ALTAR OF APOLLO RHAMNUSII (5),
called the Altar of Apollo of the Blackthorn. Erected in commemoration of the blackthorn tree that sprang from the staff of Romulus. The large tufa blocks of the altar, and in front of it the Temple of Roma Quadrata, still remain, and by their side the Porta Carmenta.
THE CURIÆ VETERES (19).
Romulus divided the people into three tribes, and each tribe into ten curiæ (Dionysius, ii. 8), thus making thirty curiæ in all. Each curia had its own priests and separate dining-room and chapel, which were also called curiæ (Ibid., ii. 23). The only one of these which we have mentioned as existing at a late period is the one connected with the Palatine: as we have seen, it is one of the objects Tacitus gives us for the line of the plough. Now, on the Palatine, on that line, we have a ruin below the present surface agreeing with the time of Romulus in its construction, to which no name has been given by the topographers, but which we consider as the Curiæ Veteres mentioned by Tacitus. It now supports the Auditorium of Domitian.
THE HOUSE OF ROMULUS
"was where the Roma Quadrata ended, at the corner as you turn from the Palatine Hill to the Circus" (Dionysius). It was upon that part of the hill called Germalus from the twins being left there when the flood went down. This would be the shelf at the south-west corner of the Palatine.
THE TEMPLE OF JUPITER STATOR (13),
vowed by Romulus when his army was fleeing before the Sabines, if Jupiter would stay their flight; hence the name. "Romulus built a temple to Jupiter near the Porta Mugonia" (Dionysius, ii. 30). It was restored by Scipio, A.U.C. 459 (Livy, x. 37). It was in this temple that Cicero made his first oration against Catiline (Plutarch). Cicero says that here the goods of Pompey were offered for sale.
UNDER THE REPUBLIC.
It was not till the glories of the republic outshone the memory of the kings that the Palatine became the favourite residence of the wealthy. We have record of the houses inhabited by Vaccus, Catulus, Crassus, the Gracchi, Ceneus, Cicero, Scaurus, Mark Antony, and other notorious republicans. Some slight remains of republican walls can be seen at various points.