"In the Via Nova, where now is the shrine, above the Temple of Vesta" (Livy, v. 23). "A voice was heard in the Grove of Vesta, which skirts the Nova Via at the foot of the Palatine" (Cicero, "Div." i. 45).
TEMPLE OF JUPITER VICTOR (21).
Founded during the second Samnite war by Fabius Maximus (Livy, x. 29)—326–304 B.C.—overlooking the Circus Maximus. The remains consist of tufa substructions, steps leading up to the temple, and some peperino fragments.
The circular altar on the steps, found close by, bears an inscription to Calvinus, consul B.C. 53–40.
THE HOUSE OF GERMANICUS (10),
(See plan, [page 81] )
called erroneously by various authorities the House of Claudius Nero, of Livia, of Augustus. It was incorporated into the Imperial Palace by Tiberius, though for very many years it preserved its distinctive title. Josephus tells us that "Caligula was killed in a private narrow passage within the palace as he was going to the bath, having turned from the direct road along which his servants had gone. The passages also were narrow wherein the work was done, and crowded with Caius's attendants, whence it was that they went by other ways, and came to the house of Germanicus, which house adjoined to the palace." A crypto-portico still connects this house with the Palace of Caligula, another going off at right angles to the House of Augustus.
We have here a good specimen of a Roman house. In the vestibulum are remains of the mosaic floor and frescoed walls. The atrium still shows the pattern of its pavement. The tricliniarium is ornamented with frescoes of arabesque work, animals and fountains, also with mosaic pavement. The tablinium, in three parallel halls, painted with beautiful arabesque groups; wreaths of flowers and fruit; a group of Galatea and Polyhymnia; another of Mercury, Io, and Argus; a view of a Roman house; a lady at her toilet, &c. Behind these is the peristylium, out of which open the bedrooms, bath, kitchen, &c. In the centre tablinium are some leaden pipes, found in the excavations, stamped with the names of Julia, Domitian, and Niger,—the daughter of Augustus, the emperor, and the insurgent.
THE PALACES OF THE CÆSARS
gradually incorporated the whole of the Palatine buildings; and when we speak of the Palace of the Cæesars, it is not meant that it was one, but different palaces, built by different emperors, called after them, and connected with those previously erected by crypto-porticoes.