818 ROME [TOPOGRAPHY AND US 3CUS. nple near it records its restoration by Septimins Severus in 199 A.D. after a fire ; it was again burnt in 282 and restored by Diocletian. These tires had destroyed nearly all the fine marble arches of Augustus ; and Diocletian rebuilt it mostly with brick or travertine piers, a few of which remain. 1 A final restoration is recorded in an inscrip- tion discovered in the 16th century, and another in 1882, as being earned out by Gabinius Vettius Probianus, pi-refect of the city in 377 (Gutter, Inscr., clxxi. 7) ; the latter is on a pedestal which now stands in the Vicus Jngarius. Suetonius (Cal., 37) mentions that it was one of Caligula's amusements to throw money to the people below from the roof of this basilica, which probably was a link in the bridge by which this maniac connected the Palatine with the Capitolium. The line of the bridge, which starts in the upper part of Caligula's palace, passes over a lofty and massive brick -faced building, once lined with marble, which stands on the lower slopes of the Palatine. Suetouius's Account (Cal., 22) of the bridge makes it very probable that this building is the temple of Augustus, as there is no other possible site for it on the line from the Palatine to the Capitolium. The intermediate stages from the temple to the basilica and thence to the Capitolium were probably merely a wooden structure, as no traces of it now remain. The temple of Augustus was begun by Tiberius and finished by Caligula (Suet., Cal., 21). The Vicus Tuscus passes from the Sacra Via between the Basilica Julia and the temple of Castor to the Velabrurn and Circus Maximus ; its basalt paving has been exposed at many points along its whole line (see Liv., xxvii. 37). A very early statue of one of the chief Etruscan deities, Vortuinnus, stood in this street, a little to the south-west of the Basilica Julia, where part of its pedestal was found in 1549 inscribed VORTVMNVS TEMPORIBVS DIOCLE- TIANI . ET . MAXIMIANI . . . (C.I. L., vi. 804 ; 2 see also Pseudo- Ascon., Ad Cic. Verr., ii. 1, 59). The Vicus Tuscus was also called Thurarius, from shops of perfume-sellers (see Hor., Sat., ii. 3, 228, and Ep., ii. 269). It is the street along which processions passed, mentioned by Cicero ( Verr., ii. 1, 59) as extending "a signo Vertumni in Circum Maximum." The temple of Castor 3 on the south-east side of the Vicus Tus- Jastor. cus was founded to commemorate the apparition in the Forum of the Dioscuri announcing the victory of Aulus Postumus at Lake Regillus, 496 B.C., and was dedicated in 482 B.C. by the son of A. Postumus (Liv., ii. 20, 42 ; Dionys., vi. 13 ; Plut, Coriol., 3 ; Ov., Fast., i. 707). In 119 B.C. it was restored by the consul L. Metellus Dalmaticus (Ascon., In Cic. Pro Scaur., 46) and finally rebuilt in the reign of Augustus by Tiberius and Drusus, 6 A.D. (Suet, Tib., 20; Ov., Fast., i. 705; Dion Cass., Iv. 8, 27), to which period belong the three existing Corinthian columns and piece of entablature, all very delicate and graceful in detail, and of the finest workmanship, in Pentelic marble ; the design is of pure Greek style. One point shows Roman timidity in the use of a lintel : the frieze is jointed so as to form a flat arch, quite needlessly, with the object of relieving the weight on the archi- trave. Its plan, hexastyle, with only eleven columns on the sides, is shown in Plate VII. and fig. 14. It had a lofty podium, lined with marble, and decorated with a heavy cornice and pilasters, one under each column. The podium is an interesting example of the enormous solidity of Roman buildings of the best period. Solid tufa walls, 8 feet thick, are built under the whole of the cella and the front row of columns, while the columns of the sides rest on spurs of similar walling, projecting at right angles from that under the cella ; the part immediately under the columns is of travertine, and the spurs are united and strengthened laterally by massive flat arches, also of travertine. With the exception of a small chamber under the steps, entered from the Vicus Tuscus, the entire podium is filled up by a solid mass of concrete, made of broken tufa, pozzolana, and lime, the whole forming a lofty platform, about 22 feet high, solid as a rock, on which the columns and upper structure are erected. Small chambers formed in the con- crete basement, such as the one in this temple, occur in many instances, e.g., in the temples of Saturn, Divus Julius, and Con- cord. They were probably used as strong rooms, in which money and plate were deposited for safe keeping (see Juv., xiv. 260), a purpose for which Roman temples were frequently used. Two fragments of mosaic, with simple lozenge pattern in white marble and basalt, still exist in the cella of this temple. The level of the mosaic shows that it is of earlier date than the rebuilding of Tiberius, as it lies considerably below the level of the later floor. It has all the characteristics of early mosaic very small tesserre fitted with great accuracy, like the early mosaic in the Regia. The temple of Castor was often used as a meeting-place for the 1 The whole building has unhappily been much falsified by needless restora- tion.
- A drawing of this pedestal, which is now lost, with MS. note by Ligorio,
exists in Cod. Vat., 3439, fol. 46. Propertius (FAeg., iv. 2) gives an interesting account of Vortumnus, and in 1. 50 mentions the derivation of the name Vicus Tuscus. 3 The temple of Castor is shown on two fragments of the marble plan (see Plate VII.), and its position is also indicated by the passage in the Mon. Ancyr. quoted above. SACRA FOUNDATIONS Senate, and its lofty podium formed a tribunal for orations. 4 Close by it was another tribunal, probably merely a wooden sug- gestus called the Tribunal Aurelium (see Cic., In 1'ix., 5, and Pro Scxt., 15). The Tons Ju- turnffi (see Ov., Fast., i. 705, and Diouys. , vi. 13), at which the Dioscuri were fabled to have watered their horses, was beside their temple, and the circular traver- tine curb close a by has been sup- posed to have B belonged to this. Its form, how- ever, makes it more probable that it was the plinth of a screen round the Puteal Scri- bonis or Libonis (Hor., Up., i. 19, 8, and Sat., ii. 6, 35), a cir- cular marble [j structure like a JKM well-mouth, or- namented with reliefs of lyres and trnrlflnrl<5 Fio. 14. Plan of temple of Castor, half showing construe- 1 t i ' tion of podium. A. Pedestal of one of the two statues. Close B Bj B Spurs of foundation wall, of travertine and tufa, some spot struck under the three existing columns. C. Steps to small by lightning or chamber in concrete core of podium. D. Existing piece sacred from of mosaic paving of earlier building, other causes. It is shown on a denarius of the gens Scribonia. The Sacra Via, in its course from the Regia towards the temple of Saturn, originally passed in front of the temple of Castor ; but in late times its line was changed, and it is now covered at this point by rude paving of travertine and marble, probably not earlier than the 5th century. The ancient line is indicated by the Regia, shown on fig. 16. On the other side of the Sacra Via stand the scanty remains of Templt the temple of Divus Julius, erected by Augustus. Though little of Divi beyond its concrete core is left, its plan can be fairly well made out Julius, from the voids in the concrete, which show the position of the tufa foundations under the walls and columns (as in the temple of Castor). The temple itself, a hexastyle prostyle building, with close pyknostyle intercolumniation (Vitr., iii. 2), stood on a lofty podium with a curved recess in the front between two flights of stairs (see Plate VII.). The wall which now fills up the recess is a late addition. It is possible that this very unusual plan was adopted in order that the recess might leave room for the pre- existing altar (Appian, Bell. Civ., ii. 148) or column (Suet., J. Cxs., 85) erected by the Senate with the inscription PARENTI PATRLflS. The podium, which projects in front of the temple itself, was adorned with beaks from the ships taken at Actium (Dion Cass., Ii. 19), and hence it was called the Rostra Julia, to distin- guish it from the other rostra described above. Both were used for the funeral orations in honour of Augustus (Suet., Aug., 100 ; see also Dion Cass., liv. 35). Besides the concrete core and the curved tufa wall of the recess, little now exists except a small bit of the mosaic of the cella floor and some fragments of the cornice and pediment, of fine Greek marble. This temple is represented on coins of Augustus and Hadrian. The temple of Vesta, founded according to tradition by Numa, 5 Tempi stands at the southern angle of the Forum on the ancient line of of Ves the Sacra Via (Ov., Trist., iii. 1, 28). No shrine in Rome was equal in sanctity to this little circular building, which contained the sacred fire and the relics on which the welfare and even the existence of Rome depended. The shrine was an " redes sacra, " not a " templum " in the strict sense of the word, which means a build- ing so inaugurated that it could be used for meetings of the Senate. The original building was destroyed in 390 B. c. by the Gauls ; it was burnt again in 241 B.C., again in the great fire of Nero's reign, and then in the reign of Commodus ; after this it was rebuilt by 4 One of the mad acts of Caligula was to connect the temple of Castor with his palace by breaking a door through the back of the cella (Suet., Cal., 22). Tlinui;h dedicated to both the Dioscuri, the building was usually called the temple of Castor only (see Suet., J. Cies., 10).
- Another legend attributes its founding to Romulus.
