The name of this building is entirely lost. All we know about it is, that it is of the time of Maxentius and Constantine, A.D. 306–337, the construction showing it to be of that time; besides, Nibby found in the walls bricks stamped with the name of Maxentius.
Nearly all late authorities have called this ruin the Temple of Venus and Rome. Now, it could not possibly be that temple, for we are told distinctly, as we have related, by Apollodorus, that the Temple of Rome was NOT built on a platform. Again, the Temple of Rome was built by Hadrian, A.D. 118–138, and these remains are of the time of Maxentius and Constantine, A.D. 306–337; besides, Roman temples had no tribunals or apses.
These basilicas were surrounded by a colonnade of gray granite, numerous fragments of which still lie about, and there was probably originally a forum or market-place for the sale of fruit and toys.
Varro (L. L. 532, R. R. i. 2), Ovid (A. A. ii. 265), Propertius (iii. xvii. 11), Terence, Eunuchus, contemporary writers, all speak of a macellum and forum of Cupid upon the Via Sacra.
Festus, who lived in the fourth century, speaks of them under the same name; so we may conclude that the ruins before us are the basilicas of the Forum of Cupid, restored by Maxentius, and dedicated by Constantine.
The front of this platform, towards the Colosseum, was discovered in 1828 to have been used during the middle ages as a cemetery, several coffins of terra cotta being exhumed.
At the corners are the remains of steps which led from below up to the delubra. Near the left-hand steps, in descending, are the remains of the
PEDESTAL OF NERO'S COLOSSUS,
which, as we have seen, first stood in the vestibule of his house; then where the atrium was; thence it was removed by Hadrian with twenty-four elephants to this spot, as is shown on a coin of Alexander Severus. It was 120 feet high. Vespasian radiated the head to make it represent the sun; Commodus took off Nero's head, and replaced it with his own. The popular quotation from Bede refers to this Colossus, not to the Colosseum.
In a line with Nero's Pedestal is the