In the grounds of the Villa Magnani, which are reached from the Via di S. Bibiana, are two small Columbaria, one of which formerly contained inscriptions relating to the family of the Arruntii, and also one which belonged to Statilius Taurus, a nobleman mentioned by Tacitus. This was decorated with scenes from the Æneid of Virgil, but these are nearly destroyed. In the same gardens, not far to the north-west of the Porta Maggiore, stands a lofty and picturesque ruin, comprising a central decagonal hall surrounded by four other apartments, the ground-plan of which has been preserved by San Gallo. The central hall contained nine deep niches, and the entrance passes through the tenth side. Over the niches and the entrance archway are round-headed windows, and the roof was of vaulted brickwork. Traces still remain of stucco work and cement on the inner walls, from which it appears that they were covered with ornamental work and in some parts with marble.
Parts of the pavement, which was of porphyry, have also been found, and in the neighbourhood of the ruin a number of sculptures have been at various times discovered, among which are statues of Pomona, Æsculapius, Adonis, Venus, Hercules, Antinous, some Luperci, and a Faun. The old topographers, Blondus Flavius and Lucius Faunus, give the name of Terme di Galuccio or Galuzze to the ruin, and this name has been ingeniously explained as referring to the Thermæ or Basilica of Caius and Lucius. But there is no good foundation for this conjecture, or for the identification of the building with the Temple of Minerva Medica, mentioned in the Notitia. The latter name was derived from the supposed discovery here of the Pallas Giustiniani, now in the Braccio Nuovo of the Vatican. But another and more ancient account asserts that the statue of Pallas was found near S. Maria sopra Minerva, and therefore the name of Minerva Medica cannot with any certainty be applied here.
Canina has proposed another explanation of the name Galuzze. He thinks that the ruins belonged to the Palatium Licinianum, which is mentioned by Anastasius, in his ‘Life of Simplicius,’ as near the Church of S. Bibiana. This palace, he thinks, is identical with the Pleasure Gardens of Gallienus, who bore the name of Licinius, in which, according to Trebellius Pollio, he used to bathe and banquet with his courtiers. The name Galuzze is, therefore, according to Canina, derived from Gallieni Liciniaria, and the building may be supposed to have formed a part of the baths in Gallienus’s pleasure grounds, resembling as it does in its construction the great rotunda of the Baths of Caracalla. The proximity of the Arch of Gallienus adds probability to this conjecture. The basin now standing in the ruin is not ancient, and therefore cannot be held to support this conjecture, but the brickwork and style of architecture are said by competent judges to be such as might have been erected at the time of the later Empire. The building called Minerva Medica by the Notitia may have been near this spot, as some inscriptions here discovered show, but it most probably consisted only of a chapel of no great extent standing near the Via Prænestina.
The extensive alterations which have been carried on at Rome during the last few years in the district at the back of the Viminal and Esquiline Hills, where a new quarter of the city is being laid out, have disclosed a number of fragments of sculptures and inscriptions, a detailed account of which has been given from time to time in the Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Municipale, and in the letters of Mr. Hemans to the Academy. The most interesting relics bearing upon topographical questions are the inscription relating to the Macellum Liviæ and Forum Esquilinum found near the Arch of Gallienus, and the supposed foundations of the Villa of Mæcenas.
Most of the antiquarian and artistic relics lately discovered here have been deposited in the Capitoline Museum.
Unfortunately the necessary extension of the buildings attached to the railway station has resulted in the destruction of a large portion of the Servian Agger. Some large fragments of the huge blocks belonging to the Servian wall may be seen at the back of the station. Traces of a road and a gate were found which have been supposed to belong to the Via and Porta Viminalis, and many confused heaps of ruins, the relics of private houses built up against the side of the agger. In one of these the bricks bore the date of the third consulship of Servianus, A.D. 134, and of that of Niger and Camerinus, A.D. 138.
A Hermeracles in marble was found near the station, which is figured in the Bullettino della Commissione for March 1873, and numerous mosaic pavements, one of which is laid on the floor of the waiting-room at the station.
Auditorium.
One of the buildings attached to an ancient house in this neighbourhood has been carefully preserved and walled in for protection. It stands near the ruin called the Trophies of Marius, and not far from the Arch of Gallienus, and consists of a semicircular recess with ledges rising one above another in the form of a miniature theatre. A more correct description of the site is given by stating that it stands where the former gardens of the convent of the Redentoristi were situated. This building has, on account of its resemblance to a theatre, and of its position on a spot over which the famous Gardens of Mæcenas probably extended, been called the Auditorium of Mæcenas, and romantic ideas have been connected with it as having been the actual auditorium where Virgil and Horace may have recited their poetry to their great patron. This view, however, has been shown to be untenable by Signor Mau, who thinks with more probability that the ruin in question is an ornamental recess for decorative works of art and flowers or a fountain. Such recesses may be seen in some of the houses at Pompeii. The paintings on the walls are of a style similar to those in the Villa of Livia at Prima Porta, and the building may therefore possibly belong to the Augustan age.
Porta S. Lorenzo.