In the "Curiosum" and "Notitia" is mentioned the Apollinem Sandaliarium. This was a statue of Apollo, which gave name to a street of the fourth region. Suetonius ("Aug." lvii.) says: "With which donations Augustus purchased some costly images of the gods, which he erected in several of the streets of the city, as that of Apollo Sandaliarius." It is mentioned by Aulus Gellius (xviii. 4): "In Sandaliario forte apud librarios fuimus." Also by Galen ("De Libris suis," iv. 361).
The marble plan of Rome shows this street by the letters DLARIVS.
This was the street, recently excavated, between the Temple of the Penates and the Basilica Constantine, and which led into the Suburra.
At the entrance from the Via Sacra there still exists a brick pedestal on which the statue may have stood. For engraving of this, see Gruter, cvi. 7, and Dcxxi. 3.
In this street the remains of the Temple of Venus and Rome can be distinctly seen. A short distance up it is tunnelled over to allow the Basilica of Constantine to square; but the tunnel is closed about half way through. From the level of the street the western tribunal of the Basilica has been built up. The tunnel, called Arco d'Ladroni, and the street itself, have been used as a burial-place by the monks of the church; and there is a ninth century fresco of the dead body of the Saviour over a shrine on the left.
Beyond is the
BASILICA OF CONSTANTINE,
the colossal arches of which have served as models to architects for building all the larger churches in Rome. This splendid ruin usually bears the name of the Temple of Peace, erected by Vespasian in this neighbourhood and partly on this site, and which was destroyed by fire as early as the time of Commodus, A.D. 191. Herodianus, who saw the fire, says: "By the slight earthquake and the thunderbolt which followed it, the whole of the sacred enclosure was consumed." Claudius Galenus, the celebrated physician, says that the whole edifice was consumed, as also most of his writings, which were in his shop in the Via Sacra.
This is one of the most imposing ruins in Rome; the three noble arches which formed the northern side being almost perfect, rising to the height of 95 feet, and having a span of 80 feet. The southern side was similar; whilst a noble vaulted roof, supported from the side piers and arches, covered the centre. Thus, entering from the Vicus Eros, on the east, the spectator saw a magnificent hall 333 feet long by 84 feet wide, with aisles 60 feet in width. To the central hall the tribunal at the west end was added in the rebuilding of Constantine, when he made the main entry from the Sacra Via, the ruins of which exist in the porphyry columns. By this entry the nave is 227 feet long, the tribunal being 24 feet deep, and the aisles 80 feet wide.
Nibby has the merit of having been the first to prove that these ruins are the last remains of the Basilica erected by Maxentius, and completed and partially rebuilt by Constantine the Great. In 1828 a medal of Maxentius was found amongst the ruins of a piece of the vault which fell down. The principal entrance was originally intended to have been on the side facing the Colosseum, towards a street that ran out from the left of the Via Sacra, which, turning to the right, reached the Colosseum.