Chapter VI: The Palatine (1)

The Story of the Hill--Orti Farnesiani--The Via Nova--Roma
Quadrata--The Houses of the early Kings--Temple of Jupiter
Stator--Palace of Augustus--Palace of
Vespasian--Crypto-Porticus--Temple of Jupiter-Victor--The Lupercal
and the Hut of Faustulus--Palace of Tiberius--Palace of
Caligula--Clivus Victoriæ--Ruins of the Kingly Period--Altar of the
Genius Loci--House of Hortensius--Septizonium of Severus--Palace of
Domitian.

"The Palatine formed a trapezium of solid rock, two sides of which were about 300 yards in length, the others about 400: the area of its summit, to compare it with a familiar object, was nearly equal to the space between Pall-Mall and Piccadilly in London."[99]

The history of the Palatine is the history of the City of Rome. Here was the Roma Quadrata, the "oppidum," or fortress of the Pelasgi, of which the only remaining trace is the name Roma, signifying force. This is the fortress where the shepherd-king Evander is represented by Virgil as welcoming Æneas.

The Pelasgic fortress was enclosed by Romulus within the limits of this new city, which, "after the Etruscan fashion, he traced round the foot of the hill with a plough drawn by a bull and a heifer, the furrow being carefully made to fall inwards, and the heifer yoked to the near-side, to signify that strength and courage were required without, obedience and fertility within the city.... The locality thus enclosed was reserved for the temples of the gods and the residence of the ruling class, the class of patricians or burghers, as Niebuhr has taught us to entitle them, which predominated over the dependent commons, and only suffered them to crouch for security under the walls of Romulus. The Palatine was never occupied by the plebs. In the last age of the republic, long after the removal of this partition, or of the civil distinction between the great classes of the state, here was still the chosen site of the mansions of the highest nobility."[100]

In the time of the early kings the City of Rome was represented by the Palatine only. It was at first divided into two parts, one inhabited, and the other called Velia, and left for the grazing of cattle. It had two gates, the Porta Romana to the north, and the Porta Mugonia--so called from the lowing of the cattle--to the south, on the side of the Velia.

Augustus was born on the Palatine, and dwelt there in common with other patrician citizens in his youth. After he became emperor he still lived there, but simply, and in the house of Hortensius, till, on its destruction by fire, the people of Rome insisted upon building him a palace more worthy of their ruler. This building was the foundation-stone of "the Palace of the Cæsars," which in time overran the whole hill, and, under Nero, two of the neighbouring hills besides, and whose ruins are daily being disinterred and recognised, though much confusion still remains regarding their respective sites. In A.D. 663, part of the palace remained sufficiently perfect to be inhabited by the Emperor Constans, and its plan is believed to have been entire for a century after, but it never really recovered its sack by Genseric in A.D. 455, in which it was completely gutted, even of the commonest furniture; and as years passed on it became imbedded in the soil which has so marvellously enshrouded all the ancient buildings of Rome, so that till within the last ten years, only a few broken nameless walls were visible above ground.

"Cypress and ivy, weed and wallflower grown
Matted and mass'd together, hillocks heap'd
On what were chambers, arch crush'd, columns strown
In fragments, choked-up vaults, and frescoes steep'd
In subterranean damps, where the owl peep'd,
Deeming it midnight:--Temples, baths, or halls?
Pronounce who can; for all that Learning reap'd
From her research has been, that these are walls.--
Behold the Imperial Mount! 'Tis thus the mighty falls."

_Byron, Childe Harold._

How different is this description to that of Claudian (de Sexto Consulat. Honorii).

"The Palatine, proud Rome's imperial seat,
(An awful pile) stands venerably great:
Thither the kingdoms and the nations come,
In supplicating crowds to learn their doom:
To Delphi less th' inquiring worlds repair,
Nor does a greater god inhabit there:
This sure the pompous mansion was design'd
To please the mighty rulers of mankind;
Inferior temples rise on either hand,
And on the borders of the palace stand,
While o'er the rest her head she proudly rears,
And lodged amidst her guardian gods appears."

_Addison's Translation._

After the middle of the sixteenth century a great part of the Palatine became the property of the Farnese family, latterly represented by the Neapolitan Bourbons, who sold the "Orti Farnesiani," in 1861, to the Emperor Napoleon III., for £10,000. Up to that time this part of the Palatine was a vast kitchen-garden, broken here and there by picturesque groups of ilex trees and fragments of mouldering wall. In one corner was a casino of the Farnese (still standing) adorned in fresco by some of the pupils of Raphael. This and all the later buildings in the "Orti," are marked with the Farnese _fleur-de-lis_, and on the principal staircase of the garden is some really grand distemper ornament of their time. Since 1861 extensive excavations have been carried on here under the superintendence of Signor Rosa, which have resulted in the discovery of the palaces of some of the earlier emperors, and the substructions of several temples. After the revolution of 1870 the French portion of the Palatine was sold by the Ex-Emperor Napoleon to the Roman municipal government.

In visiting the Palace of the Cæsars, it will naturally be asked how it is known that the different buildings are what they are described to be. In a great measure this has been ascertained from the descriptions of Tacitus and other historians,--but the greatest assistance of all has been obtained from the Tristia of Ovid, who, while in exile, consoles himself by recalling the different buildings of his native city, which he mentions in describing the route taken by his book, which he had persuaded a friend to convey to the imperial library. He supposes the book to enter the Palatine by the Clivus Victoriæ behind the Temple of Vesta, and follows its course, remarking the different objects it passed on the right or the left.

* * * * *

If we enter the palace by the Farnese gateway, on the right of the Campo-Vaccino, opposite SS. Cosmo e Damiano, we had better only ascend the first division of the staircase and then turn to the left. Passing along the lower ridge of the Palatine, afterwards occupied by many of the great patrician houses, whose sites we shall return to and examine in detail, we reach that corner of the garden which is nearest to the Arch of Titus. Here a paved road of large blocks of lava has lately been laid bare, and is identified beyond a doubt as part of the Via Nova, which led from the Porta Mugonia of the Palatine along the base of the hill to the Velabrum. In the reign of Augustus it appears to have been made to communicate also with the Forum.

"Qua Nova Romano nunc Via juncta Foro est."

_Ovid, Fast._ vi. 396.

At this point the road was called _Summa Via Nova_.

Near this spot must have been the site of the house where Octavius lived with his wife Afra, the niece of Julius Cæsar (daughter of his eldest sister Julia), and where their son, Octavius, afterwards the Emperor Augustus, was born. This house afterwards passed into the possession of C. Lætorius, a patrician; but after the death of Augustus, part of it was turned into a chapel, and consecrated to him. It was situated at the top of a staircase--"supra scalas annularias"[101]--which probably led to the Forum, and is spoken of as "ad capita bubula," perhaps from bulls' heads, with which it may have been decorated.

Here we find ourselves, owing to the excavations, in a deep hollow between the two divisions of the hill. On the left is the Velia, upon which, near the Porta Mugonia, the Sabine king, Ancus Martius, had his palace. When Ancus died, he was succeeded by an Etruscan stranger, Lucius Tarquinius, who took the name of Tarquinius Priscus. This king also lived upon the Velia,[102] with Tanaquil his queen, and here he was murdered in a popular rising, caused by the sons of his predecessor. Here his brave wife Tanaquil closed the doors, concealed the death of the king, harangued the people from the windows,[103] and so gained time till Servius Tullius was prepared to take the dead king's place and avenge his murder.[104]

Keeping to the valley, on our right are now some huge blocks of tufa, of great interest as part of the ancient _Roma Quadrata_, anterior to Romulus. Beyond this, also on the right, are foundations of the _Temple of Jupiter Stator_, built by Romulus, who vowed that he would found a temple to Jupiter under that name, if he would arrest the flight of his Roman followers in their conflict with the superior forces of the Sabines.[105]

"Inde petens dextram, porta est, ait, ista Palati;
Hic Stator, hoc primum condita Roma loco est."

_Ovid, Trist._ iii. El. I.

"Tempus idem Stator ædis habet, quam Romulus olim
Ante Palatini condidit ora jugi."

_Ovid, Fast._ vi. 793.

The temple of Jupiter Stator has an especial interest from its connection with the story of Cicero and Catiline.

"Cicéron rassembla le sénat dans le temple de Jupiter Stator. Le
choix du lieu s'explique facilement; ce temple était près de la
principale entrée du Palatin sur le Vélia, dominant, en cas
d'émeute, le Forum, que Cicéron et les principaux sénateurs
habitants du Palatin n'avaient pas à traverser comme s'il eût fallu
se rendre à la Curie. D'ailleurs Jupiter Stator, qui avait arrêté
les Sabines à la porte de Romulus, arrêterait ces nouveaux ennemis
qui voulaient sa ruine. Là Cicéron prononça la première
Catilinaire. Ce discours dut être en grande partie improvisé, car
les événements aussi improvisaient. Cicéron ne savait si Catilina
oserait se présenter devant le sénat; en le voyant entrer, il
conçut son fameux exorde: 'Jusqu'à quand, Catilina, abuseras-tu de
notre patience!'

"Malgré la garde volontaire de chevaliers qui avait accompagné
Cicéron et qui se tenait à la porte du temple, Catilina y entra et
salua tranquillement l'assemblée; nul ne lui rendit son salut, à
son approche on s'écarta et les places restèrent vides autour de
lui. Il écouta les foudroyantes apostrophes de Cicéron, qui, après
l'avoir accablé des preuves de son crime, se bornait à lui dire:
'Sors de Rome. Va-t-en!'

"Catilina se leva et d'un air modeste pria le sénat de ne pas
croire le consul avant qu'une enquête eût été faite. 'II n'est pas
vraisemblable, ajouta-t-il, avec une hauteur toute aristocratique,
qu'un patricien, lequel, aussi bien que ses ancêtres, a rendu
quelques services à la république, ne puisse exister que par sa
ruine, et qu'on ait besoin d'un étranger d'Arpinum pour la sauver.'
Tant d'orgueil et d'impudence révoltèrent l'assemblée; on cria à
Catilina: 'Tu es un ennemi de la patrie, un meurtrier.' Il sortit,
réunit encore ses amis, leur recommanda de se débarasser de
Cicéron, prit avec lui un aigle d'argent qui avait appartenu à une
légion de Marius, et à minuit quitta Rome et partit par la voie
Aurélia pour aller rejoindre son armée."--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ iv.
445.

Nearly opposite the foundations of Jupiter Stator, on the left,--are some remains considered to be those of the Porta Palatii.

The valley is now blocked by a vast mass of building which entirely closes it. This is the palace of Augustus, built in the valley between the Velia and the other eminence of the Palatine, which Rosa, contrary to other opinions, identifies with the _Germale_. The division of the Palatine thus named, was reckoned as one of "the seven hills" of ancient Rome. Its name was thought to be derived from Germani, owing to Romulus and Remus being found in its vicinity.[106]

The _Palace of Augustus_ was begun soon after the battle of Actium, and gradually increased in size, till the whole valley was blocked up by it, and its roofs became level with the hill-sides. Part of the ground which it covered had previously been occupied by the villa of Catiline.[107] Here Suetonius says that Augustus occupied the same bed-room for forty years. Before the entrance of the palace it was ordained by the Senate, B.C. 26, that two bay-trees should be planted, in remembrance of the citizens he had preserved, while an oak wreath was placed above the gate in commemoration of his victories.

"Singula dum miror, video fulgentibus armis
Conspicuos postes, tectaque digna deo.
An Jovis hæc, dixi, domus est? Quod ut esse putarem,
Augurium menti querna corona dabat.
Cujus ut accepi dominum, non fallimur, inquam:
Et magni rerum est hanc Jovis esse domum.
Cur tamen apposita velatur janua lauro?
Cingit et Augustas arbor opaca fores?"

_Ovid, Trist._ i. 33.

"State Palatinæ laurus; prætextaque quercu
Stet domus; æternos tres habet una deos."

_Fast._ iv. 953.

It was before the gate of this palace that Augustus upon one day in every year sate as a beggar, receiving alms from the passers-by, in obedience to a vision that he should thus appease Nemesis.

Upon the top of this building of Augustus, Vespasian built his palace in A.D. 70, not only using the walls of the older palace as a support for his own, but filling the chambers of the earlier building entirely up with earth, so that they became a solid massive foundation. The ruins which we visit are thus for the most part those of the palace of Vespasian, but from one of its halls we can descend into rooms underneath excavated from the palace of Augustus. The three projecting rostra which we now see in front of the palace are restorations by Signor Rosa.

The palace on the Palatine was not the place where the emperors generally lived. They resided at their villas, and came into the town to the Palace of the Cæsars for the transaction of public business. Thus this palace was, as it were, the St. James's of Rome. The fatigue and annoyance of a public arrival every morning, amid the crowd of clients who always waited upon the imperial footsteps, was naturally very great, and to obviate this the emperors made use of a subterranean passage which ran round the whole building, and by which they were enabled to arrive unobserved, and not to present themselves in public till their appearance upon the rostra in front of the building to receive the morning salutations of their people.

If we ascend a winding path to the right, to the garden which now covers the greater part of the hill Germale, we shall find a staircase which descends on the left to join this passage, following which, we will ascend, with the emperor, into his palace.

The passage, called _Crypto-Porticus_, is still quite perfect, and retains a great part of its mosaic pavements and much of its inlaid ceilings, from which the gilt mosaic has been picked out, but the pattern is still traceable. The passage was lighted from above. It was by this route that St. Laurence was led up for trial in the basilica, of the palace. Turning to the left, we again emerge upon the upper level.

The emperor here reached the palace, but as he did not yet wish to appear in public, he turned to the left by the private passage called _Fauces_, which still remains, running behind the main halls of the building. Here he was received by the different members of the imperial family, much as Napoleon III. was received by Princesses Mathilde, Clotilde, and the Murats, in a private apartment at the Tuileries, before entering the ball-room. Hence, passing across the end of the basilica, the emperor reached the portico in front of the palace, looking down upon the hollow space where were the Temple of Jupiter Stator and the other buildings connected with the early history of the Roman state. Here the whole Court received him and escorted him to the central rostra, where he had his public reception from the people assembled below, and whence perhaps he addressed to them a few words of morning salutation in return. The attendants meanwhile defiled on either side to the lower terraced elevation, which still remains.

This ceremony being gone through, the emperor returned as he came, to the basilica, for the transaction of business.

The name Basilica means "King's House." It was the ancient Law Court. It usually had a portico, was oblong in form, and ended in an apse for ornament. The Christians adopted it for their places of worship because it was the largest type of building then known. They also adopted the names of the different parts of the pagan basilica, as the Confessional, from the _Confession_, the bar of justice at which the criminal was placed,--the Tribune, from the _Tribunal_ of the Judge, &c. A chapel and sacristy added on either side produced the form of the cross. The _Basilica_ here is of great width. A leg of the emperor's chair actually remains _in situ_ upon the tribunal, and part of the richly wrought bar of the Confession still exists. This was the bar at which St. Laurence and many other Christian martyrs were judged. The basilica in the palace of the Cæsars was also the scene of the trial of Valerius Asiaticus in the time of Claudius (see Chap. II.), when the Empress Messalina, who was seated near the emperor upon the tribunal, was so overcome by the touching eloquence of the innocent man, that she was obliged to leave the hall to conceal her emotion,--but characteristically whispered as she went out, that the accused must nevertheless on no account be suffered to escape with his life,[108]--that she might take possession of his Pincian Garden, which was as Naboth's Vineyard in her eyes. An account is extant which describes how it was necessary to increase the width of the seat upon the tribunal at this period, in consequence of a change in the fashion of dress among the Roman ladies.

This basilica, though perhaps not then itself in existence, will always have peculiar interest as showing the form and character of that earlier basilica in the Palace of the Cæsars, in which St. Paul was tried before Nero. But it is quite possible that it may be the same actual basilica itself,--and that the palace of Nero which overran the whole of the hill, may have had its basilica on this site, where it was preserved by Vespasian in his later and more contracted palace.

"The appeals from the provinces in civil causes were heard, not by
the emperor himself, but by his delegates, who were persons of
consular rank: Augustus had appointed one such delegate to hear
appeals from each province respectively. But criminal appeals
appear generally to have been heard by the emperor in person,
assisted by his council of assessors. Tiberius and Claudius had
usually sat for this purpose in the Forum; but Nero, after the
example of Augustus, heard these causes in the imperial palace,
whose ruins still crown the Palatine. Here, at one end of a
splendid hall,[109] lined with the precious marbles of Egypt and of
Libya, we must imagine Cæsar seated in the midst of his assessors.
These councillors, twenty in number, were men of the highest rank
and greatest influence. Among them were the two consuls and
selected representatives of each of the other great magistracies of
Rome. The remainder consisted of senators chosen by lot. Over this
distinguished bench of judges presided the representatives of the
most powerful monarchy which has ever existed,--the absolute ruler
of the whole civilised world.

"Before the tribunal of the blood-stained adulterer Nero, Paul was
brought in fetters, under the custody of his military guard. The
prosecutors and their witnesses were called forward, to support
their accusation; for although the subject-matter for decision was
contained in the written depositions forwarded from Judæa by
Festus, yet the Roman law required the personal presence of the
accusers and the witnesses, whenever it could be obtained. We
already know the charges brought against the Apostle. He was
accused of disturbing the Jews in the exercise of their worship,
which was secured to them by law; of desecrating their Temple; and,
above all, of violating the public peace of the empire by perpetual
agitation, as the ringleader of a new and factious sect. This
charge was the most serious in the view of a Roman statesman; for
the crime alleged amounted to _majestas_, or treason against the
commonwealth, and was punishable with death.

"These accusations were supported by the emissaries of the
Sanhedrim, and probably by the testimony of witnesses from Judæa,
Ephesus, Corinth, and the other scenes of Paul's activity.... When
the parties on both sides had been heard, and the witnesses all
examined, the judgment of the court was taken. Each of the
assessors gave his opinion in writing to the emperor, who never
discussed the judgment with his assessors, as had been the practice
of better emperors, but after reading their opinion, gave sentence
according to his own pleasure, without reference to the judgment
of the majority. On this occasion it might have been expected that
he would have pronounced the condemnation of the accused, for the
influence of Poppæa had now reached its culminating point, and she
was a Jewish proselyte. We can scarcely doubt that the emissaries
from Palestine would have demanded her aid for the destruction of a
traitor to the Jewish faith; nor would any scruples have prevented
her listening to their request, backed as it probably was,
according to Roman usage, by a bribe. However this may be, the
trial resulted in the acquittal of St. Paul. He was pronounced
guiltless of the charges brought against him, his fetters were
struck off, and he was liberated from his long
captivity."--_Conybeare and Howson._

Beyond the basilica is the _Tablinum_, the great hall of the palace, which served as a kind of commemorative domestic museum, where family statues and pictures were preserved. This vast room was lighted from above, on the plan which may still be seen at Sta. Maria degli Angeli, which was in fact a great hall of a Roman house. The roof of this hall was one vast arch, unsupported except by the side walls. We have record of a period when these walls were supposed insufficient for the great weight, and had to be strengthened, in interesting confirmation of which we can still see how the second wall was added and united to the first.

Appropriately opening from the family picture gallery of the Tablinum, was the _Lararium_, a private chapel for the worship of such members of the family--Livia and many others--as were deified after death. An altar, on the original site, has been erected here by Signor Rosa, from bits which have been found.

Hitherto the chambers which we have visited were open to the public; beyond this, none but his immediate family and attendants could follow the emperor. We now enter the _Peristyle_, a courtyard, which was open to the sky, but surrounded with arcades ornamented with statues, where we may imagine that the empresses amused themselves with their birds and flowers. Hence, by a narrow staircase, we can descend into what is perhaps the most interesting portion of the whole, the one unearthed fragment of the actual _Palace of Augustus_, which still retains remains of gilding and fresco, and an artistic group in stucco. An original window remains, and it will be recollected on looking at it, that when this was built it was not subterranean, but merely in the hollow of the valley, afterwards filled up. In these actual rooms may have lived Livia, who in turn inhabited three houses on the Palatine, first that of her first husband Nero Drusus, whom Augustus compelled her to divorce; then the imperial house of Augustus; and lastly that of Tiberius, the son by her first husband, whom she was the means of raising to the throne.

We now reach the _Triclinium_ or dining-room, surrounded by a skirting of pavonazzetto with a cornice of giallo. Tacitus describes a scene in the imperial triclinium, in which the Emperor Tiberius is represented as reclining at dinner, having on one side his aged mother, the Empress Livia, and on the other his niece Agrippina, widow of Germanicus and granddaughter of the great Augustus.[110] It was while the imperial family were seated at a banquet in the triclinium, in the time of Nero, that his young step-brother Britannicus (son of Claudius and Messalina) swallowed the cup of poison which the emperor had caused Locusta to prepare and sank back dead upon his couch, his wretched sisters Antonia and Octavia, also seated at the ghastly feast, not daring to give expression to their grief and horror,--and Nero merely desiring the attendants to carry the boy out, and saying that it was a fit to which he was subject.[111] Here it was that Marcia the concubine presented the cup of drugged wine to the wicked Commodus, on his return from a wild beast hunt, and produced the heavy slumber during which he was strangled by the wrestler Narcissus. In this very room also his successor Pertinax, who had spent his short reign of three months in trying to reform the State, resuscitate the finances, and to heal, as far as possible, 'the wounds inflicted by the hand of tyranny,' received the news that the guard, impatient of unwonted discipline, had risen against him, and going forth to meet his assassins, fell, covered with wounds, just in front of the palace.[112]

Vitruvius says that every well-arranged Roman house has a dining-room opening into a nymphæum, and accordingly here, on the right, is a _Nymphæum_, with a beautiful fountain surrounded by miniature niches, once filled with bronzes and statues. Water was conveyed hither by the Neronian aqueduct. The pavement of this room was of oriental alabaster, of which fragments remain.

Beyond the Triclinium is a disgusting memorial of Roman imperial life, in the _Vomitorium_, with its bason, whither the feasters retired to tickle their throats with feathers, and come back with renewed appetite to the banquet.

We now reach the portico which closed the principal apartments of the palace on the south-west. Some of its Corinthian pillars have been re-erected on the sites where they were found. From hence we can look down upon some grand walls of republican times, formed of huge tufa blocks.

Passing a space of ground, called, without much authority, _Bibliotheca_, we reach a small _Theatre_ on the edge of the hill, interesting as described by Pliny, and because the Emperor Vespasian, who is known to have been especially fond of reciting his own compositions, probably did so here. Hence we may look down upon the valley between the Palatine and Aventine, where the rape of the Sabines took place, and upon the site of the Circus Maximus. From hence, we may imagine, that the later emperors surveyed the hunts and games in that circus, when they did not care to descend into the amphitheatre itself.

Beyond this, on the right, is (partially restored) the grand staircase leading to the platform once occupied by the _Temple of Jupiter-Victor_, vowed by Fabius Maximus during the Samnite war, in the assurance that he would gain the victory. On the steps is a sacrificial altar, which retains its grooves for the blood of the victims, with an inscription stating that it was erected by "Cnæus Domitius C. Calvinus, Pontifex,"--who was a general under Julius Cæsar, and consul B.C. 53 and B.C. 40.

Now, for some distance, there are no remains, because this space was always kept clear, for here, constantly renewed, stood the _Hut of Faustulus and the Sacred Fig-tree_.

"The old Roman legend ran as follows:--Procas, king of Alba, left
two sons. Numitor, the elder, being weak and spiritless, suffered
Amulius to wrest the government from him, and reduce him to his
father's private estates. In the enjoyment of these he lived rich,
and, as he desired nothing more, secure: but the usurper dreaded
the claims that might be set up by heirs of a different character.
He had Numitor's son murdered, and appointed his daughter, Silvia,
one of the Vestal virgins.

"Amulius had no children, or at least only one daughter: so that
the race of Anchises and Aphrodite seemed on the point of
expiring, when the love of a god prolonged it, in spite of the
ordinances of man, and gave it a lustre worthy of its origin.
Silvia had gone into the sacred grove, to draw water from the
spring for the service of the temple. The sun quenched its rays:
the sight of a wolf made her fly into a cave: there Mars
overpowered the timid virgin, and then consoled her with the
promise of noble children, as Posidon consoled Tyro, the daughter
of Salmoneus. But he did not protect her from the tyrant; nor could
the protestations of her innocence save her. Vesta herself seemed
to demand the condemnation of the unfortunate priestess; for at the
moment when she was delivered of twins, the image of the goddess
hid its eyes, her altar trembled, and her fire died away. Amulius
ordered that the mother and her babes should be drowned in the
river. In the Anio Silvia exchanged her earthly life for that of a
goddess. The river carried the bole or cradle, in which the
children were lying, into the Tiber, which had overflowed its banks
far and wide, even to the foot of the woody hills. At the root of a
wild fig-tree, the Ficus Ruminalis, which was preserved and held
sacred for many centuries, at the foot of the Palatine, the cradle
overturned. A she-wolf came to drink of the stream: she heard the
whimpering of the children, carried them into her den hard by, made
a bed for them, licked and suckled them. When they wanted other
food than milk, a woodpecker, the bird sacred to Mars, brought it
to them. Other birds consecrated to auguries hovered over them, to
drive away insects. This marvellous spectacle was seen by
Faustulus, the shepherd of the royal flocks. The she-wolf drew
back, and gave up the children to human nature. Acca Laurentia, his
wife, became their foster-mother. They grew up, along with her
twelve sons, on the Palatine hill, in straw huts which they built
for themselves: that of Romulus was preserved by continual repairs,
as a sacred relic, down to the time of Nero. They were the stoutest
of the shepherd lads, fought bravely against wild beasts and
robbers, maintaining their right against every one by their might,
and turning might into right. Their booty they shared with their
comrades. The followers of Romulus were called Quinctilii, those of
Remus Fabii: the seeds of discord were soon sown amongst them.
Their wantonness engaged them in disputes with the shepherds of the
wealthy Numitor, who fed their flocks on Mount Aventine: so that
here, as in the story of Evander and Cacus, we find the quarrel
between the Palatine and the Aventine in the tales of the remotest
times. Remus was taken by the stratagem of these shepherds, and
dragged to Alba as a robber. A secret foreboding, the remembrance
of his grandsons, awakened by the story of the two brothers, kept
Numitor from pronouncing a hasty sentence. The culprit's
foster-father hastened with Romulus to the city, and told the old
man and the youths of their kindred. They resolved to avenge their
own wrong and that of their house. With their faithful comrades,
whom the dangers of Remus had brought to the city, they slew the
king; and the people of Alba again became subject to Numitor.

"But love for the home which fate had assigned them drew the youths
back to the banks of the Tiber, to found a city there, and the
shepherds, their old companions, were their first citizens.... This
is the old tale, as it was written by Fabius, and sung in ancient
lays down to the time of Dionysius."--_Niebuhr's Hist. of Rome._

In the cliff of the Palatine, below the fig-tree, was shown for many centuries the cavern Lupercal, sacred from the earliest times to the Pelasgic god Pan.

"Hinc lucum ingentum, quem Romulus acer Asylum
Retulit, et gelidâ monstrat sub rupe Lupercal,
Parrhasio dictum Panos de monte Lycæi."

_Virgil, Æn._ viii. 342.

"La louve, nourrice de Romulus, a peut-être été imaginée en raison
des rapports mythologiques qui existaient entre le loup et Pan
défenseur des troupeaux. Ce qu'il y a de sûr, c'est que les fêtes
lupercales gardèrent le caractère du dieu en l'honneur duquel elles
avaient été primitivement instituées et l'empreinte d'une origine
pélasgique; ces fêtes au temps de Cicéron avaient encore un
caractère pastoral en mémoire de l'Arcadie d'où on les croyait
venues. Les Luperques qui représentaient les Satyres, compagnons de
Pan, faisaient le tour de l'antique séjour des Pélasges sur le
Palatin. Ces hommes nus allaient frappant avec les lanières de peau
de bouc, l'animal lascif par excellence, les femmes pour les rendre
fécondes; des fêtes analogues se célébraient en Arcadie sous le nom
de Lukéia (les fêtes des loups), dont le mot lupercales est une
traduction."--_Ampère, Hist. Rome_, i. 143.

In the hut of Romulus were preserved several objects venerated as relics of him.

"On conservait le bâton augural avec lequel Romulus avait dessiné
sur le ciel, suivant le rite étrusque, l'espace où s'était
manifesté le grand auspice des douze vautours dans lesquels Rome
crut voir la promesse des douze siècles qu'en effet le destin
devait lui accorder. Tous les augures se servirent par la suite de
ce bâton sacré, qui fut trouvé intact après l'incendie du monument
dans lequel il était conservé, miracle païen dont l'equivalent
pourrait se rencontrer dans plus d'une légende de la Rome
chrétienne. On montrait le cornouiller né du bois de la lance que
Romulus, avec la vigueur surhumaine d'un demi-dieu, avait jetée de
l'Aventin sur le Palatin, où elle s'était enfoncée dans la terre et
avait produit un grand arbre.

"On montrait sur le Palatin le berceau et la cabane de Romulus.
Plutarque a vu ce berceau, le _Santo-Presepio_ des anciens Romains,
qui était attaché avec des liens d'airain, et sur lequel on avait
tracé des caractères mystérieux. La cabane était à un seul étage,
en planches et couverte de roseaux, que l'on reconstruisait
pieusement chaque fois qu'un incendie la détruisait; car elle brûla
à diverses reprises, ce que la nature des matériaux dont elle était
formée fait croire facilement. J'ai vu dans les environs de Rome un
cabaret rustique dont la toiture était exactement pareille à celle
de là cabane de Romulus."--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ i. 342.

Turning along the terrace which overhangs the Velabrum we reach the ruins of the _Palace of Tiberius_,[113] in which he resided during the earlier part of his reign, when he was under the influence of his aged and imperious mother Livia. Here he had to mourn for Drusus, his only son, who fell a victim (A.D. 23) to poison administered to him by his wife Livilla and her lover the favourite Sejanus. Here also, in A.D. 29, died Livia, widow of Augustus, at the age of eighty-six, "a memorable example of successful artifice, having attained in succession, by craft if not by crime, every object she could desire in the career of female ambition."[114]

The row of arches remaining are those of the soldiers' quarters. In the fourth arch is a curious _graffite_ of a ship. In another the three pavements in use at different times may be seen _in situ_, one above another. On the terrace above these arches has recently been discovered a large piscina, or _fish-pond_, and the painted chambers of a building, which is supposed to have been the _House of Drusus_ (elder brother of Tiberius) _and Antonia_. Several of the rooms in this building are richly decorated in fresco, one has a picture of a street with figures of females going to a sacrifice, and of ladies at their toilette; another of Mercury, Io, and Argus; and a third of Galatea and Polyphemus. From the names of the characters in these pictures represented being affixed to them in Greek, we may naturally conclude that they are the work of Greek artists.

The north-eastern corner of the area is entirely occupied by the vast ruins of the _Palace of Caligula_, built against the side of the hill above the _Clivus Victoriœ_, which still remains, and consisting of ranges of small rooms, communicating with open galleries, edged by marble balustrades, of which a portion exists. In these rooms the half-mad Caius Caligula rushed about, sometimes dressed as a charioteer, sometimes as a warrior, and delighted in astonishing his courtiers by his extraordinary pranks, or shocking them by trying to enforce a belief in his own divinity.[115]

"C'est dans ce palais que, tourmenté par l'insomnie et par
l'agitation de son âme furieuse, il passera une partie de la nuit à
errer sous d'immenses portiques, attendant et appellant le jour.
C'est là aussi qu'il aura l'incroyable idée de placer un dieu
infâme.

"Caligula se fit bâtir sur le Palatin deux temples. Il avait
d'abord voulu avoir une demeure sur le mont Capitolin; mais, ayant
réfléchi que Jupiter l'avait precédé au Capitole, il en prit de
l'humeur et retourna sur le Palatin. Dans les folies de Caligula,
on voit se manifester cette pensée: Je suis dieu! pensée qui
n'était peut-être pas très-extraordinaire chez un jeune homme de
vingt-cinq ans devenu tout-à-coup maître du monde. Il parut en
effet croire à sa divinité, prenant le nom et les attributs de
divers dieux, et changeant de nature divine en changeant de
perruque.

"Non content de s'élever un temple à lui-même, Caligula en vint à
être son propre prêtre et à s'adorer. Le despotisme oriental avait
connu cette adoration étrange de soi: sur les monuments de l'Egypte
on voit Ramsès-roi présenter son offrande à Ramsès-dieu; mais
Caligula fit ce que n'avait fait aucun Pharaon; il se donna pour
collègue, dans ce culte de sa propre personne, son cheval, qu'il ne
nomma pas, mais qu'il songea un moment de nommer consul."--_Ampère,
Emp._ ii. 8.

Here "one day at a public banquet, when the consuls were reclining
by his side, Caligula burst suddenly into a fit of laughter; and
when they courteously inquired the cause of his mirth, astounded
them by coolly replying that he was thinking how by one word he
could cause both their heads to roll on the floor. He amused
himself with similar banter even with his wife Cæsonia, for whom he
seems to have had a stronger feeling than for any of his former
consorts. While fondling her neck he is reported to have said,
'Fair as it is, how easily I could sever it.'"--_Merivale_, ch.
xlviii.

After the murder of Caligula (Jan. 24, 794) by the tribune Cheræa, in the vaulted passage which led from the palace to the theatre, a singular chance which occurred in this part of the palace led to the elevation of Claudius to the throne.

"In the confusion which ensued upon the death of Caius, several of
the prætorian guards had flung themselves furiously into the palace
and began to plunder its glittering chambers. None dared to offer
them any opposition; the slaves or freedmen fled and concealed
themselves. One of the inmates, half-hidden behind a curtain in an
obscure corner, was dragged forth with brutal violence; and great
was the intruder's surprise when they recognised him as Claudius,
the long despised and neglected uncle of the murdered emperor.[116]
He sank at their feet almost senseless with terror: but the
soldiers in their wildest mood still respected the blood of the
Cæsars, and instead of slaying or maltreating the suppliant, the
brother of Germanicus, they hailed him, more in jest perhaps than
earnest, with the title of Imperator, and carried him off to their
camp."--_Merivale_, ch. xlix.

In this same palace Claudius was feasting when he was told that his hitherto idolised wife Messalina was dead, without being told whether she died by her own hand or another's,--and asked no questions, merely desiring a servant to pour him out some more wine, and went on eating his supper.[117] Here also Claudius, who so dearly loved eating, devoured his last and fatal supper of poisoned mushrooms which his next loving wife (and niece) Agrippina prepared for him, to make way for her son Nero upon the throne.[118]

The Clivus Victoriæ commemorates by its name the _Temple of Victory_,[119] said to have been founded by the Sabine aborigines before the time of Romulus, and to be the earliest temple at Rome of which there is any mention except that of Saturnus. This temple was rebuilt by the consul L. Posthumius.

Chief of a group of small temples, the famous _Temple of Cybele_, "Mother of the Gods," stood at this corner of the Palatine. Thirteen years before it was built, the "Sacred Stone," the form under which the "Idæan Mother" was worshipped, had been brought from Pessinus in Phrygia, because, according to the Sibylline books, frequent showers of stones which had occurred could only be expiated by its being transported to Rome. It was given up to the Romans by their ally Attalus, king of Pergamus, and P. Cornelius Scipio, the young brother of Africanus--accounted the worthiest and most virtuous of the Romans--was sent to receive it. As the vessel bearing the holy stone came up the Tiber it grounded at the foot of the Aventine, when the aruspices declared that only chaste hands would be able to move it. Then the Vestal Claudia drew the vessel up the river by a rope.

"Ainsi Sainte Brigitte, Suédoise morte à Rome, prouva sa pureté en
touchant le bois de l'autel, qui reverdit soudain. Une statue fut
érigée à Claudia, dans le vestibule du temple de Cybèle. Bien
qu'elle eût été, disait on, seule épargnée dans deux incendies du
temple, nous n'avons plus cette statue, mais nous avons au Capitole
un bas-relief où l'événement miraculeux est représenté. C'est un
autel dédié par une affranchie de la gens Claudia; il a été trouvé
au pied de l'Aventin, près du lieu qu'on désignait comme celui où
avait été opéré le miracle."--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ iii. 142.

In her temple, which was _round and surmounted_ by a cupola, Cybele was represented by a statue with its face to the east; the building was adorned with a painting of Corybantes, and plays were acted in front of it.[120]

"Qua madidi sunt tecta Lyæi
Et Cybeles picto stat Corybante domus."

_Martial, Ep._ i. 71, 9.

This temple, after its second destruction by fire, was entirely rebuilt by Augustus in A.D. 2.

"Cybèle est certainement la grande déesse, la grande mère,
c'est-à-dire la personnification de la fécondité et de la vie
universelle: bizarre idole qui présente le spectacle hideux de
mamelles disposés par paires le long d'un corps comme enveloppé
dans une gaîne, et d'où sortent des taureaux et des abeilles,
images des forces créatrices et des puissances ordonnatrices de la
nature. On honorait cette déesse de l'Asie par des orgies
furieuses, par un mélange de débauche effrénée et de rites cruels;
ses prêtres efféminés dansaient au son des flûtes lydiennes et de
ses _crotales_, véritables castagnettes, semblables à celles que
fait résonner aujourd'hui la paysanne romaine en dansant la
fougueuse _saltarelle_. On voit au musée du Capitole l'effigie
bas-relief d'un _archigalle_, d'un chef de ces prêtres insensés, et
près de lui les attributs de la déesse asiatique, les flûtes, les
crotales, et la mystérieuse corbeille. Cet archigalle, avec son air
de femme, sa robe qui conviendrait à une femme, nous retrace
l'espèce de démence religieuse à laquelle s'associaient les délires
pervers d'Héliogabale."--_Ampère, Emp._ ii. 310.

We have the authority of Martial[121] that in the immediate neighbourhood of the temple of Cybele, stood the _Temple of Apollo_, though Signor Rosa places it on the other side of the hill in the gardens of S. Buonaventura. Its remains have yet to be discovered.

"Nothing could exceed the magnificence of this temple, according to
the accounts of ancient authors. Propertius, who was present at its
dedication, has devoted a short elegy to the description of it, and
Ovid describes it as a splendid structure of white marble.

'Tum medium claro surgebat marmore templum,
Et patria Phœbo carius Ortygia.
Auro solis erat supra fastigia currus,
Et valvæ Libyci nobile dentis opus.
Altera dejectos Parnassi vertice Gallos,
Altera mœrebat funera Tantalidos.
Deinde inter matrem Deus ipse, interque sororem
Pythius in longa carmina veste sonat.'

_Propertius,_ ii. _El._ 31.

'Inde timore pari gradibus sublimia celsis
Ducor ad intonsi candida templa Dei.'

_Ovid, Trist._ iii. _El._ 1.

"From the epithet _aurea_ porticus, it seems probable that the
cornice of the portico which surrounded it was gilt. The columns
were of African marble, or _giallo-antico_, and must have been
fifty-two in number, as between them were the statues of the fifty
Danaids, and that of their father, brandishing a naked sword.

'Quæris cur veniam tibi tardior? aurea Phœbi
Porticus a magno Cæsare aperta fuit.
Tota erat in speciem Pœnis digesta columnis:
Inter quas Danai fœmina turba senis.'

_Propert._ ii. _El._ 31.

'Signa peregrinis ubi sunt alterna columnis
Belides, et stricto barbarus ense pater.'

_Ovid, Trist._ iii. 1. 61.

"Here also was a statue of Apollo sounding the lyre, apparently a
likeness of Augustus; whose beauty when a youth, to judge from his
bust in the Vatican, might well entitle him to counterfeit the god.
Around the altar were the images of four oxen, the work of Myron,
so beautifully sculptured that they seemed alive. In the middle of
the portico rose the temple, apparently of white marble. Over the
pediment was the chariot of the sun. The gates were of ivory, one
of them sculptured with the story of the giants hurled down from
the heights of Parnassus, the other representing the destruction of
the Niobids. Inside the temple was the statue of Apollo in a tunica
talaris, or long garment, between his mother Latona and his sister
Diana, the work of Scopas, Cephisodorus, and Timotheus. Under the
base of Apollo's statue Augustus caused to be buried the Sibylline
books which he had selected and placed in gilt chests. Attached to
the temple was a library called _Bibliotheca Græca et Latina_,
apparently, however, only one structure, containing the literature
of both tongues. Only the choicest works were admitted to the
honour of a place in it, as we may infer from Horace:

'Tangere vitet
Scripta, Palatinus quæcunque recepit Apollo.'

_Ep._ i. 3. 16.

"The library appears to have contained a bronze statue of Apollo,
fifty feet high; whence we must conclude that the roof of the hall
exceeded that height. In this library, or more probably, perhaps,
in an adjoining apartment, poets, orators, and philosophers recited
their productions. The listless demeanour of the audience on such
occasions seems, from the description of the younger Pliny, to have
been, in general, not over-encouraging. Attendance seems to have
been considered as a friendly duty."--_Dyer's City of Rome._

The temple of Apollo was built by Augustus to commemorate the battle of Actium. He appropriated to it part of the land covered with houses which he had purchased upon the Palatine;--another part he gave to the Vestals; the third he used for his own palace.

"Phœbus habet partem, Vestæ pars altera cessit:
Quod superest illis, tertius ipse tenet.

* * * * *

Stet domus, æternos tres habet una deos."

_Ovid, Fast._ iv. 951.

Thus Apollo and Vesta became as it were the household gods of Augustus:

"Vestaque Cæsareos inter sacrata penates,
Et cum Cæsarea tu, Phœbe domestice, Vesta."

_Ovid, Metam._ xv. 864.

Other temples on the Palatine were that of _Juno_ Sospita:

"Principio mensis Phrygiæ contermina Matri
Sospita delubris dicitur aucta novis."

_Ovid, Fast._ ii. 55.

of Minerva:

"Sexte, Palatinæ cultor facunde Minervæ
Ingenio frueris qui propiore Dei."

_Martial,_ v. _Ep._ 5.

a temple of Moonlight mentioned by Varro (iv. 10) and a shrine of Vesta.

"Vestaque Cæsareos inter sacrata penates."

_Ovid, Met._ i.

From the _Torretta del Palatino_ which is near the house of Caligula, there is a magnificent view over the seven hills of Rome;--the Palatine, Aventine, Capitoline, Cœlian, Quirinal, Viminal, and Esquiline. From this point also it is very interesting to remember that these were not the heights considered as "the Seven Hills" in the ancient history of Rome, when the sacrifices of the _Septimontium_ were offered upon the Palatine, Velia, and Germale, the three divisions of the Palatine--of which one can no longer be traced; upon the Fagutal, Oppius, and Cispius, the secondary heights of the Esquiline; and upon the Suburra, which perhaps comprehended the Viminal.[122] Hence also we see the ground we have traversed on the Palatine spread before us like a map.

If we descend the staircase in the Palace of Caligula, we may trace as far as the Porta Romana the piers of the _Bridge of Caligula_, which, half in vanity, half in madness, he threw across the valley, that he might, as he said, the more easily hold intercourse with his friend and comrade Jupiter upon the Capitol. One of the piers which he used for his bridge, beyond the limits of the palace, was formed by the temple of Augustus built by Tiberius.[123] This bridge, with all other works of Caligula, was of very short duration, being destroyed immediately after his death by Claudius.

Returning by the Clivus Victoriæ, we shall find ourselves again on the eastern slope of the hill from which we started, the site once occupied by so many of the great patrician families. Here at one time lived Caius Gracchus, who to gratify the populace, gave up his house on the side of the Palatine, and made his home in the gloomy Suburra. Here also lived his coadjutor in the consulship, Fulvius Flaccus, who shared his fate, and whose house was razed to the ground by the people after his murder. At this corner of the hill also was the house of Q. Lutatius Catulus, poet and historian, who was consul B.C. 102, and together with Marius was conqueror of the Cimbri in a great battle near Vercelli. In memory of this he founded a temple of the "Fortuna hujusce diei," and decorated the portico of his house with Cimbrian trophies. Varro mentions that his house had also a domed roof.[124] Here also the consul Octavius, murdered on the Janiculum by the partisans of Marius, had a house, which was rebuilt with great magnificence by Emilius Scaurus, who adorned it with columns of marble thirty-eight feet high.[125] These two last-named houses were bought by the wealthy Clodius, who gave 14,800,000 sesterces, or about 130,000_l._, for that of Scaurus, and throwing down the Porticus Catuli, included its site, and the house of E. Scaurus, in his own magnificent dwelling. Clodius was a member of the great house of the Claudii, and was the favoured lover of Pompeia, wife of Julius Cæsar, by whose connivance, disguised as a female musician, he attempted to be present at the orgies of the Bona Dea, which were celebrated in the house of the Pontifex Maximus close to the temple of Vesta, and from which men were so carefully excluded, that even a male mouse, says Juvenal, dared not show himself there. The position of his own dwelling, and that of the pontifex, close to the foot of the Clivus Victoriæ, afforded every facility for this adventure, but it was discovered by his losing himself in the passages of the Regia. A terrible scandal was the result--Cæsar divorced Pompeia, and the senate referred the matter to the pontifices, who declared that Clodius was guilty of sacrilege. Clodius attempted to prove an alibi, but Cicero's evidence showed that he was with him in Rome only three hours before he pretended to have been at Interamna. Bribery and intimidation secured his acquittal by a majority of thirty-one to twenty-five,[126] but from this time a deadly enmity ensued between him and Cicero.