Constantine.[1] The original building of Vespasian was probably an archive and record office; it was certainly not a temple. The fine bronze doors at the entrance to the temple of Romulus are much earlier than the building itself, as are also the porphyry columns and very rich entablature which ornament this doorway. Pope Felix IV. (526-30) made the double building into the church of SS. Cosmo e Damiano, using the circular domed temple of Romulus as a porch.[2] The chief building of Vespasian's forum was the Templum Pacis,[3] dedicated in 75, one of the most magnificent in Rome, which contained a very large collection of works of art.
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| From Richter's Topographie der Stadt Rom, by permission of C. H. Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. | Emery Walker sc. |
Fig. 11.—Imperial Fora. | |
The forum of Nerva (see fig. 11) occupied the narrow strip left between the fora of Augustus and Vespasian; being little more Forum of Nerva. than a richly decorated street, it was called the Forum Transitorium or Forum Palladium, from the temple to Minerva which it contained. It was begun by Domitian, and dedicated by Nerva in 97 (see Suet. Dom. 5; Mart. i. 2, 8). Like the other imperial fora, it was surrounded by a peperino wall, not only lined with marble but also decorated with rows of Corinthian columns supporting a rich entablature with sculptured frieze. Two columns and part of this wall still exist; on the frieze are reliefs of weaving, fulling and various arts which were under the protection of Minerva. A great part of the temple existed till the time of Paul V., who in 1606 destroyed it to use the remains for the building of the Acqua Paola.[4] In the reign of Severus Alexander a series of colossal bronze statues, some equestrian, were set round this forum; they represented all the previous emperors who had been deified, and by each was a bronze column inscribed with his res gestae (Hist. Aug.; Sev. Alex. 28).
The forum of Trajan with its adjacent buildings was the last and, at least in size, the most magnificent of all; it was in progress from Forum of Trajan. 113 to 117, at least. A great spur of hill, which connected the Capitoline with the Quirinal, was cut away to make a level site for this enormous group of buildings. It consisted (see fig. 11) of a large dipteral peristyle, with curved projections, lined with shops on the side. That against the slope of the Quirinal, three storeys high, still partly exists. The main entrance was through a triumphal arch (Dio Cass. lxviii. 29). Aurei of Trajan show this arch and other parts of his forum.[5] The opposite side was occupied by the Basilica Ulpia (Jordan, F. U. R. iii. 25, 26), part of which, with the column of Trajan, is now visible; none of the columns, which are of grey granite, are in situ, and the whole restoration is misleading. Part of the rich paving in oriental marble is genuine. This basilica contained two large libraries (Dio Cass. lxviii. 16; Aul. Cell. xi. 17).
The Columna Cochlis (so called from its spiral stairs) is, including capital and base, 97 ft. 9 in. high,[6] i.e. 100 Roman ft.; its pedestal Trajan's column. has reliefs of trophies of Dacian arms, and winged Victories. On the shaft are reliefs arranged spirally in twenty-three tiers scenes of Trajan's victories, containing about 2500 figures. Trajan's ashes were buried in a gold urn under this column (Dio Cass. lxviii. 16); and on the summit was a colossal gilt bronze statue of the emperor, now replaced by a poor figure of St Peter, set there by Sixtus V.[7] Beyond the column stood the temple of Trajan completed by Hadrian; its foundations exist Temple of Trajan. under the buildings at the north-east side of the modern piazza, and many of its granite columns have been found. This temple is shown on coins of Hadrian.[8] The architect of this magnificent group of buildings was Apollodorus of Damascus (Dio Cass. lxix. 4), who also designed many buildings in Rome during Hadrian's reign.[9] In addition to the five imperial fora, and the Forum Magnum, Holitorium and Boarium, mentioned above, there were also smaller markets for pigs (Forum Suarium), bread (Forum Pistorium) and fish (Forum Piscarium), all of which, with some others, popularly but wrongly called fora, are given in the regionary catalogues.
Other Temples, &c.
Besides the temples mentioned in previous sections remains of many others still exist in Rome. The circular temple by the Tiber, Other temples. in the Forum Boarium (Plan, No. 5), formerly thought to be that of Vesta, is possibly that of Portunus, the god of the harbour (Varro, L.L. vi. 19). Its design is similar to that of the temple of Vesta in the forum (fig. 8), and, except the entablature and upper part of the cella, which are gone, it is well
- ↑ For accounts of this group of buildings, see De Rossi, Bull. Arch. Crist. (1867), p. 66 ff.; and Lanciani, Bull. Comm. Arch. Rom. (1882), pp. 29 ff.
- ↑ “Hic (Felix) fecit basilica SS. Cosmae et Damiani . . . in Via Sacra, juxta Templum Urbis Romae” (Lib. Pont., Vita S. Felicis IV.). By the last words the basilica of Constantine is meant.
- ↑ Statues by Pheidias and Lysippus existed in the Forum Pacis as late as the 6th century (Procop. Bell. Goth. iv. 21).
- ↑ Drawings of it are given by Du Pérac and Palladio (Arch. iv. 8).
- ↑ See Aul. Gell. xiii. 25, 2; and Amm. Marc. xvi. 10, 15.
- ↑ Its pedestal is inscribed, “Senatus Populusque Romanus Imp. Caesari Divi Nervae F. Nervae Trajano Aug. Germ. Dacico Pontif. Maximo Trib. Pot. XVII. [i.e. A.D. 113] Imp. VI. Cos. VI. P. P. ad declarandum quantae altitudinis mons et locus tantis operibus sit egestus.” This would seem to indicate the height of the hill removed to form the site, and is so explained by Dion Cass. (lxviii. 16). It is impossible that the saddle connecting the Quirinal with the Capitoline hill can have been 100 ft. in height (Brocchi, Suolo di Roma, p. 133), but it may be that the cliff of the Quirinal was cut back to a slope reaching to a point about 72 ft. high; thus the statement of the inscription is much exaggerated. Comm. Boni has found the remains of a road beneath the pavement of the Forum, near the column, and believes that the inscription refers to the height of the buildings. Comparetti refers mons to the mass of marble quarried to build the Forum; Sogliano to the mass of ruins and rubbish carted away; Mau to the Servian agger between the Capitol and Quirinal (see Rom. Mitth., 1907, 187 ff).
- ↑ For the reliefs, see Cichorius, Die Reliefs der Trajanssäule (1896-1900); Petersen, Trajans dakische Kriege (1899-1903); Stuart Jones, Papers of the B. R. S., vol. v. From their lofty position they are now difficult to see, but originally must have been very fairly visible from the galleries on the colonnades which once surrounded the column.
- ↑ See Aul. Gell. xi. 17, 1; Hist. Aug. Hadr. 19; and compare Pausanias (v. 12, 6; x. 5, 11), who mentions the gilt bronze roofs of Trajan's forum.
- ↑ See Richter and Grifi, Ristauro del Foro Trajano (1839).
