the Senate House and the Comitium, he then, for the first time, turned the other way,--that is to say, towards the Forum,--and continued to speak in that position ever after. By this he intimated that the people ought to be addressed, and not the senate" (Plutarch).

Suetonius tells us that on the death of Augustus "two funeral orations were pronounced in his praise, one before the Temple of Julius by Tiberius, and the other before the Rostra, under the old shops, by Drusus." Some read this passage, "from the old Rostra;" but our rendering is more correct, though in either case he is referring to the Rostra that stood in front of the Curia.

The first time Cicero spoke from the Rostra was when he delivered his oration for the Manilian Law, A.U.C. 687, when in his forty-first year. After his assassination, the head and hands of Cicero were placed upon this Rostra, from where he had so often addressed the Romans--"that very Rostra, which he had made his own; nor was there a less concourse to see him there than had formerly been to hear him" (Florus, iv. 6). "That everybody might see them in the very place where he had formerly harangued with so much vehemence" (Dion Cassius, "Augustus").

The form of this Rostra is preserved to us, being represented on a coin.

There is an important passage in Pliny which shows the exact site of the Rostra, as it was used to mark the hour of noon. When the summoner caught sight of the sun passing the edge of the Rostra, he declared the hour of noon. A man standing on this site will roughly represent the Rostra, and as the gun fires at mid-day the edge of the sun can be seen coming past him by a person standing by the pedestal at the bank in front of S. Adriano, who will roughly represent the summoner. We have tried this numerous times with our audience, and it is the only spot on the Forum where it answers.

"The _accensus_ of the consuls proclaiming mid-day aloud, as soon as, from the Senate House, he caught sight of the sun between the Rostra and the Græcostasis: he also proclaimed the last hour, when the sun had gone off the Mænian Column to the Prison" (Pliny, vii. 60).

THE MONUMENT OF MARCUS AURELIUS.[5]

In excavating the open space of the Comitium upon the Forum in the summer of 1872, an interesting discovery was made of two marble screens or balustrades sculptured on each side, the one being some historic scene, the other representing animals. At the time, and since their discovery, many suggestions have been offered as to their signification and use, but none seemed satisfactory, at least to us. After considerable thought, examination of the ground, and putting this and that together, we have arrived at an estimate of their use and meaning entirely different from the hitherto received opinion; in which we are supported by their construction and the classic passages relating to them. They are _in situ_ as found, but a new piece of marble has been put under them.

From this it will be seen that we have made an important discovery bearing upon the topography of the Forum, which will be of interest not only to classical students, but to every one interested in the word Rome.

We have discovered that the reliefs on the screens upon the Comitium in the Forum portray scenes from the life of Marcus Aurelius, showing in their backgrounds the buildings occupying two sides of the Forum--from the Temple of Concord to the Arch of Fabius--and that these marble balustrades led up to the statue of that emperor. The space where it stood can be plainly traced upon the pavement; and that is why these pictures refer to epochs of his life. The statue is still existing, and now stands in the square of the Capitol, where it was erected by Michael Angelo, who brought it from the Lateran in 1538, where it had been placed about 1187, when it was removed from the Forum, near the Column of Phocas, where it had long been looked upon as a statue of Constantine, and is so called in the Regiona Catalogue; hence its preservation.

The whole group was evidently erected in honour of Marcus Aurelius, and in commemoration of the important events in his life depicted on the screens, as recorded by Dion Cassius.

The first relief represents a scene upon the Forum between the old Rostra Marsyas and the fig-tree--burning the forty-six years' arrears of debts which Marcus Aurelius had forgiven the people.

"After that he remitted all that had been due to the Public and Imperial Treasuries for the course of forty-six years, without including therein Hadrian's reign, and ordered all the papers of claims to be burned in the Forum" (Dion Cassius, "Marcus Aurelius").

This was on the marriage of his son Commodus with Crispina.

It will be noticed that the relief is to the right of the fig-tree and Marsyas. Now, if we go round to the other relief, we have the same tree and Marsyas in the same relative positions; but the relief is to the left, and the scenes are taking place between the Rostra Julia, the fig-tree, and Marsyas:--

Giving the donation of eight pieces of gold.

Roma, or perhaps Faustina, thanking him for the Puellæ Faustinianæ.

"After he had come back to Rome, as he was one day haranguing the people, and speaking of the number of years he had spent abroad in his expeditions, the citizens with a loud voice cried out, 'Eight,' at the same time extending their hands to receive as many pieces of gold. The emperor, smiling, repeated, 'Eight,' and ordered every Roman eight pieces, which was so considerable a sum, that so great a one was never given before by any emperor" (Dion Cassius, "Marcus Aurelius").

It will be noticed that two men are holding up their hands with fingers extended, one five, the other three--eight.

The other scene on this relief represents a female figure advancing to the seated figure of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, leading a child and carrying another, to thank him for the orphan schools he founded in Rome in memory of his wife after her death, and which he named after her. "New Faustinian schools he instituted in honour of his dead wife" (Julius Capitolinus, "M. Antoninus," xxvi.).

THE SUOVETAURILIA.

Upon the inner sides of the Avenue are represented on each balustrade a boar, a ram, and a bull--the animals offered at the triple sacrifice, or _suovetaurilia_ (from _sus_, _ovis_, _taurus_), which was performed once every five years, or _lustrum_, for the purification of the city.

It was an institution of Servius Tullius, the ceremony consisting in leading the boar, ram, and bull thrice round the assembly of the people, and then offering them to Mars. There is a similar representation upon a relief of Trajan on the Arch of Constantine, and upon a pedestal found near the Arch of Septimius Severus.

_To our left of the Arch of Severus is_

THE ROSTRA AD PALMAM.

Neither the position nor the construction of this Rostra answers to that of the original Suggestum, which took the name of Rostra from having fixed on it the _six_ bronze beaks of the Antiates' ships. The original Rostra, shown on a coin of Palikanus, the orator mentioned by Cicero ("Brutus," lxii.)--see page 42--was a wooden pulpit. Its exact site we have already identified. The last historical notice that we have of it is in Spartianus's "Life of Didius Julianus" (iv.), A.D. 193. After saying that the emperor addressed the Senate, he adds, "but the people expressly in the Rostra before the Curia."

Under the Empire the Rostra had lost its use, and only served occasionally for the emperor to address the people from, or for reading out edicts and proclamations. The western end of the Forum saw many changes after the fire under Commodus, and was rearranged under Septimius Severus, who restored the old edifices, retaining the names of the founders, and erected others (Spartianus, "Severus," xxiii.). In 203 an arch was erected to Severus and his two sons, and a new Rostra was made on the south side of this arch. By cutting away a piece of the slope of the Capitoline Hill, he formed an escarpment 11 feet high, which was faced with a curved brick wall, and cased with Porta Santa marble, in panels 3 feet 1 inch wide. Between each pair of panels there is a space 6½ inches wide, from which a piece of marble jutted out 3½ inches. Only one of these exists. On it there was fixed a bronze beak, probably made in imitation of the old ones, for in that day they had no naval foes from whom to capture ships. If there was one row only, there were eighteen in all; if two rows, thirty-six. This in itself is sufficient to show the ridiculousness of calling this the original Rostra, which had six beaks only. The peculiar marble casing also shows late work. At the north end of this platform was erected the Umbilicus (E), and on the south end was placed the Milliarium Aureum (F). From the level space on the top of this escarpment the orator would speak; whilst at a short distance in his rear was the street Clivus Argentarius, leading from the Via Sacra to the Porta Rutuminia. This Rostra was popularly known as the People's Rostra, because from it they were addressed--"Deinde ad Rostra Populum convocarunt" (Capitolinus, "Maximus et Balbinus," iii.). The narrowness of the level space on the top of this Rostra caused great inconvenience; and as room could not be gained in the rear, it had to be taken in front, encroaching on the Comitium. Forty-three and a half feet in front of the curved wall of Porta Santa a straight wall was built of travertine and tufa, 78 feet long, with side walls from it back to the extreme ends of the Rostra, and this was cased with Carrara white marble, the space between the two walls being filled with earth, thus making a large platform with a square instead of a curved front. The blocks of tufa and marble were tied together by iron clamps, of which fragments remain, of a shape not used in the earlier days, but used now. That the curved wall and the straight wall are not contemporary is shown by the construction, as well as by the fact that the curved wall is faced with coloured marble, which would not have been the case if it had not at one time been open to the Forum. The curved wall is on a line with the Arch of Severus; but the tufa wall comes out 25½ feet beyond the arch, and is not parallel with the curved wall behind it. The tufa and travertine wall is erected on the travertine pavement of the Comitium.

We believe these changes on this Rostra were made in the time of Aurelian (270), after the death of Claudius II., whose statue was erected on this Rostra. "Illi totius orbis judicio in rostris posita est columna palmata statua superfixa" (Pollio, "Claudius," iii.). Upon this Rostra also Aurelian erected a statue of the Genius of the Roman People. Aurelianus--"Genium Populi Romani in rostra posuit" ("E Chronicis antiquis excerpta Aurelianus"). The fourth century guides, "Curiosum Urbis" and "De Regionibus" (in Regio viii.), mention the Genium Populi Romani, the latter adding "aureum." They both mention three Rostra in the Forum. The statue of Claudius was not represented as wearing the Roman toga, but the Greek pallium, from which this Rostra became known as the Rostra ad Palmam; and this part of the Forum in later times was called ad Palmam.

Theodoric--"Deinde veniens ingressus urbem venit ad Senatum, et ad Palmam populo adlocutus" ("Excerpta Valesiana," lxvi.).

"Ligaverunt ei manus a tergo et decollaverunt extra Capitolium et extrahentes jactaverunt eum juxta arcum triumphi ad Palmam" ("Acta SS., Mai." vii.).

Ammianus Marcellinus (xvi. x. 13) describes Constantius's visit in 356 to this Rostra: "When he arrived at the Rostra, he gazed with amazed awe on the Forum, the most renowned monument of ancient power; and being bewildered with the number of wonders on every side to which he turned his eyes, having addressed the nobles in the Senate House and harangued the populace from the Rostra, he retired." This expresses the feelings of many visitors in our day. The site commands a good view of the Forum.

The remains of this Rostra are best illustrated by the representation of it in the relief on the Arch of Constantine; and by no possible imagination can it be made to agree with the coin of Palikanus.

In the centre is a platform with a straight front, having a lattice balustrade; on the right is a statue of Claudius II., and on the left the statue of the Genius of Rome. A group of people stand behind the railing and surround Constantine, who is addressing the people. Behind are five Corinthian columns surmounted with statues. The balustrade stood on the top of the tufa wall, and some of the fallen gray granite columns still exist. To our right, clear of the Rostra, is the Arch of Severus, a group of people being in front, looking up to the Rostra. On the left, in the background, are the Arch of Tiberius, spanning the Vicus Jugarius, and four of the arches of the Basilica Julia--the foreground being occupied by a crowd of people facing towards the Rostra.

The scene here depicted was no doubt that which took place on the entry of Constantine into Rome: "And with a loud voice and by inscriptions he made known to all men the salutary standard" (Eusebius, "Life of Constantine," xl.).

In the relief the head of Constantine is unfortunately missing; but it seems very appropriate that he should be represented addressing the Roman people from that Rostra, which was decorated with the statue of his ancestor Claudius II.

There are no beaks shown on the relief; but along the tufa wall, at regular intervals of 3 feet 4 inches, are cut grooves 6½ inches wide and 1½ inch deep: in these grooves are holes which, if they were to sustain beaks, would give thirty-six for a single row, and seventy-two for a double row.

We doubt if these grooves and holes were for beaks. They were more probably for the supports of the marble casing; they do not go completely through the wall.

Some authorities call these remains on the Clivus the Rostra Vetera, or the original Rostra. But it does not answer classic description, and the construction shows it to be of late date. It does not stand _on_ the Comitium, or _before_ the Curia, nor _under_ the old shops. Besides, it looks down the Forum; so from here how could Gracchus have _turned_ from the Senate House and Comitium towards the Forum?

THE UMBILICUS

was a monument marking the centre of the Roman world. The ruin of the Umbilicus is at the side of the Arch of Septimius Severus, at the end of the Rostra ad Palmam. Its pyramidal shape upon a round base can easily be distinguished.

THE ASYLUM OF ROMULUS.

This was between the Clivus Capitolinus and the Pass of the Two Groves (Via Arco di Septimo Severo), under the Capitoline Hill, and served afterwards as an advanced fort to the citadel. "He opened a sanctuary, in the place where the enclosure now is, on the road down from the Capitoline [Temple], called the Pass of the Two Groves" (Livy, i. 8). "He surrounded it with a high stone wall" (Ovid, "Fasti," iii. 231). The gate leading into it was called the Porta Pandana--"ever-open gate" (Solinus, i. 13. See Plutarch, in "Romulus;" Dionysius, ii. 15; Florus, i. 1; Varro and Festus). The remains of the tufa wall exist on the left of the Clivus, in front of the Temple of Saturn.

THE CLOACA MAXIMA,

or great drain, begun by Tarquin the Great, containing a large stream of water rushing along, as it did over two thousand years ago, is exposed to view at the east end of the Basilica Julia.

It was finished by Tarquin the Proud, B.C. 556 (Livy, i. 38, 55).

"Men spoke in admiration of the public sewers, too, a work more stupendous than any, as mountains had to be pierced for their construction, and navigation might be carried on beneath Rome; an event which happened in the ædileship of M. Agrippa, after he had filled the office of consul." (See Dion Cassius, "Augustus," A.U.C. 721.)

"For this purpose there are seven streams turned into the artificial channels, and flowing beneath the city. Rushing onward, like so many impetuous torrents, they are compelled to carry off and sweep away all the sewerage" (Pliny, xxxvi. 24).

FRAGMENTS

of different buildings lie scattered about; to what edifices they belonged "pronounce who can." More than two hundred columns, and fifty capitals of exquisite workmanship, have been discovered in the excavations of the Forum. Near the reliefs on the Comitium is a pedestal with the following inscription:--

TO THE ANNIHILATOR OF TYRANTS,
AND THE AUTHOR OF PUBLIC SAFETY,
TO OUR CONSTANT AND FELICITOUS LORD,
ARCADIUS AUGUSTUS.
ALBINUS, PREFECT OF THE CITY, ETC.,
HAS ERECTED THIS.

_Having now made the circuit of the Forum, we will proceed to_

THE SCALÆ ANNULARIÆ.

Beyond the Temple of Castor, to the right of the Temple of Vesta, are remains of these stairs.

"Augustus lived at first near the Roman Forum, above the Ringmaker's Stairs, in a house which had once been occupied by Calvus the orator" (Suetonius, "Augustus," lxxii.). Calvus the orator, a friend of Cicero, lived on the Palatine; and the Scalæ Annulariæ was a flight of stairs that led from the east end of the Forum up the north side of the Palatine to the Clivus Victoriæ.

On the 12th of April 1882, a piece of the marble plan was found here which, curiously enough, represents this part of the Forum, showing the side of the Temple of Castor and the Ringmaker's Stairs.

HOUSE OF THE VIRGINS.

Between the Temple of Vesta and the Sacra Via was the original dwelling-place of the Vestals, of which little remains beyond tufa walls beneath the more recent level. These walls were again exposed to view in some excavations made in the spring of 1886. They are marked in black on our Plan (page 61), being now again covered up.

Martial (i. 70), in addressing his book which he sends to Proculus, says, "You will pass by the Temple of Castor, near that of ancient Vesta, and that goddess's virgin home."

Dionysius (ii. 67) says: "They live near by the temple of the goddess."

VESTA'S DUST-BIN.

By the side of the temple is a pit four feet square, where the ashes and sweepings of the temple were deposited; which were cleared out on the 15th of June, and thrown down the Porta Stercoraria, on the Clivus Capitolinus, into the Cloaca. (Ovid, "F." vi. 237, 712; Varro, "L. L." v.; Festus.)

THE SHRINE OF MERCURY.

Beyond the Temple of Vesta, on the right, is a small brick shrine. The base of the statue of this shrine was fortunately found telling us the name.

DIO
MERCVRIO

On the flank of the base is another inscription, giving us the date of its erection, April 26, 275 A.D.

The brick podium of the shrine was cased with marble, one piece, one foot four inches high, being _in situ_ on the side towards the steps. It supported an entablature of Carrara marble formed by two half-columns at the rear and two columns in front, of the fluted composite order. On the frieze is the inscription, in beautifully cut letters five inches high, recording its erection by the Roman senate and people--

SENATVS . POPVLVSQVE . ROMANVS
PECVNIA . PVBLICA . FACIENDAM . CVRAVIT.

The podium is 4 feet 7 inches high, 9 feet 9 inches wide, 8 feet 2 inches deep. The fragments found are to be built up in their original sites, and so the shrine will be preserved. It was originally erected by Antoninus Pius, and is represented on a bronze coin of his--the pediment being supported by four Hermes (the Greek name for Mercury) busts. In the tympanum are the tortoise, cock, ram, winged cap, caduceus, and the magic purse. When it was restored in the consulship of Aurelian and Marcellino, columns and composite capitals took the place of the Hermes busts.

_The travertine steps by the side of the Shrine of Mercury led into_

THE ATRIUM VESTÆ.

After the destructive fire of 192, the Forum and edifices on the Sacra Clivus were rebuilt by Septimius Severus and Julia Domna (Spartianus, Dion Cassius, Eutropius), the empress taking upon herself the special work of rebuilding the temple and residence of the Vestal Virgins; and although the original podium of the temple was used, it was considerably raised by rubble being placed on the top of the ancient tufa platform. This was necessary owing to the raising of the level from _débris_.

For the Atrium Vestæ a different site was selected, more to the south under the Palatine; in fact the whole disposition of the edifices about here was changed, as proved by comparing the earlier with the later classical notices, and the excavations of 1883-4.

To commemorate this rebuilding a silver coin was struck by the empress, bearing her head on the obverse; and on the reverse is the Temple of Vesta in the background, in front of which stands an altar, and on either side are three virgins, two of whom are pouring an oblation over the altar.

This new arrangement of the buildings is thus exactly described by Servius (in "Æn." vii. 153): "By the Temple of Vesta was the Regia of Numa Pompilius, but near to the Atrium of Vesta, which was distinct from the temple."

Standing just inside, at the top of the steps, we have the whole Atrium Vestæ, as their residence was named, uncovered before us--a large peristylium paved with black and white mosaic, 222 feet long by 76 feet wide. Standing out thirteen feet from the boundary wall of the Atrium, and extending all round the court, were forty-four columns of various marbles, whilst under the colonnade were the pedestals bearing honorary inscriptions and statues of High Vestals: sixteen on each side, six at the top, and six at the bottom. Of these, thirteen honorary inscriptions have been found dedicated to six different High Vestal Virgins, the Lady Superiors of the nunnery. Four slight fragments of other inscriptions were also found, making seventeen in all. Twelve of the statues, more or less perfect, have also been found: likewise an honorary pedestal to Caracalla; and a statue to Vettius Agorius Prætextatus, erected to this champion of paganism, 367 A.D., by Cœlia Concordia, the last of the High Vestal Virgins.

At the east end of the Atrium is the fountain, beyond which is a step up on to a tesselated pavement, and from that four steps lead into the tabularium, or reception-room, having on each side three chambers, in which most probably the Vestals deposited those objects intrusted to their sacred keeping.

On each side of the Atrium were the residential chambers of the High Vestals, the simple Virgins, and their domestics, two stories high. Those on the south side are best preserved.

From the tesselated pavement a door gives access into a corridor, once paved with white and black mosaic; at the end, on the left, is a bath-chamber; and opening out from the corridor are several chambers showing traces of marble pavements, frescoed and marble-cased walls. In the second chamber are the remains of the mill for grinding the salt used in sacrifice. (See Virgil, "Buc." viii. 82; Horace, "O." iii. 23; Festus.) Pliny (xxxi. 41) says, "It is in our sacred rites more particularly that the high importance of salt is to be recognized, no offering ever being made unaccompanied by crushed salt."

This corridor does not run the whole length of the Atrium, but turns off to a flight of stairs leading to the upper chambers. The remainder of the chambers on this side were reached direct from the Atrium by steps. The first one contains a hexagonal pedestal to Flavia Publicia. From the marble and fresco decorations found here, these rooms were most probably the apartment of the High Vestal Virgin.

The inscriptions to the High Vestals found, date between 180 and 364 A.D., and were erected in return for some advantage derived from the patronage of the High Vestal. Historically they are of no great importance, giving us only names of Vestals that were already known. The most important inscriptions are those found here which do not refer to the Virgins. Commencing with the first pedestal at the top of the entry steps, they read as follows:--

Flavia Publicia. Erected July 9, 283 A.D.

Concordiæ. Dedicated June 9, 364. She was the last High Vestal, and her name was erased because she became a Christian.

Cœlia Claudiana. 253-7 A.D.

Caracalla pedestal. July 2, 114 A.D.

Prætextata Crassi. 180-200 A.D.

Flavia Publicia. 257-284.

Numisia Maximilla. 201-216.

Statue of an unknown Vestal; no head.

Flavia Publicia. 257-84.

Another pedestal to her, with statue adjoining.

Pedestal to Trentia Flavola. About 350.

Blank pedestal, with statue of Ceres adjoining.

Pedestal to Flavia Publicia. September 30, 257.

Statue of Vettius Agorius Prætextatus. 380.

Fragment of a seated statue.

Statue unknown.

Statue and pedestal to Flavia Publicia.

This part of the city was finally destroyed by the great fire, when Robert Guiscard burned Rome from the Lateran to the Capitol, in 1084. During this long period of nearly seven hundred years the Atrium Vestæ underwent many changes and received other tenants, for the new excavations show that it had been inhabited after the Vestals were abolished.

At the rear of the first pedestal a terra-cotta jar was discovered, containing a brooch bearing the name of Pope Martin III., 943-46; a gold coin of the Eastern Emperor Theophilus (827-42); and eight hundred and thirty Anglo-Saxon silver coins of Alfred the Great (871-900), Edward (900-24), Edgar Athelstan (925-41), and Edmund I. (941-48)--four kings of Northumbria--and of Plegmund, Archbishop of Canterbury (889-923). We may presume that this money was brought to Rome by some English tourist, who left his all and fled when the building was finally destroyed by fire; or that it formed part of a donation of "Peter's Pence." Ethelwulf, the English king during the time of Leo IV. (845-57), was the first English prince who gave tribute to the See of Rome; and as such his portrait is to be seen in _chiaro-oscuro_, by Caravaggio, in the Stanze of the Incendio del Borgo in the Vatican.

After running a course of one thousand and eighty years, Gratian in 367 "refused the office of Pontifex Maximus, and abolished the functions of the Vestal Virgins" (Zosimus, iv.), which were finally suppressed by Theodosius in 392. "Theodosius directed his attention towards the suppression of idolatry, and issued a law commanding the demolition of idolatrous temples." "The faithful emperor Theodosius interdicted these rites and consigned them to disuse" (Theodoret, v. 21).

The Bishop of Rome and his clergy came by right, as heads of the established religion, into the possessions of the defunct faiths, and inhabited the quarters of the Vestals, assuming the title of the head of the ancient religion, Pontifex Maximus, a title held to the present day--a dignity two thousand six hundred and forty years old, the oldest title in the world.

THE PALLADIUM.

In the centre of the peristylium, just coming to the surface and occupying the whole of the width of the open court, are the foundations of an octagonal edifice in brick, with ribs running from the angles to a central circle. Here, doubtless, was the shrine in which was kept the Sacred Palladium, or fatal token of the empire of the Romans. "Fatale pignus imperii Romani" (Livy, xxvi. 27). "Kept under the safeguard of Vesta's temple" (_ibid._ v. 52). This was a statuette of "Minerva, by no male beheld" (Lucan, ix. 994). "The Vestals alone were permitted to behold the Trojan Minerva" (_ibid._ i. 598). "That fell from heaven" (Dionysius, ii. 67). It seems it was originally kept in the Temple of Vesta itself (Pliny, vii. 45; Ovid, "T." iii. 1, 39).

"The sacred image of Minerva, to which the Romans pay uncommon veneration, and which, as they say, was brought from Troy, was exposed to public view (during the fire of 192), so that the men of our age beheld the Palladium, never seen by any before since the time it came from Ilium into Italy. For the Vestal Virgins laid hold on it in the hurry and confusion, and carried it openly through the Sacred Way into the Imperial Palace" (Herodian, in "Commodus").

"Elagabalus, wanting a wife for his sun-god, sent for the sacred image of Pallas, which the Romans worship in secret from human eyes, and had it brought into his own bed-room. Thus he dared to displace the Palladium, that had never been moved since the time it came from Ilium, except when the temple was destroyed by fire, and they conveyed the goddess into the Imperial Palace" (_ibid._ in "Antoninus;" Lampridius, in "Elagabalus," iii.).

Fragments of a statuette of Minerva were found in the excavations.

THE VICUS VESTÆ.

From the Via Sacra, above the Arch of Titus, a street, passing along a ledge on the northern side of the Palatine, runs into the Vicus Tuscus at the back of the Temple of Castor. This was the street of the Vestals, separating their house from the Imperial Palace. Asconius ("ad Ciceronem pro Scauro,") speaks of it.

We now cross over to the Sacred Way.

_The first object that attracts our attention is the_

CHURCH OF SS. COSMO AND DAMIANO,

_on the left_, occupying the site and built out of the remains of two temples by Felix IV., 527 A.D. The subterranean church contains a spring said to have been called forth by S. Felix. Upon the apse of the upper church is a mosaic of the time of Felix.

THE TEMPLE OF ROMULUS,

son of Maxentius, forms the vestibule of the present church. It was a circular building, and fronted towards the Via Sacra. The second temple Felix made into the nave of the church; it was quadrangular, and built of brick, but the western wall was of blocks of Gabii stone, forming part of the second wall of Rome, which was here utilized for the temple. It is thirty feet in diameter, and was erected in 302 A.D. Ligorio ("Vatican Codex," 3439) has preserved the inscription:--

IMP . CAES . AUGUSTUS . MAXIMUS . TRIUMPH
PIUS . FELIX . AUGUSTUS.

The two porphyry columns and the cornice belong to the temple; but the bronze doors are Etruscan, having been sent from Perugia by Urban VIII. in 1630. The wings on either side of the doorway were added in 772-95 by Hadrian I.; the niches, which still show traces of frescoing, being for relics of the saints. At the same time the present flooring of the church was inserted some feet above the ancient level.

_On the left are slight remains of_

THE TEMPLE OF VICAPORTA, VICTORY.

Remains of this temple have been discovered in the recent excavations on the Sacra Via, between the Temple of Antoninus Pius and the Temple of Romulus. From the slight remains found, it seems that three of its sides were formed by deep apses, the fourth side fronting towards the Via Sacra, and entered by a portico.

Dionysius (v. 19), Plutarch in "Publicola," and Livy (ii. 7) record that Publius Valerius, surnamed Publicola, built a house on the Velia overlooking the Forum; but owing to the invidious remarks made he pulled the house down, and re-erected it at the foot of the Velia. Plutarch adds, "upon the spot where the Temple of Victory now stands." Livy also says, "The house was built at the foot of the hill where the Temple of Victory now stands." Dionysius (v. 48) says, after speaking of the poverty of Publicola, "The senate decreed that he should be buried at the expense of the public, and appointed a place in the city, under the hill called Velia, near the Forum, where his body was burnt and buried."

A Temple of Antoninus Pius.
B Temple of Victory.
C Temple of Romulus.
D Temple of Venus and Roma.
E Temple of the Penates.
F Mediæval Portico.
G Arch of Titus.]

This Temple of Victory was dedicated, B.C. 295, by the consul Lucius Postumus. "He dedicated the Temple of Victory, for the building of which he had provided, when curule ædile, out of the money arising from fines" (Livy, x. 33).

This temple is represented on a coin of Gordianus III., 240 A.D., who restored it after his Persian victories.

TEMPLE OF VENUS AND ROMA,

erected by Hadrian in 134 A.D. It was the largest and most sumptuous in Rome. It was designed by Hadrian himself, who sent the drawings to the celebrated architect Apollodorus, whom he had banished, to ask his opinion. He replied, "That Hadrian ought to have made it more lofty, and with subterraneous accommodation for receiving, as occasion might require, the machinery of the theatre, and for giving it a more imposing aspect towards the Via Sacra. That as to the statues, they were so disproportionate, that if the goddesses desired to get up and walk out, they would not be able" (Dion Cassius; Xiphilinus, "Hadrian").

For this criticism Apollodorus lost his head; and we learn that the temple was _not_ on a lofty platform, that there were _no_ subterranean chambers, and that it was _not_ imposing towards the Via Sacra. The front was towards the Forum of Peace. What is now the back of the church, in a stone-cutter's yard, was originally the front of the temple. It is mentioned by Prudentius as being in the vicinity of the Via Sacra.

"The Sacred Way resounded (_they say_) with lowings before the shrine of Rome; for she also herself is worshipped with blood after the fashion of a goddess, and the name of the place (_Rome_) is regarded as a divinity. The temples also of the city and of Venus rise with a like roof; and at one and the same time frankincense is consumed to the twin-gods."

It could not have faced the Via Sacra, or Maxentius would not have built the temple of his son against it, 311 A.D.

The bronze doors of the Round Temple were found at Perugia by Urban VIII. The two columns of porphyry, with the cornice, are supposed to have been found amongst the ruins when it was turned into a church. On the right side of the present church is a piece of wall of Gabii tufa stone of _opus quadratum_. At the back of the church is the brick front wall of the temple, on which the celebrated _Pianta Capitolina_ was originally attached (see page 185) by means of cement and cramps, and which was found below the soil under the wall, having been thrown down by an earthquake.

Suetonius tells us that Nero's colossus stood in the vestibule of his palace.

Martial says, "It was removed by Vespasian, when he built the Temple of Peace, to where the atrium (a more inward part) was."

It was a second time removed, for Spartianus informs us that "Hadrian removed it with twenty-four elephants _from_ the place where now stands the Temple of the City."

Thus we learn that the spot where the Temple of Rome is, was formerly the atrium of Nero's Golden House, and that the Temple of Peace occupied the vestibule.

"Maxentius restored the Temple of Venus and Rome, which had been damaged by fire" (Aur. Victor, "Cæs." xl.).

The Emperor Heraclius gave permission to Pope Honorius I. to remove the bronze tiles of this temple in order to use them for the roof of S. Peter's; whence they were stolen by the Saracens in 846.

Dion Cassius (lxxi. 31) tells us that "Cleopatra's statue in gold is to be seen in the Temple of Venus to this day." Also that "the senate ordered two statues of silver to be erected in the Temple of Venus; one in honour of Faustina, and the other in honour of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. They likewise ordered an altar to be set up before it, on which every contracted couple were to sacrifice before marriage."

Mr. J. H. Parker, C.B., made some excavations under the wall of Gabii stone in 1868-9, and found that a street ran from the Sacred Way along the side of the wall, in which was a small doorway into the temple. This has now been re-excavated by the Government (1880), who have taken possession of the Round Temple.

The government have recently pulled down the chapel of the burial society adjoining the Temple of Romulus, and on the two thousand six hundred and thirty-third anniversary of the foundation of Rome, April 21st, 1880, the two cipollino columns were found to have belonged to the

TEMPLE OF THE PENATES.

As the Lares were the departed spirits of the ancestors of each family who watched over their descendants, so the Penates were the gods selected by each family as its special protectors. And as there were the Lares of the city, so there were the Penates, whose chapel was termed Ædes Deum Penatium, and the gods were called Penates Populi Romani. These Penates were supposed to have been the gods brought from Troy by Æneas.

We learn from the "Monumentum Ancyranum," that Augustus rebuilt the Ædem Deum Penatium in Velia; and Solinus (i.) tells us that Tullus Hostilius lived on the Velia, where afterwards was the Chapel of the Penates. Dionysius thus describes it:--"For the things which I myself know, by having seen them, and concerning which no scruple forbids me to write, are as follows. They show you a temple at Rome, not far from the Forum, in the street that leads the nearest way to the Carinæ, which is small, and darkened by the height of the adjacent buildings. This place is called by the Romans, in their own language, _Veliæ_; in this temple are the images of the Trojan gods exposed to public view, with this inscription, ΔΕΜΑΣ , which signifies Penates. For, in my opinion, the letter Θ not being yet found out, the ancients expressed its power by the letter Δ. These are two youths, in a sitting posture, each of them holding a spear; they are pieces of ancient workmanship" (Dionysius, i. 68).

THE RECENT EXCAVATIONS.

In the new excavations upon the line of the Via Sacra a monumental cippus has been found, with the following inscription,--FABIUS. TITIANUS.--V. C. CONSUL.--PRAEF. URBI.--CURAVIT.

He was consul and prefect of the city, A.D. 339 to 341, under the Emperor Constans I. This was one of three bases recorded as having stood in front of the Temple of Romulus in the sixteenth century, one of which is in the Museum of the Villa Borghese, and the other is in the Naples Museum.

Another base was found, dedicated to the Emperor Constantius II. by Flavius Leontius, prefect of Rome in 356 A.D. This is similar to the one in the Capitoline Museum.

The inscription reads,--TOTO. ORBE. VICTORI.--DN. CONSTANTIO. MAX.--TRIUMFATORI.--SEMPER. AUG.--FL. LEONTIUS. V. C.--PRAEF. URBI. ITERUM.--VICE. SACRA. INDICANS.--D. N. M. Q. EIUS.

Remains of Roman and medieval buildings and a fountain have been uncovered in the course of excavating, also some architectural fragments. The whole length of the Via Sacra has been now uncovered as far as the steps leading up to S. Bonaventura.

THE HOUSE OF JULIUS CÆSAR.

The recent excavations along the line of the Via Sacra brought to light some unimportant remains of shops and houses facing towards the street. These buildings are of the time of Constantine, and agree in their construction with his Basilica on the opposite side of the street. This part of Rome was destroyed by fire in the reign of Commodus, and again under Maxentius (Dion Cassius, Herodian, Galen, Capitolinus). In this rebuilding they did not clear away the remains of the older houses, but built on and over them--a not unusual custom in Rome. Let us carefully examine the older remains. Our attention is first attracted by different fragments of beautiful mosaic pavements of the best period of the art, and evidently the flooring of no mean house. The first piece that we come across is composed of a pattern made up of several cubes in different colours; in the rebuilding this was hid by a pavement of herring-bone brickwork. Beyond is a beautiful black and white octangular and diamond mosaic pavement, which also did duty to the rebuilt house. In a small room adjoining we notice a travertine base of a column, which stands near a piece of black mosaic pavement, in which are inserted small squares of white marble; in another chamber close by is a white mosaic with a black border, and near this another, of white and black sexangular and diamond shape. Near the cube mosaic are two more bases of columns of travertine, and a travertine well head: travertine stone, from Tivoli, was not used in Rome as a building material till about 50 B.C. Amongst the constructions of the older period we notice six distinct pieces of walls composed of tufa blocks, perhaps old material re-used, some blocks of peperino, and a small piece of _opus reticulatum_. Tufa was used during the kingly period, peperino during the republic, and _opus reticulatum_--net-work wedges of tufa--by the late republic and early empire. Amidst the later construction, which is of brickwork, we notice terra-cotta hot-air pipes, and one piece of a lead pipe, and remains of flights of stairs leading to upper floors. The brick stamps found were of the second, third, and fourth centuries. Amongst these remains was found a small altar. On the scroll at the top is a Roman eagle, and beneath,--

LARIBUS AUG. SACRUM.

From the line of the bases of the columns we see that the front of the older house sloped back diagonally from the Via Sacra, the point farthest from the Forum being nearest to the Via Sacra; whilst the more recent construction was on a line parallel with, and abutting on to, the Sacred Way.

This early house, appearing beneath the building of later date, is in all probability the house in which Julius Cæsar lived. The construction agrees with that of earlier and contemporary date. It is the first house on the Via Sacra, and the site coincides with the notices which we have of Cæsar's house:--

"He first inhabited a small house in the Suburra; but after his advancement to the pontificate, he occupied a palace belonging to the state in the Via Sacra. Many writers say that he liked his residence to be elegant ... and that he carried about in his expeditions tesselated and marble slabs for the floor of his tent" (Suetonius, "Cæsar," xlvi.).

"As a mark of distinction he was allowed to have a pediment on his house" (Florus, iv. 3).

"Julius Cæsar once shaded the whole Forum and Via Sacra from his house, as far as the Clivus Capitolinus" (Pliny, xix. 6).

"The night before his murder, as he was in bed with his wife, the doors and windows of the room flew open at once.... Calpurnia dreamed that the pediment was fallen, which, as Livy tells us (in the lost books), the senate had ordered to be erected upon Cæsar's house by way of ornament and distinction; and that it was the fall of it which she lamented and wept for" (Plutarch, in "Cæsar").

"He lay for some little time after he expired, until three of his slaves laid the body on a litter and carried it home, with one arm hanging down over the side" (Suetonius, "Cæsar," lxxxii.).

The house of Cæsar was under the Palatine, on which, above Cæsar's, stood the house of Cicero. "He (Vettius) did not name me, but mentioned that a certain speaker, of consular rank (Cicero), and neighbour to the consul (Cæsar), had suggested to him that some Ahala Servilius, or Brutus, must be found" (Cicero, "Ad Att." ii. 24).

In Cæsar's fourth consulship, the year before he was killed, for some reason or other the defence of King Deiotarus by Cicero was heard by Cæsar in his own house. Cicero says to Cæsar: "I am affected also by the unusual circumstance of the trial in this place, because I am pleading so important a cause--one the fellow of which has never been brought under discussion--within the walls of a private house. I am pleading it out of the hearing of any court or body of auditors, which are a great support and encouragement to an orator. I rest on nothing but your eyes, your person, your countenance. I behold you alone; the whole of my speech is necessarily confined to you alone.... But since the walls of a house narrow all these topics, and since the pleading of the cause is greatly crippled by the place, it behoves you, O Cæsar," &c. ("Pro Deiot." ii.).

It was in the year of his prætorship (62 B.C.) that the scandal of Clodius being found in the house whilst they were about to celebrate the rites of the Bona Dea happened. "When the anniversary of the festival comes, the consul or prætor (for it is at the house of one of them that it is kept) goes out, and not a male is left in it" (Plutarch, "Cæsar"). The trial that such a scene gave rise to caused Cæsar's celebrated words on being asked why he had divorced his wife: "Because I would have the chastity of my wife clear even of suspicion" (Plutarch, "Cæsar").

Plutarch speaks of it as "a great house." Ovid says the house of Numa, the Regia, was "small," showing that the house of Cæsar and the Regia were two distinct edifices.

This old house of which we have been speaking fronted towards the Temple of Vesta, whilst the portico and shops, built at a late period over its ruins, ran parallel with the Via Sacra. The house side of the atrium is plainly marked by the fragments of columns, composed of travertine coated with stucco, and frescoed. There is the base of an isolated column near what must have been the middle of the house side; and to its right there is a half column of the same workmanship, and between these two bases runs a travertine gutter which drained the atrium. Amidst the shops built over the atrium are remains of beautiful black and white mosaic pavement, the fragments of the borders showing that they once belonged to the older edifice. On the right of the atrium, towards the Via Sacra, was an area-vestibulum, giving access to the house from the Via Sacra, and, like it, paved with polygonal blocks of silex.

There was another entrance to the house at the point where it nearly touched, at its north-eastern corner, the Via Sacra. The bases of two columns mark the ingress into a small vestibule which has a mosaic pavement, on the right of which was the entrance to the house, the threshold of travertine stone being _in situ_. There are the two holes at the ends where the doors turned on their pivots, and the bolt-hole in the middle.

THE PORTICUS MARGARITARIA.

After the fire, the site of Cæsar's house was occupied by shops and dwellings, along the front of which was an arcade. As these shops were mostly kept by pearl-dealers, the arcade was known as the Porticus Margaritaria. It is mentioned in the "Curiosum" and the "Notitia" of the fourth century as in the eighth region, Forum Romanum Magnum.

In the recent excavations along the line of the Via Sacra, the remains of an arcade 201 feet long by 24 feet wide, and consisting of two rows of piers, have been found running parallel with the street, and having shops on either side. This no doubt is the Porticum Margaritarium of the catalogues. Beneath the arcade and the shops are the remains of Cæsar's house. Judging from the monumental stones, the pearl trade was an extensive one in Rome; and from the same authority we learn that the shops were on the Sacra Via. This is mentioned on the tomb of Ateilius Evhodus at the sixth mile on the Via Appia.

THE SACRA CLIVUS.

Horace was wont to come down the Sacred Way ("S." i. 9), and talks of Britons descending it in chains ("Ep." vii.). Now we are free to ascend it. Where the Sacred Way ascends the Velia ridge it will be noticed that the road is extraordinarily wide (45 feet). This was no doubt made after the great fire under Commodus, for four feet below the pavement was found the original and narrower street, and beneath that the drain in the reticulated work of the republic.

The right-hand side of the ascent was bordered with honorary monuments and inscriptions to Trajan, Hadrian, Titus, Septimius Severus, Caracalla, and Constantine; but the most interesting, perhaps, was the monument with Greek inscription of Gordianus, erected to him by the citizens of Tarsus, St. Paul's city, and interesting as showing that the close friendship between Rome and Tarsus continued to this late period. Four columns of Porta Santa marble stood on a podium, 7 feet by 4 feet, and supported a canopy, under which was the emperor's statue. On the cornice was the inscription, ΤΑΡϹΕωΝ , filled in with bronze.

THE VICUS SANDALIARIUS.

This was the street mentioned by Dionysius as leading into the Carinæ.

In the "Curiosum" and "Notitia" is mentioned the Apollinem Sandaliarium. This was a statue of Apollo, which gave name to a street of the fourth region. Suetonius ("Aug." lvii.) says: "With which donations Augustus purchased some costly images of the gods, which he erected in several of the streets of the city, as that of Apollo Sandaliarius." It is mentioned by Aulus Gellius (xviii. 4): "In Sandaliario forte apud librarios fuimus." Also by Galen ("De Libris suis," iv. 361).

The marble plan of Rome shows this street by the letters DLARIVS.

This was the street, recently excavated, between the Temple of the Penates and the Basilica Constantine, and which led into the Suburra.

At the entrance from the Via Sacra there still exists a brick pedestal on which the statue may have stood. For engraving of this, see Gruter, cvi. 7, and Dcxxi. 3.

In this street the remains of the Temple of Venus and Rome can be distinctly seen. A short distance up it is tunnelled over to allow the Basilica of Constantine to square; but the tunnel is closed about half way through. From the level of the street the western tribunal of the Basilica has been built up. The tunnel, called Arco d'Ladroni, and the street itself, have been used as a burial-place by the monks of the church; and there is a ninth century fresco of the dead body of the Saviour over a shrine on the left.

_Beyond is the_

BASILICA OF CONSTANTINE,

the colossal arches of which have served as models to architects for building all the larger churches in Rome. This splendid ruin usually bears the name of the Temple of Peace, erected by Vespasian in this neighbourhood and partly on this site, and which was destroyed by fire as early as the time of Commodus, A.D. 191. Herodianus, who saw the fire, says: "By the slight earthquake and the thunderbolt which followed it, the whole of the sacred enclosure was consumed." Claudius Galenus, the celebrated physician, says that the whole edifice was consumed, as also most of his writings, which were in his shop in the Via Sacra.