In the "Mon. Ancyr.," Augustus says, "He rebuilt the Basilica Julia between the Temples of Castor and Saturn." Thus we see that the Will of Augustus, the marble plan, and the ruins, all three exactly agree. The portico was dedicated to his grandsons, Lucius and Caius (Suetonius, "Augustus," xxix.). It was the great court of appeal. (See Pliny, Jr., "Letters," v. 21, vi. 33.)
The old pavement has been well exposed, and put in proper condition for preservation; the remnants of frieze, and cornices, and columns found in the diggings have been set up on brick pedestals,—an innovation of Signor Rossa's. The old bits of pavement have been very smoothly linked together by the laying of Venetian mosaic cement, and the contrast between the modern and the antique is very apparent.
The principal streets that ran into the Forum were:—
THE VIA SACRA.
It commenced on the Palatine Hill at the Ædem Larium. Passing by the Arch of Titus, it turned to the left: thus far it was called the Clivus Palatinus and Summa Sacra Via; the slope down to the Forum was called the Clivus Sacer. It entered the Forum at the Temple of Antoninus, past which it turned again to the left, passing in front of the Temple of Cæsar; then turning to the right, passed through the centre of the Forum to the foot of the Capitol. The ascent here was called the Clivus Capitolinus. It was paved B.C. 174 (Livy, xli. 27).
Its windings are easily accounted for when we remember that it had to come from the top of the Palatine to the top of the Capitoline, passing through a narrow valley. It was called the Sacred Way from the sacred processions that passed along it, and from the sacred buildings that lined it.
Between the Basilica Julia and the Temple of Castor
THE VICUS TUSCUS
ran to the forum of the cattle-dealers and Circus Maximus. "They had ground allotted to them for building houses, which was afterwards called the Vicus Tuscus" (Livy, ii. 14). "Verres had caused it to be paved so badly, that he made a point of never going along the street that he had taken the contract for paving" (Cicero, "Ver." i. 59). It was the route for the festal processions to the Circus and Aventine. Where it entered the Forum was a statue of the Tuscan god Vertumnus, the base of which statue was found near where the street first touched the Basilica Julia. This street was sometimes called the Vicus Thurarius, from the perfumers' shops.