erected during the Gallic war, B.C. 387 (Livy, vi. 5). "The same day is a festival of Mars, whom the Capenian Gate beholds, outside the walls, situated close to the covered way" (Ovid, "Fasti," vi. 191). "They paved with square stones the road from the Capenian Gate to the Temple of Mars," A.U.C. 456 (Livy, x. 23). Repaired A.U.C. 563 (Ibid., xxxviii. 28). "The Curule Ædiles completed the paving of the road from the Temple of Mars to Bovillæ," A.U.C. 459 (Ibid., xi. 47). Mr. Parker found some remains of this temple in excavating at the back of the church. From here the Roman knights used to ride to the Temple of Castor in the Forum, on the anniversary of the battle of Lake Regillus (Dionysius, xi. 13).
Nearly opposite is the Church of S. Sisto, belonging to the Irish Dominican friars of S. Clement, on the site of the
TEMPLE OF HONOUR AND VIRTUE.
"Marcellus was desirous to dedicate to Honour and Virtue the temple which he had built out of the Sicilian spoils, but was opposed by the priests, who would not consent that two deities should be contained in one temple. Taking this opposition ill, he began another temple" (Plutarch. See Livy, xxvii. 25; xxix. 11).
"M. Marcellus, the grandson of the conqueror of Syracuse, erected statues to his father, himself, and grandfather near the Temple of Honour and Virtue, with this inscription—III. Marcelli novies coss" (Cicero, Asconius).
This temple must not be confounded with the temple erected by Marius on the Capitoline, and restored by Vespasian. The Temple of Honour could not be reached without passing through the Temple of Virtue.
Opposite, in the Vigna Guidi, No. 19, are the remains of
THE HOUSE OF HADRIAN.
The chambers occupy three sides of a square peristylium, the walls of which are painted with frescoes, the pavements being black and white mosaics forming hippocampi, with rams' heads, Tritons, and nymphs.
Opening out from the peristylium is the Lararium, or room of the household gods. Here was probably the site of the Villa of Asinius Pollio, the orator in the time of Augustus; for Pliny mentions that in his gardens stood the statue now at Naples, called the Farnese Bull, which was actually found amidst these ruins in 1554. Hence it became the private house of Hadrian, and was destroyed to build the Baths of Caracalla.