Varro ("Ling. Lat.," v. 155) says: "The Græcostasis was on the right of the Curia, and projected in front of it; and here the Senate received the foreign ambassadors in audience. The Senaculum lay above the Græcostasis, and towards the Temple of Concord, and the senators deliberated in this building with the magistrates who were not entitled to enter the Senate House."
Between S. Martino and S. Adriano the Via Bonella runs out of the Forum on the line of
THE ARGILETUM,
which passed through the Fora of Cæsar and Augustus to the Suburra. It was the Paternoster Row of ancient Rome. "Thou preferrest, little book, to dwell in the shops in the Argiletum" (Martial, i. 3).
THE BRONZE SHRINE OF JANUS.
In A.U.C. 39, "Numa built a shrine to Janus, near the foot of the hill Argiletum, which was to notify a state either of war or peace" (Livy, i. 19). Ovid ("Fasti," i. 259) says, "Thou hast a shrine adjoining two Fora" (the Forum of Cæsar and the Roman Forum). "There was a Janus in the Forum before the Curia. This temple was made entirely of bronze, and of a square form; it was hardly large enough to hold the figure of Janus. The bronze image was four cubits high; in other respects like a man, except that it had two faces, one looking towards the east and the other towards the west. There were bronze doors in each front" (Procopius, "Bel. Got." i. 25). A brick podium under the right end column of the Arch of Severus marks its site.
Somewhat in the foreground is
THE ARCH OF SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS,
erected, A.D. 205, in honour of the emperor and his two sons, Caracalla and Geta, by the senate and people of Rome.[4] The sculptures adorning it are interesting, and represent his victories over the Parthians, Arabians, and Adiabenes.