If we enter the palace by the Farnese gateway, on the right of the Campo-Vaccino, opposite SS. Cosmo e Damiano, we had better only ascend the first division of the staircase and then turn to the left. Passing along the lower ridge of the Palatine, afterwards occupied by many of the great patrician houses, whose sites we shall return to and examine in detail, we reach that corner of the garden which is nearest to the Arch of Titus. Here a paved road of large blocks of lava has lately been laid bare, and is identified beyond a doubt as part of the Via Nova, which led from the Porta Mugonia of the Palatine along the base of the hill to the Velabrum. In the reign of Augustus it appears to have been made to communicate also with the Forum.
"Qua Nova Romano nunc Via juncta Foro est."
Ovid, Fast. vi. 396.
At this point the road was called Summa Via Nova.
Near this spot must have been the site of the house where Octavius lived with his wife Afra, the niece of Julius Cæsar (daughter of his eldest sister Julia), and where their son, Octavius, afterwards the Emperor Augustus, was born. This house afterwards passed into the possession of C. Lætorius, a patrician; but after the death of Augustus, part of it was turned into a chapel, and consecrated to him. It was situated at the top of a staircase—"supra scalas annularias"[101]—which probably led to the Forum, and is spoken of as "ad capita bubula," perhaps from bulls' heads, with which it may have been decorated.
Here we find ourselves, owing to the excavations, in a deep hollow between the two divisions of the hill. On the left is the Velia, upon which, near the Porta Mugonia, the Sabine king, Ancus Martius, had his palace. When Ancus died, he was succeeded by an Etruscan stranger, Lucius Tarquinius, who took the name of Tarquinius Priscus. This king also lived upon the Velia,[102] with Tanaquil his queen, and here he was murdered in a popular rising, caused by the sons of his predecessor. Here his brave wife Tanaquil closed the doors, concealed the death of the king, harangued the people from the windows,[103] and so gained time till Servius Tullius was prepared to take the dead king's place and avenge his murder.[104]
Keeping to the valley, on our right are now some huge blocks of tufa, of great interest as part of the ancient Roma Quadrata, anterior to Romulus. Beyond this, also on the right, are foundations of the Temple of Jupiter Stator, built by Romulus, who vowed that he would found a temple to Jupiter under that name, if he would arrest the flight of his Roman followers in their conflict with the superior forces of the Sabines.[105]
"Inde petens dextram, porta est, ait, ista Palati;
Hic Stator, hoc primum condita Roma loco est."
Ovid, Trist. iii. El. I.
"Tempus idem Stator ædis habet, quam Romulus olim
Ante Palatini condidit ora jugi."
Ovid, Fast. vi. 793.
The temple of Jupiter Stator has an especial interest from its connection with the story of Cicero and Catiline.
"Cicéron rassembla le sénat dans le temple de Jupiter Stator. Le choix du lieu s'explique facilement; ce temple était près de la principale entrée du Palatin sur le Vélia, dominant, en cas d'émeute, le Forum, que Cicéron et les principaux sénateurs habitants du Palatin n'avaient pas à traverser comme s'il eût fallu se rendre à la Curie. D'ailleurs Jupiter Stator, qui avait arrêté les Sabines à la porte de Romulus, arrêterait ces nouveaux ennemis qui voulaient sa ruine. Là Cicéron prononça la première Catilinaire. Ce discours dut être en grande partie improvisé, car les événements aussi improvisaient. Cicéron ne savait si Catilina oserait se présenter devant le sénat; en le voyant entrer, il conçut son fameux exorde: 'Jusqu'à quand, Catilina, abuseras-tu de notre patience!'