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

by Robert Burn

S. Nicola in Carcere.

These ruins consist first of three fluted columns of travertine with Ionic capitals, which stand in the façade of the church 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 excavations, constructed of travertine blocks. At the end of this left-hand wall of the cella, there stood before the last restoration of the church, the remains of a pilaster of the Doric order with an Attic base, and opposite to this pilaster another column. The position of the six columns shows that the temple was of the form called peripteros, 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 high 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 a simple character, still surmounts them. Two more columns of this temple are to be seen in the wall of the house which stands to the right of the church. It was surrounded with colonnades on three sides, but 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 peperino, and their difference of style shows them to have been erected at different times, probably during the Age of the Republic. 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 any 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 Valadier, 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.[85]

Portico of Octavia.

In the street called the Via di Pescaria, which runs north-westwards from the Theatre of Marcellus, stand four fluted Corinthian 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 further on in the Via 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 Severus and Caracalla (M. Aurelius 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. CÆS. L. SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS. PIUS. PERTINAX. AUG. ARABIC. ADIABENIC. PARTHIC. MAXIMUS. TRIB. POTEST. XI. IMP. XI. COS. III. P. P. ET IMP. CÆS. M. AURELIUS. ANTONINUS. PIUS. FELIX. AUG. TRIB. POTEST. VI. COS. PROCOS. PORTICUM. INCENDIO CONSUMPTAM RESTITUERUNT.

The pediment and tympanum 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 gateway. It consisted of four columns placed on each side between two antæ or projecting piers ornamented with pilasters, and was of larger dimensions than the colonnades to which it formed the entrance. The brickwork of the antæ 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 buried in rubbish, but parts of the architecture, frieze, and cornice, which are of a simple description, may be still traced over the front. The inner side of the 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 capital 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. Their position shows that they formed the corner of a temple.