Old Rome: A Handbook to the Ruins of the City and the Campagna

by Robert Burn

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

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

Temple of Vesta at Tibur.

Temple of Vesta.

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

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

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

Temple of Albunea.

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