fig-tree and the statue of Marsyas are repeated. Other explanations
of these reliefs have been given, but the above appears the most
probable. Towards the other end of the Forum are remains of a
large concrete pedestal. It may possibly have supported an
equestrian statue of Constantine, which was still standing in the
8th century. A smaller foundation, laid bare by Comm. Boni's
excavations in 1905, is thought by him to have supported the
equestrian statue of Q. Marcius Tremulus, the conqueror of the
Hernici, set up before the temple of Castor in B.C. 305 (Liv. ix. 43).
The seven cubical brick and concrete structures, once faced with marble, which line the Sacra Via are not earlier than the time of Diocletian. They are probably the pedestals of honorary columns such as those shown in the relief on Constantine'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. In the 4th century, or perhaps even later, a long brick and concrete building 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. Two columns—one of pavonazzetto, the other of grey granite—were set up on two of the brick bases in 1899.
In 1902 a network of passages (cuniculi) was discovered about 3 ft. beneath the pavement of the Forum. These have tufa walls and concrete vaults; they are about 8 ft. high and 5 ft. broad. At the intersections of the passages are square chambers, in the centre of which are travertine blocks with sockets for windlasses. The construction of the passages seems to date from the time of Julius Caesar, and it is thought that they were used for scenic purposes when games were given in the Forum.
In 1903 a large concrete foundation was found, partly blocking the E. end of one of the cuniculi. There can be no doubt that this once supported the colossal equestrian statue of Domitian described by Statius (Silv. i. 1, 21 ff.) which was destroyed after his murder. Embedded in the concrete was a cist of massive travertine blocks which was found to contain five archaic vases similar to those from the early necropolis (above, as init.). One held a nugget of quartz containing pure gold. It is uncertain whether these were buried here for ritual purposes or were the contents of an early tomb found in digging the foundations. Near this monument there were found in 1904 remains of an enclosure of irregular shape which once contained an altar. This must have been the altar which in imperial times represented the Lacus Curtius (Ov. Fast. vi. 403). Beside this were found some remains of a structure of imperial date which Comm. Boni identified with the Tribunal at which justice was administered by the emperors.[1]
Palatine Hill or Palatium.
In addition to the early walls described above, only a few remains now exist earlier in date than the later years of the republic; these are mostly grouped near the Scalae Caci (see fig. 10, in Plan), and consist of small cellae and other structures of unknown use.[2] They are partly built of the soft tufa used in the “wall of Romulus,” and partly of hard granulated tufa so called. Various names, such as the “hut of Faustulus” and the “Auguratorium,” have been given to these very ancient remains, but with little reason. On 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 of the republican period exist near this west angle of the Palatine. The larger of these (see Plan) Temple of Jupiter Victor. has been called conjecturally the temple of Jupiter Victor (Liv. x. 29; Ov. Fast. iv. 621).[3] It stands on a levelled platform of tufa rock, the lower part of which is excavated into quarry chambers, used in later times as water reservoirs. Two ancient well-shafts lined with tufa communicate with these subterranean hollows. Extensive foundations of hard tufa exist in the valley afterwards covered by the Flavian palace (see Plan, “Foundations of the Domus Augustana”). The masonry is in parts of republican date, and was used to support the Flavian palace. Not far from the top of the Scalae Caci are the massive remains of a large cella, nothing of which now exists except the concrete core faced with opus incertum in alternate layers of tufa and peperino. It was probably once lined with marble. By it a Statue of Cybele. noble colossal seated figure of a goddess was 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 inscriptions dedicated to Magna Mater have been found close to the temple. Augustus in the Monumentum Ancyranum (4, 8) records AEDEM . MATRIS . MAGNAE . IN . PALATIO . FECI; and there can be little doubt that this is the temple in question. Some interesting early 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 of Jupiter Victor are extensive remains of a large porticus, with tufa walls and travertine piers, also republican in date. The use and name of this building are unknown.
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 Paedagogium.
These buildings are constructed on the ruins of the wall of Romulus,
a great part of which has been cut 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
Domus Tiberiana.
House of Livia.
identified with any known buildings. Part is apparently of
the time of the emperor Tiberius, and no doubt belongs to
the Domus Tiberiana mentioned by Suetonius (Tib. 5; Tac.
Hist. i. 27, iii. 71); this palace covered a great part of the
west corner of the hill. Of about the same date is a very interesting
and well-preserved private house built wholly of opus
reticulatum, which formed part of the imperial property,
and was respected when the later palaces were built. The
discover of lead-pipes bearing the inscription IVLIAE . AVG (C. I. L.
xv. 7264) has led to the conjecture that the house was that bequeathed
to Livia by her first husband, Tib. Claudius Nero. At the north-west
end is a small atrium, out of which open three rooms commonly called
the tablinum and alae, as well as a triclinium, all 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 deliverance of Io
from Argus.[4] This suite of rooms was a later addition to the house.
The south-east portion was three storeys high, and is divided into
a great number of very small rooms, mostly bedrooms. The house is
built in at 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, along subterranean passage leads towards the Flavian
palace, and then, turning at right angles and passing by the foundations
of the so-called temple of Jupiter Victor, issues in the ancient
tufa building mentioned above. 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. It is
ornamented with very beautiful stucco reliefs of cupids, beasts and
foliage, once painted and gilt. Some hold that the house was that
of Germanicus, 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).
From the Summa Sacra Via a road led to the Area Palatina in the centre of the hill. Here was the sanctuary called Roma quadrata, Palace of Augustus and Area Apollinis. containing the mundus, a pit in which the instruments used in the founding of the city were deposited. To the east was the Area Apollinis, the entrance of which led through lofty propylaea into a very extensive peristyle or porticus, with columns of Numidian giallo; the temple was of white Luna marble. In the centre of this enclosure stood the great octostyle peripteral temple of Apollo Palatinus. The splendour of its architecture and the countless works of art in gold,
- ↑ Authorities on the Forum; For the earlier literature of the subject it will suffice to refer to Jordan, Topographie der Stadt Rom, i. 2, 195-429, and, in English, to Nichols, The Roman Forum (1877). By far the best account based on the recent discoveries of Comm. Boni is Huelsen, The Roman Forum (Eng. trans. from the 2nd German edition, by J. B. Carter, 1906), in which full references are given. The official reports of excavations by Comm. Boni appear at intervals in the Notizie degli Scavi, and are largely concerned with the ancient necropolis. Huelsen publishes reports in the Römische Mitteilungen which are of great value.
- ↑ Our knowledge of these remains has been considerably increased by excavations in this region begun in 1907, which form the subject of a series of reports in the Notizie degli Scavi; their significance is discussed by Pinza in the Annali della Società degli ingegneri ed architetti Italiani for that year, cf. Ashby in Classical Quarterly (1908), p. 145 ff. It is almost too much to hope that the difficult problems raised by these discoveries will ever be solved; meanwhile it may be noted (i) that abundant traces of a primitive settlement (pottery, foundations of huts, &c.) have come to light near the W. angle of the hill; (ii) that walls of various epochs have been found which may have belonged to a system of fortification, though this cannot be demonstrated: (iii) that beneath a piece of walling built with regularly laid tufa blocks was found an inhumation-grave containing pottery of the 4th century B.C.
- ↑ It has recently been argued by Pinza that this is the temple of Apollo built by Augustus.
- ↑ See Mon. Inst. xi. pls. xxii., xxiii.; Mau, Geschichte der Wandmalerei, pl. ix.; Reriier, Les Peintures du Palatin (Paris, 1870.
