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

by Robert Burn

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 Romulus 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 resembling those in the well-known tomb of Scipio in the Vatican Museum. The inscription on this altar is as follows: SEI DEO SEI DEIVÆ SAC. C. SEXTIUS, C. F. CALVINUS, PR. DE SENATI SENTENTIA RESTITUIT. This is supposed 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 disastrous times.[6]

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 DEIVÆ shows that the inscription belongs to the earlier Latin.[7]

C. Sextius Calvinus, who restored the altar, was probably son of C. S. Calvinus, the Consul of A.U.C. 630, and was the competitor of C. Servilius Glaucia in the year 654.[8]

Germalus.

The north-western end of the Palatine Hill, round which 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, Romulus 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 wolf ran through the Vicus Tuscus and the Germalus to the Porta Capena.[9] The bronze figure of the wolf and twins now in the Capitoline Museum 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, ædiles in B.C. 297.[10]

Further southwards at the foot of the slope we come to another fragment of the most ancient wall of the 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 archæologists who confine the extent of Roma quadrata to the north-western end of the hill. But subsequent exploration has shown that this wall does not pass along the intermontium, but turns off at a right angle. Another fragment of the most ancient wall was found in 1860, according to Lanciani, under the Villa Mills, showing that the wall of Roman quadrata passed round the whole hill, and not only round the north-western end.

Domus Gelotiana.

Close to the fragment of ancient wall we come to a series of chambers excavated first in 1857, and afterwards cleared and rendered more accessible in 1869. These belonged to a building in connection with this part of the imperial palace, and were occupied by soldiers of the emperor’s guard, as may be seen by examination of the inscriptions left on the walls. The traces of a square court, 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 supports which appear here were erected by Canina, and a large quantity of remains have fallen from the higher levels of the hill.