Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/849

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
*
*

ARCH.EOLOGY.] ROME 821 which stood on the Comitium. On the other slab the emperor is seated on the rostra (this part is broken), while in front a crowd of citizens are bringing tablets and piling them in a heap to be burnt. This records the remission by Trajan of some arrears of debt due to the imperial treasury (Spartian, 7). The background here represents again the Basilica Julia, with (on the right) the Ionic temple of Saturn and the Corinthian temple of Vespasian. Between them is an arch, which may be that of Tiberius. On the left the fig-tree and the statue of Marsyas are repeated. Other explanations of these reliefs have been given, but the above appears the most probable. 1 Towards the other end of the Forum are re- mains of a large concrete pedestal. This is usually called the base of the equestrian statue of Domitian (Statins, Silv., i. 22), which stood in front of the .ffides Julii ; but its brick facing shows that it is much later than Domitian's time, and, moreover, Domi- tian's statue was destroyed immediately after his death. The seven cubical brick and concrete structures, once faced with marble, which line the Sacra Via, are not earlier than the time of Constantino. 1 They are probably the pedestals of honorary columns, such as those shown in the relief on Constantino's arch, mentioned above. The column erected in honour of the tyrant Phocas by Smaragdus in the eleventh year of his exarchate (608) is still standing. It is a fine marble Corinthian column, stolen from some earlier building ; it stands on rude steps of marble and tufa. The name of Phocas is erased from the inscription ; but the date shows that this monument was to his honour. Remains of other small marble structures are shown in Plate VII., but what they are is not known. In the 4th century a long brick and concrete build- ing faced with marble was built along the whole south-east end of the Forum, probably a row of shops. They were destroyed by Comm. Rosa's order a few years ago. Countless fragments of other buildings, reliefs, and statues are strewn all over the Forum. Many of these are of great interest ; pieces of large granite columns which probably stood on the seven pedestals mentioned above are lying in various places ; some of these appear to have been deco- rated with bronze reliefs, the iron fastenings of which, run with lead, still exist. 3 Palatine Hill or Palatium. In addition to the walls of Roma Quadrata (see above), a few remains only now exist earlier in date than the later years of the republic ; these are mostly grouped near the Scalse Caci (see No. 11 in fig. 17) and consist of small cellpe and other structures of un- known use. 4 They are partly built of the soft tufa used in the wall of Romulus and partly of the hard tufa which resembles peperiuo. Various names, such as the ' ' hut of Faustulus " and the " Auguratorium," have been given to these very ancient remains, but with little reason. One thing is certain, that the buildings were respected and preserved even under the empire and were probably regarded as sacred relics of the earliest times. Remains of more than one temple, probably of the early republican period, exist near this west angle of the Palatine ; these had peristyles with Tuscan columns of tufa stuccoed and painted. The larger of these (see 14 in fig. 17) has been called conjecturally the temple of Qnple Jupiter Victor (Liv., x. 29 ; Ov., Fast., iv. 621). It stands on a pJupi- levelled platform of tufa rock, the lower part of which is excavated ft Vic- into quarry chambers, used in later times as water reservoirs. Two ancient well-shafts lined with tufa communicate with these sub- terranean hollows. Another extensive building of hard tufa of the republican period exists in the valley afterwards covered by the Flavian palace ; part of this can be seen under the so-called Accadernia (21 in fig. 17). Not far from the top of the Scalte Caci are the massive remains of some large cella, nothing of which now exists except the concrete core made of alternate layers of tufa and itue of peperiuo. It was probably once lined with marble. By it a noble bele. colossal seated figure of a goddess w r as found, in Greek marble, well modelled, a work of the 1st century A.D. The head and arms are missing, but the figure is probably rightly called a statue of Cybele ; and from it her name has been conjecturally given to this temple. Augustus in the Manumentum Ancyranum records AEDEM . MATRIS . MAGNJE . IN . PALATIO . FECI ; 'but it is more probable that his temple to Cybele formed part of the magnificent group of buildings in the area of Apollo (see below). Some interesting early 1 See Brizio, Ann. Inst., 1872, p. 309 ; Henzen, Dull. Inst., 1872, p. 81 ; and Jordan, Marsyus aufaem Forum, Berlin, 1SS3. 2 It is probable that these occupy the line of the Tabernse Veteres. 3 Authorities on the Forum. Nichols, Roman Forum, London, 1877 (very use- ful from its collection of passages in ancient authors) ; Jordan, Capitol, Fontm, <Cc., Berlin, 1881, and Topographic Roms, vol. i., 1878 ; Nibby, II Foro Romano, 1819 ; An<dini and Fea, 11 Foro Romano, 1837 ; Tocco, Ripristinaziow del Foro, 1858 ; Ravioli and Montiroli, Foro Romano, 1859 ; Michelet, Das Forum Roma num, Berlin, 1877; Marucchi, II Foro Romano, 1881 ; Dtitert, Le Forum Romain, Paris, 1876 (very handsomely illustrated, but more fanciful than trustworthy); Canina, II Foro Romano, 1845 (open to the same criticism as the work of Dutert, and wholly stultified by later discoveries). For inscriptions found in the Forum, see Jordan, " Sylloge Inscrip. Fori Rom.," in the Bake*, tmgrafm., iii. p. 248 s'/. Some of the more recent excavations are described by Lanciani, " Scavi del Foro," in Notizie degli Scavi for 1882. 4 Many masons' marks exist on the tufa blocks of the most primitive build- ings near the Scalse Caci (see tig. 10). architectural fragments are lying near this temple ; they consist of drums and capitals of Corinthian columns, and part of the cornice of the pediment, cut in peperino, and thickly coated with hard white stucco to imitate marble. Between this and the temple (so called) of Jupiter Victor are extensive remains of a large sort of porticus, with tufa walls and travertine piers, also republican in date. The use and name of this building are unknown. The temple of Jupiter Stator, traditionally vowed by Romulus during Temple his repulse by the Sabines (Liv., i. 12), stood near the Porta of Jupi- Mugionis, and therefore near the road leading up to the Palatine ter Sta- Sacra Via. 5 This has been identified with the ruined concrete tor. podium (40 in fig. 17), the position of which suits the above indi- cations ; but the admixture of travertine, brick, and even marble with the tufa of the concrete shows that no trace here remains of any early building. On the tufa blocks of a shaft leading down to a large drain by the side of these remains are incised in large FILOCR letters possibly the names of Greek stone-masons (Diocles, Philocrates) ; the form of the letters shows that this inscription is as early as the 2d or even 3d century B.C. Remains of extensive lines of buildings in early opus reticulatum exist on the upper slopes of the Palatine, all along the Velabrum side, and on the south-west side as far as the so-called Domus Gelotiana. These buildings are constructed on the ruins of the wall of Romulus, a great part of which has been exit away to make room for them ; their base is at the foot of the ancient wall, on the shelf cut midway in the side of the hill ; their top reached originally above the upper level of the summit. They are of various dates and cannot be identified with any known buildings. Part is ap- Domus parently of the time of the emperor Tiberius, and no doubt belongs Tiberi- to the Domus Tiberiana mentioned by Suetonius (Tib., 5 ; comp. ana. Tac., Hist., i. 27, and iii. 71) ; this palace covered a great part of the west corner of the hill. Of about the same date is a very House o interesting and well-preserved private house built wholly of opus Livia. reticulatum ; it is usually called the house of Livia. It has a small atrium, out of which open the triclinium and the tablinum with a room (ala) on each side, all handsomely decorated with good paintings of mythological and domestic scenes, probably the work of Greek artists, as inscriptions in Greek occur, e.g., EPMHC, under the figure of Hermes, in a picture representing his deliver- ance of lo from Argus. 6 The back part of this house was three stories high, and is divided into a great number of very small rooms, mostly bedrooms. The house is built in a sort of hole against the side of an elevation, so that the upper floor behind is level with an ancient paved road. The dampness caused by this is counteracted and kept off the paintings by a lining of flange-tiles over the external walls, under the stucco, thus forming an air- cavity all over the surface. From the back of the house, at the upper level, a long subterranean passage leads towards the Flavian Kalace, and then, turning at right angles and passing by the mndations of the so-called temple of Jupiter Victor, issues in the ancient tufa building mentioned above (20 in fig. 17). Another crypto- porticus starts near this house and communicates with the long semi-subterranean passage by which the palaces of Caligula and Domitian are connected (19 in fig. 17). It is ornamented with very beautiful stucco reliefs of cupids, beasts, and foliage, once painted and gilt. This private house is probably that of Germani- cus, into which the soldiers who killed Caligula in the long crypto- porticus escaped, as described by Josephus (Ant. Jud., xix. 1 ; see also Suet., CaL, 58). Some inscribed lead pipes were found in this house ; some pieces bear the inscription IVLIAE . AVG., prob- ably the daughter of Titus. The palace of Augustus and the Area Apollinis 7 occupied a great Palace o portion of the central part of the Palatine (see 47 and 48 in fig. Augustu 17) ; the splendour of its architecture and the countless works of and Arei art in gold, silver, ivory, bronze, and marble, mostly the produc- Apollinl tion of the best Greek artists, which adorned this magnificent group of buildings must have made it the chief glory of this splendid city. It was approached from a road leading out of the Summa Sacra Via along the line of the present Via di S. Bonaven- tura ; the entrance, probably the Arcus of Pliny (H.N., xxxvi. 4, 10), led through lofty propylsea into a very extensive peristyle or porticus, with (at least) fifty -two fluted columns of Numidian giallo ; the rest was of white Luna and Athenian marble. In the centre of this enclosure stood the great octostyle peripteral temple of Apollo Palatinus, so called to distinguish it from another temple of Apollo outside the Porta Carmentalis, remains of which exist 5 Dionys., ii. 50 ; see also Plut., Cic., 16 ; Ov., Fast., vi. 793, and Trist., iii. 127. Near this temple, and also near the Porta Mugonia, was the house ot Tarquinius Prisons (Liv., i. 41 ; Sol., Polyhist., i. 24). Owing to the strength of its position this temple was more than once selected during troubled times as a safe meeting-place for the Senate ; it was here, as being a "locus mum- tissimus," that Cicero delivered his First Catiline Oration (see Cic., In Cat., 1. 1). 6 See Mon. Inst., xi., pis. xxii., xxiii. ; Renier, Les Peintures du Palatin, Paris, 1870. 7 See Lanciani's paper in Bull. Comm. Arch. Roma, iv., 1883.