Part 10

The principal roadway upon the Palatine was the Nova Via, a new way, evidently made after the Via Sacra, and simply called Nova Via without any distinguishing name being given to it. It commenced at the Porta Mugonia on the east, inside Roma Quadrata, and was here called Summa Nova Via. "Tarquinius Priscus ad Mugoniam Portam supra Summam Novam Viam" [habitabat] (Solinus, i. 24). From this point it went along the north and down the west side past the gate--there being steps down from the gate to the road. The descent off the hill was called the Hill of Victory. "Sed Porta Romana instituta est a Romulo infimo Clivo Victoriæ" (Festus). "Quæ habet gradus in Nova Via" (Varro). Passing by the Porta Romana it turned to the left, or west, under the Palatine to the Velabrum, where it ended. This part was called Infima Nova Via. "Aius Loquens in Infima Nova Via" (Varro, "Ap. Gell." xvi. 17). This altar still exists at the south-west corner under the Palatine. "Hoc Sacrificium [to Larentia] fit in Velabro, qua in novam Viam exitur" (Varro, "Ling. Lat." vi.).

ROMA QUADRATA.

5, 6, 7, 8, 13, 19, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41.

Romulus, the son of Rhea Silvia and Mars, founded Rome on the Palatine Hill, above the Tiber, 753 B.C., on the site of the Arcadian city of Evander, near the Lupercal, where the wolf had given him suckle. The city was built after the Etruscan rites, and surrounded by a massive wall, in a quadrangular form, whence it was called Roma Quadrata. See "Walls of Rome," page xvii.

THE THREE GATES OF ROMA QUADRATA.

Pliny (iii. 9) informs us that the city was entered by three gates.

PORTA MUGONIA (14),

situated on the east of the hill, the site of which has been identified by Varro ("L. L." 164):--

"Moreover, I observe that the gates within the walls are thus named; that at the Palatine 'Mucionis' (from 'mugitus,' lowing), because through it they used to drive out the cattle into the pastures around the old town."

PORTA ROMANA (40).

At the middle of the western side, at the commencement of the ascent on the Via Nova, called the Clivus Victoriæ in commemoration of the victory of Romulus over Acron. The remains were discovered March 1886. Varro says:--

"The other, called Romulana, was so called from Rome, the same which has steps into the Nova Via at the shrine of Volupiæ."

Festus, speaking of the same gate, says:--

"But the Porta Romana was set up by Romulus above the foot of the Hill of Victory, and this place is formed of tiers of steps disposed in a square. It is called Romana by the Sabines in particular, because it is the nearest entrance to Rome from the side of the Sabines."

PORTA CARMENTA (8).

Authorities on the subject say that the name and position of the third gate are lost.

Now we contend that the mass of ruins called the Scali Caci are the remains of the third gate, and that that gate was the Porta Carmenta, as distinctly stated by Virgil in his description of the meeting of Æneas and Evander, "without the gates." "Thus, walking on, he spoke, and showed the gate, _since_ called Carmental by the Roman state; then stopping, through the narrow gate they pressed" (Virgil, "Æn.," viii.). The position corresponds with his description, and is just the spot where a gate would be required. The remains consist of two different early periods--immense blocks of soft tufa of the Arcadian period, and blocks of hard brown tufa of the time of Romulus, corresponding with the material of which his wall is built.

The Porta Carmenta was to the south, and is thus mentioned by Propertius (iv. 1):--

"Where rose that house of Remus upon tiers of steps, a single hearth was once the brothers' modest reign."

We suppose he uses the name of Remus here instead of Romulus on account of the rhythm.

Solinus gives this description of it:--

"It [Roma Quadrata] begins at the wood which is in the area of Apollo, and ends at the top of the stairs of Caius, where was [once] the cottage of Faustulus."

Plutarch says ("Romulus," xx.):--

"Romulus dwelt close by the steps, as they call them, of the fair shore, near the descent from the Mount Palatine to the Circus Maximus. There, they say, grew the holy blackthorn tree, of which they report that Romulus once, to try his strength, threw a dart from Mount Aventine, which struck so deep that no one could pluck it up, and grew into a trunk of considerable size, which posterity preserved and worshipped as one of the most sacred things, and therefore walled it about.

"But, they say, when Caius Cæsar was repairing the steps about it, some of the labourers digging too close, the root corrupted, and the tree quite withered."

Now, in this passage, we think we have an explanation of why it is called the Stairs of Caius, _not_ Cacus. This name does not refer to Cacus, the shepherd robber, who had his cave on the Aventine, but, as we learn from the above passage from Plutarch, to Caius the emperor, who was nicknamed Caligula from his having worn the sandals so-called of the Roman troops--he having been brought up in the camp on the banks of the Rhine, Caius being his proper name. He, as we have seen, repaired these steps, and so they were called after him; but that was not their previous name. The question arises, What was that name? Why, none other than the Porta Carmenta, the missing third gate of Roma Quadrata, "the gate _since_ called Carmental by the Roman state."

It was up this gateway that the Romans brought the Sabine women when they ran off with them in the Circus Maximus. Valerius Antias says they were five hundred and forty-seven in number; Plutarch says there were six hundred and eighty-three, and that the event took place on the 18th of August.

But before this the gate had another name, the original name in the Arcadian period. We know from Virgil and Diodorus Siculus that it existed before the time of Romulus, and was incorporated by him into his city. Let us see what that name was.

"Hercules, after he had gone through Liguria and Tuscany, encamped on the banks of the Tiber, where Rome now stands, built many ages after by Romulus, the son of Mars. The natural inhabitants at that time inhabited a little town upon a hill, now called Mount Palatine. Here Potitius and Pinarius, the most eminent persons of quality among them, entertained Hercules. There are now at Rome ancient monuments of these men; for the most noble family, called the Pinarii, remains still among the Romans, and is accounted the most ancient at this day. And there are Potitius's stone stairs to go down from Mount Palatine (called after his name), adjoining to that which was anciently his house" (Diodorus Siculus, iv. 1). Thus we see that the spot was originally called the Stairs of Potitius.

Virgil ("Æn.," viii.) informs us that Potitius, the Arcadian high priest, instituted the worship of Hercules; and that the priests were selected from the Pinarian house.

"When the new walls were built by Servius Tullius, one of his gates was named Carmentalis after the above tradition; the original Porta Carmenta having become obsolete."

The valley between the Palatine and Aventine, the site of the Circus Maximus, was formerly the Murzian Lake or bay, formed by an arm of the Tiber, and these stairs led down to the fair shore (Pulcrum Littus, Καλὴ Ἀκτή)--that is, to the shore of the lake, where Æneas landed--and this had nothing to do with the banks of the Tiber, which would hardly be called a fair shore by Plutarch. Virgil calls it "the strand."

_The above name was also given to one of the temples._

THE TEMPLE OF ROMA QUADRATA (6).

"A certain hallowed place on the Palatine before the Altar of Apollo Rhamnusii (5), which every city built with Etruscan rites contained, and in which were placed those things considered of good omen in founding a city" (Festus). This hallowed place, as well as the city, was called by Romulus Roma Quadrata.

ALTAR OF APOLLO RHAMNUSII (5),

called the Altar of Apollo of the Blackthorn. Erected in commemoration of the blackthorn tree that sprang from the staff of Romulus. The large tufa blocks of the altar, and in front of it the Temple of Roma Quadrata, still remain, and by their side the Porta Carmenta.

THE CURIÆ VETERES (19).

Romulus divided the people into three tribes, and each tribe into ten curiæ (Dionysius, ii. 8), thus making thirty curiæ in all. Each curia had its own priests and separate dining-room and chapel, which were also called curiæ (_Ibid._, ii. 23). The only one of these which we have mentioned as existing at a late period is the one connected with the Palatine: as we have seen, it is one of the objects Tacitus gives us for the line of the plough. Now, on the Palatine, on that line, we have a ruin below the present surface agreeing with the time of Romulus in its construction, to which no name has been given by the topographers, but which we consider as the Curiæ Veteres mentioned by Tacitus. It now supports the Auditorium of Domitian.

THE HOUSE OF ROMULUS

"was where the Roma Quadrata ended, at the corner as you turn from the Palatine Hill to the Circus" (Dionysius). It was upon that part of the hill called Germalus from the twins being left there when the flood went down. This would be the shelf at the south-west corner of the Palatine.

THE TEMPLE OF JUPITER STATOR (13),

vowed by Romulus when his army was fleeing before the Sabines, if Jupiter would stay their flight; hence the name. "Romulus built a temple to Jupiter near the Porta Mugonia" (Dionysius, ii. 30). It was restored by Scipio, A.U.C. 459 (Livy, x. 37). It was in this temple that Cicero made his first oration against Catiline (Plutarch). Cicero says that here the goods of Pompey were offered for sale.

UNDER THE REPUBLIC.

It was not till the glories of the republic outshone the memory of the kings that the Palatine became the favourite residence of the wealthy. We have record of the houses inhabited by Vaccus, Catulus, Crassus, the Gracchi, Ceneus, Cicero, Scaurus, Mark Antony, and other notorious republicans. Some slight remains of republican walls can be seen at various points.

THE TEMPLE OF CYBELE (4).

Dedicated by M. J. Brutus, B.C. 191, under the name of Mater Idæa, Mother of the Gods (Livy, xxxvi. 36). "Cybele was not worshipped in Rome till A.U.C. 550, when the goddess, a stone, was brought from Pessinus, a city of Phrygia, by Scipio Nasica" (Strabo). The vessel containing it having grounded at the mouth of the Tiber, remained immovable till Claudia Quinta, to prove her chastity, after calling upon the goddess, drew the ship with slight effort to Rome (Ovid, "Fasti," vi. 300). This event is commemorated upon an altar in the Capitoline Museum. The form of the temple remains, and part of the seated statue of the goddess, a beautiful fragment, corresponding with her figure as represented on coins. The remains are of _opus incertum_.

THE TEMPLE OF VICTORY (9).

The remains of this are just inside the Porta Carmenta. It was founded originally by the Greek settlers, and restored under the republic; the construction agrees with this supposition, for here we have the two different stones used in these periods, soft tufa and peperino.

"Upon the top of the hill they set apart a piece of ground, which they dedicated to Victory, and instituted annual sacrifices to be offered up to her also, which the Romans perform even in my time" (Dionysius, i. 32), A.U.C. 458. "They carried the statue of Cybele into the Temple of Victory on the Palatine Hill" (Livy, xxix. 14).

_Near this ruin, on the other side of the road, are the remains of_

THE SHRINE OF MAIDEN VICTORY (9A).

In A.U.C. 560, "Marcus Portius Cato dedicated a chapel to Maiden Victory, near the Temple of Victory, two years after he had vowed it" (Livy, xxxv. 9).

ALTAR TO AIUS LOQUENS (35).

Still standing; was erected 124 B.C., on the site where Camillus had erected the original, in the undetermined state, to the unknown voice that warned Marcus Cedicius of the approaching Gauls, 391 B.C.

"In the Via Nova, where now is the shrine, above the Temple of Vesta" (Livy, v. 23). "A voice was heard in the Grove of Vesta, which skirts the Nova Via at the foot of the Palatine" (Cicero, "Div." i. 45).

TEMPLE OF JUPITER VICTOR (21).

Founded during the second Samnite war by Fabius Maximus (Livy, x. 29)--326-304 B.C.--overlooking the Circus Maximus. The remains consist of tufa substructions, steps leading up to the temple, and some peperino fragments.

The circular altar on the steps, found close by, bears an inscription to Calvinus, consul B.C. 53-40.

THE HOUSE OF GERMANICUS (10),

(_See plan, page 81_)

called erroneously by various authorities the House of Claudius Nero, of Livia, of Augustus. It was incorporated into the Imperial Palace by Tiberius, though for very many years it preserved its distinctive title. Josephus tells us that "Caligula was killed in a private narrow passage within the palace as he was going to the bath, having turned from the direct road along which his servants had gone. The passages also were narrow wherein the work was done, and crowded with Caius's attendants, whence it was that they went by other ways, and came to the house of Germanicus, which house adjoined to the palace." A crypto-portico still connects this house with the Palace of Caligula, another going off at right angles to the House of Augustus.

We have here a good specimen of a Roman house. In the vestibulum are remains of the mosaic floor and frescoed walls. The atrium still shows the pattern of its pavement. The tricliniarium is ornamented with frescoes of arabesque work, animals and fountains, also with mosaic pavement. The tablinium, in three parallel halls, painted with beautiful arabesque groups; wreaths of flowers and fruit; a group of Galatea and Polyhymnia; another of Mercury, Io, and Argus; a view of a Roman house; a lady at her toilet, &c. Behind these is the peristylium, out of which open the bedrooms, bath, kitchen, &c. In the centre tablinium are some leaden pipes, found in the excavations, stamped with the names of Julia, Domitian, and Niger,--the daughter of Augustus, the emperor, and the insurgent.

THE PALACES OF THE CÆSARS

gradually incorporated the whole of the Palatine buildings; and when we speak of the Palace of the Cæesars, it is not meant that it was one, but different palaces, built by different emperors, called after them, and connected with those previously erected by crypto-porticoes.

THE HOUSE OF AUGUSTUS (18).

"He resided in a small house formerly belonging to Hortensius. This was destroyed by fire, and rebuilt by contributions of the public" (Suetonius). The palace was destroyed by fire, under Titus, A.D. 72; the ruins were filled in by Domitian in the second year of his reign, and upon the top he built his celebrated palace. The remains of the Palace of Augustus--not now accessible, being under the convent--were explored and partly excavated some years ago.

From the PALACE OF DOMITIAN (17) we can descend into some of the small chambers, the vault of one being adorned with a fresco representing Victory.

THE GELOTIANA (32),

mentioned by Suetonius as the place from which Caligula viewed the games in the Circus Maximus, is supposed to have been a house occupied by the guard and servants of the palace. Its ruin consists of chambers at the base of the hill, under the convent. It was here that the skit of the Crucifixion, now in the Museum of the Collegio Romano, was found. (See page 160.) The walls are still covered with names, &c., scratched by the soldiers.

THE HOUSE OF TIBERIUS (3).

We learn from Suetonius and Tacitus that it was situated on the western side of the Palatine, overlooking and communicating with the Velabrum. The remains consist of vast halls and substructions, and a row of arches supposed to have been the guard's quarters. This palace has yet to be excavated.

THE PALACE OF CALIGULA AND HADRIAN (2).

"Having continued part of the Palatine as far as the Forum, he converted the Temple of Castor and Pollux into the vestibule of his house." "He built a bridge over the temple of the deified Augustus, by which he joined the Palatine to the Capitol" (Suetonius). He connected his palace with that of Tiberius by means of porticoes. The remains consist of a suite of rooms, portions built over the Clivus Victoriæ, chambers with fresco and stucco decorations, and mosaic pavements, also a portion of the beautiful marble balustrade of the solarium. Suetonius tells us that this palace was destroyed by fire; in fact, most of the remains show the construction of Hadrian, who must have rebuilt it and used it as his palace.

The remains of this palace have been recently uncovered at the northern side of the Palatine. It appears that the palace was built in a series of terraces against the Palatine Hill, the construction showing work of Caligula, Trajan, and Septimius Severus. There are some chambers which were warmed with hot air in terra-cotta pipes, and containing fragments of statuary on the lowest level excavated. Then, on the terrace above, there is an arcade paved with blocks of silex, and on one side shops. A flight of travertine steps conducts to some small chambers above, with mosaic pavements and frescoes, which were built by Hadrian against a wall of Caligula having frescoes on yellow and white grounds. The side walls and vaults are decorated with frescoes of the time of Hadrian.

[Illustration: PLAN OF THE PALACE OF DOMITIAN, A.D. 81-96.

A, Tablinium. B, Lararium. C, Basilica. D, Vestibule. E, Tricliniarium. F, Nymphæum. G, Temple Jupiter Victor. H, Vometarium. K, Cubiculum.]

[Illustration: PLAN OF HOUSE OF GERMANICUS, A.D. 1]

THE PALACE OF DOMITIAN (17).

He used the remains of Augustus's palace, destroyed by fire in the second year of the reign of Titus, filling in the chambers of the earlier buildings with earth, so that they formed a solid foundation. "He embellished the portico, in which he took his airing, with polished stone, so that he might observe if any one approached him" (Suetonius). The remains consist of the tablinium, or summer-parlour; the lararium, or chapel of the household gods; the bed-chamber where he was assassinated; the tricliniarium, or dining-room; the peristylium, or open court; nymphæum, or aquarium; the vometarium; auditorium; and the crypto-porticoes connecting it with the other palaces.

THE BASILICA (16).

When the Palace of Augustus and the other edifices were burned down, Domitian filled them in with earth, and on the top of the platform built his palace. But some of the destroyed edifices were consecrated: as he could not do away with them, he rebuilt them upon the higher level, over their old sites. The basilica and chapel of the household gods were both treated in this way. As this was the only basilica on the Palatine, we may presume that it was the court of appeal unto Cæsar himself. If so, on this site S. Paul appeared before Nero; but not in this identical building, which was erected by Domitian, A.D. 81-96, after Paul's death, A.D. 64.

[Illustration: PLAN OF THE BASILICA ON THE PALATINE.]

The Basilica was the hall of justice, coming from a Greek word signifying "the regal hall." It consisted of a tribunal, nave, and aisles. The form was oblong; the middle was an open space, called _testudo_, and which we now call the nave. On each side of this were rows of pillars, which formed what we should call the aisles, and which the ancients called _porticus_. The end of the testudo was curved, and was called the _tribunal_, from causes being heard there. A rail separating the tribunal from the body of the hall was called _cancelli_, because it was of open work. Not far from the entrance was a round stone in the pavement, on which the prisoner stood to be tried. Between the judge's seat on the tribunal and the rails stood the altar of Apollo. These halls were likewise used as places of exchange by business men. Being the largest halls the Romans had, the form of them was copied by the early Christians for their churches. The tribunal was called the apse; in some churches it is still called the tribunal. The judge's seat gave place to the bishop's throne; the altar of Apollo to the communion table; the cancelli to the chancel; and the fountain in the court in front to the holy-water basins; and so the name was handed down and given to Christian churches, though there is not a single church in Rome that was once a pagan basilica, or hall of justice. Many of the so-called basilicas are not true basilicas, for they have introduced the transept to give them the form of a cross.

THE STADIUM (26).

On the east side of the Palatine, built by Domitian, and only partly excavated. Used for races both for men and women. "Young girls ran races in the Stadium, at which Domitian presided in his sandals, dressed in a purple robe made after the Grecian fashion, and wearing upon his head a golden crown bearing the effigies of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva; with the flamen of Jupiter and the college of priests sitting at his side in the same dress, excepting only that their crowns had also his own image on them" (Suetonius).

The work of excavating the Stadium is not yet completed. It appears that the portico surrounding it originally consisted of cipollino columns, with composite capitals. This was rebuilt in the third century in two tiers, supported with half-columns of brick, coated with slabs of marble, having Ionic bases and Doric capitals. A brick stamp informs us that the Imperial tribune was built in the third consulship of Ursus Servianus, under Hadrian, 134. At the edge of the foot-course, below the portico, was a marble channel to carry off the rain-water. Traces of the spina still remain. The Stadium seems to have been altered into a hippodrome in the time of Diocletian by building elliptical walls upon its surface. The following stamp was found on some of the bricks,--A.D. 500 OFFS R. F. MARCI HIPPODROME THEODORIC REGNANTE DN THEODERICO FELIX ROMA,--evidently some of the repairs ordered by the great king during his six months' visit to Rome.

THE EXEDRA, OR ODEUM (27).

On the right of the Stadium, for musical performances, with three chambers underneath decorated with fresco work.

THE NYMPHÆUM OF MARCUS AURELIUS (30).

We claim the honour of having discovered the use of these imposing ruins, whose summit is climbed by many visitors to enjoy the fine view over the Campagna. It was built by the best of the Roman emperors as a large reservoir for the supply of water to the Palatine Hill, acting as the Trevi Fountain does at present. We have traced the specus of the aqueduct to it; and the top is covered with _opus signinum_, the peculiar cement used by the Romans whenever they conducted water.

The brickwork shows signs of careful construction; the courses of cement carefully laid between the bricks being of the same thickness as the bricks themselves, seven of which measure a foot. The Nymphæum probably took its name from the female statues which decorated it, handing down the custom of the ancient Romans in peopling the springs with nymphs.