The Project Gutenberg eBook, Old Rome, by Robert Burn

OLD ROME:
A HANDBOOK TO THE RUINS OF
THE CITY AND THE CAMPAGNA.

OLD ROME:

A HANDBOOK TO THE RUINS OF THE CITY
AND THE CAMPAGNA.

BY
ROBERT BURN, M.A.,
FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

BEING AN EPITOME OF HIS LARGER WORK ‘ROME AND THE CAMPAGNA.’

LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS, YORK STREET,
COVENT GARDEN.
CAMBRIDGE: DEIGHTON, BELL, & CO.
1880.
[The Right of Translation is reserved.]

LONDON:
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS,
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.

PREFACE.

This book is intended to serve as a handbook to the actually-existing ruins and monuments of ancient Rome and the Campagna. It is divided into topographical sections for the convenience of travellers visiting Rome, and the monuments which exist in each section have been briefly described, and a summary given of their history and archæological value.

The introductory section contains general remarks upon the site, monumental history, and architecture of Rome; and in a section prefixed to Chapter IX. the nature of the soil and configuration of the hills and valleys of the district surrounding the city are stated.

In the Appendix to the eighth chapter will be found a list of the chief monumental antiquities in the museums, galleries, and other public places. This has been thought to be useful, as these are often difficult to recognise from being mixed with so many other attractive and important objects of more modern art and history. All speculative conjectures as to the probable sites or constructions of ancient buildings or places have been avoided. Such questions require more space than can be spared in so small a volume, and have been fully treated of in my larger work, “Rome and the Campagna.”

I have confined myself in this handbook to a brief topographical, archæological, and historical description of each existing ruin or monument. The references given have been restricted to modern treatises and to a few of the more rarely read Greek and Latin authors. Full classical authorities are given in “Rome and the Campagna,” and are referred to in the foot-notes of this handbook.

The importance of topographical and archæological knowledge, in enabling us to realise the history of ancient life, both national and social, is fortunately becoming more and more generally recognised. The early growth and characteristic features of the Roman commonwealth can be traced in great measure to the conformation of the ground on which the community was first developed. Such local influences are among the highest and most philosophical parts of historical investigation, and have a most important value in enabling us to form an estimate of the truth of statements made by the ancient writers of history.

Besides this interest which pervades the early stage of Roman history, there is also a natural connection, by way of cause or explanation, between the events of later times and the localities in which they occurred; and this in social as well as in national history. Many Roman customs and usages, now extinct, are illustrated and realised by the knowledge gained from monuments of ancient architecture and art. And again, the spirit of Roman literature is more fully sympathised with, and its difficult passages and allusions are frequently elucidated by the light of archæological knowledge.

Thus there is not only the poetical and imaginative satisfaction, which is usually felt most vividly in treading the soil, surveying the scenes, and breathing the air in which great historical persons lived and events occurred, but also an element of fact which gives a firm basis of incontestable truth to our knowledge, and which no speculative interpretation can dissolve.

It is hoped, therefore, that even such an abridged description of ruins, and such a summary of archæological results as that which forms the basis of the present volume, will not be without use to the student of history, as well as a guide to the traveller.

In the chapter on the ruins of the Campagna I have inserted some statements on the geological formations, and on the climate, which appear to have influenced the history and the architecture of that district.

The books from which useful information has been derived are, in addition to those mentioned in the list given in “Rome and the Campagna,” some of the later numbers of “Annali dell’ Instituto,” a small treatise called “Guida del Palatino,” by C. L. Visconti and R. A. Lanciani, and “A Topographical Study of the Roman Forum,” by Mr. F. M. Nichols.

Robert Burn.

Cambridge.
Sept. 24, 1879.

CONTENTS.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

MAPS, PLANS, &c.

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OLD ROME:
A HANDBOOK TO THE RUINS OF
THE CITY AND THE CAMPAGNA.

INTRODUCTION.

I.—The Site of Rome and the Walls of Rome.

One of the principal points in the early history of every nation is the effect of the natural configuration of the country in which their first settlements are formed upon the subsequent character of the people.

The site of Rome consists of several separate hills, upon which distinct groups of original settlers established themselves. These groups after a temporary rivalry seem to have agreed to form a confederation, in which the leading part was assigned to the Palatine settlement. Such was the origin of that special aptitude shown by the Romans for forming coalitions with rival states, and also of that most valuable trait in their political character, their reverence for law as laid down by a central authority, for each group was taught by their confederate union to regard itself as sharing that central authority. Hence, the historian Livy remarks that under the Roman Republic which built up the power of Rome, the command of law was superior to that of men. But besides this aptitude for confederate union and respect for central authority which the nature of the site seems to have instilled into them, the Romans were also taught by it a readiness to meet their enemies in the open field, and not to trust much to the protection of steep crags or fortified posts. None of the hills of Rome afforded a strong acropolis, such as most other ancient cities possessed. The Capitol of Rome was by no means impregnable. Its central depression rendered it always more or less accessible and liable to be seized by a powerful enemy. The Palatine, though partially fortified, was never considered a strong position. Hence we find that the Servian walls were the only fortifications erected to protect Rome for more than eight hundred years, from the time of Servius down to that of Aurelian. The statement of Strabo, that the absence of fortifications round Rome was to be accounted for by the native spirit of the Romans, which was “to defend their walls by their men, and not their men by their walls,” is evidently full of meaning.

II.—Monumental History.

Relics of the two great public works executed during the regal period of Roman history still remain in the venerable stone arches of the main drain which was constructed to make the Forum valley more habitable, and in the rough portions of the Servian walls which have been found on the Aventine and Quirinal Hills. It is probable that the ruined walls at the edge of the Palatine are anterior to the monuments of the time of Servius.

Of the earlier republican period of Roman history there are no monumental ruins now existing. The ruins which have been excavated on the Capitoline Hill and the basement of the Temple of Vesta in the Forum date from the regal epoch. And this is what might be naturally expected from the dislike of a republican government to require the forced labour anciently called for in the erection of large buildings.

But in the later period of the Roman republic some of the oligarchical leaders and successful generals constructed large buildings, of which traces can now be found. Thus the foundations of the temples and of the portico built in the Campus Martius by Metellus Macedonicus and by Cn. Octavius can be still recognised, and ruins of the immense stone theatre of Pompeius Magnus remain to the present day. But the greater portion of the ruins of Rome dates from the Augustan age and the subsequent imperial ages. First among them stands the Pantheon, which has kept its roof and its original structure uninjured through the storms and earthquakes and the wasting hand of time during more than nineteen centuries. It bears the date of B.C. 27 on the frieze of its portico. The Theatre of Marcellus must be next mentioned, and the Mausoleum of Augustus. To the Julian dynasty may be also ascribed the colossal columns of the Temple of Mars Ultor, with the huge wall adjoining them, and the Egyptian obelisks which still decorate some of the piazzas. To the same dynasty we owe the vast arches of the Claudian aqueduct, and the massive brick foundation of the Palatine palace.

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The Flavian dynasty, Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian changed the characteristic features of the city of Rome. Where Caligula and Nero had covered the ground with costly palaces and pleasure-grounds, the Flavian emperors built the resorts of military and of national life. The Coliseum and the Arch of Titus were the fit accompaniments of their world-subduing, blood-thirsty legions, and the Baths of Titus, and the public reception rooms on the Palatine, encouraged the citizen life of Rome once more to develop itself.

The political aims and imperial ideas of Trajan, Hadrian and the Antonines are nobly illustrated by the modifications and enlargements they introduced in the structure and extent of the city of Rome. Trajan in his magnificent Forum and library sought to encourage the metropolitan life and literary tastes of the nation, while on his storied column he recorded their world-wide triumphs and reminded them of their enormous power.

The Mausoleum of Hadrian remains to commemorate the vast and ponderous strength of his rule, and the Aurelian Column stands to attest the lofty magnificence of the Antonine dynasty.

In the reign of Commodus, between the Antonine era and the time of Severus, a great fire devastated the central districts of Rome. The restorations effected by Severus and the popular policy of his successors are commemorated in the Arch of Severus, the Portico of the Pantheon, and the huge ruins of the Baths of Caracalla. The defensive power of the Roman nation then became gradually weaker and weaker, till in sixty years after the time of Caracalla, Aurelian commenced the sad task of home fortification. His walls, which were completed a hundred years later by Honorius, still surround the greater part of Rome. During these hundred years the power of the Constantinian rule, of which the great basilica and arch remain monuments, and the warlike courage of Diocletian revived for a time the imperial spirit at Rome.

The last and most familiar of the monuments which follow the transfer of power from Rome to Constantinople is the Column of Phocas in the Forum, erected when three centuries of desolation had followed the grandeur of Constantine and his dynasty.

The Vatican Hill and the northern end of the Transtiberine district were not enclosed within walls till the time of Pope Leo IV. He undertook in A.D. 848 the enclosure of St. Peter’s and the Vatican Hill, thus forming that district into a separate town, which was named after the Pope Civitas Leoniana. The western wall of this enclosure may still be traced by its ruins in the garden of the Vatican palace. After the successive destructions and minor repairs of the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, in 1527 the architect San Gallo was employed to erect huge bastions on the wall of Rome, which he placed chiefly between the Porta Ostiense and the Porta Appia. In 1628 Pope Urban VIII. restored the walls on the left bank, and subsequently in 1642 he proceeded to erect the walls which now stand between the Porta Portese and the Porta Cavallegieri, where the arms of that Pope are still affixed to the walls. This was the final important addition to the main walls of the city.

III.—Roman Building and Architecture.

The earliest form of Roman masonry, consisting of rectangular tufa blocks placed in layers alternately parallel to and across the line of the wall, so as to bind the mass together firmly, may be best seen in the ancient fragments of the Servian wall on the Aventine and the Quirinal Hills and in the ruins on the western slope of the Palatine. This kind of building is the natural product of the peculiar parallel cleavage in the tufaceous rocks of the Roman hills. In those parts of the Campagna where basalt rather than tufa becomes the usual material, as at Præneste, we find polygonal masonry. One specimen of a mode of construction anterior to the introduction of the arch into Roman masonry is left us at Rome. This is the vault of the old well-house near the Capitol called the Mamertine Prison, where we find overlapping horizontal blocks of stone which originally met in a conical roof, but are now truncated and capped by a mass of stones cramped together with iron. That the principle of the arch was known in the regal period of Rome is shown by the great arch of the Cloaca Maxima. But no arches remain of so early a date which are not subterranean, and it is not likely that the arch was used in the early temples at Rome. These were, as we learn from Vitruvius, constructed in the so-called Tuscan style, which was the Italian contemporary of the Greek Doric. It is possible that the columns in the walls of S. Maria in Cosmedin, which are placed at unusual distances from each other, may have been an imperial restoration of the Temple of Ceres, after the old Tuscan fashion (Fig. 1). The next modification of architectural style, which is usually called, from the general influence of the Greek colonists on Latin art, the Tusco-Doric order, may be seen in the lowest range of columns and bases in the Theatre of Marcellus. The shaft of these columns is much more slender than in the Grecian Doric, and only partially fluted, if at all; while a cima recta is substituted for the echinus of the capitals (Figs. 2 and 3). The position of the triglyphs and the proportions of the cornice were also much changed, and the whole effect became less massive and bold than that of the Tuscan temples.

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The ancient Tuscan arrangement of the interior of temples remained after this modification of their columns and capitals. The three ruins which now occupy the most prominent place at the northern end of the Forum, the Temples of Saturn, of Concord, and of Vespasian, all retain the plan called prostylos by Vitruvius. The Temple of Concord is especially remarkable for the union of a broad Tuscan cella with a narrow Greek portico. An alteration peculiarly Roman was made in the cella of the Greek temple. Instead of surrounding this part of a temple with rows of columns, the Romans clothed it with pilasters, thus introducing the mode of construction deservedly stigmatised by Vitruvius, under the name pseudoperipteral (Fig. 4). This may be seen in the ruin commonly called by the name of the Temple of Fortuna Virilis at Rome.

Fig. 1.

The Greek Ionic order became known and employed by the Romans early in the third century B.C. The Tomb of Scipio Barbatus shows the Ionic volute and dentil mixed with the Doric triglyph and gutta. The Roman alterations in the Ionic capital may be best seen in the pillars of the Temple of Saturn, and in the second range of columns surrounding the Theatre of Marcellus and the Coliseum. Specimens may also be seen in the basilica of S. Lorenzo fuori le Mura, and in the church of S. Maria in Trastevere, which have been transferred from the ancient temples. The distinctive Roman modification was the position of the volutes diagonally instead of laterally (Figs. 5 and 6).

Fig. 2.

It is supposed that the first introduction of the Greek Corinthian order into Rome was brought about by the barbarian act of Sulla, in transporting the columns of the Temple of Zeus from Athens to the Capitoline Temple of Jupiter. Of the remaining specimens of this order in Rome, the portico of the Pantheon is the oldest. In that building the capitals appear somewhat shorter and broader than in the later examples, at the ruins of the Temple of Castor in the Forum (Fig. 7), and in the peristyle of Nerva’s Forum called the Colonnacce.

Fig. 3.

The Composite capital, for it can hardly be called an order, as there is nothing in the entablature or the base to distinguish it from the Corinthian, was formed probably under the patronage of the early emperors. The earliest instance we have of it now extant in Rome, is in the Arch of Titus (Fig. 8) and there are only three other ruins where it is found. These are, the Arch of Septimius Severus, the Arch of the Goldsmiths, and the Baths of Diocletian, at Sta. Maria degli Angeli, where it is mixed up with Corinthian capitals. The peculiar combination of which it consists, the superposition of the Ionic volutes upon two rings of Corinthian acanthus leaves, is not generally considered a very happy artistic design. Hope says of it, that “instead of being a new creation of genius, it gave evidence of poverty to invent and ignorance to combine,” and Fergusson is hardly more complimentary to the Roman architects.

Fig. 4.

But though we must deny to this Roman adaptation of Greek forms the credit of originality, or even of symmetrical design, yet its rich appearance was peculiarly suited to the lavish ornamentation with which the Roman emperors delighted to trick out their palaces and halls, and it well represents to us the character of the Roman imperial architecture, with its indiscriminate combination of mouldings and profusion of gaudy detail.

The three great triumphal arches of Titus, Septimius Severus, and Constantine at Rome, and also the Arch of Drusus, are decorated with an unmeaning and foreign dress. In the Arch of Constantine alone, the columns which stand in front are in some measure justified by the statues they support.

Of the minor archways at Rome, that of Gallienus has Corinthian pilasters in the roughest style of art, the Janus Quadrifrons probably had rows of Corinthian columns between its niches, and the small gateway near it has decorative pilasters with Composite capitals. On the other hand, the Arch of Dolabella on the Cælian, which has a single line as cornice, and the Porta S. Lorenzo are examples of the striking effect of a simple arch without Greek ornament. The unmeaning pediments and tasteless columns with which most of these arches are adorned, remind us of Pope’s recipe for the front of a villa, “Clap four slices of pilaster on’t; that, laid with bits of rustic, makes a front.”

Fig. 5.

Colossal columns were as genuine a creation of Imperial Rome as triumphal arches. In both the sculpture had become subordinate to the pedestal. The idea of placing a statue upon the top of a column was probably unknown to the Greeks, or at least, never carried out on the immense scale of the two great Roman Columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius. It must not, however, be forgotten, that the Column of Trajan, and probably also that of Marcus Aurelius, was enclosed within a narrow court, and that the bas-reliefs were intended to be seen from the roofs and windows of the surrounding buildings.

Fig. 6.

Some of the most characteristic remains of the Roman national taste in architecture are the Mausoleum of Hadrian, and the Tombs of Cæcilia Metella and of Plautius. The ponderous walls of these massive and indestructible marvels of masonry were essentially Roman, but in their external decorations we find a strange combination of foreign designs. The Mausoleum of Hadrian was dressed up with an array of pilasters, columns, and statues, and the Mausoleum of Augustus was covered with terraces and trees, in imitation of the Temple of Belus at Babylon.

The most conspicuous among the Roman appropriations of foreign monumental designs were the oriental obelisks which were brought from Egypt, and erected in the Circi at Rome and in front of some of the buildings, and some of which still stand in the piazzas of modern Rome. The remains of eleven of these have been found. The Romans often misused them by placing them alone, and not following the Egyptian method of always setting them in pairs.

Fig. 7.

The huge vaulted arches of brick-work and concrete which remain in the Baths of Caracalla, and the Basilica of Constantine, and the massive arches of the Claudian Aqueduct, are the glory of Roman architecture. For the Coliseum, astounding as are its durability and massive grandeur, is not so illustrative of the special Roman development of the use of the arch and of brick-work as are the other great ruins just mentioned. We see embodied in them the indomitable energy which bridged the valleys and tunnelled through the hills, but which possessed no eye for fine proportion of outline or symmetrical and harmonious combination of details. Brickwork was the material in which the characteristic Roman ruins were executed. The Coliseum and the Theatre of Marcellus are dressed in Greek robes, while the brick arches of the aqueducts, and the massive structure of the Baths of Caracalla reflect the peculiar genius and character of the Roman imperial power.

Fig. 8.

CHAPTER I.

THE PALATINE AND VELIA.

The entrance to the ruins on the Palatine Hill is now made through a gateway opposite to the Basilica of Constantine. This gateway was erected by the architect Vignola in the sixteenth century as an approach to the Farnese Gardens, which formerly occupied the north-western part of the Palatine Hill. On the right and left hand of the gateway are placed two ancient pedestals, which were discovered near the Arch of Septimius Severus in 1547. One of these, which stands on the right hand, supported an equestrian statue of Constantius, erected by Neratius Cerealis, prefect of the city in A.D. 353, in commemoration of the expulsion from Italy and death of Maxentius.[1] On the left side pedestal, a representation of the Suovetaurilia is sculptured in bas-relief, and the decennalia vota, or ten years’ good wishes to Constantius and Galerius are mentioned. The side of the hill at the back of the gateway of Vignola is terraced at several levels, on the third of which ascending from the entrance, a part of the pavement of an old road, probably the Clivus Victoriæ, leads to the right. The line of this clivus is represented in the marble plan now on the staircase of the Capitoline Museum which plan was made in the time of Septimius Severus.

INDEX TO THE PLAN OF THE PALATINE RUINS.

To face Plan on p. 14.

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Clivus Victoriæ

The basalt paving stones of this road are well preserved. On the right hand proceeding towards the northern angle of the hill lie a number of fragments of ancient houses, among which were probably the house bought by Clodius and that of Cicero. These houses appear to have looked down upon the Forum, since Cicero speaks of raising his house in order to exclude Clodius from the sight of the city which he had hoped to destroy.[2] Other houses of the Roman nobility of the later republican times were probably placed on this side of the Palatine, in order to be near the Forum and the places of political and social meetings.[3]

Porta Romanula.

The Museum in which are collected the various fragments of statuary and antiquarian interest which have been found in the late excavations on the Palatine has been placed in the ground-floor of the casina which stands near the Clivus Victoriæ. The ancient road is then overreached and arched over by the extensions of the Palatine imperial palace built by Caligula, under which it passes to the site of the ancient Porta Romanula.[4] Most of the chambers on the left were probably occupied by the guards of the gateway, and the graffiti they contain are of a character which confirms this supposition.

Outside the Porta Romanula the road bends round the hill along the side which looks towards the Capitoline. The first ruins to be seen under the slope of the hill here are the remains of a portico of the republican era, constructed of tufa with reticular-work facings. This portico has been supposed to be possibly that which Lutatius Catulus built after his victory over the Cimbri in the Area Flacciana, mentioned by Valerius Maximus and by Cicero as being near his house.[5] But there seems to be nothing left which can identify this ruin with the Porticus Catuli.

Area Flacciana.

Beyond this so-called Area Flacciana the line of walls presents some projecting masses, which appear to be built upon the ancient substructions of towers such as would be formed in fortified buildings. A great part of the walls erected here in imperial times were built of concrete framed and supported by beams and planks of timber. These beams having now rotted away, have left their impressions on the concrete, and hence the vertical and horizontal grooves which form so conspicuous a part of these walls. Two remarkable fragments of antiquity must be noticed here. The first is a conical aperture in the side of the hill which supplied a cistern placed below with water. Such cisterns are to be found elsewhere in the hills, and may be supposed to have been constructed previous to the great supplies of water having been brought by the aqueducts.

At the western corner of the hill opposite to the Janus Quadrifrons stands a large fragment of the most ancient walls of the Palatine. It is constructed of masses of tufa, taken from the hill behind it, and roughly laid together without cement or mortar. These stones appear to have been split from the rock, and not cut by chisel, which shows the antiquity of their construction. The wall of Romulus is the name by which this and the other portions of massive tufa walls round the Palatine are now known. They undoubtedly belong to the earliest defences of the Palatine settlement.

Altar.

Not far from this ancient fragment of wall stands a most interesting relic of primitive superstition, an altar of travertine stone cut in archaic fashion, with volutes resembling those in the well-known tomb of Scipio in the Vatican Museum. The inscription on this altar is as follows: SEI DEO SEI DEIVÆ SAC. C. SEXTIUS, C. F. CALVINUS, PR. DE SENATI SENTENTIA RESTITUIT. This is supposed by some antiquarians to be the altar mentioned by Cicero and Livy, as having been erected in consequence of the voice heard before the Gallic invasion predicting disastrous times.[6]

But that altar is said to have been placed above the Temple of Vesta at the end of the Nova Via, which was on the other side of the Palatine. This mode of dedication to an unknown Deity was not uncommon at Rome, and is mentioned by Cato and commented upon by Gellius. The form of the word DEIVÆ shows that the inscription belongs to the earlier Latin.[7]

C. Sextius Calvinus, who restored the altar, was probably son of C. S. Calvinus, the Consul of A.U.C. 630, and was the competitor of C. Servilius Glaucia in the year 654.[8]

Germalus.

The north-western end of the Palatine Hill, round which we have been passing, was the spot whence arose the name Germalus which Varro tells us was given to it in memory of the (germani) twin brothers, Romulus and Remus having been cast ashore here from the Tiber waters, and suckled by the wolf. How far the district called Germalus extended over the hill is not known. Cicero speaks of a house belonging to Milo which stood upon the Germalus, and Livy says that a wolf ran through the Vicus Tuscus and the Germalus to the Porta Capena.[9] The bronze figure of the wolf and twins now in the Capitoline Museum is said by Flaminius Vacca, who wrote in 1594, to have been found at no great distance from this place, and Urlichs has shown that this figure is probably the one dedicated by the Ogulnii, ædiles in B.C. 297.[10]

Further southwards at the foot of the slope we come to another fragment of the most ancient wall of the Palatine settlement. This building appears to stand at right angles to the line of the hillside, and it was therefore supposed at first to have belonged to a wall traversing the intermontium or depression which crosses the Palatine Hill from this point to the Arch of Titus, and to have confirmed the opinion of those archæologists who confine the extent of Roma quadrata to the north-western end of the hill. But subsequent exploration has shown that this wall does not pass along the intermontium, but turns off at a right angle. Another fragment of the most ancient wall was found in 1860, according to Lanciani, under the Villa Mills, showing that the wall of Roman quadrata passed round the whole hill, and not only round the north-western end.

Domus Gelotiana.

Close to the fragment of ancient wall we come to a series of chambers excavated first in 1857, and afterwards cleared and rendered more accessible in 1869. These belonged to a building in connection with this part of the imperial palace, and were occupied by soldiers of the emperor’s guard, as may be seen by examination of the inscriptions left on the walls. The traces of a square court, surrounded with a portico, one granite pillar of which remains, and on the side of this court towards the hill, of a number of chambers arranged on each side of a semicircular recess, are the main features of this ruin. The brickwork supports which appear here were erected by Canina, and a large quantity of remains have fallen from the higher levels of the hill.

The inscriptions which are most remarkable are the following. On the right-hand wall near the entrance the name HILARUS, followed by the letters MI. V. D. N., which have been interpreted to mean “miles veteranus domini nostri,” a veteran soldier of our Lord. Numerous other inscriptions with the letters V. D. N. will be found in the chamber to the left of the central recess. One of these in the triangular room records the name of two soldiers who belonged to the foreign troop of Peregrini: BASSUS ET SATURUS PEREG.[11] Other inscriptions allude to a pædagogium, or training school, as for example, CORINTHUS EXIT DE PEDAGOGIO. Most of these are in the triangular rooms behind the central semicircular recess, or in the furthest room on the left of it. In this last is to be seen the figure of an ass turning a mill, with the inscription, LABORA ASELLE QUOMODO EGO LABORA VI ET PRODERIT TIBI. But the most famous of these graffiti is that now shown in the Kircherian Museum representing the crucified ass, with the title “Alexamenus worshipping his god,” which was taken from the room on the right of the central semicircular recess, and has been the subject of much comment. Another record of the same Alexamenus was found here in 1870, in which he is called Alexamenus fidelis.

Stadium.

Passing now beneath the Villa Mills which occupy the site of the Augustan library, and the Temple of Apollo, built by Augustus, we turn to the left up the slope of the hill and find a large open space in which the later excavations have disinterred the relics of a stadium, consisting of a curved series of walls, surrounding the foundation of a meta or goal, and two lines of bases of columns, which ran along the sides and the end of the stadium.[12]

A large building in the form of a semicircular recess of exedra, a stand for viewing the races, is still partially remaining, and also the foundation of two entrances on the southern side. That this was a stadium connected with the imperial palace is evident from its shape and its length, which corresponds to that laid down by the ancient writers as the proper length of a stadium for foot-races. The large exedra at the southern side contains on the ground-floor a vast central saloon, and two side rooms. A few decorative paintings of the latest and least valuable kind of art remain on the walls, among which are some geographical and astronomical figures. A coat of foreign marbles covered the walls, and the pavement was of marble. This part of the Palatine buildings was probably occupied by the Frangipani in the 13th century. The right-hand chamber was apparently without decoration, but in the one on the left the wall is ornamented with fresco paintings of elegance, and the pavement is of fine mosaic. A list of names with numbers attached to them, which seem to be those of combatants in the stadium, was found among the graffiti here.

The upper level of the semicircular exedra was filled by a large chamber, the side of which, towards the stadium, was occupied by a line of granite columns, fragments of which remain in the arena below. The interior of this chamber was also ornamented with marbles and statues. Some statues of Amazons and the Hercules of Lysippus now in the Pitti at Florence, were found here according to Vacca, who wrote at the end of the sixteenth century. The brickwork and the architecture of this exedra seem to be of the time of Hadrian, and the bricks found here with labels give the date of A.D. 134, the third consulship of Ursus Servianus. The portico which ran round the stadium was apparently of later construction than the exedra, as the date on its bricks seems to refer to Tertullus Scapula, Consul in A.D. 195, in the reign of Septimius Severus, under whom great alterations and extensions were carried out in this wing of the palace.

The vast ruins which remain on the south of the stadium belong chiefly to the works of Septimius Severus, and have long been celebrated as the most picturesque among the Cæsarean relics. The curved wall behind the great exedra, and the numerous passages and chambers which stand near it, seem to have belonged to a bath supplied with water from the branch of the Aqua Claudia, four arches of which are still remaining on the hill below, opposite to the church of S. Gregorio. This was a branch from the Claudian aqueduct, and crossed the valley from the opposite Cælian Hill.

Palatine Belvedere.

The lofty wing of the palace, which extends along the slope of the Circus Maximus, opposite to the Aventine, is reached by a modern bridge from the ruins adjoining the stadium. From the top of this huge ruin a splendid view of the Cælian, the Aventine, and the Alban Hills may be seen, and the spot has been sometimes called the Palatine Belvedere. What the exact nature of the buildings placed upon these lofty ranges of arches was cannot be easily determined, but they correspond in some degree to the arched walls of the side between the arches of Titus and Constantine and to those of the palace of Caligula near the Capitoline, and were mainly intended to raise the imperial saloons to the higher level of the northern end of the hill. Spartianus in his ‘Life of Severus’ says that Severus bestowed particular pains on this part of the Palatine Hill in order to make it the chief entrance to the imperial palace, and that his reason for so doing was to produce an impression of his magnificence upon his African fellow-countrymen, who, when visiting Rome, would naturally enter at this point by the Porta Capena, which was the gate just below. The Septizonium was an imperial building near this part of the hill probably built by Severus, views of the ruins of which are to be seen in the books of the topographers Du Perac and Garrucci who wrote before the end of the sixteenth century, when the Septizonium was pulled down by Sixtus the Fifth.[13] At the western end of the long and lofty ruin, and near the end of the stadium, is a projecting portion of ruined chambers which has been generally supposed to have contained the emperor’s private pulvinar, or box whence he viewed the games in the Circus Maximus. But the construction of this edifice, including its round tower, seems to be of a very late style, and it may have been built as late as the sixteenth century.

We now return along a modern path which runs under the grounds of the Villa Mills towards the domus Gelotiana described above. A curved terrace occupies the upper edge of the hill, along which probably ran a portico commanding a view over the southern part of Rome and the Trastevere. At the back of this are the buildings called the Villa Mills from their former possessors, now occupied by a nunnery, and therefore inaccessible to the public. In the year 1777, the plan of the ancient buildings which stood here was explored by Rancoureuil. They consist of a court surrounded with columns and suites of chambers. Parts of the main front looking towards the circus remained till the year 1827. The brickwork of these ruins has induced Cav. Rosa to assign them to the Augustan Age and to call them Domus Augustana. No sure evidence has, however, been discovered for this, and it seems more probable that the Domus Augustana was nearer to the Forum Romanum.[14]

Academia and Bibliotheca.

Passing back again by the ruins called the Domus Gelotiana as before described, we turn to the right and ascend the side of the hill. On the higher level at this point are the ruins of two buildings to which the names of Academia and Bibliotheca have been given by Rosa. In one of these the remains of semicircular ranges of seats and a platform have been supposed to be recognizable, and here may have taken place the recitations and discussions mentioned by Pliny as constantly kept up in the imperial palace.[15]

Ædes Publicæ.

Behind these rooms stand the ruins of a portico, built upon substructions of an earlier period, with Corinthian columns of cipollino, probably forming the side of a small courtyard. Here it may be seen through an opening in the ground to what a depth the substructions of this part of the Palatine buildings descend into the depression or intermontium which originally separated the two parts of the hill, and was filled up by the Flavian emperors. We now enter the range of reception rooms commenced by Vespasian when he destroyed Nero’s golden house, and built by Vespasian and his sons, Titus and Domitian, at the same time with the Coliseum. These are raised on gigantic constructions of opus quadratum to the level of the rest of the Palatine Hill. Many stamps on the bricks found here seem to show that the buildings were finished by Domitian.

Triclinium.

The south-eastern side of the range of the Imperial Flavian buildings we are now entering is still covered by the edge of the monastery which occupies the grounds of the Villa Mills, and we can therefore only see the north-western part. But this is sufficient to convey a full idea of the extent of the suite. We are now entering at the back of the triclinium or dining hall, at the end of which is a semicircular apse, possibly intended for the emperor’s table when he dined here. The form of the room corresponds to Vitruvius’ description of the proper arrangements for a triclinium. Very little of the original decoration remains, except two granite columns, of which there were originally sixteen, and a portion of beautiful pavement composed of porphyry, serpentine, and giallo antico. It is possible that this may be the triclinium in which Statius dined at Domitian’s table, and of the marble decorations and spacious size of which he speaks in the fourth book of his ‘Silvæ.’[17]

Near the apse of this room an opening in the ground leads down to some subterranean rooms which formerly belonged to a private house situated in the depression of the hill, and afterwards covered over by the Flavian emperors. The brickwork in this house seems to be of the later republican period, and the walls retain decorations of the best style.

These decorative paintings have, of course, suffered very much from damp and neglect, and all the principal features of the house have been destroyed by the substructures of the Flavian triclinium. The name of Bagni di Livia was long used in connection with this spot by the ciceroni.

Nymphæum.

Returning to the upper level, we find, at the side of the triclinium, the remains of a nymphæum or viridarium, consisting of an elliptical basin and fountain of marble, with niches for statues and bas reliefs, and ledges for ornamental flowers and plants. On the western side of the nymphæum a garden-house was built by the Farnese, part of which still stands, the portico having some arabesques and some paintings by a pupil of Taddeo Zuccari, representing scenes on the Palatine as described by Virgil, the meeting of Æneas and Evander, and the monster Cacus.

Peristylium. Vestibulum.
Atrium.

Beyond the triclinium and nymphæum we come to the remains of the largest court in the suite, which is called the peristylium, occupying a space of 140 by 154 paces, anciently surrounded by a portico of columns of Porta Santa marble. The pavement and decorations of this quadrangle would seem by the remains to have been most superb. On the north-west side of it are eight rooms of various shapes, arranged symmetrically round an octagonal central chamber, from which four large doors open, with four corresponding niches. The same plan of rooms was carried out also on the opposite side of the peristylium, as was shown by some excavations in 1869. These were waiting-rooms and offices of various kinds. From the great quadrangle of the peristylium we pass to the grand audience chamber, the position of which corresponds generally to that of the atrium of a Roman house. This was surrounded by a portico of sixteen Corinthian columns of foreign marbles, and their frieze and bases were ornamented in a most elaborate manner. Eight niches with colossal statues of basalt are said by Bianchini to have stood round this court, and in the Tribune at the southern end was placed the solium augustale, where the emperor sat on grand occasions, when meetings of the senate or other bodies were held here. The grand entrance of this atrium, which looked towards the Arch of Titus, was adorned by two huge columns of giallo antico, and the threshold stone consisted of a mass of Greek marble from which the altar of the church of the Pantheon was made. Many of the marbles from this atrium were taken by the Farnese to Naples.

Lararium.

On the right hand of this reception room towards the Villa Mills was a building which shows us by its position and shape that it was the lararium or shrine of the household gods where sacrifices were offered on solemn occasions. The remains of an altar were discovered here.

Basilica.

Opposite to the lararium are the foundations of a building with a tribune and podium, probably used by the emperor in cases such as those described by Tacitus, when imperial constraint was exercised over a legal verdict. Two rows of columns, arranged as is commonly the case in the basilicæ, and a portion of some white marble railings have been found and preserved here.

Along the side of this tribunal hall and that of the peristylium and its adjoining offices, ran a long portico connecting the whole suite of halls together.

The history of this range of imperial buildings has been very probably supposed to be as follows. Vespasian intended them to be used in support of his revival of the Augustan imperial policy, and that a name such as Ædes Publicæ, “National Chambers,” should be given to them.[18]

Accordingly, all these rooms have the character of public rather than private buildings. There is apparently no provision for domestic life, and all the sections of the edifice seem to have been public audience or banqueting rooms.

Porta Mugionia.
Jupiter Stator.

In front of the last described buildings, which we have called the basilica, the atrium, and the lararium, is an open space, on the right hand of which, looking towards the Arch of Titus, a fragment of the earliest walls of the Palatine remains, constructed of tufa blocks taken from the hill underneath. Beyond this, towards the Arch of Titus, are the paving stones of an ancient road which was probably the approach to the palace, and to the left of this road stand the relics of one of the most ancient gates, the Porta Mugionia. This is described by Vacca as having been discovered at the end of the sixteenth century, when it was still decorated with marble. The substructions alone now remain, and close to them may still be traced the foundations of an ancient temple which can be no other than the temple of Jupiter Stator. Solinus says that the house of Tarquinius Priscus was near the Porta Mugionia, and Livy states that he lived near the Porta Mugionia. The statue of Clœlia is also said by Livy to have stood at the top of the Sacra Via which was near the Arch of Titus, and this statue is further placed by Pliny near the Porta Mugionia.[19] The remains of the temple show that it was arranged according to the cardinal points of the heavens, looking north and south. On the foundation stones are the names of Philocrates and Diocles, masons employed in building. Three old inscriptions referring to the worship of Jove were found here, and are to be seen in the Palatine Museum.

Cryptoporticus.

Near the ruins of this Temple of Jupiter Stator we find vast blocks of substruction which belong to the complicated ranges of buildings occupying the north-eastern end of the hill, and generally believed to have been erected by Caligula. They extend along the side of the hill over the Forum, and along the Clivus Victoriæ by which we entered, to the point which overlooks the Velabrum. The modifications and enlargements of this structure during the ages succeeding Caligula have rendered it a confused mass of ruins, and the walls and chambers now left have served chiefly as substructions for the lofty mansions erected upon them in the course of ages. From the corner of these ruins, next to the Temple of Jupiter Stator, runs a long arched cryptoporticus or covered passage, which can be entered from the ruins of this temple or from below nearer to the modern entrance gateway. It is supposed that this may have been the cryptoporticus in which, as we learn from Josephus, Caligula was assassinated on his return from the ludi palatini given in front of the palace. He is said to have turned off from the direct line of entrance, and to have passed into this covered way in order to hear and see some youths from Asia performing. The assassins, after accomplishing their end, were afraid to venture through the front of the palace, and took refuge by hiding in the house of Germanicus.[20]

House of Tiberius.

At the western end of the cryptoporticus a house has been disinterred by the late excavations, and it has been inferred that this must have been the one called by Josephus the house of Germanicus. Whatever name may now be assigned to it, the house appears to have been preserved for some reason from destruction, and it seems reasonable to conclude that some connection with the earlier history of the imperial Cæsars rendered it an object of veneration and care. The space between the cryptoporticus, along which we have passed, and the so-called basilica of the palace, is supposed to have been called the Area Palatina, where those who came to call upon the emperor had to wait.[21] The long cryptoporticus was connected with the Flavian public buildings, and perhaps also previously with the house of Augustus, by a branch passage which runs off from the long cryptoporticus at right angles, towards the back of the atrium and lararium. By this means the emperor could pass from his private palace to the public audience and banqueting chambers without encountering the crowd of those who were waiting for audience in the area. In this area was found, in 1868, the pedestal bearing the name of Domitius Calvinus, now placed on the site of the ruined temple which lies farther to the west, and which we shall presently mention.

In the angle of the cryptoporticus near the house of Germanicus, are some beautiful remains of decorative work, consisting of paintings of birds and winged genii. These have been much injured by the damp exuding from a piscina which was constructed here in the second or third century for the keeping of fish, and which can be entered at the angle of the cryptoporticus. Near this piscina is the entrance to the building called the house of Tiberius or Germanicus. The construction of this house belongs to the period of Roman architecture, when reticulated work formed of the harder tufa, with small diamond-shaped stones, and with corners and connecting parts of the same stone, but without brickwork, was generally used. It was therefore probably built during the later republican times, and this agrees with the supposition that it was the works of Tiberius’s father or grandfather. Suetonius says that Tiberius was born on the Palatine.[22] The leaden pipes which have been found here, bear the names of Julia, the daughter of Titus, of one of Domitian’s, and one of Septimius Severus’s freedmen.

The house is divided into two main parts, one of larger dimensions for receiving guests and showing hospitality, and the other of smaller sized rooms, for the family. The vestibule is an arched passage adorned with paintings on the walls, and mosaic pavement. From this the atrium is entered which had no impluvium, but was covered entirely with a roof. On the left are the remains of an altar of the Lares, and at the further side of the atrium are three large rooms, the decorative paintings of which are well preserved.

In the central chamber, the walls are divided into large compartments by columns of the Composite order, adorned with vine leaves. One of the large scenes represented here is that of Polyphemus, who, after having crushed his rival Acis with an enormous rock, turns towards Galatea, who is riding on a hippocampus. Another, placed above the frieze, is a picture of a domestic initiation ceremony, as the sacred tænia which is being presented seems to prove. A third picture, also above the frieze, shows the preparations for a sacrifice. On the right sits a female figure, with a mantle, and a faun standing before some utensils for ablution, which are being lifted by a second female figure, while the sacrificial kid is being brought by a young slave. The next picture represents a row of houses along the side of a street or road, at the door of one of which a lady with her maid is knocking, while four or five figures present themselves above on the balconies. The last picture is one of Io hidden in the wood of Juno at Mycenæ, and watched by Argos, with a figure of Hermes descending by Jove’s command to rescue Io. The names of Io, Argos, and Hermes are legible here.

The room on the left hand of this one is also divided by Composite columns adorned with vine leaves, and by a beautiful frieze of giallo antico. The lower compartments have no figures, but the upper are ornamented with designs of genii and fantastic flowers.

The room on the right hand is decorated with beautifully-designed paintings of flowers and fruit, hanging from one column to the next. From these festoons hang the emblems of various divinities, the lyre of Apollo, the timbrel of Cybele, and the mystic sieve and mask of Bacchus. These seem to indicate that this was the lararium of the house. The frieze contains a number of landscape and marine views, with many figures of men and animals painted on a yellow ground.

At the north-western corner of the atrium opens a fourth chamber, which may perhaps have been the dining-room, or triclinium, decorated with trophies of sacred emblems of Diana and Apollo. The atrium communicates with the rooms at the back of the house and with a small courtyard by means of a corridor. Some of these rooms were used as baths, others seem to have opened towards the street, the pavement of which still remains along the side of the house.

Palatine temples.

On the other side of this street is an entrance to the subterranean caves which have been cut in this part of the hill. These hollows were mainly stone quarries and wells. A puteal, or well-cover, has been placed over one of these in front of the house which we have described. On this side of the street also stand the foundations which have been supposed to have belonged to the priests of the Temple of Jupiter Propugnator on the Palatine, some portions of the fasti of whose college have been found near the Basilica Julia and the Marforio.[23] There is also the foundation of a temple, called by Rosa the Temple of Jupiter Victor, to be seen extending from this street towards the viridarium of the ædes publicæ of Domitian before mentioned, and towards the edge of the hill which looks over the Circus Maximus. These ruins consist of masses of tufa work mixed with later brickwork of the Antonine times. The pedestal with the name of Gnæus Domitius Calvinus which is placed here came, as we have said, from the spot called the Area Palatina before mentioned. The Notitia also places the Temple of Jupiter Victor in the Area Palatina, and for these two reasons the name seems to be wrongly applied to this ruin. We can trace in it the remains of a building raised on a basement with lofty flights of steps, alternating with terraces in front, towards the Circus Maximus, just as we find at Tibur and at Tusculum temples, placed on the side of a hill with high flights of steps ascending to them.[24]

Germalus and Scala Caci.

The remainder of the upper level of this north-western corner of the hill is occupied by numerous ruins of squared tufa stone, which evidently belonged to some of the most ancient and venerated relics of Rome. This was, no doubt, the part of the Palatine to which the name Germalus was given, in memory of the Germani, or twin-brothers, Romulus and Remus, who were cast ashore at its foot from the flooded waters of the Tiber. Two distinct edifices have been disclosed here, from the first of which, a rectangular foundation of tufa stones, a passage bearing marks of great antiquity descends towards the church of Anastasia and the gas works. This rectangular ruin has been called by many various names, such as the Temple of Jupiter Feretrius, the Tugurium Faustuli, the Temple of the Magna Mater Cybele, or of the Lares Præstites. The descending passage to the Vallis Murcia has been supposed to be the Scala Caci mentioned by Solinus,[25] and it is possible that the legend of Cacus refers to this point of the Palatine next to the Aventine. The marks on the stones of this descent are probably only quarry marks. No brickwork is found here in the lower ruins nor any marbles. But in the mass of fragments there are remains of the republican and of the imperial restorations of the many venerated buildings and altars which must have stood upon this corner of the hill. On the right hand of this descent a small rectangular court was discovered in 1872, with a staircase and a channel for water running through it. This is thought by Lanciani to have been possibly the fifth Argean Chapel, which was somewhere on the Germalus. A statue found here bears some marks of having represented the goddess Cybele.

Auguratorium.

The most conspicuous ruin at this end of the hill is a mass of concrete and tufa blocks, apparently of the republican era, in the shape of a rectangular basement. This has the form of a temple in antis, i.e. with projecting wings, and faces the south, commanding a view over the Aventine and Tiber valley. Cav. Rosa has conjectured that this is the ruin of the auguratorium mentioned by the Notitia as situated near the other most ancient sacred spots on the Palatine. But an inscription which records the restoration of the auguratorium by Hadrian does not support this view, as the work now remaining is mostly republican.[26] Lanciani thinks that this may have been the Ædes Matris Deum, to which the statue found as before mentioned in front of it belonged.

At the back of the so-called auguratorium we find a long series of rooms running in a line across the hill from north-west to south-east, which have vaulted roofs and are similar to those found below in the domus Gelotiana, before described. Cav. Rosa has inferred with reason from this and from the graffiti in these rooms that they formed a part of the offices and guard-rooms attached to that large portion of the palace which lay on the site now occupied by the gardens and the vast masses of brickwork at the northern corner of the hill. The graffiti to be seen here are chiefly the scribblings of soldiers’ names, rude sketches of ships and animals, and combats of gladiators.

Tiberiana domus.

Several passages of the Roman historians lead us to conclude that the suite of rooms occupied by Tiberius were situated here. It was from the Tiberiana Domus, as Tacitus relates, that Vitellius surveyed the conflagration of the Temple of Jupiter on the Capitol, and the engagement between his adherents and the Flavian party under Sabinus. The Tiberian part of the palace was also that through which, as Tacitus also tells us, Otho descended into the Velabrum, after joining Galba at the sacrifice in the Temple of Apollo on the Palatine.[27] Afterwards, the Tiberiana Domus became the favourite residence of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius, and it was probably during their reigns that the library which we find mentioned by Gellius was established here.[28]

We now pass through the garden grounds which lie over the remains of the Domus Tiberiana, and descend on the side which looks over the Forum, by a long staircase through the immense masses of brickwork and concrete which are said to have been part of the insane additions of Caligula to the imperial palace. He is declared to have made a passage from this wing of the palace to the back of the Temple of Castor below in the Forum, in order that he might appear in that sacred shrine as an equal of the twin gods and an object of worship when the Senate met there. He also joined this corner of the palace with the Capitoline Temple of Jupiter by a huge viaduct, which passed over the Basilica Julia, in order that he might thus make himself the contubernalis of Jupiter.[29] Some of the substructions of this viaduct are to be seen near the back of the church of S. Maria Liberatrice. We now leave the Palatine by the Clivus Victoriæ, along which we entered, and turn to the arch of Titus and the ruins which stand near it.

THE VELIA.

The Velia.

Near the arch of Titus the Palatine Hill runs out in a gradually sloping ridge north-eastwards towards the Esquiline Hill. On one side of this ridge the ground sinks towards the Forum Romanum, and on the other towards the Meta Sudans and the Coliseum. The level of the pavement under the arch of Titus is fifty-three feet above the ancient pavement of the Forum. It seems probable that this outlying part of the Palatine was that which bore the name of Velia.[30]

Arch of Titus.

On the summit of the ridge above described stands the arch of Titus, the most complete of all the monuments of imperial Rome. The central part of the original building remains, and is easily distinguished from the subsequent travertine restorations by being constructed of Pentelic marble. The height of the arch is forty-nine feet and its breadth forty-two feet. Originally there were two fluted Corinthian columns on each side of both faces of the arch, the two inner of which are now left, while the two outer are modern. Over the arch are two bas-reliefs of Victory which, though much injured, are still remarkable for the beauty of their outlines. On the keystone of the side towards the Coliseum is a figure of Rome, and on the other side Fortune with a cornucopia.

The most interesting parts of the arch have fortunately been preserved by their protected position in the interior. On each side is a magnificent alto-relievo, representing the triumphal procession of Titus after the capture of Jerusalem. The relievo on the south side shows a number of persons carrying the spoils of the Jewish Temple. The golden candlestick, the golden table for showbread, and the trumpets are clearly recognizable. These, according to Josephus,[31] among other utensils of the Jewish temple, were deposited in Vespasian’s Temple of Peace. The procession is moving towards a triumphal arch.

In the northern relief the emperor is represented in his triumphal car, drawn by four horses, and surrounded by his guards and suite. Victory is holding a crown over his head, and the goddess Roma guiding the reins. The interior of the arch is ornamented with richly-carved rosettes and coffers, and upon the crown is a rather undignified representation of the apotheosis of the emperor astride upon an eagle’s back.

On the Coliseum side a small portion of the entablature is left. The frieze had a bas-relief, which partially remains, of a sacrificial procession. The attica is modern, with the exception of the inscription. That the arch was erected after the emperor’s death is shown by the title Divus, and also by the figure of his apotheosis under the archway. Another arch had been erected in the Circus previously in the year 80, when the Coliseum was completed, and Titus gave a great festival. The date of the extant arch is, therefore, the year 82 or 83.

Fig. 9.

Temple of Venus and Rome.

Almost the whole of the southern slope of the Velia towards the Coliseum is occupied by the ruin of a vast foundation which extends under the church and convent of S. Francesca Romana. The substructions, of which the inner core only, consisting of rubble-work, is left, were originally cased with travertine blocks. They form an enormous quadrilateral terrace, round which a portico of granite columns ran. Upon this was raised a basement some four or five feet higher, and a building with two apses back to back, similar to the tribunes of a basilica. These are ornamented with large square coffers and niches for statues. It has been generally inferred from the statements of Dion Cassius and Spartianus that this building was the Temple of Venus and Rome built by Hadrian and dedicated by the Antonines, but burnt down in the time of Constantine and restored by him.[32] Pope Honorius I. stripped the bronze tiles from the roof, and they were placed on the Basilica of S. Peter, whence they were taken by the Saracens in A.D. 846. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, limekilns were set up near the arch of Titus by the Romans and the marbles of this spot were burnt into lime.[33] The two tribunes which stand back to back and the buildings near them have not the appearance of a temple, but rather of a legal court or basilica. For this reason, and also because a large portico of this shape is represented in the marble plan of the city, the fragments of which are now in the Capitoline Museum, as having belonged to the Porticus Liviæ, Mr. Parker, in his ‘Archæology of Rome,’ has maintained that this was the Porticus Liviæ, built by Augustus and afterwards used by Hadrian for the Temple of the Sun and Moon. Jordan has also shown that the Porticus Liviæ was near this spot, but he places it farther to the north-east, behind the Basilica of Constantino.[34] Since Dion Cassius speaks of the Temple of Venus and Rome as having been close to the Coliseum and also near the Sacra Via, and Spartianus says that it stood in the vestibule of the Domus Aurea of Nero, we are almost compelled to assign this position to that temple.[35]

Domus Transitoria.

Nero’s enormous extension of the Palatine buildings must have occupied a great part of the Velia, reaching across it from the Palatine to the Esquiline. But his great Domus Aurea and its surrounding porticoes and halls, which were called Domus Transitoria, and occupied not only the slope of the Velia but also the site of the Coliseum, were destroyed by the Flavian emperors who succeeded him, and we can only point to one fragment, of the Domus Transitoria which stands near the corner of the Basilica of Constantine at the side of the path which leads between that ruin and the buildings of S. Francesca Romana.

Basilica of Constantine.

The vast arches of the ruin called the Basilica of Constantine form, next to the Coliseum, the most conspicuous object in the neighbourhood of the Forum, and they were long supposed to have belonged to the Temple of Peace, Vespasian’s great temple. But the decision of modern archæology has assigned them to Constantine, on the ground that the brickwork is of much later date than the time of Vespasian, and also that the few remains of decoration which are extant bear indications of a great decline of ornamentative art when they were constructed. Further evidence has been derived from a coin of Maxentius, the rival of Constantine, having been found in 1828 sticking in the mortar of one of the fragments. Aurelius Victor says that the basilica called by the name of Constantine was begun by Maxentius.[36] The three gigantic arches now standing formed the roof of the eastern aisle of the basilica, which consisted, as the foundation clearly shows, of a central hall and two side aisles. The arches are sixty-eight feet in span and eighty feet high. They are ornamented by octagonal caissons or coffers, containing central rosettes and the interspaces are relieved by rhomboidal panel work. The two side arches have their backs walled up, and there are six arched windows in each wall. At the back of the central arch is a semicircular tribune, with niches for statues and a central pedestal. Some of the marble ornaments of this tribune are still left, and show in their rude execution evidence of the Constantinian style of art. A screen seems to have separated the tribune from the interior of the hall. In front of the three great arches can be plainly seen the spring of the enormous roof which covered the central hall of the basilica. This central hall must have been at least 80 feet in width and 115 feet in height.

The southern aisle was of the same construction and size as the northern, and in place of the tribune had a grand entrance on the side towards the arch of Titus. A flight of steps and a portico with porphyry columns, two of which are now in the Conservatori Museum on the Capitol, formed the approach to the entrance. A white column from the central hall is to be seen erected in front of S. Maria Maggiore, where it was placed in the seventeenth century by Paul V.

At the western end of the central hall was a tribune, the ruins of which are now occupied by a warehouse, and at the eastern end an entrance in three divisions opened into the road between the basilica and the portico of the so-called Temple of Venus and Rome. This entrance had a vestibule or verandah similar to those found at S. Giovanni in Laterano and at S. Maria Maggiore, and answering to the building called a chalcidicum by Vitruvius.[37] (Fig. 9, p. 33.)

SS. Cosma and Damiano.

The church of SS. Cosma and Damiano which now stands at the north-western end of the Basilica of Constantine is, like many other churches in Rome, constructed on the ruins of some ancient temple. A most careful account has been given of its various stages of construction by Mr. Parker.[38] This may possibly have been the site of the original Temple of the Penates, and some archæologists have thought that the round temple which has been converted into the vestibule of the church was that of the Penates. The doorway of this temple with its columns, frieze and bronze doors, has been raised from the lower level of the old temple, on which the crypt of the church now stands beneath the floor. At the back of this the nave of the church was built on the ruins of some unknown temple, and behind the apse of the nave is said by Mr. Parker to have been the wall on which the celebrated Capitoline marble plan of Rome was hung. The fragments of this plan, which was shaken down, he thinks, by the fall of a great mass from the Basilica of Constantine, were found here. The chapel of the Penates was on the road from the summa Sacra Via to the Carinæ, which would place it near this spot.[39] The name “Temple of Romulus” given to the ruins by mediæval writers may have been derived from some restoration by Romulus, son of Maxentius.

Lavacrum of Heliogabalus.

We now pass through the arch of Titus along the ancient road towards the Coliseum, and on the slope of the Palatine to our right stand the ruins of a mediæval church which was excavated in 1873 by Cav. Rosa. This is said to have been called the church of S. Maria Antiqua, and to have been placed upon the ruins of the lavacrum of Heliogabalus.[40] The chambers now disclosed seem to have been used as a bath. Along the side of the hill near this are numerous ruins similar to those on the other side of the Palatine, which were apparently guard rooms.

CHAPTER II.

THE FORUM ROMANUM.

Temple of Castor.

At a short distance from the entrance to the Palatine we can enter the Forum near the ruins of an ancient temple, three columns of which are still standing. These three columns are among the most conspicuous and beautiful remains of ancient Rome. No doubt can now be felt that they belonged to the Temple of Castor and Pollux. The situation agrees with that which is pointed out by the Ancyræan inscription, and by the fact that Caligula made a passage from the Palatine Palace to this temple.

The substructions of this building have been cleared, and the length and breadth of the basement and of the steps forming the approach can now be clearly seen. The three columns belonged to the central part of the south-eastern side. They are of most elegant proportions, and their capitals, architrave and frieze are ornamented with decorative work of the very best period of Græco-Roman architecture. The designs on the entablature are most delicate and perfect, and well repay a minute examination. Besides the usual ornaments upon the cornice and corbels there is along the upper edge a row of beautiful lions’ heads, through which the rain-water ran off.

The temple had evidently eight columns in front, and eleven side columns, reckoning in the corner column. The approach was raised high above the forum level, and has three steps projecting beyond the line of the next building, the Basilica Julia. The lines of the front steps are preserved, and also those of the side towards the Capitol, while the other side has been destroyed. The pavement in front of this has been miserably altered and mended at a late date, probably after the fourth century.

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The capitals when compared with the earlier Corinthian capitals of the Pantheon, show a longer and narrower type which is also found at the Temple of Vespasian and the peristyle of Nerva’s Forum, the Colonacce. The lower foundations of the basement are of old tufa rubble construction, and possibly belong to the date of the original foundations in B.C. 494 by the dictator Aulus Postumius, who vowed to build it at the battle of the Lake Regillus in the Latin war. It was afterwards dedicated by his son in B.C. 484. Two restorations are mentioned, the first executed by L. Metellus Dalmaticus, consul in B.C. 119, and the second by Drusus and Tiberius in A.D. 6. The temple was used for meetings of the senate, for harangues from its steps to the people in the forum, and for holding courts of law. A register of changes in the value of money was kept in the tabularium of the temple, and deposits were made here as in many other temples.[41] Standing as the old temple did near the veteres tabernæ of the forum, and the newer restorations of them near the Basilica Julia, it was convenient for business transactions. On the north-west side a street pavement leading to the Velabrum has been laid bare, which may be that of the Vicus Tuscus.

Puteal.

Descending from the Temple of Castor to the ancient pavement of the Forum Romanum, we find at the north-eastern corner of the ruin the remains of a puteal or well-house which has naturally been supposed to be the fountain of Juturna from its neighbourhood to the Temple of the Twin Brethren, who are said to have given their horses drink there after the battle of Regillus.

Temple of Vesta.

A little farther to the south the basement of a round building is to be seen, which may very probably have been the ancient Temple of Vesta. This was a round building, as we conclude from Ovid and Plutarch’s notices, and was intended by Numa, the first founder, to denote the spherical shape of the earth which Vesta personified, or the original family hearth.[42]

Chapel of Julius Cæsar.

In front of the Temple of Castor a large block of substructions has been cleared, which is with great probability assigned to the chapel built in honour of Julius Cæsar, and called the Heroon of Cæsar. Ovid’s lines, in one of his letters from Pontus—

“Like the twin brethren whom in their abode
Julius, the god, beholds from his high shrine,”

seem to prove that the heroon was in front of that temple. The body of Cæsar was burnt in front of the regia and Temple of Vesta, which were at this end of the Forum, and the heroon was placed on the spot where it was burnt. The remains of two small staircases were found at the sides of the heroon, and a wider staircase in front. The epithet “high,” given by Ovid to its position, seems to be in accordance with the raised basement. The semicircle of masonry on the north side has not been satisfactorily explained. It is usually supposed to have belonged to the Julian rostra, but its shape is not such as to support this idea.

Temple of Antoninus and Faustina.

To the north-east of the heroon of Julius Cæsar, we find the ancient pavement of the road which ran along the north-eastern side of the Forum, and to this road descend the steps of a temple with a conspicuous row of six cipollino columns, and with two columns and a pilaster besides the corner column on each side. These columns have Attic bases and Corinthian capitals of white marble. The inscription upon the plain architrave in front shows that the temple was first dedicated to Faustina alone, and that the first three words, including the emperor’s name, were added after his death. The Faustina here commemorated was probably the elder Faustina, wife of Antoninus Pius, as a representation at this temple is given on one of the medals struck in her honour.[43] She died in A.D. 141, and Antoninus Pius in 161. The frieze of the temple is ornamented at the sides with a bold and finely-executed relief representing griffins with upraised wings, between which are carved elaborately-designed candelabra and vases. A considerable part of the side walls of grey peperino blocks anciently faced with marble is still standing. A church was built here at a very early time, but the present building which forms a strange contrast in the meanness of its style and proportions to the massive grandeur of the grey old ruin which embraces it, was built in 1602 by the guild of the Roman apothecaries.[44]

Extent of the Forum.
Seven brick pedestals.
Column of Phocas.

We now pass along the ancient stone pavement towards the Capitol, and observe how small the space occupied by the ancient Forum Romanum was. The temple we have just left stood in the north-eastern corner, and the columns of the two temples opposite to us on the slope of the Capitol mark the other end of the Forum. The central pavement now laid bare is of travertine flags, while the roads are marked by basaltic blocks. On the side of the central space runs a row of seven large masses of brickwork, which seem to be the bases of pedestals which supported dedicatory columns, or statues similar to the one still standing at the end, which has become known to English travellers as “the nameless column with the buried base” of Byron. Since Byron’s time the base of this has been unburied, and bears the name of Smaragdus, proclaimed exarch of Italy for the eleventh time,[45] who erected it in honour of the Emperor Phocas. The date is given by the words INDICT. UND., which show that Smaragdus was in his eleventh year as exarch, and we know that he was exarch under Mauricius for five years, A.D. 583-588, and six years under Phocas, A.D. 602-608. His eleventh year would thus be in 608, and this was the fifth year of Phocas’ reign, so that the last words of the inscription confirm the explanation given of the previous words INDICT. UND.[46] “P. C.” in the inscription probably mean, as Clinton explains, post consulatum, which was the way of reckoning in the later years of the Eastern Empire.

Pedestal of equestrian statue.

In the centre of the Forum traces of the base of a large pedestal can be discerned, and this is supposed to have been the position of the equestrian statue of Domitian described at length by Statius, who says in the first poem of his ‘Silvæ’ that an equestrian statue of Domitian stood at the north-western end of the Forum, looking towards the other end. It was a triumphal statue erected in honour of Domitian’s campaigns against the Catti and Daci. The poet describes its position very accurately, mentioning the Heroon of Julius Cæsar which faced it, the Basilica Julia on the right, the Basilica Paulli on the left, and the temples of Concord and Vespasian behind. The Temple of Saturn is omitted for some unknown reason. Statius also alludes to some other principal objects in the Forum, the Temple of Vesta, the Temple of Castor, and the statue of Curtius. He concludes with prophesying that the statue will outlast the eternal city.[47] It seems, however, probable, as Mr. Nichols in his admirable book on the Forum has said, that the statue was removed after Domitian’s death, when his memory was execrated, or was dedicated to a succeeding emperor, and that the statement of Herodian about the dream of Severus, who imagined that he saw an equestrian statue in the Forum, a colossal representation of which remained there in the historian’s time, may refer to this pedestal.[48]

Trajan’s bas-reliefs.

Two of the most interesting monuments which have been brought to light by the recent excavations in Rome were discovered in 1872, near the base of the column of Phocas, where they have been re-erected. They consist of marble slabs, sculptured with bas-reliefs and forming low screens. Each screen is constructed of slabs of unequal size, and some of these have been unfortunately lost. Their original position has been restored as nearly as possible, and they stand parallel to each other in a line crossing the area of the Forum. On the inner sides of both of these sculptured screens, the sacrificial animals, the boar, sheep and bull, always offered up at the Suovetaurilia, are represented.

The other sides, which are turned outwards, represent scenes in the Forum, and are commemorative of some public benefaction of one of the emperors, probably Trajan or Hadrian. On one of them Italia is represented thanking the emperor for establishing some “alimenta publica,” public relief institutions, and for apportioning lands to encourage needy parents to rear their children. Such relief funds and lands intended to supply the defective population of Italy were first established by the Emperor Nerva, and afterwards by Trajan, Hadrian, and the Antonines, and are frequently commemorated on medals, and mentioned by the historians Dion Cassius and Aurelius Victor, and the authors of the Augustan history.[49] The emperor is represented in a sitting posture, and stretching out his hand towards a child presented by a woman in the character of Italia, who apparently holds another child ready for presentation. Behind the emperor’s seat is the fig-tree called Navia or Ruminalis, which is said to have grown near the rostra, and also the figure of Marsyas which stood in the same place. At the other end of this sculptured scene stands a speaker with a roll in his hand, addressing a crowd of citizens from a rostrum, which may perhaps represent the publication of the edict establishing alimenta.

The other bas-relief scene shows a rostrum at one end, from which a sitting figure is superintending the burning of large bundles of books, carried and placed in front of him in a heap. The outline of a figure applying a torch can be traced, and also of several attendants. At the opposite end to the sitting figure the fig-tree and Marsyas are placed as in the other relief.

The style of art in which the reliefs are executed cannot, in Professor Henzen’s opinion, belong to an earlier period than Trajan’s reign. The treatment corresponds to that on those reliefs taken from Trajan’s arch, and set up on Constantine’s arch. After Trajan’s time the style of bas-relief was so much altered that we cannot suppose them to have been sculptured later than the first year of Hadrian.

As Trajan gained great popularity in the early years of his reign by an abolition of the arrears of certain debts due to the imperial treasury, amounting to a large sum, and as he also established alimenta, these reliefs have been generally supposed to commemorate his public benefactions, in founding relief institutions and cancelling public debts.

The backgrounds of both the sculptures are occupied by representations of some public buildings, but it does not seem possible to identify these with any certainty. That they roughly represent some of the temples and Basilicas in the Forum in a sketch is all we can say. One of the temples shown in the relief which depicts the foundation of alimenta has only five columns in its portico, showing a want of accuracy in the drawing which throws great doubt upon its topographical value. The archæologists who have endeavoured to name the buildings have agreed in calling the Ionic and the Corinthian portico in the relief where the account books are being burnt those of the Temples of Saturn and Vespasian, with an arch of the tabularium between them, and the long row of arches the Basilica Julia, but they differ as to the buildings shown in the other relief, for while Mr. Nichols thinks that the Basilica Julia is here again represented with the Heroon of Julius Cæsar and the arch of Augustus, Signor Brizio is of opinion that we have here the north-western side of the Forum with the Basilica Æmilia.[50] The rostra are probably meant to represent temporary wooden constructions.

The most reasonable conjecture which has yet been made as to the purpose which these sculptured screens served is that they formed a pons or passage along which voters passed at a time of election from the Forum to the office where the votes were taken. A great part of the structures used at such times was probably temporary, and made of wood for the occasion. Another explanation suggested by Mr. Nichols is that they formed a passage leading to an altar and statue of the Emperor. It may be that the sculptures never reached their destined site, but were left here, as many of the marbles on the Tiber banks were, and gradually buried in rubbish.

Basilica Julia.

We now pass to the rows of restored bases of columns, which occupy the long space on the south-western side of the seven pedestals above mentioned. Here we find the ground plan of the great Basilica Julia marked out by a treble row of columns at each of the larger sides, and a double row at each end. One pier of the outer row towards the Forum has been restored by Rosa so as to show the original height.

The proof that these ruins belong to the Basilica Julia which was planned by Julius Cæsar, and begun by him but completed by Augustus, who dedicated it to his grandsons Caius and Lucius, is the statement in the monumentum Ancyranum, in which it is placed between the temples of Saturn and Castor.

A second proof is derived from two inscriptions found during the process of clearing the site, one of which records the repair of the Basilica Julia, and the erection in it of a statue by Gabinius Vettius Probianus, prefect of the city in A.D. 377, and the other the rebuilding of the Basilica Julia under Maximian after the fire which destroyed it in the time of Carinus and Numerian. This site is also assigned to the Basilica on the Capitoline plan which may be seen on the staircase of the Capitoline Museum. The outline given there, and marked by the name Basilica Julia, agrees in proportion, and in the rows of columns with the extant remains, and this shows that the present ruin is the same in its main points with that which stood in the time of Severus, when the Capitoline plan was made.[51] Seven steps lead up to the level of the floor from the Forum level.

A great deal of legal business was transacted here, as may be seen from the frequent mention of it in Pliny’s Epistles. There were four tribunals, of which Quintilian speaks, at which four trials could be carried on at the same time; but these tribunals were probably wooden and temporary erections, and there is no trace of any semicircular apses, such as those in the Basilica of Constantine. One of Caligula’s amusements, as we are told by Suetonius, was to stand upon the roof of this basilica, and throw money to the mob in the Forum to scramble for. Whether the basilica was covered over in the centre is not certain, but it probably was so, with two aisles open to the Forum. The row of arches standing at the north-west corner is partly a restoration of the basilica by Canina, and partly consists of some piers and a wall standing behind, which has not yet been satisfactorily identified with any ancient building. The most probable supposition is that they belonged to the Porticus Julia mentioned by Dion Cassius, and were parts of an earlier edifice, in front of which and upon which the basilica was placed by Augustus.

Cloaca.

Under the southern end of the floor of the Julian Basilica, an opening has been made in which the arch of the main cloaca of the Forum valley can be seen passing across the Forum towards the Subura. This is the drain of which Juvenal speaks, when he says that the fish taken from the Crypta Suburæ is the climax of indignity offered to the unhappy parasite Trebius at his patron’s table.[52] The course of the drain runs from here under the Via dei Fenili down to the Janus Quadrifrons in the Velabrum, where it meets other branches and passes down to the Tiber. Between the eastern end of the Basilica Julia and the temple of Castor ran the Vicus Tuscus, of which the paving-stones may still be traced. At the western end the Vicus Jugarius led towards the Velabrum, but this is buried under the present Via della Consolazione, and cannot be seen.

Arch of Tiberius.

The Arch of Tiberius, which stood at the corner of the Basilica Julia, where the Vicus Jugarius and the Clivus Capitolinus diverged, cannot be clearly traced, though some of its ruins have been thought to exist among those uncovered at the edge of and under the modern road. This arch has been with great probability supposed to be that alluded to by Tacitus in speaking of the recovery of the Roman standards lost by Varus, and retaken by Germanicus under the auspices of Tiberius.[53] The triumphal arch represented on the Arch of Constantine is also thought to be that of Tiberius placed here.

Temple of Saturn.

We now pass under the modern road to the foot of the Capitoline Hill, and proceed to examine the most prominent ruin at the western end of the Forum. This consists of eight columns, six of red granite forming a front, and two side columns of grey granite. The capitals of these and the decoration of the entablature, architrave and frieze surmounting them are of a late and debased Ionic order with volutes in the later style, and they have been pieced together in the last restoration of the temple with extraordinary negligence. Unequal spaces are left between the columns, and some are set upon plinths while others are without them. One of the side columns has been so badly re-erected that the stones are misplaced, and consequently the diameter of the upper portion is of the same size as that of the lower. The restored carving on the inner frieze is of the roughest description, and the barbarous negligence of the whole restoration shows that it cannot have been done earlier than the fourth or fifth century. A comparison of the ruins now remaining with the plan as given on the fragments of the Capitoline map, bearing the name SAT VRNI has been made by Jordan, who shows that the remains of a prominent and peculiar flight of steps in front of the six columns correspond to the rough sketch on the plan, and that this flight of steps facing north must be taken to be the front of the temple.[54] The pavement stones of the road which led from the forum past the front of the temple may still be traced curving round this projecting flight of steps. Little doubt now remains that the ruin of the eight columns, the name of which has been so much discussed, belonged to the Temple of Saturn.

Temple of Saturn. Temple of Antoninus and Faustina. Coliseum and Arch of Titus. Temple of Castor.

The inscription now upon the front was placed there at its latest restoration which, as we have seen, was in Christian times, and the name of the divinity is therefore omitted.

This temple was one of the most revered and ancient in the city, and its foundation is traced back in legendary myth to the Hellenic Kronos. The earliest date given for the dedication is B.C. 498. Many restorations must have taken place. An inscription recording one in the time of Augustus by Munatius Plancus has been found. This temple long retained the name of the Mint, from the fact that the state treasures were deposited under the care of the god Saturnus, as one of the most venerated of Roman deities.

Area of the Dii Consentes.

The ancient road leading up to the Capitol made a turn behind the Temple of Saturn, and a portico with semi-Corinthian or Composite columns has been restored from some columns and capitals found here in 1835. At the back of this portico were twelve recessed chambers occupied by chapels of the twelve deities called the Dii Consentes. Four of these still remain under the modern Via del Campidoglio. The walls are chiefly of brickwork, apparently of the second or third century, but the back wall against the ascent to the Capitol is of hard tufa. The interiors were faced with marble, of which traces are left. From the inscription found in 1835 upon the architecture it appears that Vettius Prætextatus, a prefect of the city in A.D. 367, restored the statues of the Dii Consentes, which had stood here from ancient times. Varro mentions gilded statues of the gods of the council as near the Forum, and also speaks of their temple. This portico and chambers cannot, however, have been a temple, but were evidently clerks’ offices connected with the state depositories near the Temple of Saturn. Cicero speaks of the clerks of the Capitoline ascent.[55] Vettius Prætextatus, who restored the building in 367, was notorious for his opposition to the Christian religion and for his zeal in supporting the ancient cultus. He held several offices, and was pro-consul of Achaia under Julian, and probably recommended himself to that emperor by his attachment to the old Roman religion.

Schola Xanthi.

Below the portico and its chambers stands another row of lower chambers, three of which are said by Marliani to have been found entire in the sixteenth century. Inscriptions found here give the name of Schola to the chambers, and hence they have been called Schola Xanthi, from the name of Xanthus, which occurs in the inscription as a restorer. They were undoubtedly clerks’ offices, similar to those behind the portico of the Dii Consentes above them.

Temple of Vespasian.

We now turn from the portico of the Dii Consentes to the three Corinthian columns which stand under the large building called the Tabularium. These three columns have now been proved to belong to the ruin of a temple dedicated to Vespasian by his son Domitian. This position of Vespasian’s temple agrees with the statements of the Notitia and Curiosum and of Statius. The inscription, of which only the letters ESTITUER now remain, was seen and the whole of it transcribed by a writer of the ninth century, whose MS. is preserved at Einsiedlen.[56] It recorded the restoration of this temple by Severus and Caracalla. The letters ESTITUER stand at the lower edge of the frieze, showing that there was another line above. This upper line was DIVO. VESP. AUG. S.P.Q.R., and referred to the original building of the temple, while the lower line recorded its restoration. The temple was approached by a flight of steps from the road between it and the Temple of Saturn, the uppermost of which were placed between the columns and have been partially restored. The three columns which now remain are the three corner columns of the portico. They have fluted shafts and Corinthian capitals. The letters of the inscription were of metal, and the holes of the rivets which fastened them are still visible. The architrave and cornice are ornamented very richly with the usual mouldings, and there are some most interesting reliefs upon the frieze representing sacrificial implements and the skulls of oxen. A horsetail for sprinkling, and a sacrificial knife with a vase, a patera, an axe, and a high priest’s mitre are plainly distinguishable. Another portion of the entablature was pieced together by Canina and is still kept in the rooms of the Tabularium. The walls of the cella were built of travertine faced with marble. Against the back wall stands a large pedestal which supported the statue of the deified Emperor.

Temple of Concord.

Next to the temple of Vespasian, we are told by Statius, stood the Temple of Concord. The site is also determined by passages in Plutarch and in Dion Cassius, and by the plan given in the Capitoline map. Excavations were carried out here in 1817, 1830, and 1835 which resulted in disclosing the foundations of the temple, and in finding some inscriptions which attest the dedication of this spot to the goddess Concord. The temple of Concord was founded according to Livy, Ovid, and Plutarch by Camillus in B.C. 367, on the memorable occasion when the senate after a long and anxious debate, wisely determined to make peace with the Commons by throwing open the office of Consul to the plebeian order.[57]

It was placed near the old meeting-place (Comitium) of the privileged families (gentes), as if constantly to remind them that the newly established concord of the community was under the special sanction of the gods. When the Temple of Camillus was first restored we do not learn. The earliest notice of a new Temple to Concord is the statement that the Consul Opimius was ordered by the senate on the death of C. Gracchus to build a new temple to Concord. The temple seems to have been a kind of Pantheon or museum, for it was filled with a great number of statues of various gods, and with curiosities. On the left-hand side of the remaining foundations of the cella are two large pedestals which probably supported two of the principal statues.

Tiberius rebuilt it after his German campaign in A.D. 6 and 7, and dedicated it in honour of himself and his brother. The form of the latest restoration, which seems to have been carried out after the building behind it, the so-called Tabularium, was built, as it is placed so close to that building and must have rendered the decorations on its walls invisible, can be traced by the present relics of foundation walls, and presents a singular deviation from the normal plan of a Roman temple. The pronaos, or front chamber, is narrower than the cella or shrine behind it, and forms a sort of porch to it. This is an instance of the form of temple called prostylos by Vitruvius, and consisting of a broad Tuscan cella with a narrow Greek portico.[58]

The cella has greater breadth than depth. The basement is of considerable height in front, and some of the steps, Cicero’s Gradus Concordiæ[59] can be traced, while the enormous threshold of African marble still remains. A coin of Tiberius shows us that the temple had a portico of six columns in the Corinthian style, and a group of three figures embracing, as a symbol of Concord, at the top. One of the bases of the columns is still preserved in the Capitoline Museum, and a portion of the frieze was restored by Canina, showing that the decorative work was of great beauty. The inscription is given in the Einsiedlen MS. of the ninth century, and the temple was still standing in the twelfth century, as we learn from the Ordo Romanus, a procession route book. The stones were probably carried away for building purposes in the thirteenth century. Between the ruins of the Temple of Concord and those of Vespasian’s Temple, the foundations of a little chapel of Faustina may be seen. The name has been given to it from an inscription discovered here.

Arch of Severus.

Close to the ruins of the Temple of Concord stands the triumphal arch of Septimius Severus, composed of three archways of Pentelic marble. The side archways are connected with the central archway by small openings in the intervening walls, and the arched interiors of all three are decorated by square coffers with rosette ornaments. On each side stand four columns of Proconnesian marble with Composite capitals, on the pedestals of which are bas-reliefs representing figures of barbarian captives clothed in breeches and wearing the chlamys and Phrygian cap, and conducted by Roman soldiers wearing the lacerna. The spandrils of the arches are ornamented with the usual figures of Victory and symbols of captivity, in the outlines of the river gods of the Euphrates and Tigris. Between each pair of outer and inner pillars there are large bas-relief sculptured scenes executed in a very confused and tasteless style. The four lower and narrow compartments show the goddess Roma receiving the homage of the East, which is personified by a woman wearing a tiara. Behind her, in a long train of carts and carriages, come the spoils of the various nations conquered by Severus. Above this narrow line of figures which runs round below the four compartments above the side arches, are four larger bas-reliefs representing the sieges and victories of Severus in Parthia, Adiabene, and Arabia. On the side towards the Forum is represented on the left hand the raising of the Parthian siege of Nisibis in northern Mesopotamia by Severus after he had crushed his rivals Æmilianus and Pescennius Niger in Pontus and Syria. The taking of the town of Carræ west of Nisibis, and the march of the Roman army thence against the Adiabenians are also here portrayed. The compartment, on the right hand, looking from the Forum, contains a bas-relief representation of the surrender of Abgarus, king of Osroene,[60] and the siege of the town of Hatra on the Tigris.

Arch of Severus.

On the other side towards the Capitol and so-called Tabularium, the second campaign of Severus in the East is portrayed. On the right hand the flight of the Parthians from Babylon, the entry of the Romans into that city and the second siege of Hatra are represented. On the left is the wresting of the towns of Seleucia and Ctesiphon from the Parthians, the flight of their king Artobanus and the surrender of the Arabians who had joined the Parthian side.[61]

The entablature which surmounts these arches is badly designed and executed, the projections over the columns being far too heavy. Upon the attica above the entablature there are the traces of nails on the corner pilasters which seem to have borne some military ensigns. The whole central space of the attica is occupied by a long inscription formerly inlaid, as appears from the rivets, with metal. Upon a coin of Severus giving a representation of the arch, a chariot with six horses is shown standing over the attica, and on the four corners were equestrian statues.

From the inscription it appears that the arch was built in the year A.D. 203. The repetition of the title Parthicus, points to the Parthian campaigns of Severus. In the fourth line the name of Geta and his titles have been erased, as in other ruins of the same date, and the words OPTIMIS FORTISSIMISQUE PRINCIPIBUS inserted in their place. In the middle ages the tower of a church called SS. Sergio e Bacco was built upon the top of this arch, but was removed in 1536 on the entry of Charles V. by command of Pope Paul III.

Ruins under the road across the end of the Forum.

Near the Arch of Severus, and also between the temple of Saturn and the corner of the Basilica Julia, the modern road runs over archways. Under the archways some substructions of large peperino stones and other forms of building have been disclosed. These may have belonged to pedestals upon which statues were placed, or in the case of those near the arch of Severus to the later Rostra and Græcostasis, and in the case of those near the corner of the Basilica Julia to the Arch of Tiberius. The round pedestal which stands near the Arch of Severus was possibly the pedestal of the Miliarium Aureum, as it is not strong enough to bear the weight of a heavy statue.[62]

A representation of the Rostra of the Empire which may have stood here is given in the relief on the face of the Arch of Constantine, which looks towards the Coliseum, where three arches are seen, corresponding to the Arch of Severus on the right, and one arch corresponding to that of Tiberius on the left. Constantine is shown in this bas-relief addressing the people from the rostra.

The Carcer.

Under the church of S. Giuseppe dei Falegnami, which stands near the Arch of Severus, are two chambers, which are always shown as the ancient prison of Rome, said to have been first built by the King Ancus Martius, and then rebuilt or enlarged by Servius Tullius. The upper of these two chambers is of an irregular shape, but the lower is constructed in a conical form by the gradual projection of the stones forming the sides. This mode of building an arch is of very early date, before the introduction of the principle of the round arch, and is found in the oldest tombs of Etruria, and in well-houses at Tusculum and Cære.[63]

There can be no doubt that this part of the building is of great antiquity. But the proofs that it ever formed a prison are not so clear. This has been inferred from the striking account of the imprisonment of Jugurtha by Sallust, who states that Jugurtha was placed in a cell with water at the bottom, and exclaimed, “Hercules, how cold your bath is!” Hence it has been thought that the prison must have had water in it, as this chamber has on the floor.

Another proof that this is the ancient prison, called in the middle ages the Mamertine prison, from a statue of Mars or Mamers, or from the Forum Martis near it, has been derived from the statements of many Roman authors, who place the prison on the slope of the Capitol, near the Forum, and speak of an inferior as well as a superior chamber. The prison was probably in this neighbourhood, but the shape of the conical vault is rather that of a well-house. Mommsen has therefore suggested that this was the original purpose of the lower chamber, and that it was used as a cistern for collecting the water from the surrounding slopes. The top of the ancient conical vault is truncated and closed, with the exception of a round hole, by slabs of stone fastened together with iron cramps.

A communication with the arched sewers which run down to the Forum, and also with an archway which reaches up the slope to some large chambers on the north-west under the Vicolo del Ghettarello, has been opened by Mr. Parker, and these longer vaulted chambers which are of great antiquity, have been taken to be extensions of the original regal prison. But there is no sufficient evidence to show that these arched passages were used for any purpose of transit, and they were more probably channels for draining off the water, which would otherwise have accumulated in the chambers or on the slopes.[64]

An inscription is fixed in the outer wall, recording a restoration of the building by the Consuls C. Vibius Rufinus and M. Cocceius Nerva, as ordered by a decree of the Senate. These two men were consules suffecti before A.D. 24, probably in A.D. 22, the ninth year of Tiberius. But the name of the building is not mentioned in this inscription, and it seems uncertain whether it has not been removed from elsewhere.

There was another and larger prison in this district, and this larger prison was called the Lautumiæ. Forty-three Ætolian prisoners are said by Livy to have been crucified in the Lautumiæ, which must therefore have been certainly much more extensive than the cell which is called the Carcer Mamertinus. Seneca also mentions the request of a prisoner, Julius Sabinus, that he might be removed from the Carcer to the Lautumiæ.[65] There seems, therefore, to be no distinct proof that the conical cell was ever anything more than a water tank, and the name of prison which has been attached to it is probably a mediæval legend invented to indicate a spot which might be venerated as the prison of St. Peter.

Tabularium.

On the side of the Capitoline Hill towards the Forum, a very high and wide mass of building, now called the Palace of the Senator, and used for the transaction of urban business, stands. This is founded upon an ancient range of masonry of which a considerable part still remains, measuring about 220 feet in length, and 50 feet in height. An entrance has been made from the Via del Campidoglio, and as the wall was cut through for this purpose, the structure of the building may be best observed here. On the inner side red tufa has been used, and on the outer grey peperino, and the blocks are laid alternately lengthwise and crosswise, as in the Servian wall building. A great mass of masonry of this sort without cement, forms the main substructions of the building. Along the front run the traces of an arcaded passage, which anciently led across from one side to the other of the building. The arches were walled up by Nicolas V., in order to bear modern buildings above them. One has now been opened to show the architecture. A pavement of basaltic lava, such as was used in the streets of ancient Rome, has been found in the arcade, showing that it was a public passage. The architecture of the building is Doric, which points to an early date, and the capitals and cornice are of travertine. It is probable that another arcade ran above the one now traceable. A high flight of steps leads up into the chambers from the archway now walled up at the back of the Temple of Vespasian. From the architecture it may be concluded that these remains of a large ancient building date from the republican times of Rome, and are almost the only relics of that era. This ruin is generally called the Tabularium, but it has been shown by Mommsen that there is no ground for supposing that the name was ever applied to it in any ancient writings, and that the name is more properly Ærarium Populi Romani, or Ærarium Saturni, and that it was attached to the Temple of Saturn. Many of the temples in Rome had æraria attached to them, and it does not appear that any central place of deposit ever had the name of Tabularium alone, without further title, especially applied to it. The inscription which has been placed at the entrance, and records the construction of some building, or part of a building by Q. Lutatius Catulus, when consul, was placed where it now stands by Canina. It is supposed by Mommsen to refer to the repairs and alterations of the vaults under the Capitol, which were carried out in pursuance of Sulla’s plan of improvements on the Capitol, and after Sulla’s death were continued for many years by Q. Catulus.[66]

CHAPTER III.

THE COLISEUM AND ESQUILINE.

Meta Sudans.

On the road from the Forum Romanum to the Coliseum, after passing through the Arch of Titus, we descend between the platform and ruins of the Temple of Venus and Rome, and the remains called the lavacrum of Heliogabalus, mentioned previously, and, close to the south-western corner of the mass of substruction on the left, we find a conical column of brickwork about thirty feet high. A large breach on the side towards the Coliseum shows that the centre was pierced with a perpendicular pipe, and the eastern exhibits traces of having been divided into three ledges or stages. This conical building stood in the centre of a circular basin, the ruin of which has been traced out and restored. The shape would of itself point to the purpose which this building served, even if this were not rendered clear by the remains of a watercourse which descended to it from the Esquiline. The name Meta Sudans by which the ruin is known comes from the mediæval list of buildings known as the Curiosum Urbis, but the earliest authentic authority to which we can appeal for its date is a coin of Alexander Severus, A.D. 222. The passage of Seneca in which he gives the name Meta Sudans as being a spot at which the flute-players and trumpeters made a din by their practice, does not give us any information as to its position, and therefore we are not justified in assuming that the fountain was erected in Nero’s time.[67] The coins of Titus which represent the Coliseum do not show it. Cassiodorus and other chronologists place the date of the Meta Sudans in Domitian’s reign, and this agrees with the coins of Titus and also with the nature of the brickwork, which is of the Flavian era.

Arch of Constantine.

Near the Meta Sudans at the entrance of the Via di S. Gregorio stands the Arch of Constantine, which is the most completely preserved of all ancient Roman buildings. The name of Constantine, revered by subsequent ages, seems to have defended the archway from the barbarous spoliation which attacked most of the great monuments of Rome. The most interesting feature of this arch in the history of art is the proof which it gives of the decline of art in the fourth century. Some of the reliefs with which it is ornamented were taken from an older arch, probably that which formed the entrance to Trajan’s Forum, and those which are of Constantine’s time show a coarse and harsh style of execution in lamentable contrast to the flowing and delicate lines of the more ancient work by their side.

Among the sculptures which belong to the earlier and better period are the large reliefs under the central arch and those which are placed on either end of the attica. These four were originally parts of a larger relief which has been sawn into four equal pieces for the purpose of adorning Constantine’s arch. The order in which they stood in the original design has been pointed out by Bellori. The first part is that now placed on the inside of the middle archway towards the Coliseum, the second stands on the side of the attica over the arch towards the Cælian, the third on the inside of the middle archway towards the Palatine, and the fourth upon the attica on the same side. When united they represented Trajan crowned by Victory, with the goddess Roma standing near, a battle between Dacians and Romans, ending in the defeat and submission of the barbarian army. The dress of the Roman soldiers and of the Dacians is similar to that represented on Trajan’s column, and quite different from the Roman military habit in the age of Constantine. Beside these four rectangular reliefs the eight circular sculptures which stand over the smaller archways belong to the time of Trajan. They represent hunting scenes and sacrificial ceremonies. One of them, the second from the left, upon the side towards the Coliseum, has a remarkable figure of the Emperor with a nimbus or cloud encircling his head, exactly similar to those represented round the heads of modern saints. The eight large reliefs upon the attica over the side archways are also of the workmanship of Trajan’s time, and commemorate some of the exploits of that emperor, among which may be mentioned the construction of a road through the Pontine marshes represented upon the second relief from the left on the side of the attica towards the Coliseum. The reclining figure with a wheel represents the road, and the other figures the surveyors, one of which is perhaps Apollodorus, the famous Greek architect of Damascus. The other reliefs upon the sides of the attica represent interviews of Trajan with barbarian princes, and the common sacrifice of the Suovetaurilia, so frequently depicted on the reliefs of the columns of that emperor, and also on the large marble screens now standing in the Forum Romanum. The remainder of the sculptures belong to the Constantinian era, and contain, viewed as works of art, nothing worth attention. One of them on the side next to the Coliseum is, however, of great interest to the antiquarian, as it represents the rostra of the later Empire and the northern end of the Forum, with the arches of Severus and Tiberius, and the end of the Basilica Julia, and another, on the side towards the Via di S. Gregorio representing the victory of Constantino over Maxentius at the Milvian bridge, is historically valuable.

The figures which stand in front of the attica have the Dacian costume, and have been removed from some one of Trajan’s buildings. Upon the side of the central archway can be still seen the traces of nails which fastened some Roman ensigns to the stones. Similar traces of nails are to be seen upon the arch of Severus as before mentioned.

The inscriptions over the smaller arches refer to the decennalia or vicennalia, a festival celebrated after the time of Augustus every ten years of an emperor’s reign when he was supposed to have the imperium conferred upon him afresh. The meaning of the expression VOTIS X. VOTIS XX. seems to be that these inscriptions were put up on the “vota” or day when vows were made for the emperor’s safety at the beginning of the tenth and twentieth years of his reign. This is not an uncommon signification of the word “vota” in later Latin. The day which was usually called vota was either the first or third of January, and the custom of offering these vows was retained long after Christianity had been nominally made the state religion, so that it is not surprising to find it alluded to on Constantine’s arch.[68] The words on the other side of the arch SIC. X. SIC. XX. may be interpreted as the form of words used in making vows to the emperor. “Sic x. annos regnet; sic xx. annos regnet.” “May his reign last ten years more or twenty years.”

The larger inscription which is cut upon the attica on both sides shows that the arch was erected in honour of the victory of Constantine over Maxentius, and the union of the empire under one sovereign. It is not, however, certain that the arch was built in the first year of Constantine’s sole reign, for not only do the words INSTINCTU DIVINITATIS “by inspiration of the Deity,” seem to indicate a more decided leaning to Christianity than Constantine showed at the beginning of his reign, but the title of Maximus, which is found in the inscription, does not occur in the coins of Constantine before the tenth year of his reign.

The solid contents of this arch, as may be seen by ascending the staircase which is entered by a door at some height from the ground at the end nearest the Palatine Hill, are mainly composed of pieces of marble taken from other buildings, and it has even been suspected that the plan itself, which in beauty of proportion surpasses the Arch of Severus, was borrowed, together with the materials, from Trajan’s Arch or some older building now destroyed.

The Coliseum, from the Palatine Hill.

The Coliseum.

We now pass from the Arch of Constantine, with its borrowed ornamentation, to the great ruin of Rome, the Coliseum, or Flavian Amphitheatre. Although two-thirds of the original building have disappeared under the shameful treatment to which the barbarous nobles of the middle agessubjected it, enough still remains to show the arrangement of the entrances, passages, and seats of this wonderful construction. The plan of the whole may be best described as consisting of three principal massive concentric elliptical arcades. The intervals between each of these are filled in with other arched work containing corridors and staircases, and between the innermost of these three arcades and the wall which surrounded the arena was a triple system of substruction supporting the lower parts of the rows of seats in the amphitheatre. The stone used throughout is travertine, with the exception of some interior work of brick and concrete, and some pumice-stone in the arches. The elliptical shape was probably chosen instead of the circular in imitation of the amphitheatre of Curio, which was composed of two semicircular theatres with their stages between them. The name Coliseum was possibly derived from the great colossal statue of Nero which for a long time stood close to the Flavian Amphitheatre, and when the real history of the amphitheatre was lost, would naturally become the most prominent mark by which it could be designated. This colossal statue was placed originally in the vestibule of Nero’s Golden Palace, and was 120 feet high, according to Suetonius. The material was bronze and the artist was Zenodorus. It appears that Vespasian, and afterwards Hadrian, moved the colossus to make room for their new buildings, and that it was finally placed upon the massive pedestal of brickwork which still remains on the north of the Coliseum. That it actually stood upon this pedestal is shown by a coin of Alexander Severus, which represents the Coliseum with the colossus close to it. It is said by Gibbon that the name Coliseum was also given to the amphitheatre at Capua without reference to a colossal statue. The Capuan title may, however, have been taken from the Roman.

The major axis of this huge amphitheatre, from one outside wall to the other, measures 602 feet, the minor 507. The principal outer wall is 157 feet in height, and is divided into four stories.[69] Of these the lowest stands on a substruction of two steps, and originally consisted of a row of eighty arches, between which stood half columns of the Doric order. These outer arches, with the exception of thirty-three archways, have disappeared. Upon these rests a very simple entablature without any of the usual peculiarities of the Doric style, and rather belonging to the Ionic, a mixture of styles not very rare in Rome.[70] The arches are all numbered. These numbers were probably intended to correspond to those upon the entrance tickets and rows of seats, in order that the spectators might find their proper seats with ease. There is a staircase and a vomitorium corresponding to every four arches, and the vomitoria as well as the entrance arches were all numbered to prevent confusion. A ticket for the amphitheatre at Frosinone has been found. It bears an inscription CAN. VI IN. X. VIII., thus giving the position and number of the seat. The arches which stood at the extremities of the minor axis were the approaches to the imperial pavilions. They were ornamented with marble columns and carved work on the exterior, and led in the interior to a large withdrawing-room, from which there was a separate passage to the emperor’s throne (pulvinar) on the podium. On the Esquiline side the imperial entrance may still be recognised by a slight projection in the substructions, and by the pillars of white marble lying near it, which originally stood on each side. The same arrangement was doubtless made on the Cælian side, where the Emperor Commodus made himself an underground approach. The other two principal entrances at the extremities of the major axis lead directly into the arena, and were probably used for the entry of processions or marching bodies of gladiators, or machines of various kinds.

The entablature of the first story is surmounted by an attica, with projections corresponding to the columns below. Above these stand the arches of the second story, between which half-columns of the Ionic order are placed. The details of the architecture here are in a very meagre style, for the spiral lines on the volutes are omitted, and also the usual toothed ornaments of the entablature. The same remark applies to the third story, the half-columns of which have Corinthian capitals with the acanthus foliage very roughly worked. The fourth story has no arches, but consists of a wall, pierced with larger and smaller square windows placed alternately, and is decorated with pilasters of the Composite order. Between each pair of pilasters three consoles project from the wall, and above these are corresponding niches in the entablature. The purpose of these was to support the masts upon which the awnings were stretched.

The second and third of the principal concentric walls contain arches corresponding to those in the outer wall. Corridors run between these concentric walls, and on the first and second floors of the outer ring, and the first floor of the inner ring, these circles afford a completely unobstructed passage all round. The other corridors are blocked up in parts by various staircases, leading to the upper rows of seats.

Within the third principal concentric arcade the supports of the building take the form of massive walls, radiating from the centre of the ellipse, and divided by elliptical corridors into three ranges. Between these massive walls and in the corridors are the steps and passages leading to the lower seats of the amphitheatre. The actual seats which were of marble have been all pilfered for the benefit of the Roman palaces and churches of the feudal ages, but we can still make out with tolerable certainty the five principal divisions into which they were separated. The lowest of these, called the podium, was a platform raised twelve or fifteen feet above the arena, upon which were placed the chairs of the higher magistrates and dignitaries. This was protected by railings and nets full of spikes, and sometimes also by trenches, called euripi, and horizontal bars of wood or iron which turned freely round, and thus afforded no hold to the paws of a wild animal.

Above the podium were four different orders of seats, divided by belts of upright masonry from each other. The first of these consisted of about twenty rows of seats, and was appropriated to the knights and tribunes, and other state officers. The upper row of this set was probably at a height of about ten feet above the top of the arches of the lowest story. The next ranges of seats between the second and third belt were appropriated to Roman citizens in general, and held the greatest number of spectators.

The wall dividing these seats from the next set was very high, and contained, besides the vomitoria or entrance doors, a number of windows for the purpose of lighting the corridors and passages. A considerable part of this wall is still extant upon the side towards the Esquiline Hill. Above it ran the third set of seats, occupied by the lower classes of the people, and above this again, and separated from it by a very low wall without vomitoria, was the fourth group of seats, immediately under the windows of the uppermost story, and covered by a portico which ran round the whole top of the building.[71] The traces of this uppermost row of seats and of the colonnade which supported the portico may still be seen on the side towards the Esquiline Hill.

The seats in this part seem to have been partly appropriated to women, partly to the lower classes. On the roof of the portico stood the workmen whose business it was to manage the awnings, and to move them as the sun or rain required. The number of seats in the whole amphitheatre is said to have been 87,000, and a considerable number, in addition to these, could stand in the passages between the seats at the entrances of the vomitoria, and in other vacant places, so that the whole number which the building, when filled from top to bottom, could hold, was probably not less than 90,000.

The exterior arcade of the building diminishes in thickness towards the top, in order to render it more stable, and while the Doric and Ionic columns of the first and second stories stand out from the wall by nearly three-quarters of their circumference, the third row of Corinthian columns projects less, and the uppermost row are merely pilasters.

Much discussion has been raised on the question of the awnings or velaria required for so large a space. It is impossible of course, in the absence of any distinct contemporaneous description, to discover the exact mode of suspension adopted. Venuti supposes that a net of cords constructed like a spider’s web, with both radiating and concentric ropes, was suspended over the amphitheatre, and that by pulleys arranged over this the vela were drawn across any part which happened to be exposed to the sun. By means of pulleys attached to this network of rope, the little boys mentioned by Juvenal as caught up to the awnings may have been drawn up. The ropes and pulleys, we are told by Lampridius, were managed by sailors. In rough and windy weather the awnings could not always be drawn, and umbrellas coloured according to the favourite’s colours, or large broad-brimmed hats called causiæ or birri, were then used. Martial has written some amusing epigrams, showing how jealously the seats appropriated to any particular privileged order were reserved. He gives the names of Lectius and Oceanus to the boxkeepers of his time, who chased intruders from the seats to which they were not entitled. And he describes with great humour the attempts of a certain Nanneius to smuggle himself into a better place than he was entitled to. The pickpockets of Martial’s time also frequented the amphitheatre.

The anxiety of the public to attend the shows was so great that they occupied the free seats in the amphitheatre before dawn in the morning, and gave fees to the officials to keep places for them, when any favourite gladiator or bestiarius was announced to perform. The shows lasted whole days, and hence various contrivances for keeping the spectators in good humour, and filling up the intervals between the combats. Seneca tells us of the meridiani, a class of slaves who were kept on purpose to fill up the midday leisure hours with sham fights, and ludicrous pranks played upon the bodies of those killed or half killed in the previous fights. The air was cooled with immense jets of water projected from the centre of the arena, or from holes in the statues, and scented with fragrant essences, among which extract of saffron mixed with wine seems to have been the most popular.

The arena of the Coliseum was originally about 250 feet in length, and 150 feet in breadth. It seems now much larger on account of the removal of the wall of the podium. The attention which has been drawn to the arena during the last few years by the re-opening of the hypogæa, or subterranean passages, renders it necessary to allude to the subject of these hypogæa, and to estimate how far the recent excavations have thrown new light upon the history and construction of the great amphitheatre. When the French occupied Rome, and it was incorporated into their empire in the four years preceding the Battle of Waterloo, the French Government carried out considerable excavations in the arena of the Coliseum, and besides clearing the podium and the chambers annexed to it, they opened the cryptoporticus which runs underground towards the Cælian Hill, and also discovered the passages beneath the arena which have been now excavated again.

A great controversy was raised at that time as to the real level of the original arena between several of the archæological professors and antiquarians of Rome. The same controversy has now been again revived, and the same questions as to the probable date of the underground constructions have been again raised, but with as little hope as ever of arriving at a satisfactory solution. The truth seems to be that, as in most amphitheatres, these hypogæa were constructed at the very first erection of the Coliseum, but have been altered, neglected, filled up, and again cleared out many times during the eventful history of the building, and that it has now become impossible to trace the various stages of such destructions and restorations. As often as the drains which were intended to carry off the water became choked and failed to act, these lower chambers and passages were filled with water and rendered useless.