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

by Robert Burn

Pedestal of Antonine Column.

5. The fragments of the ancient register of Consuls from A.U.C. 272 to the end of Augustus’ reign, which were found in the Forum Romanum, near the Temple of Castor, are arranged on the wall of the fourth room in the Halls of the Conservators on the Capitol. These are printed and discussed in the Berlin ‘Corpus Inscriptionum,’ Vol. I.

Cone from the top of Hadrian’s Mausoleum.

6. The famous bronze figure of the wolf and twins is placed in the gallery of bronzes on the Capitol. It was found, according to Flaminius Vacca, who wrote in 1594, near the Arch of Janus Quadrifrons. Urlichs, who has discussed the probable history of this figure in the Rheinisches Museum, thinks that it is the figure dedicated by the Ogulnii, Ædiles in B.C. 297, and mentioned in the tenth book of Livy.

7. A stupendous sarcophagus brought from Vico Varo, with a bas-relief representing the Calydonian boar hunt, stands in the Museum of the Capitol, and in the next room is the sepulchral monument found at the Porta Salaria in 1871, recording the young Greek scholar who won the prize at the Agon Capitolinus in A.D. 86. Another most interesting sarcophagus, which was found at the Monte del Grano on the road to Frascati, and contained the vase called the Portland Vase now in the British Museum, stands in the Hall of the Urns in the Capitoline Museum.

8. On the wall of the staircase in the Capitoline Museum are the fragments of the celebrated marble plan of Rome cut in the time of Septimius Severus, which shows the sites and ground plans of the Portico of Octavia, the Theatre of Pompeius, the Basilica of Trajan, the Basilica Julia, and the Theatre of Marcellus.

9. The Dying Gladiator, or more properly the Dying Gaulish Herald, was found in the gardens of Sallust, near the Porta Salaria. It now stands in the room called the Hall of the Dying Gladiator at the Capitoline Museum.

10. In the Hall of the Faun at the Capitoline Museum may be seen one of the most beautiful ancient bas-reliefs in Rome, representing the battle of Theseus, and the Amazons. This is on a sarcophagus which was found near Torre Salona on the Via Collatina.