Part 7

Crossing the Sacred Way, which passes along the front of Cæsar's Tomb, we arrive at the space occupied by the shops destroyed in excavating. The construction remaining shows that they were rebuilt at a late date. It will be noticed that the soil is damp and sandy. This spot was once marshy, and took its name from Mettius Curtius, a leader of the Sabines, getting mired here in the battle which took place about the carrying off of the women. Plutarch, Livy, Dionysius, and Ovid agree in this; and not from the fable related by Livy (vii. 16) of the Forum opening, and Marcus Curtius jumping in, horse, armour, and all. The former event is commemorated in a relief in stone now in the Capitol; whilst the latter fable is depicted in the marble relief now in the Borghese Museum.

THE PEDESTAL OF THE STATUE OF DOMITIAN.

The Statue was destroyed by the people after his death, and the base of the pedestal is all we have left, standing upon the travertine pavement of the Forum. It is interesting to archæologists as putting to rest the arguments in reference to the names and positions of the different buildings in the Forum. The poet Statius ("Silvæ," i. 1, 22) describes the relative position of the different buildings and this statue. He tells us that the statue was situated in the middle of the Forum, near the Curtian Lake. In front of it was the temple of the deified Julius; behind it were the Temples of Vespasian and Concord; on one side the Basilica Julia, and on the other the Basilica Æmilia; whilst the rider looked towards the Temple of Vesta and the Imperial Palace.

[Illustration: MARCUS CURTIUS LEAPING INTO THE GULF. (_Relief in the Villa Borghese._)]

Suetonius tells us that the tablet inscribed upon the base of Domitian's triumphal statue was carried away by the violence of a storm, and fell upon a neighbouring monument.

_A little beyond this pedestal, to the right_, are the remains of another pedestal, a deep round hole recently closed, and beyond it a third pedestal.

_Upon the first we will place_

THE STATUE OF MARSYAS.

Servius informs us that this statue was put up in the principal forum of every city as an emblem of civic liberty and even-handed justice. It stood in front of the old rostra. Horace and Martial both refer to it as being near the judge's seat. It had a pig-skin of wine on one shoulder, denoting the plentiful supply to the city, and had the other arm extended with the hand open, showing that every one should have equal justice.

_Over the round hole stood_

THE PUTEAL SCRIBONIUS LIBO,

or well altar. This is shown on a coin as being round.

"At a small distance from the statue of Attus, both the hone and the razor are said to be buried under a certain altar; the place is called _Puteus_ by the Romans" (Dionysius, iii. 72). Cicero ("De Div." i. 17) says, "It was on the Comitium, and was erected over the spot where the hone and razor were buried." (See also Horace, Ep. i. 19.)

_Upon the other base we will place_

THE STATUE OF ATTUS NAVIUS.

"Tarquin erected a brazen statue of him in the Forum to eternalize his memory with posterity. This statue is still remaining, and stands before the Senate House, near to the holy fig-tree. It is less than a middle-sized man, and has a veil over the head" (Dionysius, iii. 72). "The statue of Attus Navius was erected before the Senate House, the pedestal of which was consumed when the Senate House itself was burned at the funeral of Publius Clodius" (Pliny, xxxiv. 11). "There was a statue of Attus, with a fillet on his head, in the place where Tarquin had the whetstone cut in two with a razor, on the Comitium, or place of assembly, just by the steps, at the left-hand side of the Senate House" (Livy, i. 36).

THE FICUS NAVIA

was a fig-tree that, according to Festus, was planted by Tarquin in commemoration of his having had the whetstone cut in two with a razor, according to the augury of Attus Navius. It should not be confounded with the Ruminal fig-tree which grew upon the Palatine, as has been done by some writers. It is rather a curious incident that since the excavations were made, a fig-tree sprang up near the pedestal of Marsyas. This is the tree shown on the reliefs of the monument of Marcus Aurelius.

_Just beyond these three objects_, a semicircular mark on the pavement points to the site of

THE ROSTRA.

The original Rostra was first called the Suggestum or Pulpit, but in A.U.C. 416 the name was changed into Rostra (beaks).

"The prows from the six ships captured from the Antiates were ordered to be placed as decorations on the Suggestum in the Forum, which was hence called Rostra" (Livy, viii. 14; Florus, i. 11; Pliny, xxiv. 11).

"The Rostra stood on the Comitium in front of the Curia" (Varro), from which the orators harangued the people assembled in the open air; and it was evidently only a temporary structure, probably of wood, and not a building like the other two Rostra. It stood upon a circular basement, but the top was square; on the outside were fixed the brazen beaks which belonged to the captive vessels of the Antiates. About the Rostra were placed the statues of the ambassadors put to death by Lar Tolumnius, king of Veii, and others who suffered on similar occasions; the three Fates, Horatius Cocles, Camillus, Hercules, the father of Vitellius, and others who deserved well of their country.

"When Caius Gracchus brought in his bill to regulate the courts of judicature, there was one thing very remarkable: whereas the orators before him, in all addresses to the people, stood with their faces towards the Senate House and the Comitium, he then, for the first time, turned the other way,--that is to say, towards the Forum,--and continued to speak in that position ever after. By this he intimated that the people ought to be addressed, and not the senate" (Plutarch).

Suetonius tells us that on the death of Augustus "two funeral orations were pronounced in his praise, one before the Temple of Julius by Tiberius, and the other before the Rostra, under the old shops, by Drusus." Some read this passage, "from the old Rostra;" but our rendering is more correct, though in either case he is referring to the Rostra that stood in front of the Curia.

The first time Cicero spoke from the Rostra was when he delivered his oration for the Manilian Law, A.U.C. 687, when in his forty-first year. After his assassination, the head and hands of Cicero were placed upon this Rostra, from where he had so often addressed the Romans--"that very Rostra, which he had made his own; nor was there a less concourse to see him there than had formerly been to hear him" (Florus, iv. 6). "That everybody might see them in the very place where he had formerly harangued with so much vehemence" (Dion Cassius, "Augustus").

The form of this Rostra is preserved to us, being represented on a coin.

There is an important passage in Pliny which shows the exact site of the Rostra, as it was used to mark the hour of noon. When the summoner caught sight of the sun passing the edge of the Rostra, he declared the hour of noon. A man standing on this site will roughly represent the Rostra, and as the gun fires at mid-day the edge of the sun can be seen coming past him by a person standing by the pedestal at the bank in front of S. Adriano, who will roughly represent the summoner. We have tried this numerous times with our audience, and it is the only spot on the Forum where it answers.

[Illustration: THE ROSTRA.]

"The _accensus_ of the consuls proclaiming mid-day aloud, as soon as, from the Senate House, he caught sight of the sun between the Rostra and the Græcostasis: he also proclaimed the last hour, when the sun had gone off the Mænian Column to the Prison" (Pliny, vii. 60).

THE MONUMENT OF MARCUS AURELIUS.[5]

[Illustration]

In excavating the open space of the Comitium upon the Forum in the summer of 1872, an interesting discovery was made of two marble screens or balustrades sculptured on each side, the one being some historic scene, the other representing animals. At the time, and since their discovery, many suggestions have been offered as to their signification and use, but none seemed satisfactory, at least to us. After considerable thought, examination of the ground, and putting this and that together, we have arrived at an estimate of their use and meaning entirely different from the hitherto received opinion; in which we are supported by their construction and the classic passages relating to them. They are _in situ_ as found, but a new piece of marble has been put under them.

From this it will be seen that we have made an important discovery bearing upon the topography of the Forum, which will be of interest not only to classical students, but to every one interested in the word Rome.

We have discovered that the reliefs on the screens upon the Comitium in the Forum portray scenes from the life of Marcus Aurelius, showing in their backgrounds the buildings occupying two sides of the Forum--from the Temple of Concord to the Arch of Fabius--and that these marble balustrades led up to the statue of that emperor. The space where it stood can be plainly traced upon the pavement; and that is why these pictures refer to epochs of his life. The statue is still existing, and now stands in the square of the Capitol, where it was erected by Michael Angelo, who brought it from the Lateran in 1538, where it had been placed about 1187, when it was removed from the Forum, near the Column of Phocas, where it had long been looked upon as a statue of Constantine, and is so called in the Regiona Catalogue; hence its preservation.

The whole group was evidently erected in honour of Marcus Aurelius, and in commemoration of the important events in his life depicted on the screens, as recorded by Dion Cassius.

The first relief represents a scene upon the Forum between the old Rostra Marsyas and the fig-tree--burning the forty-six years' arrears of debts which Marcus Aurelius had forgiven the people.

"After that he remitted all that had been due to the Public and Imperial Treasuries for the course of forty-six years, without including therein Hadrian's reign, and ordered all the papers of claims to be burned in the Forum" (Dion Cassius, "Marcus Aurelius").

This was on the marriage of his son Commodus with Crispina.

It will be noticed that the relief is to the right of the fig-tree and Marsyas. Now, if we go round to the other relief, we have the same tree and Marsyas in the same relative positions; but the relief is to the left, and the scenes are taking place between the Rostra Julia, the fig-tree, and Marsyas:--

Giving the donation of eight pieces of gold.

Roma, or perhaps Faustina, thanking him for the Puellæ Faustinianæ.

"After he had come back to Rome, as he was one day haranguing the people, and speaking of the number of years he had spent abroad in his expeditions, the citizens with a loud voice cried out, 'Eight,' at the same time extending their hands to receive as many pieces of gold. The emperor, smiling, repeated, 'Eight,' and ordered every Roman eight pieces, which was so considerable a sum, that so great a one was never given before by any emperor" (Dion Cassius, "Marcus Aurelius").

It will be noticed that two men are holding up their hands with fingers extended, one five, the other three--eight.

The other scene on this relief represents a female figure advancing to the seated figure of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, leading a child and carrying another, to thank him for the orphan schools he founded in Rome in memory of his wife after her death, and which he named after her. "New Faustinian schools he instituted in honour of his dead wife" (Julius Capitolinus, "M. Antoninus," xxvi.).

THE SUOVETAURILIA.

Upon the inner sides of the Avenue are represented on each balustrade a boar, a ram, and a bull--the animals offered at the triple sacrifice, or _suovetaurilia_ (from _sus_, _ovis_, _taurus_), which was performed once every five years, or _lustrum_, for the purification of the city.

It was an institution of Servius Tullius, the ceremony consisting in leading the boar, ram, and bull thrice round the assembly of the people, and then offering them to Mars. There is a similar representation upon a relief of Trajan on the Arch of Constantine, and upon a pedestal found near the Arch of Septimius Severus.

_To our left of the Arch of Severus is_

THE ROSTRA AD PALMAM.

Neither the position nor the construction of this Rostra answers to that of the original Suggestum, which took the name of Rostra from having fixed on it the _six_ bronze beaks of the Antiates' ships. The original Rostra, shown on a coin of Palikanus, the orator mentioned by Cicero ("Brutus," lxii.)--see page 42--was a wooden pulpit. Its exact site we have already identified. The last historical notice that we have of it is in Spartianus's "Life of Didius Julianus" (iv.), A.D. 193. After saying that the emperor addressed the Senate, he adds, "but the people expressly in the Rostra before the Curia."

[Illustration]

Under the Empire the Rostra had lost its use, and only served occasionally for the emperor to address the people from, or for reading out edicts and proclamations. The western end of the Forum saw many changes after the fire under Commodus, and was rearranged under Septimius Severus, who restored the old edifices, retaining the names of the founders, and erected others (Spartianus, "Severus," xxiii.). In 203 an arch was erected to Severus and his two sons, and a new Rostra was made on the south side of this arch. By cutting away a piece of the slope of the Capitoline Hill, he formed an escarpment 11 feet high, which was faced with a curved brick wall, and cased with Porta Santa marble, in panels 3 feet 1 inch wide. Between each pair of panels there is a space 6½ inches wide, from which a piece of marble jutted out 3½ inches. Only one of these exists. On it there was fixed a bronze beak, probably made in imitation of the old ones, for in that day they had no naval foes from whom to capture ships. If there was one row only, there were eighteen in all; if two rows, thirty-six. This in itself is sufficient to show the ridiculousness of calling this the original Rostra, which had six beaks only. The peculiar marble casing also shows late work. At the north end of this platform was erected the Umbilicus (E), and on the south end was placed the Milliarium Aureum (F). From the level space on the top of this escarpment the orator would speak; whilst at a short distance in his rear was the street Clivus Argentarius, leading from the Via Sacra to the Porta Rutuminia. This Rostra was popularly known as the People's Rostra, because from it they were addressed--"Deinde ad Rostra Populum convocarunt" (Capitolinus, "Maximus et Balbinus," iii.). The narrowness of the level space on the top of this Rostra caused great inconvenience; and as room could not be gained in the rear, it had to be taken in front, encroaching on the Comitium. Forty-three and a half feet in front of the curved wall of Porta Santa a straight wall was built of travertine and tufa, 78 feet long, with side walls from it back to the extreme ends of the Rostra, and this was cased with Carrara white marble, the space between the two walls being filled with earth, thus making a large platform with a square instead of a curved front. The blocks of tufa and marble were tied together by iron clamps, of which fragments remain, of a shape not used in the earlier days, but used now. [Illustration] That the curved wall and the straight wall are not contemporary is shown by the construction, as well as by the fact that the curved wall is faced with coloured marble, which would not have been the case if it had not at one time been open to the Forum. The curved wall is on a line with the Arch of Severus; but the tufa wall comes out 25½ feet beyond the arch, and is not parallel with the curved wall behind it. The tufa and travertine wall is erected on the travertine pavement of the Comitium.

[Illustration]

We believe these changes on this Rostra were made in the time of Aurelian (270), after the death of Claudius II., whose statue was erected on this Rostra. "Illi totius orbis judicio in rostris posita est columna palmata statua superfixa" (Pollio, "Claudius," iii.). Upon this Rostra also Aurelian erected a statue of the Genius of the Roman People. Aurelianus--"Genium Populi Romani in rostra posuit" ("E Chronicis antiquis excerpta Aurelianus"). The fourth century guides, "Curiosum Urbis" and "De Regionibus" (in Regio viii.), mention the Genium Populi Romani, the latter adding "aureum." They both mention three Rostra in the Forum. The statue of Claudius was not represented as wearing the Roman toga, but the Greek pallium, from which this Rostra became known as the Rostra ad Palmam; and this part of the Forum in later times was called ad Palmam.

Theodoric--"Deinde veniens ingressus urbem venit ad Senatum, et ad Palmam populo adlocutus" ("Excerpta Valesiana," lxvi.).

"Ligaverunt ei manus a tergo et decollaverunt extra Capitolium et extrahentes jactaverunt eum juxta arcum triumphi ad Palmam" ("Acta SS., Mai." vii.).

Ammianus Marcellinus (xvi. x. 13) describes Constantius's visit in 356 to this Rostra: "When he arrived at the Rostra, he gazed with amazed awe on the Forum, the most renowned monument of ancient power; and being bewildered with the number of wonders on every side to which he turned his eyes, having addressed the nobles in the Senate House and harangued the populace from the Rostra, he retired." This expresses the feelings of many visitors in our day. The site commands a good view of the Forum.

[Illustration: RELIEF FROM THE ARCH OF CONSTANTINE REPRESENTING THE ROSTRA AD PALMAM, ETC.]

The remains of this Rostra are best illustrated by the representation of it in the relief on the Arch of Constantine; and by no possible imagination can it be made to agree with the coin of Palikanus.

In the centre is a platform with a straight front, having a lattice balustrade; on the right is a statue of Claudius II., and on the left the statue of the Genius of Rome. A group of people stand behind the railing and surround Constantine, who is addressing the people. Behind are five Corinthian columns surmounted with statues. The balustrade stood on the top of the tufa wall, and some of the fallen gray granite columns still exist. To our right, clear of the Rostra, is the Arch of Severus, a group of people being in front, looking up to the Rostra. On the left, in the background, are the Arch of Tiberius, spanning the Vicus Jugarius, and four of the arches of the Basilica Julia--the foreground being occupied by a crowd of people facing towards the Rostra.

The scene here depicted was no doubt that which took place on the entry of Constantine into Rome: "And with a loud voice and by inscriptions he made known to all men the salutary standard" (Eusebius, "Life of Constantine," xl.).

In the relief the head of Constantine is unfortunately missing; but it seems very appropriate that he should be represented addressing the Roman people from that Rostra, which was decorated with the statue of his ancestor Claudius II.

There are no beaks shown on the relief; but along the tufa wall, at regular intervals of 3 feet 4 inches, are cut grooves 6½ inches wide and 1½ inch deep: in these grooves are holes which, if they were to sustain beaks, would give thirty-six for a single row, and seventy-two for a double row.

We doubt if these grooves and holes were for beaks. They were more probably for the supports of the marble casing; they do not go completely through the wall.

Some authorities call these remains on the Clivus the Rostra Vetera, or the original Rostra. But it does not answer classic description, and the construction shows it to be of late date. It does not stand _on_ the Comitium, or _before_ the Curia, nor _under_ the old shops. Besides, it looks down the Forum; so from here how could Gracchus have _turned_ from the Senate House and Comitium towards the Forum?

THE UMBILICUS

was a monument marking the centre of the Roman world. The ruin of the Umbilicus is at the side of the Arch of Septimius Severus, at the end of the Rostra ad Palmam. Its pyramidal shape upon a round base can easily be distinguished.

THE ASYLUM OF ROMULUS.

This was between the Clivus Capitolinus and the Pass of the Two Groves (Via Arco di Septimo Severo), under the Capitoline Hill, and served afterwards as an advanced fort to the citadel. "He opened a sanctuary, in the place where the enclosure now is, on the road down from the Capitoline [Temple], called the Pass of the Two Groves" (Livy, i. 8). "He surrounded it with a high stone wall" (Ovid, "Fasti," iii. 231). The gate leading into it was called the Porta Pandana--"ever-open gate" (Solinus, i. 13. See Plutarch, in "Romulus;" Dionysius, ii. 15; Florus, i. 1; Varro and Festus). The remains of the tufa wall exist on the left of the Clivus, in front of the Temple of Saturn.

THE CLOACA MAXIMA,

or great drain, begun by Tarquin the Great, containing a large stream of water rushing along, as it did over two thousand years ago, is exposed to view at the east end of the Basilica Julia.

It was finished by Tarquin the Proud, B.C. 556 (Livy, i. 38, 55).

"Men spoke in admiration of the public sewers, too, a work more stupendous than any, as mountains had to be pierced for their construction, and navigation might be carried on beneath Rome; an event which happened in the ædileship of M. Agrippa, after he had filled the office of consul." (See Dion Cassius, "Augustus," A.U.C. 721.)

"For this purpose there are seven streams turned into the artificial channels, and flowing beneath the city. Rushing onward, like so many impetuous torrents, they are compelled to carry off and sweep away all the sewerage" (Pliny, xxxvi. 24).

FRAGMENTS

of different buildings lie scattered about; to what edifices they belonged "pronounce who can." More than two hundred columns, and fifty capitals of exquisite workmanship, have been discovered in the excavations of the Forum. Near the reliefs on the Comitium is a pedestal with the following inscription:--

TO THE ANNIHILATOR OF TYRANTS, AND THE AUTHOR OF PUBLIC SAFETY, TO OUR CONSTANT AND FELICITOUS LORD, ARCADIUS AUGUSTUS. ALBINUS, PREFECT OF THE CITY, ETC., HAS ERECTED THIS.

_Having now made the circuit of the Forum, we will proceed to_

THE SCALÆ ANNULARIÆ.

Beyond the Temple of Castor, to the right of the Temple of Vesta, are remains of these stairs.