"Men spoke in admiration of the public sewers, too, a work more stupendous than any, as mountains had to be pierced for their construction, and navigation might be carried on beneath Rome; an event which happened in the ædileship of M. Agrippa, after he had filled the office of consul." (See Dion Cassius, "Augustus," A.U.C. 721.)
"For this purpose there are seven streams turned into the artificial channels, and flowing beneath the city. Rushing onward, like so many impetuous torrents, they are compelled to carry off and sweep away all the sewerage" (Pliny, xxxvi. 24).
FRAGMENTS
of different buildings lie scattered about; to what edifices they belonged "pronounce who can." More than two hundred columns, and fifty capitals of exquisite workmanship, have been discovered in the excavations of the Forum. Near the reliefs on the Comitium is a pedestal with the following inscription:—
TO THE ANNIHILATOR OF TYRANTS,
AND THE AUTHOR OF PUBLIC SAFETY,
TO OUR CONSTANT AND FELICITOUS LORD,
ARCADIUS AUGUSTUS.
ALBINUS, PREFECT OF THE CITY, ETC.,
HAS ERECTED THIS.
Having now made the circuit of the Forum, we will proceed to
THE SCALÆ ANNULARIÆ.
Beyond the Temple of Castor, to the right of the Temple of Vesta, are remains of these stairs.
"Augustus lived at first near the Roman Forum, above the Ringmaker's Stairs, in a house which had once been occupied by Calvus the orator" (Suetonius, "Augustus," lxxii.). Calvus the orator, a friend of Cicero, lived on the Palatine; and the Scalæ Annulariæ was a flight of stairs that led from the east end of the Forum up the north side of the Palatine to the Clivus Victoriæ.
On the 12th of April 1882, a piece of the marble plan was found here which, curiously enough, represents this part of the Forum, showing the side of the Temple of Castor and the Ringmaker's Stairs.