/ OLD EOME: A HANDBOOK TO THE KUINS OF THE CITY AND THE CAMPAaNA. OLD EOME: A HANDBOOK TO THE RUINS OF THE CITY AND THE CAMPAGNA. BY ROBERT BURN, M.A., FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. BEING AN EPITOME OF HIS LARGER WORK ' ROME AND THE CAMPAGNA.' LONDON: GEOEGE BELL AND SONS, YOEK STREET, COVENT GAKDEN. CAMBKIDGE: DEIGHTON, BELL, & CO. 1880. [The night of Translaiion is reserved.1 PlilXTED liV WILl JAM CLOWES AM) SONS, SIAMFOnD STKKET AND CIIARIXG CROSS. PREFACE. This book is intended to serve as a handbook to the actually- existing ruins and monuments of ancient Eome and the Campagna. It is divided into topographical sections for the convenience of travellers visiting Eome, and the monuments which exist in each section have been briefly described, and a summary given of their history and archceological value. The introductory section contains general remarks upon the site, monumental history, and architecture of Rome ; and in a section prefixed to Chapter IX. the nature of the soil and con- figuration of the hills and valleys of the district surrounding the city are stated. In the Appendix to the eighth chapter will be found a list of the chief monumental antiquities in the museums, galleries, and other public places. This has been thought to be useful, as these are often difficult to recognise from being mixed with so many other attractive and important objects of more modern art and history. All speculative conjectures as to the probable sites or constructions of ancient buildings or places have been avoided. Such questions require more space than can be spared in so small a volume, and have been fully treated of in my larger work, " Rome and the Campagna." I have confined myself in this handbook to a brief topo- graphical, archaeological, and historical description of each existing ruin or monument. The references given have been restricted to modern treatises and to a few of the more rarely read Greek and Latin authors. Full classical authorities are vi Preface. given in " Eome and the Campagna," and are referred to in the foot-notes of this handbook. The importance of topographical and archaeological know- ledge, in enabling ns to realise the history of ancient life, both national and social, is fortunately becoming more and more generally recognised. The early growth and characteristic features of the Eoman commonwealth can be traced in great measure to the conformation of the ground on which the com- munity was first developed. Such local influences are among the highest and most philosophical parts of historical investiga- tion, and have a most important value in enabling us to form an estimate of the truth of statements made by the ancient writers of history. Besides this interest which pervades the early stage of Eoman history, there is also a natural connection, by way of cause or explanation, between the events of later times and the localities in which they occurred ; and this in social as well as in national history. Many Eoman customs and usages, now extinct, are illustrated and realised by the knowledge gained from monu- ments of ancient architecture and art. And again, the spirit of Eoman literature is more fully sympathised with, and its difficult passages and allusions are frequently elucidated by the light of archaeological knowledge. Thus there is not only the poetical and imaginative satis- faction, which is usually felt most vividly in treading the soil, surveying the scenes, and breathing the air in Avhich great historical persons lived and events (jccurred, but also an element of fact which gives a firm basis of incontestable truth to our knowledge, and which no speculative interpretation can dissolve. It is hoped, therefore, that even such an abridged description of ruins, and such a summary of archaeological results as that which forms the basis of the present volume, will not be without use to the student of history, as Avell as a guide to the traveller. In the chapter on the ruins of the Campagna I have in- Preface. vii sorted some statements on the geological formations, and on the climate, which aj)pear to have influenced the history and the architecture of that district. The books from which useful information has been derived are, in addition to those mentioned in the list given in " Eome and the Campagna," some of the later numbers of " Annali deir Instituto," a small treatise called " Guida del Palatino," by C. L, Visconti and E. A. Lanciani, and " A Topographical Study of the Eoman Forum," by Mr. F. M. Nichols. Egbert Burn. CAMBKmGE. 8e.^t. 24, 1879. CONTENTS. PAGE Introduction ........... i CHAPTER I. The Palatine and Velta . . . . . . . 14 CHAPTER II. The Forum Romanum 38 CHAPTER III. Tub Coliseum and Esquiline 58 CHAPTER IV. The Impeuial Foua and the Cavitolium . . ■ . . .83 CHAPTER V. The Velabrum and the Circus Flaminius ..... 103 CHAPTER VI. Pantheon, Column of Marcus Aurelius, Mausoleum of Augustus, Mausoleum of Hadrian, and neighbourhood . . . .127 CHAPTER VII. The Quirinal Hill — Baths of Diocletian — Agger of Servius — CaSTRA PRiETORIA . 153 X Contents. CHAPTER VIII. The Aventine and C.elian Hills. PAGE 161 Appendix to Chapter VIII. ^Monumental Antiquities in the Museums, Piazzas, and other places ...... 177 Introduction to Chapter IX 185 CHAPTER IX. A. The Via Appia and the Alban Hills B. The Via Latina and Tusculum C. Gabii and Pr^neste D. OsTiA and Porto E. Tibur F. North-western Campagna 194 210 219 229 235 256 ( xi ) LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Temple of Jupiter ..... Temple op Saturn, etc. .... Arch of Severus ...... Coliseum, from the Palatine Hill Column of Trajan ..... Forum of Nerva, in 1600 .... Palatine Hill, Temple of Hercules, and Cloaca Theatre of Marcellus ..... Pantheon ....... The QriRiNAL Hill from the Palatine Akch of Dolabblla ..... Pedestal of Antonine Column Cone from the top op Hadrian's Mausoleum Circus of Maxentius ..... Temple of Vesta at Tibur .... PONTE NoMENTANO. ..... Maxima PAG E Title page. 47 53 62 85- 95 109 113 130 154 «^" 175 179 180 213 250 258 G MAPS, PLANS, &c. Plan of Ancient Rome, with Railways Plan op the Hills op Rome Most Ancient Rome ...... Rome, the present Walls, and Walls op Aurei.ian Plan op the Palatine Hill .... 1 .^v 2 — 2 -" 4 .>- 14 ^. ( xii ) Plan or Ruins in tiii: Forim Eojianvji Plan of Mons Oppivs .... fora of tue c^sars .... The Circus Flaminius .... Fragments of Pianta Capitolina — Theatre of Pompey The Thermae op Diocletian . The Servian Walls .... The Baths of Caeacalla Geological Map of Eome Plan of the Alban Hills and Gabii . Plan op the Area of the Temple of Jupiter on IMont Plan of the Temple of Fortune at Pr^neste Plan op Ostia and Porto .... Plan of Hadrianeuji, near Tivoli Plan of Tivoli ...... Map of Ancient Eoads .... ICHNOGRAl'IliA ••..,, e Cav PAGi: 38' 73 -^ 82^- 122 -^ 124 >' m-" 15G ' 16() 185 ^ 202 ^ 206'' 224 229 ^ 236/ 248 256'' 201 "" T E H /' A S E A jsr OLD ROME: A HANDBOOK TO THE EUINS OF THE CITY AND THE CAMPAGNA. INTEODUCTION. I. — The Site of Eome and the Walls of Eome. One of the principal points in the early history of every nation is the efifect of the natural configuration of the country in which their first settlements are formed upon the subse- quent character of the people. The site of Eome consists of several separate hills, upon which distinct groups of original settlers established them- selves. These groups after a temporary rivalry seem to have agreed to form a confederation, in which the leading part was assigned to the Palatine settlement. Such was the origin of that sj)ecial aptitude shown by the Eomans for forming coalitions with rival states, and also of that most valuable trait in their political character, their reverence for law as laid down by a central authority, for each group was taught by their confederate union to regard itself as sharing that central authority. Hence, the historian Livy remarks that under the Eoman Eepublic which built up the power of Eome, the command of law was superior to that of men. But besides this aptitude for confederate union and respect for central authority which the nature of the site seems to have instilled into them, the Eomans were also taught by it a readiness to meet their enemies in the open field, and not to trust much to the protection of steep crags or fortified posts. None of the hills of Eome afforded a strong acropolis, such as most other ancient cities possessed. The Capitol of 15 2 A Handbook to the Ruins of Rome Eome was by no means impregnable. Its central depression rendered it always more or less accessible and liable to be seized by a powerful enemy. The Palatine, though partially fortified, was never considered a strong position. Hence we find that the Servian walls were the only fortifications erected to protect Eome for more than eight hundred years, from the time of Servius down to that of Aurelian. The statement of Strabo, that the absence of fortifications round Eome was to be accounted for by the native spirit of the Eomans, which was " to defend their walls by their men, and not their men by their walls," is evidently full of meaning. II. — MONQMENTAL HlSrORY. Eelics of the two great public works executed during the regal period of Eoman history still remain in the venerable stone arches of the main drain which was constructed to make the Forum valley more habitable, and in the rough portions of the Servian walls which have been found on the Aventine and Quirinal Hills. It is probable that the ruined walls at the edge of the Palatine are anterior to the monixments of the time of Servius. Of the earlier republican period of Eoman history there are no monumental ruins now existing. The ruins which have been excavated on the Capitoline Hill and the basement of the Temple of Vesta in the Forum date from the regal epoch. And this is what might be naturally expected from the dislike of a republican government to require the forced labour anciently called for in the erection of large buildings. But in the later period of the Eoman republic some of the oligarchical leaders and successful generals constructed large buildings, of which traces can now be found. Thus the foundations of the temples and of the portico built in the Camims Martins by Metellus Macedonicus and by Cn. Octavius can be still recognised, and ruins of the immense stone theatre of Pompeius Magnus remain to the present day. But the greater portion of the ruins of Eome dates froin the Augustan age and the subsequent imperial ages. First among them stands the Pantheon, which has kei)t its roof and its- original structure uninjured through the storms j.i^i 'ilS •< IV' V ^^iM^^mm'-^^ ^^^ dr %fr \ ^.ff^^^ ^^^ re^^^ £. <^ ^ w^^v^*^*^"*'' x^*^ J 33 \^^^.,... V m'm ^ I 111 I hi^'M y/W ^i#^ C se, I I a n « 'iiii^^^^''' m m ^ "^Hit FAwf-Wrlhr-Ulh A V e n t i u « RONIA Antiquissiwa c and the Campagna. and earthquakes and the wasting hand of time during more tlian nineteen centuries. It bears the date of b.c. 27 on the frieze of its portico. The Theatre of Marcellus must be next mentioned, and the Mausoleum of Augustus. To the Julian dynasty may be also ascribed the colossal columns of the Temple of Mars Ultor, with the huge wall adjoining them, and the Egyptian obelisks which still decorate some of the piazzas. To the same dynasty we owe the vast arches of the Claudian aqueduct, and the massive brick foundation of the Palatine palace. The Flavian dynasty, Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian changed the characteristic features of the city of Eome. Where Caligula and Nero had covered the ground with costly palaces and pleasure-grounds, the Flavian emperors built the resorts of military and of national life. The Coliseum and the Arch of Titus were the fit accompaniments of their world-subduing, blood-thirsty legions, and the Baths of Titus, and the public reception rooms on the Palatine, encouraged the citizen life of Eome once more to develop itself. The political aims and imperial ideas of Trajan, Hadrian and the Antonines are nobly illustrated by the modifications and enlargements they introduced in the structure and extent of the city of Eome. Trajan in his magnificent Forum and library sought to encourage the metropolitan life and literary tastes of the nation, while on his storied column he I'ccorded their world-wide triumphs and reminded them of their enormous power. The Mausoleum of Hadrian remains to commemorate the vast and ponderous strength of his rule, and the Aurelian Column stands to attest the lofty magnificence of the Antonine dynasty. In the reign of Commodus, between the Antonine era and the time of Severus, a great fire devastated the central districts of Eome. The restorations efiected by Severus and the popular policy of his successors are commemorated in the Arch of Severus, the Portico of the Pantheon, and the huge ruins of the Baths of Caracalla. The defensive power of the Eoman nation then became gradually weaker and weaker, B 2 4 A Handbook to the Ruins of Rome till in sixty years after the time of Caracalla, Aurelian commenced the sad task of home fortification. His walls, which were completed a hundred years later by Honorius, still surround the greater part of Eome. During these hundred years the power of the Constantiuian rule, of which the great basilica and arch remain monuments, and the war- like courage of Diocletian revived for a time the imperial spirit at Eome. The last and most familiar of the monuments which follow the transfer of power from Eome to Constantinople is the Column of Phocas in the Forum, erected when three centuries of desolation had followed the grandeur of Constantine and his dynasty. The Vatican Hill and the northern end of the Transtiberine district were not enclosed within walls till the time of Pope Leo IV. He undertook in a.d. 848 the enclosure of St. Peter's and the Vatican Hill, thus forming that district into a separate town, which was named after the Pope Civitas Leoniana. The western wall of this enclosure may still be traced by its ruins in the garden of the Vatican palace. After the successive destructions and minor repairs of the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, in 1 527 the architect San Gallo was employed to erect huge bastions on the wall of Eome, which he placed chiefly between the Porta Ostiense and the Porta Appia. In 1G28 Pope Urban VIII. restored the walls on the left bank, and subsequently in 1642 he proceeded to erect the walls which now stand between the Porta Portese and the Porta Cavallegieri, where the arms of that Pope are still affixed to the walls. This was the final important addition to the main walls of the city. III. — EoMAN Building and Architectctre. The earliest form of Eoman masonry, consisting of rectangular tufa blocks placed in layers alternately parallel to and across the line of the wall, so as to bind the mass together firmly, may be best seen in the ancient fragments of the Servian wall on the Aventine and the Quirinal Hills and in the iiiins on the western slope of the Palatine. This kind of building is the natural product of the peculiar parallel 9i$fm,0^f^'' J R ^ THE PRESENT WALLS i rtaJjAjjdbiiwi. {dose ^^ Well. 7-' ' 12. Exedra. 35. 13. Baths. 36. Unknown ruins. 14. Palatine Belvedere. 37. So-called Temple of Jupiter 15. Imperial Box over Circus. Victor. IG. Augustan Palace. 38. Uncertain basements. Scala 17. Ruin called the Academy. Caci. IS. Triclinium. 39. So-called Auguratorium. ■ 10. Yiridarium. 40. Soldiers' quarters. 20. Peristylium. 41. Garden. 21. Smaller chambers. 42, 43. Staircase and substructions 22. Basilica. of Caligula's buildin.i,^s. 23. Imperial reception hall. 44. Ruins of lavacrum of Helio- 24. Larariura. he gabalus. m-* Path t followed. CV)\^*- C^c*^ 1 To face I'lan on p. 14. FORUM ROMAIC ^aw'WeUer KORUM ROMANUM GENERAL PLAN OF THE RUINS ON THE PAIATINE V E L I A ._ Eiu-me, jSRcnsH TaCRA ^ — VIA_ and the Ca7npagna. 1 5 hoped to destroy.^ Other houses of the Eoman nobility of the later republican times were probably placed on this side of the Palatine, in order to be near the Forum and the places of political and social meetings.^ The Museum in which are collected the various fragments Porta of statuary and antiquarian interest which have been found '■*^'"'''"" ''• in the late excavations on the Palatine has been placed in the ground-floor of the casina which stands near the Clivus Victoriee, The ancient road is then overreached and arched over by the extensions of the Palatine imperial palace built by Caligula, under which it passes to the site of the ancient Porta Eomanula.^ Most of the chambers on the left were probably occupied by the guards of the gateway, and the graffiti they contain are of a character which confirms this supposition. Outside the Porta Eomanula the road bends round the hill along the side which looks towards the Capitoline. The first ruins to be seen under the slope of the hill here are the remains of a portico of the republican era, constructed of tufa with reticular-work facings. This portico has been supposed to be possibly that which Lutatius Catulus built after his victory over the Cimbri in the Area Flacciana, mentioned by Valerius Maximus and by Cicero as being near his house.* But there seems to be nothing left which can identify this ruin with the Porticus Catuli. Beyond this so-called Area Flacciana the line of walls Area presents some projecting masses, which appear to be built ''^^^'^°'''' upon the ancient substructions of towers such as would be formed in fortified buildings. A great part of the walls erected here in imperial times were built of concrete framed and supported by beams and planks of timber. These beams having now rotted away, have left their impressions on the ' Cic. de Har. Resp. xv., 33. Vettius, in Cic. ad Att. ii. 24, calls Cicero " viciuus eonsulis," i.e. near the Regia. * See ' Eome and the Campagna,' ch. viii. p. 160. ' Festus, p. 262, " infimo clivo Victori£e." ^ A descent to the right to the Forum has been observed by a French architect. See ' Le Forum Romaiu,' par Dutert; Le'vy, Paris, 1876, p. 14. ' (juida del Palatiuo,' p. 71. Valeriua Maximum, vi. 3, 1. Cic. pro Doui. 38. 102. 1 6 A Handbook to the Rtcins of Rome concrete, and hence the vertical and horizontal grooves which form so conspicuous a part of these walls. Two remarkable fragments of antiquity must he noticed here. The first is a conical aperture in the side of the hill which supplied a cistern placed helow with water. Such cisterns are to be found elsewhere in the hills, and may be supposed to have been constructed previous to the great supplies of water having been brought by the aqueducts. At the western corner of the hill opposite to the Janus Quadrifrons stands a large fragment of the most ancient walls of the Palatine. It is constructed of masses of tufa, taken from the hill behind it, and roughly laid together without cement or mortar. These stones appear to have been split from the rock, and not cut by chisel, which shows the antiquity of their construction. The wall of Eomulus is the name by which this and the other portions of massive tufa walls round the Palatine are now known. They undoubtedly belong to the earliest defences of the Palatine settlement. Altar. Not far from this ancient fragment of wall stands a most interesting relic of primitive superstition, an altar of travertine stone cut in archaic fashion, with volutes resem- bling those in the well-known tomb of Scipio in the Vatican Museum. The inscription on this altar is as follows : sei deo SEI DElViE SAC. C. SEXTIUS, C. F. CALVINUS, PR. DE SKNATI SEX- TENTiA RESTiTUiT. This is supposcd by some antiquarians to be the altar mentioned by Cicero and Livy, as having been erected in consequence of the voice heard before the Gallic - invasion predicting disastroTxs times. ^ But that altar is said to have been placed above the Temple of Vesta at the end of the Nova Via, which was on the other side of the Palatine. This mode of dedication to an unknown Deity was not uncommon at Rome, and is mentioned by Cato and commented upon by Gellius. The form of the word deivyE shows that the inscription belongs to the earlier Latin.'^ C. Sextius Calvinus, who restored the altar, was probably ' Cic. do Div. i. 45 ; ii. 32. Liv. v. 32. - Corp. Inscr. i. G32. Wordsworth, Frag, of early Latiu, \). 1U7, 410. and the Campagna. i y son of C. S. Calvinus, the Consul of a.u.c. 630, and was the competitor of C. Servilhis Glaucia in the year 654.^ The north-western end of the Palatine Hill, round which Germalus, we have been passing, was the spot whence arose the name Germalus which Varro tells us was given to it in memory of the (germani) twin brothers, Komulus and Remus having been cast ashore here from the Tiber waters, and suckled by the wolf. How far the district called Germalus extended over the hill is not known. Cicero speaks of a house belonging to Milo which stood upon the Germalus, and Livy says that a wo] f ran through the Vicus Tuscus and the Germalus to the Porta (Japena.2 The bronze figure of the wolf and twins now in the Capitoline Museitm is said by Flaminius Vacca, who wrote in 1594, to have been found at no great distance from this place, and Urlichs has shown that this figure is probably the one dedicated by the Ogulnii, Dediles in B.C. 297.^ Further southwards at the foot of the slope we come to another fragment of the most ancient wall of tlie Palatine settlement. This building appears to stand at right angles to the line of the hillside, and it was therefore supposed at first to have belonged to a wall traversing the intermontium or depression which crosses the Palatine Hill from this point to the Arch of Titus, and to have confirmed the opinion of those arch^ologists who confine the extent of Poma quadrata to the north-western end of the hill. But subsequent explor- ation has shown that this wall does not pass along the intermontium, but turns off at a right angle. Another fragmeni: of the most ancient wall was found in 1860, according to Lanciani, under the Yilla Mills, showing that the wall of Eoman quadrata passed round the whole hill, and not only round the north-western end. Close to the fragment of ancient wall we come to a series Domus of chambers excavated first in 1857, and afterwards cleared Gelotiana. and rendered more accessible in 1869. These belonged to a building in connection with this part of the imperial palace, and were occupied l )y soldiers of the emperor's guard, as may ' Cic. de Orat. ii. 249. "^ Cic. ad Att. iv. 3, 3. Liv. xxxiii. 26. * Vacca Mcmorie 3, Urlichs, in Rheiuisches Museum, 184G. c 1 8 A Handbook to the Rtiins of Rome be seen by examination of the inscriptions left on the walls. The traces of a square conrt, surrounded with a portico, one granite pillar of which remains, and on the side of this court towards the hill, of a number of chambers arranged on each side of a semicircular recess, are the main features of this ruin. The brickwork supjiorts which appear here were erected by Canina, and a largo quantity of remains have fallen from the higher levels of the hill. The inscriptions which are most remarkable are the following. On the right-hand wall near the entrance the name hilarus, followed by the letters mi. v. d. n., which have been interpreted to mean " miles veteranus domini nostri," a veteran soldier of our Lord. Numerous other inscriptions with the letters v. D. N. will be found in the chamber to the left of the central recess. One of these in the triangular room records the name of two soldiers who belonged to the foreign troop of Peregrini : bassus et satukus peeeg.^ Other inscriptions allude to a peedagogium, or training school, as for example, corinthus exit de pedagogio. Most of these are in the triangular rooms behind the central semicircular recess, or in the furthest room on the left of it. In this last is to be seen the figure of an ass turning a mill, with the inscription, LABORA ASELLE QUOMODO EGO LABORA VI ET PRODERIT TIBI. But the most famous of these graflSti is that now shown in the Kircherian Museum representing the crucified ass, with the title " Alexamenus worshipping his god," which was taken from the room on the right of the central semicircular recess, and has been the subject of much comment. Another record of the same Alexamenus was found here in 1870, in which he is called Alexamenus fidelis. Stadium. Passing now beneath the Villa Mills which occupy the site of the Augustan library, and the Temple of Apollo, built by Augustus, we turn to the left up the slope of the hill and find a large open space in which the later excavations have disinterred the relics of a stadium, consisting of a curved series of walls, surrounding the foundation of a meta or goal, ' See Henzen, in Bull. dell. Inst., 18G7. The name of Domus Gclotiana has been given to this ruin by Visconti. See ' Rome and the Campagna,' p. 181. and the Campagna. 1 9 and two lines of bases of columns, which ran along the sides and the end of the stadium.^ A large building in the form of a semicircular recess of exedra, a stand for viewing the races, is still partially re- maining, and also the foundation of two entrances on the southern side. That this was a stadium connected with the imperial palace is evident from its shape and its length, which corresponds to that laid down by the ancient writers as the proper length of a stadium for foot-races. The large exedra at the southern side contains on the ground-floor a vast central saloon, and two side rooms. A few decorative paintings of the latest and least valuable kind of art remain on the walls, among which are some geographical and astro- nomical figures. A coat of foreign marbles covered the walls, and the pavement was of marble. This part of the Palatine buildings was probably occupied by the Frangipani in the 13th century. The right-hand chamber was apparently without decoration, but in the one on the left the wall is ornamented with fresco paintings of elegance, and the pave- ment is of fine mosaic. A list of names with numbers attached to them, which seem to be those of combatants in the stadium, was found among the graffiti here. The upper level of the semicircular exedra was filled by a large chamber, the side of which, towards the stadium, was occupied by a line of granite columns, fragments of which remain in the arena below. The interior of this chamber was also ornamented with marbles and statues. Some statues of Amazons and the Hercules of Lysippus now in the Pitti at Florence, were found here according to Vacca, who wrote at the end of the sixteenth century. The brickwork and the architecture of this exedra seem to be of the time of Hadrian, and the bricks found here with labels give the date of a.d. 134, the third consulship of Ursus Servianus. The portico which ran round the stadium was apparently of later construction than the exedra, as the date on its bricks seems to refer to ' Tlie marks on the bricks found here bear the names of Clonius and Ermetes, freedmen of the Gens Domitia, but the walls wlilch stand near the meta are constructed of materials which show that they are of later date, and belong to the Kestoration of Theodoric, a.d. 500. c 2 20 A Handbook to the Ruins of Rome Tei-tuUus Scapula, Consul in a.d. 195, in tlie reign of Sep- timius Severus, inider whom great alterations and extensions were carried out in this wing of the palace. The vast ruins which remain on the south of the stadium belong chiefly to the works of Septimius Severus, and have long heen celebrated as the most picturesque among the Caesarean relics. The curved wall behind the great exedra, and the numerous passages and chambers which stand near it, seem to have belonged to a bath supplied with water from the branch of the Aqua Claudia, four arches of which are still remaining on the hill below, opposite to the church of S. Gregorio. This was a branch from the Claudian aqueduct, and crossed the valley from the opposite Cfelian Hill. Palatine The lofty wing of the palace, which extends along the Belvedere, glope of the Circus Maximus, opposite to the Aventine, is reached by a modern bridge from the ruins adjoining the stadium. From the top of this huge ruin a splendid view of the Ca^lian, the Aventine, and the Alban Hills may be seen, and the spot has been sometimes called the Palatine Belvedere. What the exact nature of the buildings placed upon these lofty ranges of arches was cannot be easily determined, but they correspond in some degree to the arched walls of the side between the arches of Titus and Constantine and to those of the palace of Caligula near the Capitoline, and were mainly intended to raise the imperial saloons to the higher level of the northern end of the hill. Spartianus in his ' Life of Severus ' says that Severus bestowed particular pains on this part of the Palatine Hill in order to make it the chief entrance to the imperial palace, and that his reason for so doing was to produce an impression of his magnificence upon his African fellow-countrymen, who, when visiting Eome, would naturally enter at this point by the Porta Capena, which was the gate just below. The Septizonium was an imperial building near this part of the hill probably Ijuilt by Severus, views of the ruins of which are to be seen in the books of the toj^ographers Du Perac and Garrucci who wrote before the end of the sixteenth century, when the Septizonium was pulled down by Sixtus the Fifth.^ At the • Hist. Aug. Severus, 19, 24v Sec ' Rome and the Campagiia,' p. 180. and the Campagna. 21 western end of the long and lofty ruin, and near the end of the stadium, is a projecting portion of ruined chambers which has been generally supposed to have contained the emperor's private pulvinar, or box whence he viewed the games in the Circus Maximus. But the construction of this edifice, in- due! ing its ro and tower, seems to be of a very late style, and it may have been built as late as the sixteenth century. We now return along a modern path which runs under the grounds of the Villa Mills towards the domus Gelotiana described above. A curved terrace occupies the upper edge of the hill, along which probably ran a portico commanding a view over the southern part of Eome and the Trastevere. At the back of this are the buildings called the Yilla Mills from their former possessors, now occupied by a nunnery, and therefore inaccessible to the public. In the year 1777, the plan of the ancient buildings which stood here was explored by Eancoureuil. They consist of a court surrounded with columns and suites of chambers. Parts of the main front looting towards the circus remained till the year 1827. The brickwork of these ruins has induced Cav. Eosa to assign them to the Augustan Age and to call them Domus Augustana. No sure evidence has, however, been discovered for this, and it seems more probable that the Domus Augustana was nearer to the Forum Eomanum.^ Passing back again by the ruins called the Domus Gelotiana Academia as before described, we turn to the right and ascend the side ^'^'^ Biblio- theca. of the hill. On the higher level at this point are the ruins of two buildings to which the names of Academia and Bibliotheca have been given by Eosa. In one of these the remains of semicircular ranges of seats and a platform have been supposed to be recognizable, and here may have taken place the recitations and discussions mentioned by Pliny as constantly kept up in the imperial palace.^ Behind these rooms stand the ruins of a portico, built upon substructions of an earlier period, with Corinthian cohimns of cipoUino, probably forming the side of a small courtyard. Here it may be seen through an opening in the ground to » See 'Rome and tLe Campagna,' pp. 174, 200. « Plin. Ep. I. 13. ' See ' The Journal of Philology,' Cambridge 1869, vol. ii. p. 89. 2 2 A Handbook to the Rtiins of Rome what a depth the substructions of this part of the Palatine buildings descend into the depression or interinontiuni which originally separated the two parts of the hill, and was filled i-Edes up by the Flavian emperors. We now enter the range of Publicae. reception rooms commenced by Vespasian when he destroyed Nero's golden house, and built by Vespasian and his sons, Titus and Domitian, at the same time with the Coliseum. These are raised on gigantic constructions of opus quadratum to the level of the rest of the Palatine Hill. Many stamps on the bricks found here seem to show that the buildings were finished by Domitian. Triclinium. The south-eastem side of the range of the Imperial Flavian buildings we are now entering is still covered by the edge of the monastery which occupies the grounds of the Villa Mills, and we can therefore only see the north-western part. But this is sufficient to convey a full idea of the extent of the suite. We are now entering at the back of the triclinium or dining hall, at the end of which is a semicircular apse, possibly intended for the emperor's table when ho dined here. The form of the room corresponds to Vitruvius' description of the proper arrangements for a triclinium. Very little of the original decoration remains, except two granite columns, of which there were originally sixteen, and a portion of beauti- ful pavement composed of porphjiy, serpentine, and giallo antico. It is possible that this may be the triclinium in which Statins dined at Domitian's table, and of the -marble decorations and spacious size of which he speaks in the fourth book of his ' Silvae.' ' Near the apse of this room an opening in the groixnd leads down to some subterranean rooms which formerly belonged to a private house situated in the depression of the hill, and afterwards covered over by the Flavian emperors. The brickwork in this house seems to be of the later republican period, and the walls retain decorations of the best style. These decorative paintings have, of course, suffered very much from damp and neglect, and all the principal features of the house have been destroyed by the substructures of the ' Stat. Silv., iv. 2, 26. and the Campagna. 23 Flavian triclinium. The name of Bagni di Livia was long used in connection with this spot by the ciceroni. Eeturning to the upper level, we find, at the side of the Nym- triclinium, the remains of a nymph^um or viridarium, con- P ^'"™' sisting of an elliptical basin and fountain of marble, with niches for statues and bas reliefs, and ledges for ornamental flowers and plants. On the western side of the nymphaeum a garden-house was built by the Farnese, part of which still stands, the portico having some arabesques and some paintings by a pupil of Taddeo Zuccari, representing scenes on the Palatine as described by Virgil, the meeting of ^Eneas and Evander, and the monster Cacus. Beyond the triclinium and nymphaeum we come to the Peristy- remains of the laro;est court in the suite, which is called the I'"'?: . . Vesti- peristylium, occupying a space of 140 by 154 paces, anciently bulum. surrounded by a portico of columns of Porta Santa marble. The pavement and decorations of this quadrangle would seem by the remains to have been most superb. On the north- west side of it are eight rooms of various shapes, arranged symmetrically round an octagonal central chamber, from which four large doors open, with four corresponding niches. The same plan of rooms was carried out also on the opposite side of the peristylium, as was shown by some excavations in 1869. These were waiting-rooms and offices of various kinds. From the great quadrangle of the jDeristylium we pass to the grand audience chamber, the position of which corresponds generally to that of the atrium of a Eoman Atrium, house. This was surrounded by a portico of sixteen Corin- thian columns of foreign marbles, and their frieze and bases were ornamented in a most elaborate manner. Eight niches with colossal statues of basalt are said by Bianchini to have stood round this court, and in the Tribune at the southern end was placed the solium augustale, where the emj^eror sat on grand occasions, when meetings of the senate or other bodies were held here. The grand entrance of this atrium, which looked towards the Arch of Titus, was adorned by two hxige columns of giallo antico, and the threshold stone consisted of a mass of Greek marble from which the altar of the church of the Pantheon was made. Many of the 24 A Handbook to the Ruins of Rome raarl)les from this atrium were taken by tlie Farnese to Naples. Lararium. On the right hand of this reception room towards the Vilhi Mills was a building which shows ns hj its position and shape that it was the lararium or shrine of the household gods where sacrifices were offered on solemn occasions. The remains of an altar were discovered here. Basilica. Opposite to the lararium are the foundations of a biiilding with a tribune and pcjdium, probably used l)y the emperor in cases such as those described by Tacitus, when imperial constraint was exercised over a legal verdict. Two rows of columns, arranged as is commonly the case in the basilica?, and a portion of some white marble railings have been found and preserved here. Along the side of this tribunal hall and that of the peristylium and its adjoining oiSces, ran a long portico con- necting the whole suite of halls together. The history of this range of imperial buildings has been very prob ibly supposed to be as follows. Vespasian intended them to bo used in support of his revival of the Augustan imperial policy, and that a name such as ^des Publica), "National Chambers," should be given to them.' Accordingly, all these rooms have the character of public rather than private buildings. There is apparent] y no provision for domestic life, and all the sections of the edifice seem to have been public audience or banqueting rooms. Poj-tji In front of the last described buildings, which we have Mugionia, called the basilica, the atrium, and the lararium, is an open space, on the right hand of which, looking towards the Arch of Ticus, a fragment of the earliest walls of the Palatine remains, constructed of tufa blocks taken from tlio hill underneath. Beyond this, towards the Arch of Titus, are the paving stones of an ancient road which was probably the approach to the i)alace, and to the left of this road stand the relics of one of the most ancient gates, the Porta Mugionia. This is described by Vacca as having been discovered at the ' The uame Basilica Jovis, placed hero by Kosa, probably refers to a temple and not to this tribunal. Plin. Paiiegyr., 47. and the Campagna. 25 end of the sixteenth century, when it was still decorated with marble. The substructions alone now remain, and close to them may still be traced the f(.iundations of an ancient temple which can be no other than the temple of Jupiter Jupiter Stator. Solinus says that the house of Tarquinius Prisons ^*^*°^- was near the Porta Mugionia, and Livy states that he lived near the Porta Miigionia. The statue of Cloelia is also said by Livy to have stood at the top of the Sacra Via which was near the Arch of Titus, and this statue is further placed by Pliny near the Porta Mugionia.* The remains of the temple show that it was arranged according to the cardinal points of the heavens, looking north and south. On the foundation stones are the names of Philocrates and Diodes, masons employed in building. Three old inscriptions referring to the worship of Jove were found here, and are to be seen in the Palatine Museum. Near the ruins of this Temple of Jupiter Stator we find vast blocks of substruction which belong to the complicated ranges of buildings occiipying the north-eastern end of the hill, and generally believed to have been erected ])y Caligula. They extend along the side of the hill over the Forum, and along the Clivus Victoriae by which we entered, to the point which overlooks the Velabrum. The modifications and enlargements of this structure during the ages succeeding Caligula have rendered it a confl^sed mass of ruins, and the walls and chambers now left have served chiefly as substruc- tions for the lofty mansions erected upon them in the course of ages. From the corner of these ruins, next to the Temple Crypto- of Jupiter Stator, runs a long arched cryptoporticus or porticus. covered passage, which can be entered from the ruins of this temple or from below nearer to the modern entrance gateway. It is supposed that this may have been the cryptoporticus in which, as we learn from Josephus, Caligula was assassinated on his return from the ludi palatini given in front of the palace. He is said to have turned off from the direct line of entrance, and to have passed into this covered way in order to hear and see some youths from Asia performing. The assassins, after accomplishing their end, ' ' Kome and the Campagna,' p, 34. TibcMius 26 A Handbook to the Ruins of Rome were afraid to venture through the front of the palace, and took refuge by hiding in the house of Germanicus.^ House of At the western end of the cryptojiorticus a house has been disinterred by the late excavations, and it has been inferred that this must have been the one called by Josephus the house of Germanicus. Whatever name may now be assigned to it, the house appears to have been preserved for some reason from destruction, and it seems reasonable to conclude that some connection with the earlier history of the imperial Ceesars rendered it an object of veneration and care. The space between the cryptoporticus, along which we have passed, and the so-called basilica of the palace, is supposed to have been called the Area Palatina, where those who came to call upon the emperor had to wait.^ The long cryptoporticus was connected with the Flavian public buildings, and perhaps also previously with the house of Augustus, by a branch passage which runs off from the long cryptoporticus at right angles, towards the back of the atrium and lararium. By this means the emperor could pass from his private palace to the public audience and banqueting chambers without encounter- ing the crowd of those who were waiting for audience in the area. In this area was found, in 1868, the pedestal bearing the name of Domitius Calvinus, now placed on the site of the mined temple which lies farther to the west, and which we shall presently mention. In the angle of the cryptoporticus near the house of Germanicus, are some beautiful remains of decorative work, consisting of paintings of birds and winged genii. These have been much injured by the damp exuding from a piscina which was constructed here in the second or third century for the keeping of fish, and which can be entered at the angle of the cryptoporticus. Xear this piscina is the entrance to the building called the house of Tiberius or Germanicus. The construction of this house belongs to the period of Eoman architecture, when reticulated work formed of the harder tufa, "wdth small diamond-shaped stones, and with corners and connecting parts of the same stone, but ■wdthout brickwork, was generally used. It was therefore ^ Josephus, Aut. Jud. xix. 1, 15. ^ Gell. N. A. xx. 1, 2, and the Campagna. 27 probably built during tbe later republican times, and this agrees with the supposition that it was the works of Tiberius's father or grandfather. Suetonius says that Tiberius was born on the Palatine.^ The leaden pipes which have been found here, bear the names of Julia, the daughter of Titus, of one of Domitian's, and one of Septimius Severus's freedmen. The house is divided into two main parts, one of larger dimensions for receiving guests and showing hospitality, and the other of smaller sized rooms, for the family. The vestibule is an arched passage adorned with paintings on the walls, and mosaic pavement. From this the atrium is entered which had no impluvium, but was covered entirely with a roof. On the left are the remains of an altar of the Lares, and at the further side of the atrium are three large rooms, the decorative paintings of which are well preserved. In the central chamber, the walls are divided into large compartments by columns of the Composite order, adorned with vine leaves. One of the large scenes represented here is that of Polyphemus, who, after having crushed his rival Acis with an enormous rock, turns towards Galatea, who is riding on a hippocampus. Another, placed above the frieze, is a picture of a domestic initiation ceremony, as the sacred taenia which is being presented seems to prove. A third picture, also above the frieze, shows the preparations for a sacrifice. On the right sits a female figure, with a mantle, and a faun standing before some utensils for ablution, which are being lifted by a second female figure, while the sacrificial kid is being brought by a young slave. The next picture represents a row of houses along the side of a street or road, at the door of one of which a lady with her maid is knocking, while four or five figures present themselves above on the balconies. The last picture is one of lo hidden in the wood of Juno at Mycenae, and watched by Argos, with a figure of Hermes descending by Jove's command to rescue lo. The names of lo, Argos, and Hermes are legible here. The room on the left hand of this one is also divided by Composite columns adorned with vine leaves, and by a ' Suet, Tib. 5. 28 A Handbook to the Rtiins of Rome beautiful frieze of giallo antico. The lower compartments liavc no figures, but the upper are ornamented with designs of genii and fantastic flowers. The room on the right hand is decorated with beautifully- designed paintings of flowers and fruit, hanging from one column to the next. From these festoons hang the emblems of various divinities, the lyre of Apollo, the timbrel of Cybele, and the mystic sieve and mask of Bacchus. These seem to indicate that this was the lararium of the house. The frieze contains a number of landscape and marine views, with many figures of men and animals painted on a yellow ground. At the north-western corner of the atrium opens a fourth chamber, which may perhaps have been the dining-room, or triclinium, decorated with trophies of sacred emblems of Diana and ApoHo. The atrium communicates with the rooms at the back of the house and with a small courtyard by means of a corridor. Some of these rooms were used as baths, others seem to have opened towards the street, the pavement of which still remains along the side of the house. Palatine On the other side of this street is an entrance to the subter- emp Ob. i-angaii caves which have been cut in this part of the hill. These IkjUows were mainly stone quarries and wells. A puteal, or well-cover, has been placed over one of these in front of the hoxise which we have described. On this side of the street also stand the foundations which have been supposed to have belonged to the priests of the Temple of Jupiter Propugnator on the Palatine, some portions of the fasti of whose college have been found near the Basilica Julia and the Marforio.^ There is also the foundation of a temple, called by Eosa the Temj)le of Jupiter Victor, to be seen extending from this street towards the viridarium of the Eedes pul)licae of Doniitian before mentioned, and towards the edge of the hill wliich looks over the Circus Maxim us. These ruins consist of masses of tufa work mixed with later brick- work of the Antonine times. The pedestal with the name of Gmeus Domitius Calvinus which is placed here came, as wo have said, from the spot called the Area Palatina before men- ' Oielli, luscr. 6057, 6058. and the Campagna. 29 tioned. The Notitia also places the Temple of Jupiter Victor in the Area Palatina, and for these two reasons the name seems to be wrongly applied to this ruin. We can trace in it the remains of a building raised on a basement with lofty flights of steps, alternating with terraces in front, towards the Circus Maximus, jnst as we find at Tibnr and at Tuscultim temples, placed on the side of a hill with high flights of steps ascending to them,^ The remainder of the npper level of this north-western Germalns corner of the hill is occxipied by numerous ruins of sqnared a"il Scala tufa stone, which evidently belonged to some of the most ancient and venerated relics of Eome. This was, no doubt, the part of the Palatine to which the name Germalus was given, in memory of the Germani, or twin-brothers, Eomulus and Eemus, who were cast ashore at its foot from the flooded waters of the Tiber. Two distinct edifices have been dis- closed here, from the first of which, a rectangular foundation of tufa stones, a passage bearing marks of great antiquity descends towards the church of Anastasia and the gas works. This rectangular ruin has been called by many various names, such as the Temple of Jupiter Feretrius, the Tuguritim Faus- tuli, the Temple of the Magna Mater Cybele, or of the Lares Prasstites. The descending passage to the Vallis Murcia has been supposed to be the Scala Caci mentioned by Solinus,^ and it is possible that the legend of Cacus refers to this point of the Palatine next to the Aventine. The marks on the stones ctf this descent are probably only quarry marks. No brickwork is found here in the lower ruins, nor any marbles. But in the mass of fragments there are remains of the republican and of the imperial restorations of the many venerated buildings and altars which must have stood upon this corner of the hill. On the right hand of this descent a small rectangular court was discovered in 1872, with a staircase and a channel for water running through it. This is thought by Lanciani to have been possibly the fifth Argean Chapel, which was somewhere on the Germalus. A statue found here bears some marks of having represented the goddess Cybele. ' See 'Eome and the Campagna,' p. 178. * Solinus, i. 18. 30 A Handbook to the Rtiins of Rome Augura- The most conspicuous ruin at this end of the hill is a mass of concrete and tufa blocks, apparently of the republican era, in the shape of a rectangular basement. This has the form of a temple in antis, i.e. with projecting wings, and faces the south, commanding a view over the Aventine and Tiber valley. Cav. Kosa has conjectured that this is the ruin of the auguratorium mentioned by the Notitia as situated near the other most ancient sacred sj)ots on the Palatine. But an inscription which records the restoration of the auguratorium by Hadrian does not support this view, as the work now remaining is mostly republican.^ Lanciani thinks that this may have been the ^des Matris Deum, to which the statue found as before mentioned in front of it belonged. At the back of the so-called auguratorium we find a long series of rooms running in a line across the hill from north- west to south-east, which have vaulted roofs and are similar to those found below in the domus Gelotiana, before described. Cav. Eosa has inferred with reason from this and from the graffiti in these rooms that they formed a part of the offices and guard-rooms attached to that large portion of the palace which lay on the site now occupied by the gardens and the vast masses of brickwork at the northern corner of the hill. The graffiti to be seen here are chiefly the scribl)lings of soldiers' names, rude sketches of ships and animals, and combats of gladiators. Ti})eriana Several passages of the Eoman historians lead us to con- clude that the suite of rooms occupied by Tiberius were situated here. It was from the Tiberiana Domus, as Tacitus relates, that Vitellius surveyed the conflagration of the Temple of Jupiter on the Capitol, and the engagement between his adherents and the Flavian party under Sabinus. The Tiberian part of the palace was also that through which, as Tacitus also tells us, Otho descended into the Velabrum, after joining Galba at the sacrifice in the Temple of Apollo on the Palatine.^ Afterwards, the Tiberiana Domus became the favourite residence of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aiirelius, » Orelli, 2286. ^ Tac. Hist. i. 27. domus. and the Cauipagna. 3 1 and it was probably during their reigns that the library which we find mentioned by Gelliiis was established here.'^ We now pass through the garden grounds which lie over the remains of the Domus Tiberiana, and descend on the side which looks over the Forum, by a long staircase through the immense masses of brickwork and concrete which are said to have been part of the insane additions of Caligula to the imperial palace. He is declared to have made a passage from this wing of the palace to the back of the Temple of Castor below in the Forum, in order that he might appear in that sacred shrine as an equal of the twin gods and an object of worshij) when the Senate met there. He also joined this corner of the palace with the Capitoline Temple of Jupiter by a huge viaduct, which passed over the Basilica Julia, in order that he might thus make himself the contubernalis of Jupiter.^ Some of the substructions of this viaduct are to be seen near the back of the church of S. Maria Liberatrice. We now leave the Palatine by the Clivus Victoria}, along which we entered, and turn to the arch of Titus and the ruins which stand near it. THE VELIA. Near the arch of Titus the Palatine Hill runs out in a The Vclia. gradually sloping ridge north-eastwards towards the Esquiline Hill. On one side of this ridge the ground sinks towards the Forum Eomanum, and on the other towards the Meta Sudans and the Coliseum. The level of the pavement under the arch of Titus is fifty-three feet above the ancient pavement of the Forum. It seems probable that this outlying part of the Palatine was that which bore the name of Velia.^ On the summit of the ridge above described stands the arch Arch of of Titus, the most complete of all the monuments of imperial ■''^*"^* Rome. The central part of the original building remains, and is easily distinguished from the subsequent travertine restora- tions by being constructed of Pentelic marble. The height of the arch is forty-nine feet and its breadth forty-two feet. • Hist. Aug. Ant. Pius, 10 ; Ant. Phil. G ; Gell. xiii. 20. * See 'Rome and the OaTnpagna,' p. 160, Note 1. ^ See ' Rome aucl the Campagna,' p. 162. 32 A Handbook to the Ruins of Rome Origiually there were two fluted Corinthian columns on each side of both faces of the arch, the two inner of which are now left, while the two outer are modern. Over the arch are two bas-reliefs of Victory Avhich, though much injured, are still remarkable for the beauty of their outlines. On the key- stone of the side towards the Coliseum is a figure of Eome, and on the other side Fortune with a cornucopia. The most interesting parts of the arch have fortimately been preserved by their protected position in the interior. On each side is a magnificent alto-relievo, representing the triumphal procession of Titus after the capture of Jerusalem. The relievo on the south side shows a number of persons carrying the spoils of the Jewish Temple. The golden candlestick, the golden table for showbread, and the trumpets are clearly recognizable. These, according to Joseplius,^ among other utensils of the Jewish temple, were deposited in Vespasian's Temple of Peace. The procession is moving towards a triumphal arch. In the northern relief the emperor is represented in his triumphal car, drawn liy four horses, and surrounded by his guards and suite. Victory is holding a crown over his head, and the goddess Eoma guiding the reins. The interior of the arch is ornamented with richly-carved rosettes and coffers, and upon the crown is a rather undignified representation of the apotheosis of the emperor astride upon an eagle's back. On the Coliseum side a small portion of the entablature is left. The frieze had a bas-relief, which partially remains, of a sacrificial procession. The attica is modern, with the exception of the inscription. That the arch was erected after the emperor's death is shown by the title IDivus, and also by the figure of his apotheosis under the archway. Another arch had been erected in the Circus previousl}^ in the year 80, when the Coliseiim was completed, and Titus gave a great festival. The date of the extant arch is, therefore, the year 82 or 83. Temple of Almost the whole of the southern slope of the Velia Rome! ^ ^ towards the Coliseum is occupied by the ruin of a vast foundation which extends under the church and convent of ' Josepliu3, Bell. Jud. vii. 5, 7. mid the Campag7ta. 33 S. Francesca Eomana. The siibstructions, of which, the inner core only, consisting of rubble-work, is left, were originally cased with travertine blocks. They form an enormous quadrilateral terrace, round which a portico of granite columns ran. Upon this was raised a basement some Fig. 9. four or five feet higher, and a building with two apses back to back, similar to the tribunes of a basilica. These are ornamented with large square coffers and niches for statues. It has been generally inferred from the statements of Dion Cassius and Spartianus that this building was the Temple of Venus and Rome built by Hadrian and dedicated by the 34 -^ Handbook to the Rtcins of Rome Antonines, but burnt down in the time of Constantine and restored by him.* Pope Honorius I. stripped the bronze tiles from the roof, and they were placed on the Basilica of S. Peter, whence they were taken by the Saracens in a.d. 846. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, limekilns were set up near the arch of Titus by the Eomans and the marbles of this spot were burnt into lime.'^ The two tribunes which stand back to back and the buildings near them have not the appearance of a temjde, 1 )ut rather of a legal court or basilica. For tliis reason, and also because a large portico of this shape is represented in the marble plan of the city, the fragments of which are now in the Capitoline Museum, as haA'ing belonged to the Portions Livia?, Mr. Parker, in his ' Archaeology of Eome,' has maintained that thiswas the Portions Livia;, built by Augustus and afterwards used by Hadrian for the Temple of the Sun and Moon. Jordan has also shown that the Porticus Liviae was near this spot, but he places it farther to the north- east, behind the Basilica of Constantine.^ Since Dion Cassius speaks of the Temple of Ycnus and Eome as having been close to the Coliseum and also near the Sacra Via, and Spartianus says that it stood in the vestibule of the Domus Aurea of Nero, we are almost compelled to assign this position to that temple.* Domus Nero's enormous extension of the Palatine buildings must Transitoria. Jiave occupied a great part of the Velia, reaching across it from the Palatine to the Esquiline. But his great Domus Aurea and its surrounding porticoes and halls, which were called Domus Transitoria, and occupied not only the slope of the Yelia but also the site of the Coliseum, were destroyed by the Flavian emperors who succeeded him, and we can only point to one fragment of the Domus Transitoria which stands near the corner of the Basilica of Constantine at the side of the path which leads between that ruin and the buildings of S. Francesca Eomana. Basilira The vast arches of the ruin called tlie Basilica of Constan- of Con- stantino. ' See 'Rome and the Campagna,' p. 170. * See ' Rome and the Campagna,' p. 171. 5 Parker's ' Archa;ology of Rome,' vol. ii. p. 08. Jordan, ' Forma urbis Romro'; Berlin, 1874, p. 37. * ' Rome and the Campagna,' p. 1G9. and the Campagna. 35 tine form, next to the Coliseum, the most conspicuous object in the neighbourhood of the Forum, and they were long supposed to have belonged to the Temple of Peace, Vespasian's great temple. But the decision of modern archaeology has assigned them to Constantine, on the ground that the brick- work is of much later date than the time of Vespasian, and also that the few remains of decoration which are extant bear indications of a great decline of ornamentative art when they were constructed. Further evidence has been derived from a coin of Maxentius, the rival of Constantine, having been found in 1828 sticking in the mortar of one of the fragments. Aurelius Victor says that the basilica called by the name of Constantine was begun by Maxentius.' The three gigantic arches now standing formed the roof of the eastern aisle of the basilica, which consisted, as the foundation clearly shows, of a central hall and two side aisles. The arches are sixty- eight feet in span and eighty feet high. They are ornamented by octagonal caissons or coffers, containing central rosettes and the interspaces are relieved by rhom- boidal panel work. The two side arches have their backs walled up, and there are six arched windows in each wall. At the back of the central arch is a semicircular tribune, with niches for statues and a central pedestal. Some of the marble ornaments of this tribune are still left, and show in their rude execution evidence of the Constantinian style of art. A screen seems to have separated the tribune from the interior of the hall. In front of the three great arches can be plainly seen the spring of the enormous roof which covered the central hall of the basilica. This central hall must have been at least 80 feet in width and 115 feet in height. The southern aisle was of the same construction and size as the northern, and in place of the tribune had a grand entrance on the side towards the arch of Titus. A flight of steps and a portico with porphyry columns, two of which are now in the Conservatori Museum on the Capitol, formed the approach to the entrance. A white column from the central hall is to be seen erected in front of S. Maria ' Aur. Vict. C.-cs. xl. 20. See ' Rome and the Campagna,' p. IGG. 1) 2 36 A Hayidbook to the Ruins of Rome SS. Cosma and Damiano. Lavacrum of Helio- gabalus. Maggiore, wliere it was placed in the seventeentli century by Paul V. At the -western end of the central hall was a tribune, the ruins of which are now occupied by a warehouse, and at the eastern end an entrance in three divisions opened into the road between the basilica and the portico of the so-called Temple of Venus and Eome. This entrance had a vestibule or verandah similar to those found at S. Giovanni in Laterano and at S. Maria Maggiore, and answering to the building called a chalcidicum by Yitruvius.^ (F'ig- 9? P- 33.) The church of SS. Cosma and Damiano which now stands at the north-western end of the Basilica of Constantine is, like many other churches in Eome, constructed on the ruins of some ancient temple. A most carefvQ account has been given of its various stages of construction by Mr. Parker.^ This may possibly have been the site of the original Temple of the Penates, and some archaeologists have thought that the round temple which has been con- verted into the vestibule of the church was that of the Penates. The doorway of this temple with its columns, frieze and bronze doors, has been raised from the lower level of the old temple, on which the crj^t of the church now stands beneath the floor. At the back of this the nave of the church was built on the ruins of some unkno^mi temple, and behind the apse of the nave is said by Mr. Parker to have been the wall on which the celebrated Capitoline marble plan of Eome was hung. The fragments of this plan, which was shaken down, he thinks, by the fall of a great mass from the Basilica of Constantine, were found here. The chapel of the Penates was on the road from the summa Sacra Via to the Carinse, which would place it near this spot.^ The name " Temple of Eomulus " given to the ruins by mediaeval writers may have been derived from some restoration by Eomulus, son of Maxentius. We now pass through the arch of Titus along the ancient road towards the Coliseum, and on the slope of the Vitruv. V. 1. * ' ArchsDology of Rome,' vol. ii. p. 75. See 'Rome and the Campagna,' p. 163. and the Campagna. 37 Palatine to our right stand the ruins of a mediaeval church which was excavated in 1873 by Cav. Eosa. This is said to have been called the church of S. Maria Antiqua, and to have been placed upon the ruins of the lavacrum of Heliogabalus.^ The chambers now disclosed seem to have been used as a bath. Along the side of the hill near this are numerous ruins ,^ similar to those on the other side of the Palatine, which were apparently guard rooms. ' Lampridius,. Hist. Aug. Ant. Hel. 8, 17, in aedibus aulicis. Parker, . * Archaeology of Eonie,' vol. ii. p. 92. -2 i^i ' 38 A Handbook to the Ruins of Rome CHAPTER II. THE FORUM ROMANUM. Temple of At a short distance from the entrance to the Palatine we can ^* "'■ enter the Forum near the ruins of an ancient temple, three columns of which are still standing. These three columns are among the most conspicuous and beautiful remains of ancient Eome. No doubt can now be felt that they belonged to the Temple of Castor and Pollux. The situation agrees with that which is pointed out by the Ancyra^an inscription, and by the fact that Caligula made a passage from the Palatine Palace to this temple. The substructions of this building have been cleared, and the length and breadth of the basement and of the steps forming the approach can now be clearly seen. The three columns belonged to the central part of the south-eastern side. They are of most elegant proportions, and their capitals, architrave and frieze are ornamented with decorative work of the very best period of Grseco-Roman architecture. The designs on the entablature are most delicate and perfect, and well repay a minute examination. Besides the usual ornaments upon the cornice and corbels there is along the upper edge a row of beautiful lions' heads, through which the rain-water ran off. The temple had evidently eight columns in front, and eleven side columns, reckoning in the comer column. The approach was raised high above the forum level, and has three steps projecting beyond the line of the next building, the Basilica Julia. The lines of the front steps are preserved, and also those of the side towards the Capitol, while the other side has been destroyed. The pavement in front of this has been miserably altered and mended at a late date, probably after the fourth century. FORUM ROMAISIUM and the Canipagna. 39 The capitals when compared with the earlier Corinthian capitals of the Pantheon, show a longer and narrower type which is also found at the Temple of Vespasian and the peristyle of Nerva's Fornm, the Colonacce. The lower founda- tions of the basement are of old tufa rubble construction, and possibly belong to the date of the original foundations in B.C. 494 by the dictator Aulus Postumius, who vowed to build it at the battle of the Lake Regillus in the Latin war. It was afterwards dedicated by his son in B.C. 484. Two restorations are mentioned, the first executed by L. Metellus Dalmaticus, consul in B.C. 119, and the second by Drustis and Tiberius in a.d. 6. The temple was used for meetings of the senate, for harangues from its steps to the people in the forum, and for holding courts of law. A register of changes in the value of money was kept in the tabularium of the temple, and deposits were made here as in many other temples.^ Standing as the old temple did near the veteres tabernge of the forum, and the newer restorations of them near the Basilica Julia, it was convenient for business trans- actions. On the north-west side a street pavement leading to the Velabrum has been laid bare, which may be that of the Vicus Tuscus. Descending from the Temple of Castor to the ancient pave- Putcal. ment of the Forum Romanum, we find at the north-eastern corner of the ruin the remains of a puteal or well-house which has naturally been supposed to be the fountain of Jviturna from its neighbourhood to the Temple of the Twin Brethren, who are said to have given their horses drink there after the battle of Regillus. A little farther to the south the basement of a round build- Temple of ing is to be seen, which may very probably have been the ^*^**- ancient Temple of Vesta, This was a round building, as we conclude from Ovid and Plutarch's notices, and was intended by Numa, the first founder, to denote the spherical shape of the earth which Vesta personified, or the original family hearth. 2 In front of the Temple of Castor a large block of substruc- chapel of tions has been cleared, which is with great probability J"li"s Caesar. ' See ' Eome and the Campagna,' p. 100. ■' Ibid. p. 103. 40 A Handbook to the Ruins of Rome assigned to the chapel built in honour of Jiilius Caesar, and called the Heroon of Ca2sar. Ovid's lines, in one of his letters from Pontus — " Lite the twin brethren \?hom in their abode Julius, the god, beholds from his high shrine," seem to prove that the heroon vp^as in front of that temple. The body of Caesar vras burnt in front of the regia and Temple of Vesta, which were at this end of the Forum, and the heroon was placed on the spot where it was burnt. The remains of two small staircases were foimd at the sides of the heroon, and a wider staircase in front. The epithet "high," given by Ovid to its position, seems to be in ac- cordance with the raised basement. The semicircle of masonry on the north side has not been satisfactorily ex- plained. It is usually su2:)posed to have belonged to the Julian rostra, but its shape is not such as to su2:)port this idea. Temple of To the north-east of the heroon of Julius Caesar, we find Antoninus j^^ ancient pavement of the road which ran alone- the north- and . ■■■ . ® Faustina, eastern side of the Forum, and to this road descend the stejDS of a temple with a consj)icuous row of six cipollino columns, and with two columns and a pilaster besides the corner column on each side. These columns have Attic bases and Corinthian capitals of white marble. The inscription upon the plain architrave in front shows that the temple was first dedicated to Faustina alone, and that the first three words, including the emperor's name, were added after his death. The Faustina here commemorated was probably the elder Faustina, wife of Antoninus Pius, as a representation at this temple is given on one of the medals struck in her honour.^ She died in a.d. 141, and Antoninus Pius in 161. The frieze of the temple is ornamented at the sides with a bold and finely-executed relief representing grifiins with U2:)raised wings, between which are carved elaborately-designed candelabra and vases. A considerable part of the side walls of grey peperino blocks anciently faced with marble is still ' Ecldiol, vii. 37. On the mistaken appropriation of the temple to M. Aurelius, see 'Kome and the Campagna,' p. 114. and the Campagna. 41 standing. A chiirch was built liere at a very early time, but the present building wliich forms a strange contrast in the ' meanness of its style and proportions to the massive grandeur of the grey old ruin which embraces it, was built in 1602 by the guild of the Koman apothecaries.^ We now pass along the ancient stone pavement towards Extent of the Capitol, and observe how small the space occupied by ^ 01 um. the ancient Forum Eomanum was. The temple we have jiist left stood in the north-eastern corner, and the columns of the two temples opposite to us on the slope of the Capitol mark the other end of the Forum. The central pavement now laid bare is of travertine flags, while the roads are marked by basaltic blocks. On the side of the central space Seven runs a row of seven large masses of brickwork, which seem |f \ i ^ to be the bases of pedestals which supported dedicatory columns, or statues similar to the one still standing at the Column of end, which has become known to English travellers as " the •'l^°'=^s- , nameless column with the buried base " of Byron. Since Byron's time the base of this has been unburied, and bears the name of Smaragdus, proclaimed exarch of Italy for the eleventh time,^ who erected it in honour of the Emperor Phocas. The date is given by the words indict, und., which show that Smaragdus was in his eleventh year as exarch, and we know that he was exarch under Mauricius for five years, A.D. 583-588, and six years under Phocas, a.d. 602-608. His eleventh year would thus be in 608, and this was the fifth year of Phocas' reign, so that the last words of the inscription confirm the explanation given of the previous words indict. UND.^ " P. C." in the inscription probably mean, as Clinton explains, post consulatum, which was the way of reckoning in the later years of the Eastern Empire. In the centre of the Forum traces of the base of a large Pedestal of pedestal can be discerned, and this is supposed to have been ^^."^ue^'^'^ ' See Reber's ' Ruinen Roms,' p. 132. ^ Corp. Inscr. Lat. vol. vi. pt. 1, No. 1200. " Indictionis undecimo Post ConBulatum pletatis ejus anno quinto " are the last words of the in- scription. " In the eleventh year of his ajipointment and the fifth year of his reverence the emperor." See Nibby, 'Roma antica,' j). 152; Zell. Epigr. 1226. AD = A Deo. ' See Clinton, Fast. Rom. a.d. 608. 42 A Handbook to the Ruins of Rome the position of the equestrian statne of Domitian described at length by Statins, who says in the first poem of his ' Silvai ' that an equestrian statue of Domitian stood at the north- western end of the Forum, looking towards the other end. It was a triumphal statue erected in honour of Domitian's campaigns against the Catti and Daci. The poet describes its position very accurately, mentioning the Hereon of Julius Caesar which faced it, the Basilica Julia on the right, the Basilica Paulli on the left, and the temples of Concord and Vesj)asian behind. The Temple of Saturn is omitted for some unknown reason. Statins also alludes to some other principal objects in the Forum, the Temple of Vesta, the Temple of Castor, and the statue of Curtius. He concludes with pro- phesying that the statue will outlast the eternal city.^ It seems, however, probable, as Mr. Nichols in his admirable book on the Forum has said, that the statue was removed after Domitian's death, when his memory was execrated, or was dedicated to a succeeding emperor, and that the state- ment of Herodian about the dream of Severus, who imagined that he saw an equestrian statue in the Forum, a colossal representation of which remained there in the historian's time, may refer to this pedestal.^ Trajan's Two of the most interesting monuments which have been bas-reliefs, brought to light by the recent excavations in Eome were discovered in 1872, near the base of the column of Phocas, where they have been re-erected. They consist of marble slabs, sculptured with bas-reliefs and forming low screens. Each screen is constructed of slabs of unequal size, and some of these have been unfortunately lost. Their original position has been restored as nearly as possible, and they stand parallel to each other in a line crossing the area of the Forum. On the inner sides of both of these sculjitured screens, the sacrificial animals, the boar, sheep and bull, always offered up at the Suovetaurilia, are represented. The other sides, which are turned outwards, represent scenes in the Forum, and are commemorative of some public * Stat. Silv. i. 1. Mr. Parker thinks that this was the pedestal of a statue of Constiintine. Arehrcol. vol. ii. pi. xix. ^ Nichols, ' The Romau Foruui,' p. 78. and the Campagna. benefaction of one of the emperors, probably Trajan or Hadrian. On one of them Italia is represented thanking the emperor for establishing some " alimenta piiblica," public relief institutions, and for apportioning lands to encourage needy parents to rear their children. Such relief funds and lands intended to supply the defective population of Italy were first established by the Emperor Nerva, and afterwards by Trajan, Hadrian, and the Antonines, and are frequently commemorated on medals, and mentioned by the historians Dion Cassius and Aurelius Victor, and the authors of the Augustan history.* The emperor is represented in a sitting posture, and stretching out his hand towards a child pre- sented by a woman in the character of Italia, who apparently holds another child ready for presentation. Behind the emperor's seat is the fig-tree called Navia or Euminalis, which is said to have grown near the rostra, and also the figure of Marsyas which stood in the same place. At the other end of this sculptured scene stands a speaker with a roll in his hand, addressing a crowd of citizens from a rostrum, which may perhaps represent the publication of the edict establishing alimenta. The other bas-relief scene shows a rostrum at one end, from which a sitting figure is superintending the burning of large bundles of books, carried and placed in front of him in a heap. The outline of a figure applying a torch can be traced, and also of several attendants. At the opposite end to the sitting figure the fig-tree and Marsyas are placed as in the other relief. The style of art in which the reliefs are executed cannot, in Professor Henzen's opinion, belong to an earlier period than Trajan's reign. The treatment corresponds to that on those reliefs taken from Trajan's arch, and set up on Con- stantine's arch. After Trajan's time the style of bas-relief was so much altered that we cannot suppose them to have been sculptured later than the first year of Hadrian. As Trajan gained great popularity in the early years of his reign by an abolition of the arrears of certain debts due to the imperial treasury, amounting to a large sum, ' See ' Rome and the Campagna,' Appendix, p. 452. 44 -^ Handbook to the Ruins of Rome and as he also established alimenta, these reliefs have been generally supposed to commemorate his public benefactions, in founding relief institutions and cancelling public debts. The backgrounds of both -the sculptures are occupied by representations of some public buildings, but it does not seem possible to identify these with any certainty. That they roughly represent some of the temples and Basilicas in the Forum in a sketch is all we can say. One of the temples shown in the relief which depicts the foundation of alimenta has only five columns in its portico, showing a want of accuracy in the drawing which throws great doubt upon its topographical value. The archaeologists who have en- deavoured to name the buildings have agreed in calling the Ionic and the Corinthian portico in the relief where the account books are being burnt those of the Temples of Saturn and Vespasian, with an arch of the tabularium between them, and the long row of arches the Basilica Julia, but they differ as to the buildings shown in the other relief, for while Mr. Kichols thinks that the Basilica Julia is here again represented with the Heroon of Julius Caesar and the arch of Augustus, Signor Brizio is of opinion that we have here the north-western side of the Forum with the Basilica uEmilia.^ The rostra are probably meant to represent temporary wooden constructions. The most reasonable conjecture which has yet been made as to the purpose which these sculptured screens served is that they formed a pons or passage along which voters passed at a time of election from the Forum to the office where the votes were taken. A great part of the structures used at such times was probably temporary, and made of wood for the occasion. Another explanation suggested by Mr. Kichols is that they formed a passage leading to an altar and statue of the Emperor. It may be that the sculptures never reached their destined site, but were left here, as many of the marbles on the Tiber banks were, and gradually buried in rubbish. Basilica ^^ ^low pass to the rows of restored bases of columns. Julia. * Gardhansen, 'Hermes,' viii. 129. Nichols, ' Roman Forum,' p. 67. Ann. dell. Inst. 1S72. Mr. Nichols's explanation does not account for the position of the fig-tree and Marsyas satisfactorily. and the Campagna. 45 whicli occTii^y the long space on the sonth-westem side of the seven pedestals above mentioned. Here we find the ground plan of the great Basilica Julia marked out by a treble row of columns at each of the larger sides, and a double row at each end. One pier of the outer row towards the Forum has been restored by Eosa so as to show the original height. The proof that these ruins belong to the Basilica Julia which was planned by Julius Csesar, and begun by him but completed by Augustus, who dedicated it to his grandsons Caius and Lucius, is the statement in the monumentum Ancyranum, in which it is placed between the temples of Saturn and Castor. A second proof is derived from two inscriptions found during the process of clearing the site, one of which records the repair of the Basilica Julia, and the erection in it of a statue by Gabinius Vettius Probianus, prefect of the city in A.D. 377, and the other the rebuilding of the Basilica Julia under Maximian after the fire which destroyed it in the time of Carinus and Numerian. This site is also assigned to the Basilica on the Capitoline plan which may be seen on the staircase of the Capitoline Museum. The outline given there, and marked by the name Basilica Julia, agrees in proportion, and in the rows of columns with the extant remains, and this shows that the present ruin is the same in its main points with that which stood in the time of Severus, when the Capitoline plan was made.^ Seven steps lead up to the level of the floor from the Forum level. A great deal of legal business was transacted here, as may be seen from the frequent mention of it in Pliny's Epistles. There were four tribunals, of which Quintilian speaks, at which four trials could be carried on at the same time ; but these tribunals were probably wooden and temporary erections, and there is no trace of any semicircular apses, such as those in the Basilica of Constantine. One of Caligula's amusements, as we are told by Suetonius, was to stand upon the roof of this basilica, and throw money to ' Jordan, ' Forma urbis Romse,' pp. 4, 25. The proportion of tlie length to the breadth is nearly that given by Vitruvius as proper for a basilica. 46 A Handbook to the Ruins of Rome the ruoh in the Forum to scramble for. Whether the basilica was covered over in the centre is not certain, bxxt it probably was so, with two aisles open to the Forum. The row of arches standing at the north-west corner is partly a restora- tion of the basilica by Canina, and partly consists of some piers and a wall standing behind, which has not yet been satisfactorily identi6ed with any ancient building. The most probable supposition is that they belonged to the Portieus Julia mentioned by Dion Cassius, and were parts of an earlier edifice, in front of which and upon which the basilica was placed by Augustiis. Cloaca, Under the southern end of the floor of the Julian Basilica, an opening has been made in which the arch of the main cloaca of the Forum valley can be seen passing across the Forum towards the Subura. This is the drain of which Juvenal speaks, when he says that the fish taken from the Crypta Suburas is the climax of indignity offered to the un- happy parasite Trebius at his patron's table.^ The course of the drain runs from here under the Via dei Fenili down to the Janus Quadrifrons in the Velabrum, where it meets other branches and passes down to the Tiber. Between the eastern end of the Basilica Julia and the temple of Castor ran the Yicus Tuscus, of which the paving-stones may still be traced. At the western end the Yicus Jugarius led towards the Velabrum, but this is buried under the present Via della Consolazione, and cannot be seen. Arch of The Aruh of Tiberius, which stood at the corner of the Tiberius. Basilica Julia, where the Viciis Jugarius and the Clivus Capitolinus diverged, cannot be clearly traced, though some of its ruins have been thought to exist among those uncovered at the edge of and under the modern road. This arch has been with great probability supposed to be that alluded to by Tacitus in speaking of the recovery of the Eoman standards lost by Varus, and retaken by Germanicus under the auspices of Tiberius.^ The triumphal arch represented on the Arch of Constantine is also thought to be that of Tiberius placed here. Temple of We now pass under the modern road to the foot of the ' Juv. Sat. V. 104. - Tac. Ann. ii. 41. Saturn. and the Canipagna. 47 Capitoline Hill, and proceed to examine the most prominent ruin at the western end of the Fonim. This consists of eight columns, six of red granite forming a front, and two side columns of grey granite. The capitals of these and the decoration of the entablature, architrave and frieze sur- mounting til em are of a late and debased Ionic order with volutes in the later style, and they have been pieced together 48 A Handbook to the Rnins of Rome in tlie last restoration of the temple with extraordinary negligence. Unequal spaces are left between the columns, and some are set upon plinths while others are without them. One of the side columns has been so badly re-erected that the stones are misplaced, and consequently the diameter of the upper portion is of the same size as that of the lower. The restored carving on the inner frieze is of the roughest descrip- tion, and the barbarous negligence of the whole restoration shows that it cannot have been done earlier than the fourth or fifth century. A comparison of the ruins now remaining with the plan as given on the fragments of the Capitoline map, bearing the name sat vrni has been made by Jordan, who shows that the remains of a prominent and peculiar flight of steps in front of the six columns correspond to the rough sketch on the plan, and that this flight of steps facing north must be taken to be the front of the temple.^ The pavement stones of the road which led from the forum past the front of the temple may still be traced curving round this projecting flight of steps. Little doubt now remains that the ruin of the eight columns, the name of which has been so much discussed, belonged to the Temple of Saturn. The inscription now upon the front was placed there at its latest restoration which, as we have seen, was in Christian times, and the name of the divinity is therefore omitted. This temple was one of the most revered and anciexit in the city, and its foundation is traced back in legendary myth to the Hellenic Kronos. The earliest date given for the dedication is b.c. 498. Many restorations must have taken place. An inscription recording one in the time of Augustus by Munatius Plancus has been found. This temple long retained the name of the Mint, from the fact that the state treasures were deposited under the care of the god Saturnus, as one of the most venerated of Eoman deities. Area of The ancient road leading xxp to the Capitol made a turn the Dii behind the Temple of Saturn, and a portico with semi- Corinthian or Composite columns has been restored from some columns and capitals found here in 1835. At the back » Jordan, ' Forma urbis Romae,' p. 26. and the Campagna. 49 of this portico were twelve recessed chambers occupied by chaj)els of the twelve deities called the Dii Consentes. Four of these still remain under the modern Via del Camindogiio. The walls are chiefly of brickwork, apparently of the second or third century, but the back wall against the ascent to the Capitol is of hard tufa. The interiors were faced with marble, of which traces are left. From the inscription found in 1835 upon the architecture it appears that Vettius Praitex- tatus, a prefect of the city in a.d. 367, restored the statues of the Dii Consentes, which had stood hero from ancient times. Varro mentions gilded statues of the gods of the council as near the Forum, and also speaks of their temple. This portico and chambers cannot, however, have been a temple, but were evidently clerks' offices connected with the state depositories near the Temple of Saturn. Cicero speaks of the clerks of the Capitoline ascent.^ Vettius Prsetextatus, who restored the building in 367, was notorious for his opposition to the Christian religion and for his zeal in supporting the ancient cultus. He held several offices, and was pro-consul of Achaia under Julian, and probably recommended himself to that emperor by his attachment to the old Eoman religion. Below the portico and its chambers stands another row of Schola lower chambers, three of which are said by Marliani to have Xanthi. been found entire in the sixteenth century. Inscriptions found here give the name of Schola to the chambers, and hence they have been called Schola Xanthi, from the name of Xanthixs, which occurs in the inscription as a restorer. They were undoubtedly clerks' offices, similar to those behind the portico of the Dii Consentes above them. We now turn from the portico of the Dii Consentes to the Temple of three Corinthian columns which stand under the large build- ^^^pasiau, ing called the Tabularium. These three columns have now been proved to belong to the ruin of a temple dedicated to Vespasian by his son Domitian. This position of Vespasian's temple agrees with the statements of the Notitia and Curio- sum and of Statius. The inscription, of which only the letters ESTITUKR now remain, Avas seen and the whole of it tran- ' Cic. Phil. ii. 7. K 50 A Handbook to the Ruins of Rome scribed by a writer of the ninth century, whose MS. is preserved at Einsiedlen.^ It recorded the restoration of this temple by Severiis and Caracalla. The letters kstitukr stand at the lower edge of the frieze, showing that there was another line above. This upper line was Divo. vesp. aug. S.P.Q.R., and referred to the original building of the temple, while the lower line recorded its restoration. The temple was approached by a flight of steps from the road between it and the Temple of Saturn, the uppermost of which were placed between the columns and have been partially restored. The three columns which now remain are the three corner columns of the portico. They have fluted shafts and Corin- thian capitals. The letters of the inscription were of metal, and the holes of the rivets which fastened them ai'e still visible. The architrave and cornice are ornamented very richly with the usual mouldings, and there are some most interesting reliefs upon the frieze representing sacrificial implements and the skulls of oxen. A horsetail for sprink- ling, and a sacrificial knife with a vase, a patera, an axe, and a high priest's mitre are plainly distinguishable. Another portion of the entablature was pieced together by Canina and is still kept in the rooms of the Tabularium. The walls of the cella were built of travertine faced with marble. Against the back wall stands a large pedestal which supported the statue of the deified Emperor. Temple of Next to the temple of Vespasian, we are told by Statius, Concord, g^ood the Temple of Concord. The site is also determined by passages in Plutarch and in Dion Cassius, and by the plan given in the Capitoline map. Excavations were carried out here in 1817, 1830, and 1835 which resulted in disclosing the foundations of the temple, and in finding some inscriptions Avhich attest the dedication of this spot to the goddess Concord. The temple of Concord was founded according to Livy, Ovid, and Plutarch by Camillus in B.C. 3()7, on the memorable occasion when the senate after a long and anxious debate, M'isely determined to make peace with the Con\mons l)y throwing open the office of Consul to the plebeian order.^ ' See ' Eomc and the Campagna,' p. 58. * See ' Rome and the Campagna,' p. Dl. and the Campagna. 5 1 It Avas placed near the old meeting-place (ComitiTim) of the privileged families (gcutes), as if constantly to remind them that the newly established concord of the community was under the special sanction of the gods. When the Temple of Camillus was first restored we do not leam. The earliest notice of a new Temple to Concord is the statement that the Consul Opimius was ordered by the senate on the death of C. Gracchus to build a neAv temple to Concord. The temple seems to have been a kind of Pantheon or museiim, for it Avas filled with a great number of statues of A'arious gods, and with curiosities. On the left-hand side of the remaining foundations of the cella are two large pedestals which probably supported two of the principal statues. Tiberius rebuilt it after his German campaign in a.d. and 7, and dedicated it in honour of himself and his brother. The form of the latest restoration, Avhich seems to have been carried out after the building behind it, the so-called 1'abularium, Avas built, as it is placed so close to that building and must haA^e rendered the decorations on its walls iuAdsible, can be traced by the present relics of foundation AA^alls, and presents a singular dcA'iation from the normal plan of a Eoman temple. The pronaos, or front chamber, is narroAver than the cella or shrine behind it, and forms a sort of porch to it. This is an instance of the form of temple called prostyles by VitruAdus, and consisting of abroad Tuscan cella Avith a narroAv Greek portico.^ The cella has greater breadth than depth. The basement is of considerable height in front, and some of the steps, Cicero's Gradus ConcordicU^ can be traced, Avhile the enormous threshold of African marble still remains. A coin of Tiberius shoAvs us that the temple had a portico of six columns in the Corinthian style, and a group of three figures embracing, as a symbol of Concord, at the top. One of the bases of the columns is still preserA'cd in the Capitoline Museum, and a portion of the frieze Avas restored by Canina, showing that the decorative Avork Avas of great beauty. The inscription is given in the Einsiedlen MS. of the ninth century, and the ' See ' Rome and the Cdmpa„iiis Near the Arch of Severus, and also between the temple of under the gatum and the corner of the Basilica Julia, the modern road the end of runs over archways. Under the archways some substructions the Forum. f,f ijxi'ge peperino stones and other forms of building have been disclosed. These may have belonged to pedestals upon which statues were })laced, or in the case of those near the arch of Severus to the later Rostra and Grajcostasis, and in the case of those near the corner of the Basilica Julia to the Arch of Tiberius. The round pedestal which stands near the Arch of Severus was possibly the pedestal of the Miliarium Aureum, as it is not strong enough to bear the weight of a heavy statue.^ A representation of the Rostra of the Empire which may have stood here is given in the relief on the face of the Arch of Constantine, which looks towards the Coliseum, where three ' Herodian iii. 0, 10, 11. Hist. Aug. Vit. t^ov. 0, l*!, 17. - See Parker's Arch;eol. vol. ii. pi. xi. and the Camp agna. 55 arches are seen, corresponding to the Arch of Severus on the right, and one arch corresponding to that of Tiberins on the left. Constantino is shown in this bas-relief addressing the people from the rostra. Under the church of S. Giuseppe dei Falegnami, which The Career, stands near the Arch of Severus, are two chambers, which are always shown as the ancient prison of Eome, said to have been first built by the King Ancus Martins, and then rebiiilt or enlarged by Servius Tullius. The uj)per of these two chambers is of an irregular shape, but the lower is constructed in a conical form by the gradiial projection of the stones forming the sides. This mode of building an arch is of very early date, before the introduction of the principle of the round arch, and is found in the oldest tombs of Etruria, and in well-houses at Tusculum and Ca?re.^ There can be no doubt that this part of the building is of great antiquity. But the proofs that it ever formed a prison are not so clear. This has been inferred from the striking account of the imprisonment of Jugurtha by Sallust, who states that Jugurtha was placed in a cell with water at the bottom, and exclaimed, " Hercules, how cold your bath is !" Hence it has been thought that the prison must have had water in it, as this chamber has on the floor. Another proof that this is the ancient prison, called in the middle ages the Mamertine i:)rison, from a statue of Mars or Mamers, or from the Forum Martis near it, has been derived from the statements of many Eoman authors, who place the prison on the slope of the Capitol, near the Forum, and speak of an inferior as well as a superior chamber. The prison was probably in this neighbourhood, but the shape of the conical vault is rather that of a well-house. Mommsen has therefore suggested that this was the original purjoose of the lower chamber, and that it was used as a cistern for collect- ing the water from the surrounding slopes. The top of the ancient conical vault is truncated and closed, with the excep- tion of a round hole, by slabs of stone fastened together with iron cramps. A communication with the arched sewers which run down Linujin^ciLiuii vviLii uiie ixiuiieu. ouwcio vviiiuii x ' See ' Homo and the Campagnn,' p. 354, Apponili.x. 56 A Handbook to the Ruins of Rome to the Fonim, and also with an archway which reaches up the slope to some large chambers on the north-west under the Vicolo del Ghettarello, has been opened by Mr. Parker, and these longer vaulted chambers which are of great antiquity, have been taken to be extensions of the original regal prison. But there is no sufficient evidence to show that these arched passages were used for any purpose of transit, and they were more probably channels for draining off the water, which would otherwise have accvimulated in the chambers or on the slopes.^ An inscription is fixed in the outer Avail, recording a restoration of the building by the Consuls C. Vibius Kufinus and M. Cocceius Nerva, as ordered by a decree of the Senate. These two men were consules suffecti before a.d. 24, probably in A.D. 22, the ninth year of Tiberius. But the name of the building is not mentioned in this inscription, and it seems uncertain whether it has not been removed from elsewhere. There was another and larger prison in this district, and this larger prison Avas called the Lautumia?. Forty-three -^tolian prisoners are said by Livy to have been crucified in the Lautumia;, which must therefore have been certainly much more extensive than the cell which is called the Career Mamertinus. Seneca also mentions the request of a prisoner, Julius Sabiniis, that he might be removed from the Career to the Lautumia^.- There seems, therefore, to be no distinct proof that the conical cell was ever anything more than a water tank, and the name of prison which has been attached to it is probably a mediaeval legend invented to indicate a spot which miglit be venerated as the prison of St. Peter. Tabu- On the side of the Capitoline Hill towards the Forum, a very high and wide mass of building, now called the Palace of the Senator, and used for the transaction of urban business, stands. This is founded upon an ancient range of masonry of which a considerable part still remains, measuring about 220 feet in length, and 50 feet in height. An entrance has been made from the Via del Campidoglio, and as the wall was cut through for this pur^iose, the structure of the building may ' See Jordan, Toj). Koiii. p. 13, Note 20. ^ Liv. xxxvii. 3. Seueca, Coutr. ix. 4, 21. larium. a7id the Campagna. -57 be best observed here. On the inner side red tufa has been used, and on the outer grey pej)erino, and the blocks are laid alternately lengthwise and crosswise, as in the Servian wall building. A great mass of masonry of this sort Avithout cement, forms the main sul jstructions of the building;. Alone: the front run the traces of an arcaded passage, which anciently led across from one side to the other of the building. The arches were walled up by Nicolas V., in order to bear modern buildings above them. One has now been opened to show the architecture. A pavement of basaltic lava, such as was used in the streets of ancient Eome, has been found in the arcade, showing that it was a public passage. The architecture of the building is Doric, which points to an early date, and the capitals and cornice are of travertine. It is probable that another arcade ran above the one now ti'aceable. A high flight of steps leads up into the chambers from the archway now walled up at the back of the Temple of Vespasian. From the architecture it may be concluded that these remains of a large ancient building date fi'om the republican times of Eome, and are almost the only relics of that era. This ruin is generally called the Tabularium, but it has been shown by Mommsen that there is no ground for supposing that the name was ever applied to it in any ancient writings, and that the name is more properly TErarium Populi Eomani, or ^rariuni Saturni, and that it was attached to the Temple of Saturn. 31 any of the temples in Eome had a^raria attached t(j them, and it does not appear that any central place of deposit ever had the name of Tabularium alone, without further litle, especially applied to it. The inscription which has been placed at the entrance, and records the construction of some building, or part of, a building by Q. Lutatius Catulus, when consul, was placed where it now stands by Canina. It is sup- posed by Mommsen to refer to tlie repairs and alterations of the vaults under the Capitol, which were carried out in jjursuauce of Sulla's plan of improvements on the Capitol, and after Sulla's death were continued for many years by Q. Catulus.^ ' Corp. luscr. l,iit. i. 591, 592. Mommsen, Ami. Inst. 1858, p. 211. Canina, Rom. Aui. p. 290. Vir;;irs use of the plural tabularia is uut, therefore, merely poetical : Georg. ii. 502. 58 A Handbook to the Rums of Rome CHAPTEK III. THE COLISEUM AND KSQUILINE. Meta On the road from the Forum Eomauiim to the Coliseum, Sudaus. after passing through the Arch of Titus, we descend beween the platform and ruins of the Temple of Venus and Rome, and the remains called the lavacrum of Heliogahalus, mentioned previously, and, close to the south-western comer of the mass of substruction on the left, we find a conical column of brick- work about thirty feet high. A large breach on the side towards the Coliseum shows that the centre was pierced with a perpendicular pipe, and the eastern exhibits traces of having been divided into three ledges or stages. This conical Iniilding stood in the centre of a circular basin, the ruin of which has been traced out and restored. The shape would of itself point to the purpose which this building served, even if this were not rendered clear by the remains of a water- course which descended to it from the Esquiline. The name Meta Sudans by which the ruin is known comes from the mediaeval list of buildings known as the Curiosum Urbis, but the earliest authentic authoritj' to which we can appeal for its date is a coin of Alexander Severus, a.d. 222. The passage of Seneca in which he gives the name Meta Sudans as being a spot at which the flute-players and trumpeters made a din by their practice, does not give us any information as to its position, and therefore we are not justified in assuming that the fountain was erected in Nero's time.'^ The coins of Titus which represent the Coliseum do " Sf-ncca's letter was vriitten from Baise, which seems to place the buililing he speaks of there and not at Rome. The word "meta" was used by tlie Latin classical writers in speaking of haystacks or cream-cheeses made in a conical .slia))C. Columella, ii. 19; IMart. i. 44. and the Camp agna. 59 not show it. Cassiodorus and other chronologists phxce the date of the Meta Siidans in Domitian's reign, and this agrees with the coins of Titiis and also with the nature of the brick- work, which is of the Flavian era. Near the Meta Sudans at the entrance of the Via di S. Arcli of Gregorio stands the Arch of Constantino, which is the most ^'"°stan- . . Una. completely preserved of all ancient Eoman buildings. The name of Constantino, revered by subseqiient ages, seems to have defended the archway from the barbarous spoliation which attacked most of the great monuments of Eome. The most interesting feature of this arch in the history of art is the proof which it gives of the decline of art in the fourth century. Some of the reliefs with which it is ornamented were taken from an older arch, probably that which formed the entrance to Trajan's Forum, and those which are of Constantino's time show a coarse and harsh style of execution in lamentable contrast to the flowing and delicate lines of the more ancient work by their side. Among the scul})tures which belong to the earlier and better period arc the large reliefs under the central arch and those which are placed on either end of the attica. These four were originally parts of a larger relief which has been sawn into four equal pieces for the purpose of adorning Constantino's arch. The order in which they stood in the original design has been pointed out by Bellori. The first part is that now placed on the inside of the middle archway towards the Coliseum, the second stands on the side of the attica over the arch towards the Ca^lian, the third on the inside of the middle archway towards the Palatine, and the fourth upon the attica on the same side. When united they represented Trajan crowned by Victory, with the goddess Eoma standing near, a battle between Dacians and Eomans, ending in the defeat and sul)mission of the barbarian army. The dress of the Eoman soldiers and of the Dacians is similar to that represented on Trajan's column, and quite different from the Eoman military habit in the age of Constantino. Beside these four rectangular reliefs the eight circular sculptures which stand over the smaller archways belong to the time (;f Trajan. They represent hunting scenes and 6o A Handbook to the Ruins of Rome sacrificial ceremonies. One of them, the second from the left, upon the side towards the Coliseum, has a remarkahle figure of the Emperor with a nimbus or cloud encircling his head, exactly similar to those represented round the heads of modern saints. The eight large reliefs upon the attica over the side archways are also of the workmanship of Trajan's time, and commemorate some of the exploits of that emperor, among which may he mentioned the construction of a road through the Pontine marshes represented upon the second relief from the left on the side of the attica towards the Coliseum. The reclining figure with a wheel represents the road, and the other figures the surveyors, one of which is perhaps Apollodorus, the famous Greek architect of Damascus. The other reliefs upon the sides of the attica represent interviews of Trajan with barbarian princes, and the common sacrifice of the Suovetaurilia, so frequently depicted on the reliefs of the columns of that emperor, and also on the large marble screens now standing in the Forum Eomanum. The remainder of the sculptures belong to the Constantinian era, and contain, viewed as works of art, nothing worth attention. One of them on the side next to the Coliseum is, however, of great interest to the antiquarian, as it repre- sents the rostra of the later Empire and the northern end of the Forum, with the arches of Severus and Tiberius, and the end of the Basilica Jiilia, and another, on the side towards the Via di S. Gregorio representing the victory of Constantino over Maxentius at the Milvian bridge, is historically valuable. The figures which stand in front of the attica have the Dacian costume, and have been removed from some one of Trajan's buildings. Upon the side of the central archway can be still seen the traces of nails which fastened some Koman ensigns to the stones. Similar traces of nails are to be seen upon the arch of Severus as before mentioned. The inscriptions over the smaller arches refer to the decennalia or vicennalia, a festival celebrated after the time of Augustus every ten years of an emperor's reign when he was supposed to have the imperium conferred upon him afresh. The meaning of the expression voTis x. voris xx. seems to be and the Campagna. 6 1 that these inscriptions were pnt up on the " vota "or day when vows Avere made for the emperor's safety at the beginning of the tenth and twentieth years of his reign. This is not an nncommon signification of the word "vota" in later Latin, The day which was usually called vota was either the first or third of January, and the custom of offering these vows was retained long after Christianity had been nominally made the state religion, so that it is not surprising to find it alluded to on Constantine's arch.' The words on the other side of the arch sic. x. sic. xx. may be interpreted as the form of words used in making vows to the emperor. " Sic x. annos regnet ; sic xx. annos regnet." " May his reign last ten years more or twenty years." The larger inscription which is cut upon the attica on both sides shows that the arch was erected in honour of the victory of Constantine over Maxentius, and the union of the empire under one sovereign. It is not, however, certain that the arch was built in the first year of Constantine's sole reign, for not only do the words ins riNC ru divinit axis "by inspiration of the Deity," seem to indicate a more decided leaning to Christianity than Constantine showed at the beginning of his reign, but the title of Maximus, which is found in the inscription, does not occur in the coins of Constantine before the tenth year of his reign. The solid contents of this arch, as may be seen by ascending the staircase which is entered by a door at some height from the ground at the end nearest the Palatine Hill, are mainly composed of pieces of marble taken from other buildings, and it has even been suspected that the plan itself, which in l)eauty of proportion surpasses the Arch of Severus, was borrowed, together with the materials, from Trajan's Arch or some older building now destroyed. We now pass from the Arch of Constantino, with its The Coli- borrowed ornamentation, to the great ruin of Eome, the *'^"""' Coliseum, or Flavian Amphitheatre. Although two-tliirds of the original building have disappeared under the sliameful treatment to which tlie barbarous nobles of tlic middle ages ^ See Casaubon's note on Spuitiaii, Iliwt. An;;, p. 40; rs.c. Tac. Ann. vi. 17 ; xvi. 22. 62 A Handbook to the Rmns 0/ Rome subjected it, enough still remains to show the arrangement of the entrances, passages, and seats of this wonderful con- struction. The plan of the whole may be best described as consisting of throe priii<-i)i,il massive concentric elliptical a7id the Campagna. 63 arcades. The intervals between each of these are filled in with other arched work containing corridors and staircases, and between the innermost of these three arcades and the wall which surrounded the arena was a triple system of substruction supporting the lower parts of the ro\\s of seats in the amphitheatre. The stone used throiighout is travertine, with the exception of some interior work of brick and concrete, and some pumice-stone in the arches. The elliptical shape was probably chosen instead of the circular in imitation of the amphitheatre of Curio, which was composed of two semi- circular theatres with their stages between them. The name Coliseum was possibly derived from the great colossal statue of Nero which for a long time stood close to the Flavian Amphitheatre, and when the real history of the amphitheatre was lost, woidd naturally become the most prominent mark by which it could be designated. This colossal statue was placed originally in the vestibule of Nero's Golden Palace, and was 120 feet high, according to Suetonius. The material was bronze and the artist was Zenodorus. It appears that Vespasian, and afterwards Hadrian, moved the colossus to make room for their new buildings, and that it was finally placed upon the massive pedestal of brickwork which still remains on the north of the Coliseum. That it actually stood upon til is pedestal is shown by a coin of Alexander Severus, which represents the Coliseum with the colossus close to it. It is said by Gibbon that the name Coliseum was also given to the amphitheatre at Capua without re- ference to a colossal statue. The Capuan title may, however, have been taken from the Roman. The major axis of this huge amphitheatre, from one outside wall to the other, measures 602 feet, the minor 507. The principal outer wall is 157 feet in height, and is divided into four stories.^ Of these the lowest stands on a substruction of two steps, and originally consistfid of a row of eighty arches, between which stood half columns of the Doric order. ' The great ampliitlieatre at El Dji-mm in Tunis is 480 feet by 420 ami 102 feet in Jieiglit, tliat at Tola in Istria 437 by 3IG feet and 97 feet in lieight. Shaw's ' Travels,' i. p. 220. Ann. doir Inst. 1852. Allason's Tola. 64 A Handbook to the Rtiins of Rome These outer arclies, with the exception of thirty-three arch- ways, liave disappeared. Upon these rests a very simple entaUature without any of the usual peculiarities of the Doric style, and rather belonging to the Ionic, a mixture of styles not very rare in Eome.^ The arches are all numbered. These numbers were probably intended to correspond to those upon the entrance tickets and rows of seats, in order that the spectators might find their proper seats with ease. There is a staircase and a vomitorium corresponding to every four arches, and the vomitoria as well as the entrance arches were all numbered to prevent confusion. A ticket for the amphi- theatre at Frosinone has been found. It bears an inscription CAN. VI. IN. X. VIII., thus giving the position and number of the seat. The arches which stood at the extremities of the minor axis were the approaches to the imperial pavilions. They were ornamented with marble columns and carved work on the exterior, and led in the interior to a large withdrawing-room, from which there was a separate passage to the emperor's throne (pulvinar) on the podium. On the Esquiline side the imperial entrance may still be recognised by a slight projection in the sul)structions, and bj- the pillars of white marble lying near it, which originall}^ stood on each side. The same arrangement was doubtless made on the Ca?lian side, where the Emperor Commodus made himself an underground approach. The other two principal entrances at the extremities of the major axis lead directly into the arena, and were probably used for the entry of processions or marching bodies of gladiators, or machines of various kinds. The entablature of the first story is surmounted by an attica, with projections corresponding to the columns below. Above these stand the arches of the second story, between which half-columns of the Ionic order are placed. The details of the architecture here are in a very meagre style, for the spiral lines on the volutes are omitted, and also the usual toothed ornaments of the entablature. The same remark applies to the third story, the half-columns of which have Corinthian capitals with the acanthus foliage very ' The tomb of Scipio Barbatus in the Vatican is another curious instance of tliis mixture of Doric ami Ionic decorative forms. and the Campagna. 65 roughly worked. The fourth story has no arches, but consists of a wall, pierced with larger and smaller square windows placed alternately, and is decorated with pilasters of the Composite order. Between each pair of pilasters three consoles project from the wall, and above these are corre- sponding niches in the entablature. The purpose of these was to support the masts upon which the awnings were stretched. The second and third of the principal concentric walls contain arches corresponding to those in the outer wall. Corridors run between these concentric walls, and on the first and second floors of the outer ring, and the first floor of the inner ring, these circles afford a completely un- obstructed passage all round. The other corridors are blocked up in parts by various staircases, leading to the upper rows of seats. Within the third principal concentric arcade the supports of the building take the form of massive walls, radiating from the centre of the ellipse, and divided by elliptical corridors into three ranges. Between these massive walls and in the corridors are the steps and passages leading to the lower seats of the amphitheatre. The actual seats which were of marble have been all pilfered for the benefit of the Eoman palaces and churches of the feudal ages, but we can still make out with tolerable certainty the five principal divisions into which they were separated. The lowest of these, called the podium, was a platform raised twelve or fifteen feet above the arena, upon which were placed the chairs of the higher magistrates and dignitaries. This was protected by railings and nets full of spikes, and sometimes also by trenches, called euripi, and horizontal bars of wood or iron which turned freely round, and thus afforded no hold to the paws of a wild animal. Above the podium were four difierent orders of seats, divided by belts of upright masonry from each other. The first of these consisted of about twenty rows of seats, and was appropriated to the knights and tribunes, and other state officers. The upper row of this set was probably at a height of about ten feet above the top of the arches of the lowest F 66 A Handbook to the Ruins of Rome story. The next ranges of seats between the second and third helt were appropriated to Eoman citizens in general, and held the greatest number of spectators. The wall dividing these seats from the next set was very- high, and contained, besides the vomitoria or entrance doors, a number of windows for the purpose of lighting the corridors and passages. A considerable part of this wall is still extant upon the side towards the Esquiline Hill. Above it ran the third set of seats, occupied by the lower classes of the people, and above this again, and separated from it by a very low wall without vomitoria, was the fourth group of seats, im- mediately under the windows of the uppermost story, and covered by a portico which ran round the whole top of the building.^ The traces of this uppermost row of seats and of the colonnade which supported the portico may still be seen on the side towards the Esquiline Hill. The seats in this part seem to have been partly appropriated to women, partly to the lower classes. On the roof of the portico stood the workmen whose business it was to manage the awnings, and to move them as the sun or rain required. The number of seats in the whole amphitheatre is said to have been 87,000, and a considerable number, in addition to these, could stand in the passages between the seats at the entrances of the vomitoria, and in other vacant places, so that the whole number which the building, when filled from top to bottom, could hold, was probably not less than 90,000. The exterior arcade of the building diminishes in thickness towards the top, in order to render it more stable, and while the Doric and Ionic columns of the first and second stories stand out from the wall by nearly three-quarters of their circumference, the third row of Corinthian columns projects less, and the uppermost row are merely pilasters. Much discussion has been raised on the question of the awnings or velaria required for so large a space. It is impossible of course, in the absence of any distinct con- ' This portico is shown in the medals of Titus and Alexander Severus. The remains of a similar portico exist in the amphitheatre at Thysdrus (El Djemm) in Tunis. See Caniua in the Ann. dell' lust. 1852, tav. cVAs-. U. and the Campagna. 67 temporaneous description, to discover the exact mode of suspension adopted. Venuti supposes that a net of cords * v constructed like a spider's weh, with both radiating and^^^^g^/^^ .* concentric ropes, was suspended over the amphitheatre, and^X"- that by pulleys arranged over this the vela were drawn across j any part which happened to be exposed to the sun. By . means of pulleys attached to this network of rope, the little^ -.-}»•>' ^ boys mentioned by Juvenal as caught up to the awnings f ' may have been drawn up. The ropes and pulleys, we are ^^^l^^ told by Lamjjridius, were managed by sailors. In rough and y_ ^ windy weather the awnings could not always be drawn, ^ . ' and umbrellas coloured according to the favourite's colours, or large broad-brimmed hats called causia3 or birri, were then used. Martial has written some amusing epigrams, showing how jealously the seats appropriated to any particular privileged order were reserved. He gives the names of Lectins and Oceanus to the boxkeepers of his time, who ^ - chased intruders from the seats to which they were not entitled. And he describes with great humour the attempts of a certain Nanneius to smuggle himself into a better place than he was entitled to. The pickpockets of Martial's time also frequented the amphitheatre. The anxiety of the public to attend the shows was so great that they occupied the free seats in the amphitheatre before dawn in the morning, and gave fees to the officials to keep places for them, when any favourite gladiator or bestiarius was announced to perform. The shows lasted whole days, and hence various contrivances for keeping the spectators in good humour, and filling up the intervals between the combats. Seneca tells us of the meridiani, a class of slaves who were kept on purpose to fill up the midday leisure hours with sham fights, and ludicrous pranks played upon the bodies of those killed or half killed in the previous ,_,<,^: / fights. The air was cooled with immense jets of water ^^^^ ^ projected from the centre of the arena, or from holes in the statues, and scented with fragrant essences, among which extract of saffron mixed with wine seems to have been the , Jy^ most popular. The arena of the Coliseum was originally about 250 feet F 2 68 A Handbook to the Rtiins of Rome in length, and 150 feet in breadth. It seems now much larger on account of the removal of the wall of the podium. The attention which has been dra\ATi to the arena during the last few years by the re-opening of the hypogaea, or subterranean passages, renders it necessary to allude to the subject of these hypogaja, and to estimate how far the recent excavations have thrown new light upon the history and construction of the great amphitheatre. When the French occupied Eome, and it was incorporated into their empire in the four years preceding the Battle of Waterloo, the French Government carried out considerable excavations in the arena of the Coliseum, and besides clearing the podium and the chambers annexed to it, they opened the crjnptoporticus which runs underground towards the Caelian Hill, and also discovered the passages beneath the arena which have been now excavated again. A great controversy was raised at that time as to the real level of the original arena between several of the archa3ological professors and antiquarians of Rome. The same controversy has now been again revived, and the same questions as to the probable date of the underground constructions have been again raised, but with as little hope as ever of arriving at a satisfactory solution. The truth seems to be that, as in most amphitheatres, these hyjDogaea were constructed at the very first erection of the Coliseum, but have been altered, neglected, filled up, and again cleared out many times during the eventful history of the building, and that it has now become impossible to trace the various stages of such destruc- tions and restorations. As often as the drains which were intended to carry off the water became choked and failed to act, these lower chambers and passages were filled with water and rendered useless. The French excavations conducted till the early part of this century, 1810-1814, showed the general character of the chambers and passages under the arena. They consist of one central passage which extends under the arena from end to end in the line of the major axis of the ellipse. Parallel to this there are four narrower rectilineal passages on each side connected with each other by archways and surrounding and the Campagna. 69 these are three curved passages following the elliptical curves of the sides of the amphitheatre. The material of which these walls were originally built was great blocks of traver- b'-^*- *^^ tine similar to those in the surrounding construction of the /. 17. This temple was to the Plebeian ^diles what the Temple of Saturn was to the quaestors, and it was enacted that the decrees of the Senate should be delivered over to the iEdiles there, an enactment which seems never to have been carried out.^ The medieval names of this church, in Cosniedin, and in Schola Graica, seem to point to the possession of the church by Greek monks after the division of the empire, and the piazza in which it stands is called Bocca della Yerita from the strange figure of a head under the modern portico of the church, in the mouth of which it is said that persons whose veracity lay under suspicion, were required to place their hands while making oath, in the belief that the mouth would close upon their hands if the oath taken was a false one. Carceres of Immediately behind the church are the arched buildings of Maximus travertine blocks which have already been mentioned as belonging to the Carceres of the Circus. The largest of these is now used as a store-room for articles of church furniture, and stands on the right side of the tribune of the church. They are perhaps situated too far toAvards the river to be portions of the actiial Carceres from which the chariots started, but they may have formed one side of a courtyard behind the Carceres, in which the harnessing and preparation for the races took place. Theatre of The ruins of the Theatre of Marccllus which are still standing in the Piazza Montanara afford us a fixed point fron\ which to begin our survey of the region of the Circus Flaminius, which lies to the north-west of the Yelabrum. For it appears certain that the ancient half columns, arches, and other ruins evidently belonging to a semicircular theatre, which are now covered by the Palazzo Orsini Savelli, belonged to the theatre of Marccllus. Suetonius distinctly places this theatre under the Tarpeian hill, ;ind of the r)thor two stone > Tac. Abu. ii. 49. Dionys. vi. 7, 94. Vitruv. iii. ?>, 5. PUn. N. H. sxxv. 4,24. 10,99. 12, 1.14. ' Marcelhis. and the Campagna. "3 Iheatre of Man Hut 114 ^ Handhooh to tJic Ritins of Rome theatres at Eome we know that the Pompeian hxy further to the north-west, and that the theatre of Balbiis was near the Ponte Sisto. The masonry and architectural details of this building, though corresponding in many respects with the Colisenm are more carefnll}' Avorhed, and show an earlier and better period of art. There had previously been a stone seena Ijnilt near this spot by JEmilius Lcpidiis, Avhich was perliaps used by Julius Cajsar wlio first began to build this theatre. It was not finished until the year B.C. 11 when Augustus opened it, and named it after his nephew Marcellus, son of Octavia. In the time of the Flavii the scena was restored, having perhaps suffered from the fire which burnt the Portions Octavia?, and it seems to have again required repairs in the time of Alexander Severus, who is said to have wished to restore it.^ The Curiosum mentions it as if still in use, and gives the number of spectators it would contain as 20,000. In the Middle Ages it was, like all the other great buildings of Rome, turned into a castle by Pietro Leone, a nobleman of great power in the time of Urban II. and Pascal II., and celebrated for his factious violence. The shape of the building was thus completely altered. The great family of tlie Savelli came into possession of it in the twelfth century, following Pietro Leone, and after them the Orsini. The lower stories are now occupied by workshops, small wine vaiilts, and rag and bone warehouses, frequented by the rustics of the Campagna, who are usually to be seen in considerable numbers in the Piazza Montanara in front of it. From the piazza two rows of the extei'ior arcades are visible, each containing twelve arches and thirteen columns of travertine. The lower arcade is now buried to the depth of one third of its surface below the level of the present ground. Its half columns are of the Doric order, with a Doric entablature and triglyphs, and are surmounted by a low attica with projecting bases for the half columns of the upper arcade. The height of this upper arcade was originally somewhat less than that of the lower. It lias half ' Anson. Sept. Saj). \nto Ponte Eotto from its broken condition. 1'he two remaining ^°*^to. arches are not ancient, but probably stand upon the site of an ancient bridge which was called the Pons ^milius. Livy mentions this bridge as the first stone bridge built over the Tiber, and states that it was begun in B.C. 179 by M. Fulvius Nobilior, and M. ^milius Lepidus the censor, whose name was given to the Basilica Emilia, and that it was finished in B.C. 142 by the Censors Publius Seipio Africanus, and L. Mummius. The bridge was named after M. ^milius Lepidus as Pontifex Maximus, and as a more popular statesman than Fulvius. The bridge afterwards bore the name pons lapideus, from being the first stone bridge built over the Tiber, and in contradistinction to the pons sublicius. There is abundant evidence as to the position of this bridge, for the Fasti Capranici j)lace it ad Theatrum Marcelli, and the Cosmographia of ^Ethicus ad Forum Boarium, both of which indications point to the Ponte Potto. A short distance above the ^miliau Ijridgc is the island of [siaud of the Tiber. According to the legend, this island was formed '^"^ '•"'•'ei- by the corn belonging to the Tarquins grown on the Campus Martins, which after their expulsion was consecrated to Mars. After consecration the corn could not be used for food, and was therefore cut and thrown into tlie Tiber, and 1 1 6 A Handbook to the Ruins of Rome from this corn, when collected into heaps hy the stream, the island was formed. Until the fifth century of the city, the island remained consecrated and uninhabited, but in B.C. 292 a Temple of ^-Esculapins was built upon it in consequence, as the story went, of the holy snake brought from Epidaurus having swum to shore there. The island was probably at this time also protected with stone embankments, and the two bridges were built, whence the name inter duos pontes was given to it. A fragment of this ancient stone embank- ment, which was in the shape of a sliip, may still be seen in the garden of the Franciscan Monks of S. Bartolommeo, representing part of the prow of a ship, with a snake and the head of an ox carved in relief upon it. The two bridges uniting the island to either bank were probably, as has been said, first erected in or about the fifth century of the city, but the existing bridges, though ancient, must be considered as restorations of the older fabrics. The bridge on the side towards the Campus Martins was built by L. Fabricius in B.C. 62, as the inscriptioii still extant on the bridge shows. In accordance with this we find Dion Cassius giving it the name of Pons Fabricius, and a coin with the title L. Fabricius gives on the other side a bridge with a snake, plainly pointing to the island of the Tiber. Another inscription, also still remaining upon the bridge, states that it was examined and found in good repair by Q. Lepidus and M. Lollius, consuls in B.C. 21. This bridge is the oldest now standing on the Tiber, and the masonry is of admirable solidity and workmanship. It was called, in the Middle Ages I^ons Juda^us, from its proximity to the Jews' quarter of the city, and now bears the name Quattro Capi from the jani quadrifrontes which stand \ipon it.^ These jani were formerly the posts which supported the railings of the bridge, as may be seen by the holes bored in them for the ancient bronze bars. The twin bridge on the right-hand side of the river, dates from the imperial era, and probably, like the Pons Fabricius, replaced a much older bridge of the same age as the Temple of -i^Esculapius. ' See Eeber, Euinen Eoms, \\ 316. Eckhel, Num. Yet. toni. v. p. 210. and the Campagna. 117 Two inscriptions are still legible on tliis bridge, from which we learn that it was finished in the year a.d. 370, and dedicated to the iise of the Roman people in the name of the Emperor Gratianiis, by Valentinian, Valens and Gratianus. These inscriptions must be understood as referring to the rebuilding of the bridge, though they are so worded as to claim the credit of its first erection. That there was an older bridge is clear, not only from the fact that the island was called inter duos pontes before the time of Gratian, but also from the name pons Cestius, which occurs in the Notitia, and undoubtedly belongs to that bridge. It is not clear who Cestius was, but it is generally supposed that a preefectus urbi of that name in B.C. 4*5 is the person after whom the bridge was named, and this agrees with the statement of Dion Cassius about the building of the Fabrician bridge. The church of S. Kicola in Carcere, which stands in the Via della Bocca della Verita close to the Piazza Montanara, contains the remains of two or perhaps of three temples. These ruins consist first of three fl^^ted columns of travertine s. Nicola with Ionic caj^itals, which stand in the fagade of the church ''^ Carcere. of S. Nicola. Above them is a part of the ancient entablature, and in the room to the left of the portico of the church are two more columns built into the wall. In the nave of the church on the left hand are remains of the cella of the temple, to the pronaos of which the five columns belonged. The walls of the cella were, as has been discovered by excava- tions, constructed of travertine blocks. At the end of this left-hand wall of the cella, there stood before the last restora- tion of the church, the remains of a pilaster of the Doric order Avith an Attic base, and opposite to this i)ilaster another column. The position of the six columns shows that the temple was of the form called jDeripteros, i.e., surrounded by a continuous colonnade. On the right-hand side aisle of the church are five other columns built into the wall, and a pilaster which evidently belonged to a second temple standing side by side with the first. These columns are not so higli as those of the first temple described, and their style and the intervals between them are different. A portion of the entablature, which is of 1 1 8 A Handbook to the Ruins of Rome a simple character, still snnnouiits them. Two more columns of this temple are to be seen in the wall of the house which stands to the right of the chnrch. It was surrounded with colonnades on three sides, hut the back of the cella was ornamented with pilasters only. On the left-hand side of the church are six more half- exposed columns, and some remains of an entablature which may have either belonged to a third and smaller temple standing by the side of the first, or may have been merely the portico of some other building. The materials of which these buildings consist are chiefly travertine and pej)erino, and their difference of style shoAvs them to have been erected at different times, probably during the Age of the Eepublic. It is commonly assumed, from their "^ position near the theatre of Marcellus, that they are- to be identified with the Temples of Spes and Juno Sospita. As the Temple of Pietas was removed to make room for the theatre, we cannot suppose that we have here an}' part of it, and the Temple of Janus would probably have assumed a different form. It is recorded by Livy that M. Acilius Glabrio erected an equestrian statue near the Temple of Pietas. During some excavations made in 1808 by the architect Yaladier, the ^ pedestal of an equestrian statue was found in the small piazza opposite to the church of S. Nicola. It appears possible that when the Temple of Pietas was removed to make way for the theatre, this statue may have been preserved and set up here as near as possible to the original site.^ Poitico of 111 the street called the Yia di Pescaria, which runs north- Octnvia. westwards from the Theatre of Marcellus, stand four fluted Corintliian columns, two on each side of the street. These formed part of the principal entrance to a colonnade or portico, some of the other columns of which can be traced at intervals in the walls of the houses lurther on in the Yia di Pescaria along which the line of the colonnade ran. The entrance or gateway faced towards the south-west, and over the arch looking into the little Piazza di Pescaria will be seen an inscription recording its restoration after a fire, by Septimius ' Ann. dell' Inst 1850, p. 347. Mouum. v. xxiv. a7id the Campagna. 1 1 9 Severus and Caracalla (M. Axirelius Antoninus) in the year A.D. 203, the eleventh year of the tribunitian power of Severus. No traces can be found of the erasure of Geta's name, which Caracalla, as we have seen, caused to be effaced after his death from all the inscriptions containing it. There is no doubt, however, that it was originally placed here after the name of Caracalla, since Severus was careful to pay equal honour to both of his sons in all respects. The whole inscription may have been replaced by a new one, or the fourth line may have been completely effaced and altered. As it now stands the inscription has been restored as follows : IMP. C.i:S. L. SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS. PIUS. PERTINAX. AUG. ARABIC. ADIABENIC. PARTHIC. MAXIMU:^. TEIB. POTEST. XI. IMP. XI. COS. III. P. P. ET IMP. C/ES. M. AURELIUS. ANTONINUS. PIUS, FEIJX. AUG. TRIE. POTEST. VI. COS, PROCOS. POIITICUM INCEXDIO CONSU-MPTAM RESTITUERU.NT. The pediment and tympaniim over the inscription are still preserved, but two of the columns below have been replaced by a high brickwork arch, probably of the fifth century, which now supports the inscription and pediment. Passing round again into the street Via di Pescaria, we find ourselves in the interior of the gatcAvay. It consisted of four columns placed on each side between two antae or joro- jecting piers ornamented with pilasters, and was of larger dimensions than the colonnades to which it formed the entrance. The brickwork of the antse was originally faced with marble, and they supported arches which led into the colonnades along the line of the street. The bases of the columns are now biiried in rubbish, but parts of the architec- ture, frieze, and cornice, which are of a simple description, may be still traced over the front. The inner side of tlie gateway, with the exception of the two columns and the pier which stand at the entrance of the Via di S.' Angelo in Pescaria, has been removed to make room for the church of S, Michaele Archangelo. If we enter the street just mentioned, the cajjital of a column may be seen on the right hand over the wall of the yard belonging to No. 12, and in the yard itself stand three others, with a portion of the architecture above them. 1 20 A Handbook to the Rtiiiis of Rome Their position shows that they formed the corner of a temple. There is ample proof that "we have in the ruins just described, the entrance gateway of the Porticus Octaviae and the corner of the temple of Juno Eegina. For Festus states that there were two Octavian porticoes, one built in honour of Octavia, the sister of Augustus, near the Theatre of Marcellus, and a second close to the Theatre of Pompeius, built by Q. Octavius, the conqueror of Perses. The site upon which the former was built had been previously occupied by the Porticus Metelli, built by Q. Metellus Macedonicus, propra3tor in B.C. 146, and the Octavian portico was a complete restoration of this by Augustus.^ Pliny also mentions two statues of Apollo near the Porticus Octaviae, which probably stood in the Temple of Apollo, known to have been situated outside the Porta Carmentalis between the Forum Olitorium and the Circus Flaminius. But the principal evidence is derived from the plan of Rome, now on the staircase of the CajDitoline Museum, where the w^hole design of this portico is laid down, and the temples which it enclosed are named. We learn from this plan that the portico was in form an oblong space enclosed with colonnades, and that the ruins now remaining constituted the principal entrance to this court, and to the Temple of Juno Eegina which it enclosed. The line of the Via di Pescaria corresponds to one of the shorter sides of the court, and in the centre of this side the gateway stood. In two points only the Capitoline map fails to correspond with the actually existing ruins. The antiB of the gateway are not represented, and the corner column of the Temple of Jimo is omitted. The former of these two omissions may be explained by supposing that the plan was probably made before the restoration of the portico by Severus. The excavations carried on in 1861 by Pellegrini and Contigliozzi, established the following limits for the Portico of Octavia. The southern corner of the rectangle was occupied by a quadrifrontal archAvay, and this was situated near No. 4 in 1 Festus, p. 178, ed. Miiller. Vtlleius, i. 1, 3; ii. 1, 2. and the Canipagna. 121 the Via della Catena di Pescaria, From this the south- western side of the portico ran nearly along the line of the street till it reached the gateway to which the present ruins belong, near the oratory of S. Angelo. The western corner of the portico was also formed by a qnadrifrontal archway. The north-western side passed through the church of S. Ambrogio a little below the high altar, and then skirted the Palazzo Eighetti near the Piazza di S. Caterina de' Funari, where it joined the north-eastern and shorter side. In this side there was a jDedinient with pillars corresponding to the gateway at the opposite end, but not containing the real entrance, which stood near the angle of the Palazzo Caraletti in the Yia de' Delphini. The eastern angle was near the Palazzo Capizucchi, and the south-eastern side passed close to the convent of monks of the order of Madre di Dio, attached to the church of S. Maria in Portico in the piazza di Campitelli. The three Composite columns of marble, which still stand in the house, No. 1 1 in the Via di S. Angelo in Pescaria, belonged to the Temple of Juno, and stood at the western angle of that temple. The remains of the Temple of Jupiter are hidden under the church of S. Maria in Portico, and the street which is novv called Via della Taibuna dei Campitelli occupies the line of the interval between the two temples. A part of one of the side walls of the Temple of Jupiter rises a little above the ground at the corner of the church of S. Maria in Portico. The school or academy of Augustus was behind the temples, and stood near the centre of the Via della Tribuna di Campitelli. The back of this formed a part of the northern side of the portico. The interior of the gateway has of late years been cleared of some of the buildings which have blocked it up, and the whole is now visible, with all the columns except one, which has been taken away to enlarge the church door, A most interesting relic was found near the side door of the church of S. Angelo in Pescaria in April 1878, consisting of a pedestal of marble engraved with the title of Cornelia, 122 A Handbook to the Ruins of Rome Theatruin lialbi the mutlier of the Gi'acchi. This was evidently the pedestal of the sitting- statue of Cornelia mentioned by Pliny in his ' Natural History ' as having been placed in the Portico of Metellus. The statue was the work of Tisicrates. Excavations which have been made in the repair of houses and for other objects during the six years since 1873, have confirmed the conclusions which have been stated as to the position of the Portico of Octavia, and the temples near it. Some of the columns of the north side of the portico were found along the row of houses in the Yia di Pescaria, No. 25-34. The basement of the Temple of Apollo, between the Theatre of Marcellus and the Portico of Octavia, was foimd under the Albergo della Catena. (^rypta and In the Via di S. Maria in Cacal)eris, No. 23, there are two Doric columns of travertine half buried in the groimd, with a portion of entablature above them, and between them an ancient brick arch forming the entrance to a stable. In the interior of the stable are two other similar arches and columns, and above these there are indications of an upper story. Other ruins of the same description are built into the next house. No. 22, and into several other houses near. In the sixteenth century, the Bolognese architect Serlio saw more ruins here, and he represents in his sketch an upper story with Corinthian pillars. The name Crypta Balbi, which is found in the catalogue of places in the ninth region, has been given with much probability to these ruins. A crypta, or cryptoporticus, according to Pliny, was a covered corridor with windows, which could be shut or opened at i:)leasure. Such a building was used for exercise in wet or hot weather. Some were open on one side, others closed on both sides. A cryptoporticus of the latter kind is to be seen in the ruins of Nero's Domus Aurea under the baths of Titus. The ruins in the Yia di Cacaberis appear to have had open arches at the sides. This cryptoporticus was probably attached to the Theatre of Balbus, as the portions Pompeii was to the Theatrum Pompeii, and Venuti thinks that it extended along the back of the scena, and that it was intended as a place of shelter for tlie spectators in case of the sudden showers of yv ,r>^.^^:. The Circus Flaminius Ironi Nolts Map. PI 19 fil»^ WdUr litk and tJic Campagna. 123 rain peculiar to the Eoman climate.^ The name of the street Cacaberis or Caccavari has been derived from crypticula. The Mirabilia, an ancient list of the sights in Eome, calls these ruins Templum Craticulae. The Circus Flaminius, named from the Flaminian family circus of ancient Eome, lay in the quarter traversed by the Via Flammms. delle Botteghe Oscure, and in the neighbourhood of the Palazzo Mattel. The Circus was destroyed before the 9th century, and there are now no traces of it left to guide us, but before the erection, in the 15th century, of the larger houses in this quarter, some few ruins appear to have been visible in the neighbourhood of the Palazzo Mattel. These are described by Andrea Fulvio and Ligorio as having belonged to the Circus Flaminius, and according to their account the length of the Circus lay in a direction from west to east, and reached from the Palazzo Mattel, where the semi- circular end was situated, to the Piazzo Margana where the starting-point lay. A tower, now called the Torre Citrangole, was once called the Torre Mctangole, and marked the spot where the goal of the Circiis stood. In the district called by the name Circus Flaminius, stand Theatre of the ruins of a vast range of buildings, the theatre, porticus, ''^P'^^"^- curia, and domus Pompeii. That these ruins, which are situated at the back of the church of S. Andrea della Valle, and are plainly those of a theatre, belonged to the Theatre of Pompey, is clear if the proofs given of the situation of the other two theatres in ancient Eome be admitted as sufficient. The place was so familiar to the Eomans that we hardly e /er find its locality indicated even in any such general terms as in campo Martio or juxta Tiberim, expressions commonly applied to other buildings of less note in the Campus Martins. The remains which are now left of these celebrated buildings are to be seen in the small piazza of S. Maria di Grottapinta behind the church of S. Andrea della Valle. They consist of ranges of travertine walls, converging to a centre, similar to those still visible in the interior of the Theatre of Marcellus and in the Coliseum, and arc plainly * Vitniv. V. 9. 124 ^ Handbook to the Rums of Rome the remains of the siiLstructious supporting the cavea of a theatre. Further remains of piers and converging archways of peperino are visible in the cellars of the adjoining Palazzo Pio ; and during some excavations made in 1837, a part of the outer walls of the theatre was discovered, wdth Doric half columns, and a Doric cornice. Most fortunately the ground plan, not only of the theatre, but also of the whole adjoining portico, is given upon some fragments of the Capitoline map. The first idea of building such a magnificent theatre seems to have been suggested to Pompey by his visit to the theatre at Mitylene, whither he went after the Mithridatic war to be present at a contest of rival poets held in his honour. Only one attempt had before been made to build a permanent theatre in Eome. The Censor C. Cassius Longinus in the year b.c. 154 had entered into a contract for the construction of a stone theatre near the Lupercal, but the senate, by the advice of Scipio Xasica, a rigid Puritan of the old Roman school, and jealous of the introduction of Greek luxury, ordered it when half finished to be demolished, and the materials sold. The same decree inflicted jienalties on any one who should, either in the city or within a mile of its walls, venture to place any seats for spectators at the games, or sit down while looking on at them. Tacitus states that even in Pompey's time the conservative Eomans retained the same dread lest indolence and luxury should be promoted by the construction of permanent theatres.^ In carrying out this grand design Pompey was assisted by his freedman Demetrius, who had amassed immense riches during his master's campaigns, and took this opportunity of paying his acknowledgments to the author of his wealth. The capabilities of the theatre must have been very great ; nor need we be surprised to hear that it contained 40,000 seats, for the remaining fragments show that it comprehended the Avhole space betAveen the Via de' Chiavari which corresponds nearly to the line of the scena, the Via di Giubbonari, the Campo di Fiore and the Via del Paradiso. Eastwards from the Via de' Chiavari stretched the long ranges of colonnades of Avliich the Capitoline plan gives the outline, and beyond ' Tar. Ann. xiv. 20. li