Old Rome Part 3

[Sidenote: Cryptoporticus.]

Near the ruins of this Temple of Jupiter Stator we find vast blocks of substruction which belong to the complicated ranges of buildings occupying the north-eastern end of the hill, and generally believed to have been erected by Caligula. They extend along the side of the hill over the Forum, and along the Clivus Victoriae by which we entered, to the point which overlooks the Velabrum. The modifications and enlargements of this structure during the ages succeeding Caligula have rendered it a confused ma.s.s of ruins, and the walls and chambers now left have served chiefly as substructions for the lofty mansions erected upon them in the course of ages. From the corner of these ruins, next to the Temple of Jupiter Stator, runs a long arched cryptoporticus or covered pa.s.sage, which can be entered from the ruins of this temple or from below nearer to the modern entrance gateway. It is supposed that this may have been the cryptoporticus in which, as we learn from Josephus, Caligula was a.s.sa.s.sinated on his return from the ludi palatini given in front of the palace. He is said to have turned off from the direct line of entrance, and to have pa.s.sed into this covered way in order to hear and see some youths from Asia performing. The a.s.sa.s.sins, after accomplishing their end, were afraid to venture through the front of the palace, and took refuge by hiding in the house of Germanicus.[20]

[Sidenote: House of Tiberius.]

At the western end of the cryptoporticus a house has been disinterred by the late excavations, and it has been inferred that this must have been the one called by Josephus the house of Germanicus. Whatever name may now be a.s.signed to it, the house appears to have been preserved for some reason from destruction, and it seems reasonable to conclude that some connection with the earlier history of the imperial Caesars rendered it an object of veneration and care. The s.p.a.ce between the cryptoporticus, along which we have pa.s.sed, and the so-called basilica of the palace, is supposed to have been called the Area Palatina, where those who came to call upon the emperor had to wait.[21] The long cryptoporticus was connected with the Flavian public buildings, and perhaps also previously with the house of Augustus, by a branch pa.s.sage which runs off from the long cryptoporticus at right angles, towards the back of the atrium and lararium. By this means the emperor could pa.s.s from his private palace to the public audience and banqueting chambers without encountering the crowd of those who were waiting for audience in the area. In this area was found, in 1868, the pedestal bearing the name of Domitius Calvinus, now placed on the site of the ruined temple which lies farther to the west, and which we shall presently mention.

In the angle of the cryptoporticus near the house of Germanicus, are some beautiful remains of decorative work, consisting of paintings of birds and winged genii. These have been much injured by the damp exuding from a piscina which was constructed here in the second or third century for the keeping of fish, and which can be entered at the angle of the cryptoporticus. Near this piscina is the entrance to the building called the house of Tiberius or Germanicus. The construction of this house belongs to the period of Roman architecture, when reticulated work formed of the harder tufa, with small diamond-shaped stones, and with corners and connecting parts of the same stone, but without brickwork, was generally used. It was therefore probably built during the later republican times, and this agrees with the supposition that it was the works of Tiberius's father or grandfather. Suetonius says that Tiberius was born on the Palatine.[22] The leaden pipes which have been found here, bear the names of Julia, the daughter of t.i.tus, of one of Domitian's, and one of Septimius Severus's freedmen.

The house is divided into two main parts, one of larger dimensions for receiving guests and showing hospitality, and the other of smaller sized rooms, for the family. The vestibule is an arched pa.s.sage adorned with paintings on the walls, and mosaic pavement. From this the atrium is entered which had no impluvium, but was covered entirely with a roof. On the left are the remains of an altar of the Lares, and at the further side of the atrium are three large rooms, the decorative paintings of which are well preserved.

In the central chamber, the walls are divided into large compartments by columns of the Composite order, adorned with vine leaves. One of the large scenes represented here is that of Polyphemus, who, after having crushed his rival Acis with an enormous rock, turns towards Galatea, who is riding on a hippocampus. Another, placed above the frieze, is a picture of a domestic initiation ceremony, as the sacred taenia which is being presented seems to prove. A third picture, also above the frieze, shows the preparations for a sacrifice. On the right sits a female figure, with a mantle, and a faun standing before some utensils for ablution, which are being lifted by a second female figure, while the sacrificial kid is being brought by a young slave. The next picture represents a row of houses along the side of a street or road, at the door of one of which a lady with her maid is knocking, while four or five figures present themselves above on the balconies. The last picture is one of Io hidden in the wood of Juno at Mycenae, and watched by Argos, with a figure of Hermes descending by Jove's command to rescue Io. The names of Io, Argos, and Hermes are legible here.

The room on the left hand of this one is also divided by Composite columns adorned with vine leaves, and by a beautiful frieze of giallo antico. The lower compartments have no figures, but the upper are ornamented with designs of genii and fantastic flowers.

The room on the right hand is decorated with beautifully-designed paintings of flowers and fruit, hanging from one column to the next. From these festoons hang the emblems of various divinities, the lyre of Apollo, the timbrel of Cybele, and the mystic sieve and mask of Bacchus. These seem to indicate that this was the lararium of the house. The frieze contains a number of landscape and marine views, with many figures of men and animals painted on a yellow ground.

At the north-western corner of the atrium opens a fourth chamber, which may perhaps have been the dining-room, or triclinium, decorated with trophies of sacred emblems of Diana and Apollo. The atrium communicates with the rooms at the back of the house and with a small courtyard by means of a corridor. Some of these rooms were used as baths, others seem to have opened towards the street, the pavement of which still remains along the side of the house.

[Sidenote: Palatine temples.]

On the other side of this street is an entrance to the subterranean caves which have been cut in this part of the hill. These hollows were mainly stone quarries and wells. A puteal, or well-cover, has been placed over one of these in front of the house which we have described. On this side of the street also stand the foundations which have been supposed to have belonged to the priests of the Temple of Jupiter Propugnator on the Palatine, some portions of the fasti of whose college have been found near the Basilica Julia and the Marforio.[23] There is also the foundation of a temple, called by Rosa the Temple of Jupiter Victor, to be seen extending from this street towards the viridarium of the aedes publicae of Domitian before mentioned, and towards the edge of the hill which looks over the Circus Maximus. These ruins consist of ma.s.ses of tufa work mixed with later brickwork of the Antonine times. The pedestal with the name of Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus which is placed here came, as we have said, from the spot called the Area Palatina before mentioned. The Not.i.tia also places the Temple of Jupiter Victor in the Area Palatina, and for these two reasons the name seems to be wrongly applied to this ruin. We can trace in it the remains of a building raised on a bas.e.m.e.nt with lofty flights of steps, alternating with terraces in front, towards the Circus Maximus, just as we find at Tibur and at Tusculum temples, placed on the side of a hill with high flights of steps ascending to them.[24]

[Sidenote: Germalus and Scala Caci.]

The remainder of the upper level of this north-western corner of the hill is occupied by numerous ruins of squared tufa stone, which evidently belonged to some of the most ancient and venerated relics of Rome. This was, no doubt, the part of the Palatine to which the name Germalus was given, in memory of the Germani, or twin-brothers, Romulus and Remus, who were cast ash.o.r.e at its foot from the flooded waters of the Tiber. Two distinct edifices have been disclosed here, from the first of which, a rectangular foundation of tufa stones, a pa.s.sage bearing marks of great antiquity descends towards the church of Anastasia and the gas works. This rectangular ruin has been called by many various names, such as the Temple of Jupiter Feretrius, the Tugurium Faustuli, the Temple of the Magna Mater Cybele, or of the Lares Praest.i.tes. The descending pa.s.sage to the Vallis Murcia has been supposed to be the Scala Caci mentioned by Solinus,[25]

and it is possible that the legend of Cacus refers to this point of the Palatine next to the Aventine. The marks on the stones of this descent are probably only quarry marks. No brickwork is found here in the lower ruins nor any marbles. But in the ma.s.s of fragments there are remains of the republican and of the imperial restorations of the many venerated buildings and altars which must have stood upon this corner of the hill.

On the right hand of this descent a small rectangular court was discovered in 1872, with a staircase and a channel for water running through it. This is thought by Lanciani to have been possibly the fifth Argean Chapel, which was somewhere on the Germalus. A statue found here bears some marks of having represented the G.o.ddess Cybele.

[Sidenote: Auguratorium.]

The most conspicuous ruin at this end of the hill is a ma.s.s of concrete and tufa blocks, apparently of the republican era, in the shape of a rectangular bas.e.m.e.nt. This has the form of a temple in antis, i.e. with projecting wings, and faces the south, commanding a view over the Aventine and Tiber valley. Cav. Rosa has conjectured that this is the ruin of the auguratorium mentioned by the Not.i.tia as situated near the other most ancient sacred spots on the Palatine. But an inscription which records the restoration of the auguratorium by Hadrian does not support this view, as the work now remaining is mostly republican.[26] Lanciani thinks that this may have been the aedes Matris Deum, to which the statue found as before mentioned in front of it belonged.

At the back of the so-called auguratorium we find a long series of rooms running in a line across the hill from north-west to south-east, which have vaulted roofs and are similar to those found below in the domus Gelotiana, before described. Cav. Rosa has inferred with reason from this and from the graffiti in these rooms that they formed a part of the offices and guard-rooms attached to that large portion of the palace which lay on the site now occupied by the gardens and the vast ma.s.ses of brickwork at the northern corner of the hill. The graffiti to be seen here are chiefly the scribblings of soldiers' names, rude sketches of ships and animals, and combats of gladiators.

[Sidenote: Tiberiana domus.]

Several pa.s.sages of the Roman historians lead us to conclude that the suite of rooms occupied by Tiberius were situated here. It was from the Tiberiana Domus, as Tacitus relates, that Vitellius surveyed the conflagration of the Temple of Jupiter on the Capitol, and the engagement between his adherents and the Flavian party under Sabinus. The Tiberian part of the palace was also that through which, as Tacitus also tells us, Otho descended into the Velabrum, after joining Galba at the sacrifice in the Temple of Apollo on the Palatine.[27] Afterwards, the Tiberiana Domus became the favourite residence of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius, and it was probably during their reigns that the library which we find mentioned by Gellius was established here.[28]

We now pa.s.s through the garden grounds which lie over the remains of the Domus Tiberiana, and descend on the side which looks over the Forum, by a long staircase through the immense ma.s.ses of brickwork and concrete which are said to have been part of the insane additions of Caligula to the imperial palace. He is declared to have made a pa.s.sage from this wing of the palace to the back of the Temple of Castor below in the Forum, in order that he might appear in that sacred shrine as an equal of the twin G.o.ds and an object of worship when the Senate met there. He also joined this corner of the palace with the Capitoline Temple of Jupiter by a huge viaduct, which pa.s.sed over the Basilica Julia, in order that he might thus make himself the contubernalis of Jupiter.[29] Some of the substructions of this viaduct are to be seen near the back of the church of S. Maria Liberatrice. We now leave the Palatine by the Clivus Victoriae, along which we entered, and turn to the arch of t.i.tus and the ruins which stand near it.

THE VELIA.

[Sidenote: The Velia.]

Near the arch of t.i.tus the Palatine Hill runs out in a gradually sloping ridge north-eastwards towards the Esquiline Hill. On one side of this ridge the ground sinks towards the Forum Romanum, and on the other towards the Meta Sudans and the Coliseum. The level of the pavement under the arch of t.i.tus is fifty-three feet above the ancient pavement of the Forum. It seems probable that this outlying part of the Palatine was that which bore the name of Velia.[30]

[Sidenote: Arch of t.i.tus.]

On the summit of the ridge above described stands the arch of t.i.tus, the most complete of all the monuments of imperial Rome. The central part of the original building remains, and is easily distinguished from the subsequent travertine restorations by being constructed of Pentelic marble. The height of the arch is forty-nine feet and its breadth forty-two feet. Originally there were two fluted Corinthian columns on each side of both faces of the arch, the two inner of which are now left, while the two outer are modern. Over the arch are two bas-reliefs of Victory which, though much injured, are still remarkable for the beauty of their outlines. On the keystone of the side towards the Coliseum is a figure of Rome, and on the other side Fortune with a cornucopia.

The most interesting parts of the arch have fortunately been preserved by their protected position in the interior. On each side is a magnificent alto-relievo, representing the triumphal procession of t.i.tus after the capture of Jerusalem. The relievo on the south side shows a number of persons carrying the spoils of the Jewish Temple. The golden candlestick, the golden table for s...o...b..ead, and the trumpets are clearly recognizable.

These, according to Josephus,[31] among other utensils of the Jewish temple, were deposited in Vespasian's Temple of Peace. The procession is moving towards a triumphal arch.

In the northern relief the emperor is represented in his triumphal car, drawn by four horses, and surrounded by his guards and suite. Victory is holding a crown over his head, and the G.o.ddess Roma guiding the reins. The interior of the arch is ornamented with richly-carved rosettes and coffers, and upon the crown is a rather undignified representation of the apotheosis of the emperor astride upon an eagle's back.

On the Coliseum side a small portion of the entablature is left. The frieze had a bas-relief, which partially remains, of a sacrificial procession. The attica is modern, with the exception of the inscription.

That the arch was erected after the emperor's death is shown by the t.i.tle Divus, and also by the figure of his apotheosis under the archway. Another arch had been erected in the Circus previously in the year 80, when the Coliseum was completed, and t.i.tus gave a great festival. The date of the extant arch is, therefore, the year 82 or 83.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 9.]

[Sidenote: Temple of Venus and Rome.]

Almost the whole of the southern slope of the Velia towards the Coliseum is occupied by the ruin of a vast foundation which extends under the church and convent of S. Francesca Romana. The substructions, of which the inner core only, consisting of rubble-work, is left, were originally cased with travertine blocks. They form an enormous quadrilateral terrace, round which a portico of granite columns ran. Upon this was raised a bas.e.m.e.nt some four or five feet higher, and a building with two apses back to back, similar to the tribunes of a basilica. These are ornamented with large square coffers and niches for statues. It has been generally inferred from the statements of Dion Ca.s.sius and Spartia.n.u.s that this building was the Temple of Venus and Rome built by Hadrian and dedicated by the Antonines, but burnt down in the time of Constantine and restored by him.[32] Pope Honorius I. stripped the bronze tiles from the roof, and they were placed on the Basilica of S. Peter, whence they were taken by the Saracens in A.D. 846. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, limekilns were set up near the arch of t.i.tus by the Romans and the marbles of this spot were burnt into lime.[33] The two tribunes which stand back to back and the buildings near them have not the appearance of a temple, but rather of a legal court or basilica. For this reason, and also because a large portico of this shape is represented in the marble plan of the city, the fragments of which are now in the Capitoline Museum, as having belonged to the Porticus Liviae, Mr. Parker, in his 'Archaeology of Rome,'

has maintained that this was the Porticus Liviae, built by Augustus and afterwards used by Hadrian for the Temple of the Sun and Moon. Jordan has also shown that the Porticus Liviae was near this spot, but he places it farther to the north-east, behind the Basilica of Constantino.[34] Since Dion Ca.s.sius speaks of the Temple of Venus and Rome as having been close to the Coliseum and also near the Sacra Via, and Spartia.n.u.s says that it stood in the vestibule of the Domus Aurea of Nero, we are almost compelled to a.s.sign this position to that temple.[35]

[Sidenote: Domus Transitoria.]

Nero's enormous extension of the Palatine buildings must have occupied a great part of the Velia, reaching across it from the Palatine to the Esquiline. But his great Domus Aurea and its surrounding porticoes and halls, which were called Domus Transitoria, and occupied not only the slope of the Velia but also the site of the Coliseum, were destroyed by the Flavian emperors who succeeded him, and we can only point to one fragment, of the Domus Transitoria which stands near the corner of the Basilica of Constantine at the side of the path which leads between that ruin and the buildings of S. Francesca Romana.

[Sidenote: Basilica of Constantine.]

The vast arches of the ruin called the Basilica of Constantine form, next to the Coliseum, the most conspicuous object in the neighbourhood of the Forum, and they were long supposed to have belonged to the Temple of Peace, Vespasian's great temple. But the decision of modern archaeology has a.s.signed them to Constantine, on the ground that the brickwork is of much later date than the time of Vespasian, and also that the few remains of decoration which are extant bear indications of a great decline of ornamentative art when they were constructed. Further evidence has been derived from a coin of Maxentius, the rival of Constantine, having been found in 1828 sticking in the mortar of one of the fragments. Aurelius Victor says that the basilica called by the name of Constantine was begun by Maxentius.[36] The three gigantic arches now standing formed the roof of the eastern aisle of the basilica, which consisted, as the foundation clearly shows, of a central hall and two side aisles. The arches are sixty-eight feet in span and eighty feet high. They are ornamented by octagonal caissons or coffers, containing central rosettes and the inters.p.a.ces are relieved by rhomboidal panel work. The two side arches have their backs walled up, and there are six arched windows in each wall.

At the back of the central arch is a semicircular tribune, with niches for statues and a central pedestal. Some of the marble ornaments of this tribune are still left, and show in their rude execution evidence of the Constantinian style of art. A screen seems to have separated the tribune from the interior of the hall. In front of the three great arches can be plainly seen the spring of the enormous roof which covered the central hall of the basilica. This central hall must have been at least 80 feet in width and 115 feet in height.

The southern aisle was of the same construction and size as the northern, and in place of the tribune had a grand entrance on the side towards the arch of t.i.tus. A flight of steps and a portico with porphyry columns, two of which are now in the Conservatori Museum on the Capitol, formed the approach to the entrance. A white column from the central hall is to be seen erected in front of S. Maria Maggiore, where it was placed in the seventeenth century by Paul V.

At the western end of the central hall was a tribune, the ruins of which are now occupied by a warehouse, and at the eastern end an entrance in three divisions opened into the road between the basilica and the portico of the so-called Temple of Venus and Rome. This entrance had a vestibule or verandah similar to those found at S. Giovanni in Laterano and at S.

Maria Maggiore, and answering to the building called a chalcidic.u.m by Vitruvius.[37] (Fig. 9, p. 33.)

[Sidenote: SS. Cosma and Damiano.]

The church of SS. Cosma and Damiano which now stands at the north-western end of the Basilica of Constantine is, like many other churches in Rome, constructed on the ruins of some ancient temple. A most careful account has been given of its various stages of construction by Mr. Parker.[38]

This may possibly have been the site of the original Temple of the Penates, and some archaeologists have thought that the round temple which has been converted into the vestibule of the church was that of the Penates. The doorway of this temple with its columns, frieze and bronze doors, has been raised from the lower level of the old temple, on which the crypt of the church now stands beneath the floor. At the back of this the nave of the church was built on the ruins of some unknown temple, and behind the apse of the nave is said by Mr. Parker to have been the wall on which the celebrated Capitoline marble plan of Rome was hung. The fragments of this plan, which was shaken down, he thinks, by the fall of a great ma.s.s from the Basilica of Constantine, were found here. The chapel of the Penates was on the road from the summa Sacra Via to the Carinae, which would place it near this spot.[39] The name "Temple of Romulus"

given to the ruins by mediaeval writers may have been derived from some restoration by Romulus, son of Maxentius.

[Sidenote: Lavacrum of Heliogabalus.]

We now pa.s.s through the arch of t.i.tus along the ancient road towards the Coliseum, and on the slope of the Palatine to our right stand the ruins of a mediaeval church which was excavated in 1873 by Cav. Rosa. This is said to have been called the church of S. Maria Antiqua, and to have been placed upon the ruins of the lavacrum of Heliogabalus.[40] The chambers now disclosed seem to have been used as a bath. Along the side of the hill near this are numerous ruins similar to those on the other side of the Palatine, which were apparently guard rooms.

CHAPTER II.

THE FORUM ROMANUM.