CHAPTER IX.

(A) THE VIA APPIA AND THE ALBAN HILLS.

[Sidenote: The Appian Road.]

Of the great roads along which the principal traffic from ancient Rome

passed, the Appian Road may perhaps be said to have been the most

important, as it led to the southern and oriental provinces of the great

empire; and it is on the line of this ancient road that the greatest

number of ruined tombs and other buildings are still left. Two hundred

ruins are said to stand on the sides of the Appian Road between the site

of the Porta Capena, by which this road left the Servian walls, and

Albano, a distance of fourteen miles. The tombs were of the most varied

and fantastic shapes and designs, the most common forms being those with

square or circular bases, cylindrical superstructure, and conical roof.

Some were square with several floors, and surmounted by a pyramid, others

consisted of chapels in brick, placed upon a cubical base, or of

sarcophagi in various shapes, mounted upon brick substructions.

Many fragmentary inscriptions have been found which once belonged to these

tombs, but not one of any historical importance. The greater part of them

record the names of freedmen, and other obscure people, as the larger and

more highly decorated tombs were plundered first, and their marble casing

and inscriptions completely destroyed at an early period. The older

fragments which have been saved may be studied in the Berlin Collection of

Inscriptions where they are learnedly and ably edited by Th. Mommsen.

There were also many fountains and semicircular ranges of seats by the

side of the road designed as resting-places for travellers.

The commencement of the ancient Appian Road now lies between the Porta S.

Sebastiano and the site of the old Porta Capena. From this part of the

road the Via Latina diverged on the left, and the Via Ardeatina on the

right. Beyond the Porta S. Sebastiano, the first monument now visible is a

mass of stonework on the left hand, about one hundred yards from the gate.

From its form and the style of masonry there can be little doubt that it

was a pyramidal tomb similar to that of Caius Cestius at the Porta S.

Paolo, and that it was built in the Augustan era. The road then crosses

the Almo, and the remains of another pyramidal tomb are to be seen on the

left. This is sometimes called the Tomb of Priscilla, mentioned by

Statius, but that name more probably belongs to the larger tomb further

on, beyond the Church of Domine quo Vadis. This latter ruin agrees better

with the description of Statius, as it had a cupola and loculi for the

reception of unburnt corpses. The immense number of ruined tombs and other

buildings which crowd the sides of the road beyond this point, make it

necessary to restrict our remarks as much as possible, and we shall

therefore only notice a few of the most prominent ruins upon the road or

in the immediate neighbourhood.

[Sidenote: Divus Rediculus.]

The brick building called the Temple of the Divus Rediculus stands half a

mile to the left of the road at the second milestone in the Caffarella

valley. The legend which connects it with Hannibal’s march on Rome is

altogether unworthy of credit,[129] and it is plain that the building,

which had no rows of surrounding columns, but is constructed with

Corinthian pilasters, had two stories, and cannot therefore have been a

temple. Professor Reber considers that it was a chapel tomb similar to

that to be seen further on the road at S. Urbano, near the Tomb of Cæcilia

Metella.

[Sidenote: Grotto of Egeria.]

The Grotto of Egeria, as it is called, lies in the valley of the Almo

about half a mile above the building just mentioned. It is an arched

nymphæum of brick, at the back of which a plentiful stream of clear water

issues. The mutilated statue of the nymph still remains, but no other

parts of the decorations. There is little doubt that it was the nymphæum

of some suburban villa.

[Sidenote: Temple of Bacchus or Honos.]

On the hill above it stands the Church of S. Urbano, probably an ancient

tomb in the shape of a chapel. It is commonly called the Temple of Bacchus

from the discovery under it of an altar of Dionysus with a Greek

inscription. But this altar seems to have been moved here from some other

spot. The building is in the form which has a projecting porch with four

Corinthian columns and capitals. These are now built up into the modern

wall. The whole, except the entablature and columns, is of brickwork of

the Antonine era, as appears from the stamps of the bricks. The triple

frieze, forming a kind of attica between the architrave and cornice, seems

to contradict the notion that this was a temple, though the great

antiquary E. Q. Visconti considered that it was the Temple of Honour built

by Marius outside the Porta Capena.[130] The interior is tolerably well

preserved, and has a vaulted roof with coffers and reliefs in the form of

trophies.

[Sidenote: The Circus of Maxentius and Temple of Romulus.]

On the left of the Appian Road, where it dips suddenly into a valley near

the Church of S. Sebastian, lies a group of ruins, the principal of which

consist of a circus, a building enclosed in a large square court, and some

remains of rooms apparently belonging to an ancient villa. The walls of

the circus are still in such preservation that they can be easily traced

round the whole enclosure, and are in some parts nearly of the original

height. They are built of rubble mixed with brickwork, and with jars of

terra-cotta to lighten their weight, as in the case of the masonry in

other walls of the same date. The towers at each side of the Carceres, or

starting post, the curved line of Carceres themselves, and the spina, or

central division line, can be easily traced. An inscription in honour of

Romulus, son of Maxentius, found here in 1825, and now placed at the

entrance to the ruins, seems to show the circus was built in honour of

Romulus, son of Maxentius, who died before his father, A.D. 309. This is

confirmed by a statement in one of the ancient chronicles published by

Roncalli, in which it is said that Maxentius built a circus near the

catacombs, evidently referring to the neighbouring catacombs of S.

Sebastian and others, and also by the style of masonry used in the circus.

The adjoining ruined temple, with its enclosing court, seems to belong to

a somewhat earlier style of construction, but some reasons derived from

the coins of Maxentius and Romulus have been given for supposing that it

was the temple dedicated to Romulus after his apotheosis by his

father.[131] The ruins are not sufficiently preserved to make it certain

that the building was a temple, and there is nothing to contradict the

hypothesis that it was a tomb. Nor is anything whatever known about the

adjoining villa.

[Sidenote: Tomb of Cæcilia Metella.]

On the end of the mound formed by the great lava stream which ages ago

flowed down from the Alban Hills, and along the top of which the Via Appia

runs from this point, stands the conspicuous Tomb of Cæcilia Metella, the

daughter of Metellus Creticus, and wife of Crassus, but whether of the

Triumvir Crassus, or of the orator, or of some other less well known

Crassus is uncertain. The inscription on the tomb is Cæciliæ, Q. Cretici

Filiæ, Metellæ Crassi. The shape of the tomb is the same as that of the

Mausoleum of Hadrian, and the Tomb of the Plautii at Tivoli; a cylindrical

towerlike edifice, resting on a square base of concrete with massive

blocks of travertine. The upper part has been destroyed, and the marble

casing stripped off, with the exception of a band of ox skulls and

garlands which surrounds it, and some trophies carved in relief above the

inscription. The roof was probably conical. Mediæval battlements, erected

by the Caetani family, who held it as a fortress in the 13th century, now

crown the upper edge. The remains of their castle are still visible on

each side of the road beyond the tomb.

[Sidenote: Roma Vecchia, Villa of Seneca.]

After passing the third milestone, the Appian Road is fringed with ruins

of innumerable tombs, and here and there the relics of a suburban villa.

Scarcely any of these can have names attached to them with any certainty.

The spot is now called Roma Vecchia, and the Campus sacer Horatiorum, the

Fossa Cluilia, and the Villa Quintiliana Commodi lay here. The suburban

villa in which Seneca committed suicide by opening his veins was at the

fourth milestone, as we learn from Tacitus, and near this was found in

1824, by Nibby, a marble slab with the name of Granius, a military

tribune. A tribune of this name was employed by Nero to compel Seneca to

kill himself, but whether the stone refers to him or not is of course

doubtful.

[Sidenote: Tomb of Atticus.]

At the fifth milestone on the right hand of the road is a round mass of

ruins with a rectangular chamber inside, which has been supposed to be the

tomb mentioned by Cornelius Nepos, as the burial place of Atticus,

Cicero’s friend. Near this is the great platform of peperino blocks which

are thought to have been used as a burning place (ustrina) for the bodies

interred at the sides of the road.

[Sidenote: Villa Quintiliana.]

On the left hand, a little way beyond the fifth milestone, the remains of

the Villa Quintiliana of Commodus begin, and reach along the side of the

road for at least half a mile, extending also towards the left into the

adjoining fields as far as the edge of the great lava current, on the top

of which the Via Appia is here carried. The whole of this space, nearly

two miles in circumference, is covered with fragments of costly marbles,

of sculpture, and bits of mosaic, showing that it was covered with

handsomely decorated buildings. The style of construction, says Nibby,

belongs to three different epochs. The buildings nearest to the Appian

Road, comprising the great reservoir, on the foundation of which the

farmhouse of S. Maria Nuova is built, are of brickwork and reticulated

work of the time of Hadrian, the great mass of the ruins which lies on the

left towards the new road to Albano, exhibits workmanship of the Antonine

era, and amongst them have been found numerous fragments of sculpture,

also belonging to the reigns of the Antonines. The third style of building

is that called opera mista by the Italian antiquarians, which prevailed in

the Constantinian times, at the beginning of the fourth century. The

buildings of the Antonines have been repaired and overlaid in many places

by this later work. The stamps of most of the bricks found here belong to

the reigns of Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, and Commodus, and were made

chiefly in the imperial brickyards. Thus the date of the principal parts

of the building is decided, and it is seen that the villa was most

probably an imperial villa. But all doubt on this point was completely

cleared away by the discovery in 1828, of a number of large leaden pipes

bearing the inscription, II. QUINTILIORUM CONDINI ET MAXIMI, from which it

became evident that the villa was the same place which Vopiscus and Dion

Cassius mention as the property of the Quintilii, consuls in the year A.D.

151, under Antoninus Pius, and victims of the spite of Commodus in A.D.

182.[132] Commodus seized their property, and the villa became one of his

favourite residences. The great extent of the ruins explains the

circumstance related by Herodian, that the emperor, being in the back part

of the villa, could not hear the shouts of the infuriated mob on the

Appian Road, who were demanding the life of Cleander.[133]

The ruins which extend along the side of the road, are plainly fragments

of a kind of vestibule or grand entrance to the imperial villa. They

consist of a nymphæum or grand fountain, and a row of chambers intended

for slaves’ lodgings. The fountain is supplied with water by an aqueduct,

the arches of which can be seen at the seventh milestone, where it leaves

the lava rocks, and crosses the country towards Marino, at a higher level

than even the Aqua Claudia. This nymphæum and aqueduct are built of opera

mista, which shows that they are probably the work of the Constantinian

Age.

The principal mass of the villa itself stood nearly half a mile from the

old Appian Road, on the edge of the rocks of basaltic lava. Between them

and the road the space was occupied by gardens and ornamental

summer-houses and ponds. Nibby describes the chief ruins as having

belonged to a richly ornamented fountain, and a suite of bathing-rooms of

great grandeur.

One spacious saloon, the walls of which form a picturesque ruin, as seen

from the new post road to Albano, stands on the edge of the rising ground,

and commands a magnificent view of the whole of the Alban and Sabine Hills

and the city of Rome. Near this was a small theatre, from which the

cipollino columns of the entrance to the Tordinone Theatre in Rome were

taken.

An immense quantity of valuable sculpture, now in the Roman museums and

palaces, was discovered by excavations here in 1787 and 1792. Among these

sculptures was a splendid statue of Euterpe, now in the Galleria dei

Candelabri, a tiger now in the Hall of Animals; and the busts of Lucius

Verus, Diocletian, and Epicurus, Socrates, the Isis and Antinous in the

Vatican, with numerous Sileni, Fauns, and Nereids.

[Sidenote: Casale Rotondo.]

Between the sixth and seventh milestones from the Porta Capena there is a

large round ruin 300 feet in diameter, called Casale Rotondo, now

supporting a house and olive orchard upon the top. The fragments of

sculpture found here have been arranged on the face of a wall, close to

the pile of ruins. The name Cotta was found on an inscription belonging to

this, and hence it has been supposed to be the tomb of the gens Aurelia,

who bore the surname of Cotta. On the left are the arches of the aqueduct

which supplied the Villa of Commodus.

At the eighth milestone there was a Temple of Hercules erected by

Domitian. Martial mentions this temple in several passages. There are

considerable remains of a tetra-style temple on the right hand of the

road, consisting of columns of Alban peperino; but this, which was once

supposed to be the Temple of Hercules, is now said to have contained an

altar to Silvanus.

[Sidenote: Bovillæ.]

The Villa and Farm of Persius the poet is said by his biographer to have

been near the eighth milestone. At the ninth stood the Tomb of Gallienus,

and perhaps the ruins there belong to his suburbanum. At the tenth

milestone, the Rivus Albanus, formerly the Aqua Terentina, is crossed; and

at the eleventh, the road begins to ascend the slope towards Albano. At

the twelfth, the circuit of the walls of the ancient town of Bovillæ is

approached. Dionysius says that Bovillæ was situated where the hill before

reaching Albano first begins to be steep, and this answers to the position

of the modern Osteria delle Frattocchie. The ruins which are now generally

held to be those of Bovillæ lie on the cross road, called Strada di

Nettuno, a little way above Frattocchie.[134] They consist of a small

theatre built of brickwork and opus reticulatum, and a somewhat larger

circus, the enclosure of which and the carceres are still pretty well

preserved. The town did not lie close to the road. It was founded by a

colony from Alba Longa, and was a flourishing place until Coriolanus

destroyed it. For centuries afterwards we find but little notice taken of

it. In Cicero’s time it was a very insignificant village, and had it not

been immortalised by the assassination of Clodius there, which led to such

important results, it could hardly excite any interest in later

times.[135]

The honour of being the native place of the gens Julia gave it some

artificial importance in the imperial times. Tiberius is mentioned by

Tacitus as erecting a sacrarium of the Julian family and a statue of

Augustus there, and founding Circensian games in honour of the gens Julia.

Some inscriptions found on the spot show the town still existed in the 2nd

century A.D. It is now occupied by plots of land laid out as gardens. The

Villa of Clodius, Cicero’s enemy, appears to have been at or near the

thirteenth milestone from Rome, close to the left side of the Appian Road,

between Bovillæ and the modern Albano. It was raised on immense

substructions, the arches of which were capable of concealing a thousand

men, and Cicero declares that Clodius had not respected even the confines

of the Temple of Jupiter Latiaris or the sacred groves of Alba.[136] The

ruins which lie under Castel Gandolfo, on the left side of the road

towards the Porta Romana of Albano, may have formed part of the

substruction of which Cicero speaks. The estate of Clodius passed after

his death, when the family of the Claudii Pulcri became extinct, into the

hands of the Claudii Nerones, from whom Tiberius inherited it, and thus it

became imperial property.

[Sidenote: Villa of Pompey.]

The Villa of Pompey was between that of Clodius and Aricia, and therefore

occupied the site of the present town of Albano. Nibby thinks that the

walls of reticulated work in the Villa Doria belonged to Pompey’s house,

and that the great tomb, near the Roman gate of Albano was Pompey’s burial

place. Plutarch states that Pompey was buried at his Alban villa. The

tomb, with five truncated cones, usually called the Tomb of the Horatii

and Curiatii, has also been called the Tomb of Pompey. It is more probably

an imitation of the old Etruscan tombs executed at a later time. After the

death of that great general, the estate became the property of Dolabella,

and subsequently of Antony, who held it till the battle of Actium, when

Augustus took possession of it. After the adoption of Tiberius, it was

united with the Clodian grounds, and thus formed the nucleus of the

Albanum Cæsarum.

[Sidenote: Albanum Cæsarum.]

Augustus and some of the early emperors found the Albanum a convenient

halting-place on their journeys to the south, but it was in the time of

Domitian that the place was extended so much as to contain a military

camp, enormous reservoirs of water, thermæ, a theatre, an amphitheatre,

and a circular temple. It is called Arx Albana by Juvenal, Tacitus and

Martial.

The plan of the camp can still be traced. It resembled that of the

Prætorian camp at Rome, in being a quadrangular space rounded off at the

corners. The two longer sides extend from the Church of S. Paolo at Albano

to the round Temple, now the Church of S. Maria. One of the shorter sides

was parallel to the Appian Road, and the other ran near the Church of S.

Paolo. There were four terraces or levels in the camp rising towards the

hill behind. The Porta Decumana was in the north-eastern side, and the

Porta Prætoria on the south-western. The great reservoirs for water stand

on the northern side near S. Paolo, and the thermæ towards the south-east

on the opposite side of the Appian Road. At the western corner is the

round building usually called the Temple of Minerva, and supposed to be

that alluded to by Suetonius as annually visited by Domitian. This round

building is in good preservation, but its purpose cannot be determined

with certainty. Nibby says that the ancient mosaic pavement still remains

at a depth of six feet below the present surface. The amphitheatre is

situated between the Church of S. Paolo and that of the Capuchin Convent.

It is principally constructed of opus quadratum, but the interior parts

are of a mixed masonry, consisting of bricks and fragments of the local

stone. This amphitheatre is supposed to have been the scene of the feats

performed by Domitian, in killing with his own hand hundreds of wild

beasts with arrows and javelins, and also of the degradation of Acilius

Glabrio, who was forced, according to Juvenal, by Domitian to join him in

these sports of the arena.

[Illustration: Plan of the ALBAN HILLS & GABII]

Between Castel Gandolfo and Albano four magnificent terraces, rising one

above the other, were traced by Cav. Rosa as forming part of the Albanum

Cæsarum, and in the Villa Barberini there is a considerable part of a

cryptoporticus, ornamented with stucco reliefs, which probably stands over

the old substructions of the Villa Clodi.[137] On the side towards the

lake there were open balconies for viewing the mock naval engagements; and

near the entrance of the Barberini Villa the ruins of a theatre have been

discovered. It appears probable from the numerous ruins found upon the

edge of the lake that the whole of it was surrounded with quays and tiers

of stone seats, and chapels of Nymphs, making it resemble a gigantic

natural naumachia, or sheet of water for sham naval fights. These ruins

may possibly, however, have belonged to separate private villas placed at

different points round the water.

To the south of Albano, in the grounds of the Villa Doria, there are the

ruins of an extensive Roman villa. Whether this was a part of the Albanum

Cæsarum or not, is uncertain. Some of the bricks bear the stamps of

Domitian, others those of the third consulship of Servianus (A.D. 134),

Hadrian’s brother-in-law, others of Commodus.[138]

[Sidenote: Lago Albano or Di Castello.]

The Alban lake belongs to the water system of the Tiber, and has most of

its outlets on the western side. It has been supposed that a subterranean

communication exists between this lake and that of Nemi, but Nibby asserts

that this is impossible, as the level of the lake of Nemi is higher than

that of the Alban lake. The circumference of this sheet of water is more

than six miles, and it is nearly elliptical in shape. The story of the

sudden rise of its waters in the sixth year of the siege of Veii is well

known, and the response of the Delphic oracle as given in Livy.

Cicero gives a distinct account of the drainage of the lake. “We are told,

he says, by the Annalists, that during the siege of Veii, when the Alban

lake had risen to an unusual height, a Veientine noble fled to Rome as a

deserter, and declared that it was written in the books of fate which were

kept at Veii, that Veii could not be taken, so long as the lake was

overflowing its banks, and that if the lake were tapped, and flowed into

the sea by its own channel and stream, it would be fatal to the Roman

nation, but that if the water were so discharged as to make it impossible

for it to reach the sea, then the Romans would be victorious. In

consequence of this our ancestors contrived that admirable plan for

drawing off and dispersing the water of the lake.”

From this passage it would seem likely that the whole object of the

drainage of the lake was to obtain a constant supply of water for the

irrigation of the Campagna. In another passage Cicero states his opinion

still more clearly, that the work was really undertaken for the benefit of

suburban agriculture. “The Veientine prophecy that if the water of the

Alban lake rose above its margin and flowed into the sea, Rome would

perish; but that if it were checked, Veii would be taken, in consequence

of which the Alban water was diverted, was intended to benefit the

suburban farms, and not to secure the safety of Rome.” What appears

strange, is that it should have been necessary to appeal to a

superstitious motive in the case of a people evidently so far advanced in

civilization as to be capable of carrying out an engineering work of such

difficulty in a single year.[139]

[Sidenote: Emissarium of the Alban lake.]

The tunnel which still carries off the superfluous water of the lake is

cut through solid peperino and occasional masses of still harder basaltic

lava. It is more than a mile and a half in length, from seven to ten feet

in height, and never less than four feet in breadth. The height of the

edge of the lake basin above the level of its water at the part which is

pierced by the tunnel is 430 feet. Three vertical shafts are still

discoverable, by which a draft of air was created and the rubbish was

removed, and one slanting shaft for the entrance and exit of the miners.

The rock was cut with a chisel an inch wide, as may be seen from the marks

left upon the sides of the tunnel.

At the points where the water enters and leaves the tunnel, considerable

pains have been taken to regulate the flow. The channel of stonework at

the mouth is placed in a slanting direction so as to break the force of

the rush of water. At the end of this first channel is a cross wall with

openings, protected by gratings to catch the leaves and floating rubbish.

Behind this is a reservoir, similar to the cisterns in use in the Roman

aqueducts, allowing the mud to settle before the water entered the tunnel.

Next to the tunnel itself there is a closed building to protect the canal

from the fall of rocks and stones, and the actual entrance into the rock

is faced with a massive portal of wedge-shaped blocks of stone. The water

in this enclosure is now used by the fishermen of the lake as a receptacle

for keeping fish, and is for this purpose provided with sluices. Hirt

thinks that these arrangements at the mouth are very ancient.[140] Others

ascribe them to the imperial era.

The point where the tunnel emerges from the mountain on the west of Castel

Savelli, nearly a mile from Albano, is called Le Mole. The water was there

received in a long troughlike reservoir arched over with a stone vaulted

roof. From this it ran through five smaller openings into five separate

channels, and was so dispersed into the fields for irrigation. At the

present time the whole stream is united, and after passing the road to

Anzio, thirteen miles from Rome, takes the name of Rio d’Albano, receives

the brook from the valley of Apiolæ, and joining the Acqua Acetosa and

Cornacciola crosses the Ostian way near Tor di Valle, three miles and a

half from Rome, and then discharges itself into the Tiber.

It is the opinion of some archæologists that the Romans brought engineers

from Greece to superintend the Alban tunnel. This supposition, however, is

not necessary. If the Italian engineers could construct the Cloaca Maxima

they would be fully equal to the task of tapping the Alban lake.

The physical conformation of Central Italy compelled its inhabitants to

turn their attention at an early period to the construction of drains and

other hydraulic works. Considerable artificial channels were rendered

necessary in order to regulate the flow of the Arno and Tiber in the

neighbourhood of Chiusi. In southern Etruria, the district now known as

the pestilent Maremma, could only have been rendered healthy by systematic

artificial drainage. The sites of Populonia, Saturnia, Cosa, Veii, and

Cære were thus rendered habitable and fertile, and a great part of Latium

Maritimum, the Pomptine marshes, and the tract about Suessa Pometia must

have been artificially and skilfully drained at the time of the greatest

prosperity of those places. Many of the ancient cities of Central Italy

had tunnels bored underneath their streets which served as thoroughfares

connecting the different parts of the city, or as secret passages leading

out into the country. Such tunnels are found at Præneste and Alba

Fucensis. An account of the attempted escape of Marius from Præneste, by

means of the tunnels, is given by Velleius. The catacombs show that the

same genius for tunnelling operations existed at a later time among the

Italians of the empire.

[Sidenote: Alban Mount.]

The triumphal route by which the festal processions from Rome ascended the

Alban Mount diverged from the Appian road at the ninth milestone. It

probably passed by Marino to Palazzuolo and thence ascended to the summit

by a series of zigzags. The stones which mark its course have the letters

N V. (numinis via) cut upon them. On the summit stood the Temple of

Jupiter Latiaris, the ancient sanctuary of the Latin league. The sole

remains of this famous building are now built into the wall of the

reservoir of the convent of Palazzuolo. They consist of fragments only.

Most of the stones employed by Cardinal York in 1783 in the erection of

the convent of Palazzuolo and the church of the Trinity, on the site of

the temple, were taken from the ruins, but nothing can be learnt from them

regarding the ancient buildings. The summit of the hill is not broad

enough to have supported any large building, and we may therefore conclude

that the temple was of small size, and that the great festival games at

the Feriæ Latinæ were held in the Prati d’Annibale below. The inscriptions

on some of the stones are merely the freaks of some modern stonemasons.

The fragments which remain were probably used for the area round the

temple.

[Illustration: Plan of the Area OF THE TEMPLE of JUPITER ON MONTE CAVO]

The explorations carried out in 1876 seem to have proved that the

buildings consecrated to Jupiter Latiaris on Monte Cavo were a walled area

of about sixty-five yards long, and fifty wide, a fragment of the wall of

which was found; a chapel dedicated to Jupiter, one corner of which was

excavated; a large altar, and some other chapels dedicated as votive

offerings. A tracing of the shape and position of the area, chapels and

altar was found by M. S. De Rossi in a seventeenth century MS. in the

Barberini Library, and was published in the Annali dell’ Instituto for

1876. This traced sketch agrees with the excavations. (See Plan.)

[Sidenote: Alba Longa.]

The early destruction of Alba Longa, so famous in Roman legendary lore,

has completely deprived us of the means of tracing its site by the

discovery of any remains of the walls or buildings which it contained. It

was razed to the ground by Tullus Hostilius in B.C. 667 and never rebuilt.

Dionysius thus describes the site: “The city was built close to the

mountain and lake, upon a site between the two. They serve as defences to

it, and make it almost impregnable, for the mountain is very steep and

lofty and the lake deep and wide.” Livy says that the city was named Longa

because it extended along a ridge of the Alban hills. The words of

Dionysius seem to imply that Alba stood immediately between Monte Cavo and

the lake on the site of the convent of Palazzuolo, and Cav. Rosa, the

highest modern authority on the topography of the Campagna, who has made

the neighbourhood of Albano and Nemi the subject of special study, holds

this opinion. Nibby thought that the whole edge of the crater from

Palazzuolo nearly to Marino, a distance of more than two miles, was

occupied by the city of Alba. Sir William Gell discovered an ancient road

running along the edge of the crater above Monte Cuccu, and a few blocks

of stone on the top of the precipice bordering the lake further eastwards,

which he thought must have belonged to the gate of Alba.

At the sixteenth milestone on the Appian road beyond Albano, in the valley

below the modern town of Ariccia, is the massive causeway 700 feet in

length and 40 in width, upon which the old Appian road was raised. It is

built of blocks of peperino and is a solid mass of masonry, except where

three archways give passage to the water which descends from the Alban

hills and the neighbourhood of Nemi.

[Sidenote: Lake of Nemi.]

Beyond the ancient viaduct we come to the tunnel through which the lake of

Nemi discharges its waters.

The name of this lake and of the village on its margin, is derived from

the great grove of Diana (Nemus Dianæ) whose temple probably stood on the

site of the present village of Nemi. The wooded cliffs which surround the

crater here are steep and descend immediately into the water, except on

the side near Genzano, where they slope magnificently and are planted with

vines. Their average height is 300 feet. In the Latin poets frequent

mention is made of this lake as one of the principal ornaments of the

neighbourhood of Rome, and in connection with the widely celebrated temple

of Diana. Hence it was called Speculum Dianæ, lacus Triviæ and Stagnum

Dianæ.

Whether the name Lacus Aricinus also belonged to this lake is doubtful,

for Pliny speaks of a lake which formerly occupied the valley of Ariccia,

and the water in this valley was certainly called Lacus Aricinus in the

middle ages.

The water of the lake is supplied partially at least from a small spring

near the road from Genzano to Nemi, and also from the copious stream which

turns the mills of the village of Nemi. The latter is probably alluded to

by Strabo when he says that the sources whence the lake is filled are

visible, and are near the temple of Diana.

Nibby gives the following account of the Lake of Nemi, and of the

investigations carried on in his time for the purpose of discovering the

real nature of the curious wooden fabrics said to have been found at the

bottom of the lake:

“The situation of Nemi is picturesque, and the view from it of the crater,

and of the lake, which resembles an enormous mirror spread below, is

magnificent. But beyond the historical reminiscences of the Temple of

Diana, it presents nothing worth particular mention. The baronial castle

near it has all the appearance of a feudal fortress. It was built by the

famous Colonna family, once the lords of the estate, who also built the

round tower or keep which surmounts it. By ascending the side of the

mountain which rises above it, a splendid panoramic view of the coast of

Latium and of the adjacent Rutulian and Volscian territory may be enjoyed.

The eye ranges along the whole coast line of the Tyrrhenian Sea, from the

Circæan promontory to the mouths of the Tiber, and the situations of

Astura, Antium, Ardea, Lavinium, Laurentum, Ostia and Porto are clearly

distinguishable, together with many other points.”

“The crater is surrounded in parts by rocks of the hardest basaltic lava,

in others by conglomerated cinders and scoriæ, and in some places by banks

of tufa. Its circumference is about five miles; and the level of the water

is higher than that of the Alban Lake. The story of the ship discovered at

the bottom of this lake and said by some authors to have belonged to the

time of Tiberius, by others to that of Trajan, is well known. Biondo, Leon

Battista Alberti, and particularly Francesco Marchi a celebrated architect

and military engineer of the sixteenth century, who went down into the

lake himself, have spoken of it.[141] Fresh investigations have been

carried on of late, at which I was present, and saw and examined

everything which was brought to the surface, and inquired of those who

went down what they saw there. I consider myself in a position to assert

that the pretended ship was nothing more than the wooden piles and timbers

used in the foundations of a building. The beams are of fir and larch, and

are joined by metal nails of various sizes. The pavement, or at least the

lowest stratum, of the remains is formed of large tiles placed upon a kind

of grating of iron, on which the name CAISAR, in ancient letters, is

marked. Some of these tiles and nails and gratings are now kept in the

Vatican Library.

“The name Caisar seems to explain the history of the building, for

Suetonius in his ‘Life of Julius Cæsar,’ as an illustration of Julius

Cæsar’s extravagance, asserts that after having built a villa on the lake

of Nemi at an enormous expense, he had the whole destroyed because it did

not quite suit his taste. It is my belief that the pretended ship was

nothing else than the piles and wooden framework upon which this villa was

supported, and that after the upper part was destroyed the foundations

under the water still remained, partly covered by the fragments of the

demolished building above.”[142]

The mention of paving tiles, marbles, and leaden pipes as among the

objects raised from the bottom of the lake, renders the notion that they

belonged to a ship improbable, and Nibby’s conjecture that a Roman villa,

partly built out into the water, stood here, seems much more likely,

though his application of the passage of Suetonius is very doubtful.

Cav. Rosa, who examined the neighbourhood of Nemi and Genzano with a

special view to the solution of the question of the site of the Temple of

Artemis, has given a careful account both of the ruins under Genzano and

those to the west of Nemi. The former he pronounces undoubtedly to belong

to a villa, the latter he thinks belonged to a temple with a large court

in front, and an ancient road leading to it from the western side of the

lake. These ruins are just above the lower road leading from the Capuccini

convent at Genzano to Nemi, at the point where a cross road leads to the

left and joins the higher road to Nemi, not far from the place called le

Mole.[143] Genzano is a town of mediæval origin.

(B) THE VIA LATINA AND TUSCULUM.

[Sidenote: Latin road.]

The modern Porta Giovanni is now the point at which the new road to

Albano, and also that to Frascati, leave Rome. The Latin road anciently

diverged, after passing the Porta Capena, from the Alban road and had a

gate of its own in the Aurelian wall, called the Porta Latina, now walled

up.

[Sidenote: Tombs on Latin road.]

The old Via Latina is unfortunately now almost lost, and can only be

traced by the lines of ruined tombs which mark its former course. After

leaving the old Porta Latina it runs along the edge of the hills which

fringe the right bank of the Caffarelli valley, and crosses the new road

to Albano at the second milestone, at a point on the other side of the

valley almost opposite to the so-called fountain of Egeria. Not far from

this spot some very interesting tombs were excavated in 1860. A full

account of them has been given in the ‘Annali dell’ Instituto di

Corrispondenza Archeologica’ for 1860. The sarcophagi and stucco ornaments

are the most perfect remains of the kind in the neighbourhood of Rome.

These sepulchral monuments are near the remains of the Basilica of S.

Stefano, a ruin of the fifth century, and on the farm which bears the name

of Arco Travertino from the travertine arches of the Claudian Aqueduct

which cross it. The ancient pavement of the Latin road has been uncovered

in some places near the tombs, and also some traces of a villa, which

probably belonged to the Servilian and Anician families, have been

excavated. The portico of the tomb which faces the southern side of the

road leads down to two large vaults, in the outer of which stand the

mutilated remains of a marble sarcophagus in a niche, while the inner

vault is decorated with well-preserved stucco ornaments in relief,

representing sea-monsters and nymphs. Some of the marble casing which

covered the walls remains, but no name has been found on the bricks or

stones. In the tomb on the opposite side of the road there is a

well-preserved mosaic with figures of sea-monsters at the entrance, and

below are paintings of birds upon the arches which support the sarcophagi

in the outer chamber, and an inscription which gives the name of the

Pancratii as the owners of the tomb. The family figures and profiles are

only sketched roughly in outline, as is common in the catacombs. The roof

of the inner chamber in this second tomb is exquisitely ornamented with

paintings and stucco reliefs, representing mythological subjects and

landscapes. In the centre a large marble sarcophagus containing places for

two bodies is left standing. This sarcophagus is plain and without any

decoration. The date of this tomb cannot precede the Antonine era, as

there are no cinerary urns in it.

[Sidenote: Torre Fiscale.]

At the fourth milestone from the Porta Capena, the Latin road passed under

the arches of the Claudian and Marcian aqueducts, at the tower now called

Torre Fiscale. At this point the two aqueducts cross each other, and

present a most magnificent series of arcades running along the side of the

old Latin road for more than a mile. The arches of the Claudian aqueduct

are here more than fifty feet in height. The railway to Naples runs very

close to the line of the old Latin road here.

A great number of ruins are still to be seen at a place called Sette

Bassi, four miles and a half from the Porta S. Giovanni and near the

Osteria del Curato. This spot, as well as the district near it on the

Appian road, bears the name of Roma Vecchia. The scattered ruins occupy a

space of nearly three-quarters of a mile in circumference, and appear to

have been built at two different epochs. The bricks of which one portion

of them is constructed have the dates A.D. 123 and 134 upon them, the

years when Pœtinus and Africanus and Servianus and Juventius were consuls.

The other part of the building is evidently contemporaneous with the ruins

on the Appian road and belongs to the Antonine era. All the bricks were

made at one of the imperial kilns, and it has therefore been generally

supposed that the villa was an imperial residence, forming a part of the

already-mentioned Suburbanum Commodi. The marbles found on the spot show

that it was decorated with great magnificence, and a particular kind of

breccia, numerous fragments of which have been picked up there, obtains

its name, Breccia di Sette Bassi from the place.

The plan, according to Nibby, was that of a large oblong area, the longer

sides of which ran north and south. In the centre there was room for a

large pleasure garden. The front of the buildings was at the northern end

towards Rome, and the remains of a portico can be traced, which supported

a terrace on a level with the first floor rooms of the mansion. One of

these rooms with three doors and the same number of windows can still be

traced. In some of the walls the remains may be seen of terra-cotta pipes

for heating the rooms. The ground floor apartments were without

decorations, and are therefore supposed to have served as storehouses for

grain and farm produce.[144]

[Illustration: Circus of Maxentius, with Torre Fiscale beyond it and the

hills above Præneste and Tusculum.]

Behind this front building, on the eastern and western sides, are long

ranges of building, the eastern consisting of two suites of rooms,

probably intended for baths or for gymnasia, and the western forming a

long ambulacrum terminated by an exedra. On the south side there is a

cryptoporticus and a reservoir for water which was supplied by a branch of

the Claudian aqueduct.

About a quarter of a mile farther south, near the Latin road, there is an

outlying building which seems to have been intended to command a view of

that road. The railway to Frascati now runs between the Claudian aqueduct

and these ruins.

The castella of the Aqua Marcia, the Tepula, the Julia, the Claudia, the

Anio Vetus, and the Anio Nova lie on the right of the old Latin road here,

at the sixth milestone, where the arcades make a right angle. The old road

then runs to the right of the present road to Frascati, nearly on the line

of the modern Strada di Grotta Ferrata, and ascending the slopes of the

Alban Hills, passes behind Tusculum and Corbio, along the valley called

Vallis Albana.

[Sidenote: Tusculum.]

Since the excavations carried out by Lucien Bonaparte at the beginning of

this century, there has been no doubt left as to the site of the ancient

city of Tusculum. The ruins lie from about a mile and a half to two miles

above Frascati, upon the ridge forming the edge of the most ancient crater

of the Alban Hills. Between this ridge, which bore the name of Tusculani

Colles, and the hills upon which Marino and Rocca di Papa stand, the great

Latin road ran. Tusculum stands just over this road and was approached

from it by a steep path ascending the northern side of the valley. The

main road entered the city on the other side, from the direction of

Frascati and Rufinella, leaving the Via Latina at the tenth milestone,

between Morena and Ciampino. The ancient pavement of this road can be

clearly traced on the slope of the hill above Frascati, and it leads us

along the top of the hill through what has plainly been the main street of

the town to the citadel, which stood at the eastern extremity.

[Sidenote: Theatre.]

The site of the citadel is a platform nearly square and 2700 feet in

circuit, standing about 200 feet above the level of the surrounding parts

of the hill. Its walls were completely demolished By the Romans in 1191

and not a vestige of them is left. Sir William Gell thought, however, that

he could discover the traces of four ancient gates, one on the west,

another on the side of the Alban valley, a third on the eastern side, and

not far from this last, a postern communicating with a steep and rocky

path which descended to the Alban valley. Most of the ruins now visible

belong to the mediæval fortress of the Dukes of Tusculum, and a few only

of the quadrilateral blocks of the ancient enclosure are visible. In the

Æquian and Volscian wars this citadel played an important part. It must

therefore have been a fortress of considerable strength from very early

times. Dionysius describes it as a very strong position, requiring but a

small garrison to hold it, and adds that the whole country as far as the

gates of Rome, is plainly visible from it, so that the defenders could see

the Roman forces issuing from the Porta Latina. The city itself lay on the

ridge of the hill westwards from the citadel. The area which it occupied

is an oblong strip of ground about 3000 feet long, and from 500 to 1000

feet in width. On the north and south sides the limits of the city are

clearly marked by the edges of the hill, but on the west they are not so

easily defined. At the foot of the descent from the citadel are the ruins

of a large water tank of an oblong shape divided into four compartments by

three rows of piers, and immediately under this tank is a small theatre

built of peperino, which was excavated by the dowager Queen of Sardinia

Maria Christina in 1839 and 1840. This, with the exception of the theatres

at Pompeii, is the most perfectly preserved in Italy. The walls of the

scena are unfortunately destroyed, but the ground plan of it can still be

traced. The stage, which abuts closely on the western side of the

semicircular cavea, is 110 feet in length, and 20 feet in depth. It has

the three usual entrances from the back, and one at each end. These open

into a corridor and communicate with two chambers, probably used as

dressing rooms by the actors. Nearly the whole of the fifteen rows of

seats in the lower division are still preserved unbroken, but the upper

part which contained, to judge by the height of the outer walls still

remaining, about nine rows of seats, is entirely destroyed.

[Sidenote: Other ruins.]

[Sidenote: Gate and walls.]

The curved walls on the northern side of the theatre were supposed by

Nibby to have belonged to another theatre, but are now generally believed

to have been a part of a fountain connected with the above-mentioned

reservoir. Along the northern side of the reservoir are two parallel

walls, which apparently enclosed the street leading to the citadel. The

roadway must have been here carried by an arched corridor under the side

of the theatre. Near the ancient road from the theatre westwards is a mass

of ruins the plan of which cannot be determined, and beyond these, not far

from the point where the road divides, and on its right-hand branch, is

one of the gates of the city, marked by two fragments of ancient fluted

columns which perhaps formed a part of its architecture. Near this are the

remains of the ancient north wall of the city, consisting of blocks of

peperino of great size more or less regularly laid, and of restorations

here and there in reticulated work, partly of the later republic, and

partly of more modern times. The pavement of the street is here perfectly

preserved, and near the gateway there is a wide space left, probably as a

turning place for carts or carriages.

[Sidenote: Tank and fountain.]

In the walls near this point is a stone doorway leading into a stone

water-tank, with a pointed roof formed by overlapping stones, on the same

principle as the roof of the so-called Mamertine prison at Rome, the gate

of Arpinum and the treasuries of Mycenæ and Orchomenos. The doorway is

about ten feet high and five wide, and the tank of the same dimensions. In

the interior are three divisions or basins for water, and at the back an

aqueduct enters by means of which the water was supplied. At the side of

this tank there is a small ancient fountain under the wall which was

supplied from the tank by a leaden pipe. An inscription on the fountain

records that it was made by the Ædiles Quintus Cælius Latinus, son of

Quintus, and Marcus Decumo, by command of the Senate of Tusculum. Not far

from the fountain was found the fifteenth milestone from Rome.

On the road to Frascati, near the point where the western gate of the

city has been supposed to have stood, the remains of an amphitheatre can

be discovered. The seats are entirely destroyed, and it is only by the

oval shape and by the position of the substruction that the ruins can be

recognized as those of an amphitheatre. A round tomb stands a little above

the amphitheatre, and beyond this the ruins of a large villa called Scuola

di Cicerone cover the side of the hill towards the Alban valley.

The legend which ascribes the foundation of Tusculum to Telegonus, the son

of Circe and Ulysses, is familiar to all readers of the Latin poets. It is

remarkable, however, that Virgil, who mentions most of the towns of

Latium, has entirely omitted to notice Tusculum. This may be mere

accident, or it may be attributable to a grudge similar to that which led

him, according to Aulus Gellius, to omit Nola from the lines in the

Georgics celebrating the fertility of Campania, but it certainly cannot be

due to the fear of making an anachronism, as Nibby supposes. In the times

of the Latin league, from the fall of Alba to the battle of the Lake

Regillus, Tusculum was the most prominent town in Latium. It suffered,

like the other towns of Latium, a complete eclipse during the later

republic and the imperial times, but in the ninth, tenth, eleventh and

twelfth centuries under the counts of Tusculum it became again a place of

great importance and power, no less than seven Popes of their house having

sat in the chair of St. Peter. The final destruction of the city is placed

by Nibby, following the account given in the records of the Podesta of

Reggio, on the 1st of April, A.D. 1191, in which year the city was given

up to the Romans by the Emperor Henry VI., and after the withdrawal of the

German garrison, was sacked and razed to the ground. Those of the

inhabitants who escaped collected round the church of S. Sebastian on the

foot of the hill, in the district called Frascati, whence the town of

Frascati took its origin and name. They founded their new town upon the

remains of an ancient villa, which stood near the round tomb which still

remains on the road to the Villa della Ruffinella. The name of Lucullus

has been attached to this villa and tomb from the statement of Plutarch

that Lucullus was buried by his brother at his Tusculan villa. It is

however, much more probable that the larger round tomb in the vigna

Angelotti on the road towards Rome was the burial-place of Lucullus.

[Sidenote: Scuola di Cicerone.]

The building now called Scuola di Cicerone is not far from the ruins of

the western gate of Tusculum. The ground floor is apparently about 270

feet in length and 100 in depth, but the upper parts of the buildings have

now completely disappeared. The materials were of brick and reticulated

work, similar to that now found in the gardens of Sallust at Rome, and

generally considered as belonging to the last age of the Republic or the

early Empire. The ground floor had a cryptoporticus along its whole

length, and above this on the first floor was probably an open portico

with a colonnade. Eight large rooms opened out behind the cryptoporticus,

in the second of which are the remains of some stairs, and at the back of

the eighth a recess. At the ends of the cryptoporticus are the remains of

some more rooms. There are no signs of decoration on any of the walls, and

therefore this lowest story of the building is supposed to have been used

as a storehouse for corn and farm produce.

There is, however, no evidence whatever to connect these ruins with

Cicero’s Villa. The only indication we have of its site is given by the

Scholiast on Horace, who speaks of it as situated near Tusculum on the

upper slopes of the hill.[145]

[Sidenote: Villa of Gabinius.]

This will agree either with the ruins just described or with those found

in 1741 under the modern Villa Rufinella, which is a little way lower down

the western slope. That Cicero’s Villa was upon the upper part of the hill

is confirmed by his own statement that it was so near that of the consul

Gabinius, that at the time of Cicero’s exile, not only the furniture but

the trees in his garden were transferred to the Villa of Gabinius, and we

also find that this latter villa was upon the upper part of the hill.

Nibby accordingly places the Villa of Gabinius on the site of the modern

Villa Falconieri close to the Rufinella.

Several particulars about his villa are mentioned by Cicero himself. It

contained two rooms called gymnasia, to the upper of which he gave the

name of Lyceum, and which contained his library. The lower gymnasium was

called the Academy in honour of Plato.

The Lyceum seems to have been used in the morning, and the Academia in the

afternoon, as being more sheltered from the heat of the sun.

The Hermathena, a double-headed bust of Hermes and Athena, mentioned in

the letters to Atticus, was probably placed in the Lyceum, for the phrase

he uses there seems to refer to Apollo as the patron of the gymnasium, in

which it was placed. There were also some Hermæ of Pentelic marble, bronze

busts, and Megarian statues placed in the gymnasia, and Atticus had a

general commission to buy up anything which he might think suitable for

these rooms.

Another part of the villa was called the atriolum. Nibby has shown from

one of the letters to Quintus that the atriolum of a villa was a small

courtyard surrounded with bedchambers and offices. The Tusculan atriolum

was decorated with stucco reliefs on the walls, like those in the tombs on

the Latin Road.

(C) GABII AND PRÆNESTE.

[Sidenote: Tomb of Atta.]

[Sidenote: Villa Gordiana.]

The road to Gabii and Præneste leaves Rome at the Porta Maggiore. The most

conspicuous ruin, which it passes at about one mile from the walls of

Rome, is a very large circular sepulchral monument more than a hundred

feet in diameter, to which the name of Quintus Atta has been attached.

Beyond this, at a distance of two miles and a half from Rome, we come to

the remains of a vast villa, which has been identified with that spoken of

by Julius Capitolinus in his history of the Gordian family. That historian

says that their “country house was situated on the road to Præneste, and

was remarkable for the magnificence of a portico with four ranges of

columns, fifty of which were of Carystian, fifty of Claudian, fifty of

Synnadan and fifty of Numidian marble. There were also three basilicas in

it, each of a hundred feet in length, and other buildings of corresponding

size, in particular some Thermæ more magnificent than any others in the

world except those at Rome.” The ruins of this great imperial villa extend

for nearly a mile along the road, consisting chiefly of some huge

reservoirs for water, two spacious halls belonging to the Thermæ, a round

temple or Heroon, and a stadium surrounded with arcades. The style of

construction in most of these is the irregular brickwork with thick layers

of mortar which is known to be characteristic of the third century.

Gordian III. was killed in A.D. 244. The great reservoirs are close to the

road, two on the left and two on the right-hand side, beyond the

depression in which the stream called Acqua Bollicante runs, where the

ground rises towards the hill of Torre de’ Schiavi. Some of them appear to

be of an earlier date than the reigns of the Gordians, and are referred by

Nibby to the Antonine epoch. The brickwork of these last is more regular,

and they contain a good deal of reticulated work and layers of squared

tufa stones. The two large halls which belonged to the Thermæ are to the

east of the reservoirs. One of them was a spacious octagonal building with

round windows. It was occupied as a fortress or watch-tower in the middle

ages, and has been repaired in the style called Saracenesca. In the walls

of this may be seen the earliest instances of a mode of construction

afterwards, as in the Circus of Maxentius, very common, the introduction

of jars of terra-cotta in the walls to make the work lighter. The interior

is ornamented with niches alternately square and circular headed, and

retaining some of their ancient stucco decorations.

The other hall of the Thermæ stands not far off, and is circular with a

domed roof.

The Heroon, or circular temple, of which mention has been made, is similar

to that near the Circus of Maxentius. The diameter of this is fifty-six

feet, and it was lighted by four large round windows. The front was turned

towards the road according to the rule laid down by the architect

Vitruvius. Underneath, there is a crypt supported by a massive round

pillar, and containing six niches. In this, Nibby thinks that the ashes of

the dead were placed, as their statues were in the temple above, and that

the building was the Heroon of the reigning family. In the middle ages

this Heroon was used as a church, and some of the paintings then

introduced are still visible on the interior walls. Not far from the

Heroon are the ruins of the arcades which surrounded the stadium and

bounded the domain of the villa on the east side.

[Sidenote: Torre Pignatara.]

In this district, but along the ancient Via Labicana which runs in the

direction of Frascati, stands the conspicuous tower now called Torre

Pignatara from its construction with pigne or earthen pots. It surmounts a

large circular hall and a catacomb to which the titles of S. Helena’s

Mausoleum and the Chapels of SS. Peter and Marcellinus have been given,

but the real history of the building is unknown.

[Sidenote: Ponte di Nono.]

At the ninth milestone on the road to Palestrina, where the road crosses a

small brook, is a magnificent monument of ancient Roman architecture,

consisting of an arched viaduct built of peperino and tufa blocks. The

length of this viaduct is 105 yards, and the highest of the seven arches

about fifty feet. The blocks of stone used are in some cases ten feet in

length, and they are firmly fitted together without any kind of cement.

This viaduct is now called Ponte di Nono.[146] The ancient roadway of

polygonal fragments of basalt still remains, but the parapet on each side

has been destroyed.

[Sidenote: Gabii.]

At a distance of about three miles beyond the Ponte di Nono are the ruins

of Gabii on the edge of the lake called Lago di Pantano in the district of

Castiglione. Numerous traces of the ancient city are still visible. It

occupied a long strip of ground extending from the sepulchral mound on the

right of the road near the outlet of the lake to the tower of Castiglione.

Nibby thinks that this tower stands on the spot formerly occupied by the

citadel of Gabii, the original stronghold founded according to the legend

by a colony from Alba. In the year 1792 extensive excavations were made on

the site by Prince Marcantonio Borghese at the suggestion of Mr. Hamilton

a Scotch painter, and a quantity of sculptures and inscriptions now in the

Louvre at Paris were discovered. The principal ruins now remaining are

those of the cella of a temple built of the famous lapis Gabinus, and some

steps in a semicircular form, probably the remains of a theatre. The

temple is generally supposed to have been that of Juno alluded to by

Virgil.

The form of this temple was almost identical with that at Aricia. The

interior of the cella was twenty-seven feet wide and forty-five feet long.

It had columns of the Doric order in front and at the sides, but none at

the back. The walls of the chamber at the back were here, as at Aricia,

prolonged on each side, so as to close the side porticoes at the back. The

surrounding area was about fifty-four feet in breadth at the sides, but in

front a space of only eight feet was left open, in consequence of the

position of the theatre, which abutted closely upon the temple. On the

eastern side of the cella are traces of the rooms where the priests in

charge of the temple lived.

The shape of the forum can only be partially made out. From the plan

published in the ‘Monumenti Gabinoborghesiani,’ it appears that it was a

rectangular quadrilateral space, traversed by the Via Prænestina at the

southern end, and that it was surrounded with a portico of Doric columns

except at the end along which the Via Prænestina was carried. It was

believed at the time when the excavations were made that the Curia and

Augusteum could be distinguished among the surrounding buildings, but this

seems now to be very doubtful. In the centre stood the statue of Titus

Flavius Ælianus, the patron of the borough town. The pedestal of this

statue with its inscription was found in situ in 1792.

“The stone of Gabii quarried near the lake and the product of its extinct

volcano, is used in many of the Roman buildings and especially in the

building called the tabularium at the head of the Forum Romanum. It is a

hard species of peperino, of a brownish-grey colour, which when exposed to

the air becomes paler than the common peperino of Albano. It resists the

action of fire, and is a compound of volcanic ashes mixed with small

fragments of black, brown, and reddish lava, scales of mica, and bits of

Apennine limestone.”[147]

The city of Gabii lost its independence soon after the beginning of the

Republican era of Rome. It was restored as a colony of veterans by Sylla,

but sank into obscurity, and became almost proverbial for its desolate

condition in the Augustan era. It afterwards recovered its prosperity in

some degree by means of the celebrity of its cold baths, and in the time

of Hadrian was patronised by the Emperor, who built an aqueduct and a

Curia Ælia there. The inscriptions found on the spot belong chiefly to the

Antonine era, and the busts of Severus and Geta also found there show that

in the first part of the third century Gabii was still a flourishing

borough town.

[Sidenote: Labicum.]

The most conspicuous outlying hill of the volcanic district not far from

Gabii is that of La Colonna, about three miles below Rocca Priora. It

stands apart from the rest of the range, and is easily seen from Rome.

From Strabo’s description of the site of Labicum there can be but little

doubt that this hill must be considered to be the place to which he refers

in his account of the Via Labicana. “That road,” he says, “begins at the

Esquiline Gate, at which the Prænestine Road also leaves the city, and

leaving both this latter and the Esquiline plain on the left, proceeds for

more than a hundred and twenty stadia (fifteen and a half Roman miles)

till it reaches Labicum, an old, dismantled city, lying on a mount. The

road leaves it and Tusculum on the right, and ends at the station called

ad Pictas, where it joins the Latin Road.” There are no ancient ruins now

on the spot. In Strabo’s time it was apparently ruined and deserted, and

at an earlier date Cicero says that it was difficult to find any

inhabitant to represent Labicum at the Feriæ Latinæ. It seems probable,

therefore, that it suffered severely in the civil wars of Sylla and

Marius, and did not recover itself until the establishment of an imperial

villa there gave it some importance.

[Sidenote: Præneste.]

Beyond La Colonna, the ancient Labicum, by far the most important place on

the Æquian frontier was the strong fortress-town of Præneste, now

Palestrina, which commands the passage from Latium into the valley of the

Sacco. Præneste is placed on one of the projecting spurs of the

mountainous district which intervenes between the Anio and the Sacco.

Standing, as the city does, more than 2100 feet above the sea level, it

forms a very conspicuous object in the view from the hills of Rome.

After its eventful history as the great border fortress of Latium, we can

only wonder that it has been found possible to restore the ancient plan of

Præneste with tolerable accuracy, as has been done by Nibby and other

archæologists. The modern town, an agglomeration of filthy narrow alleys,

occupies little more than the space on which stood the great Temple of

Fortune and its approaches. Nearly a mile distant from this, on the summit

of the hill, stood the citadel united with the town by two long walls of

polygonal masonry, traces of which are still to be seen, though they do

not rise to any height above the ground. The site of the citadel is now

occupied by a wretched little suburb called Borgo di S. Pietro, and by a

ruined mediæval castle of the Colonnas built in the style called opera

Saracenesca. On the side towards the town the walls of the citadel are

still easily traced, and present admirable examples of polygonal

structure, rising in some places to a considerable height. On the other

side, where the steepness of the hill made artificial defences less

necessary, the walls have almost disappeared.

The original fortifications of the city may be followed from the Porta del

Sole, where the ancient polygonal masonry is visible. “In this part of the

walls,” says Nibby, “are some towers of opus incertum, standing between

the Porta delle Monache and the Porta Portella. Near the latter gate the

polygonal wall is nearly fifteen feet in height, and on one great block

may be read in very ancient letters the words PED. XXX. After having

surrounded the summit of the hill of S. Pietro, the wall descends to the

Porta S. Martino, where it was strengthened at the time of the Punic wars

with additions of quadrilateral structure, and where an ancient gate now

closed may be seen. From this point the wall proceeds in a nearly straight

line in the direction of the upper garden of the Barberini Palace and the

Via di S. Girolamo towards the Porta del Sole. This circuit of about three

miles in length was intersected at different points by at least three

other lines of fortifications above the Contrada della Cortina, and hence

perhaps the city bore the name of ‘many crowns,’ given it by Strabo,

forming, as it were, four separate inclosures, besides the various

terraces of the great temple, which could almost be regarded as so many

divisions of the town.”[148]

[Illustration: PLAN OF TEMPLE OF FORTUNE as rebuilt by Sylla. AT

PRÆNESTE.]

The original foundation of the Temple of Fortuna Primigenia at Præneste is

lost in obscurity; but the ancient polygonal substructions which support

it show that it was a very large temple even in early times.

Cicero in his description of the Prænestine lots, calls it a splendid and

ancient temple, and Valerius Maximus speaks of it as the most celebrated

oracle of Latium at the end of the first Punic war.

The original extent of the temple appears to have included only that part

of the lower town, which lies between the modern streets of the Corso and

the Borgo, and the ancient city principally lay on the side towards the

citadel. But after Sylla had rebuilt the temple, its precincts reached as

far downwards as the modern Contrada degli Arconi, and upwards to the

Contrada Scacciato behind the baronial palace. The whole of this space was

filled with a gradually ascending series of flights of marble stairs and

terraces, arranged in a pyramidal form, at the summit of which stood the

tholus or round temple of the goddess, 450 feet above the lowest terrace.

The base of this pyramidal approach was 1275 feet broad, and the upper

terraces gradually diminished in width. The temple faced the south, like

those of Diana at Aricia, of Juno at Gabii and Lanuvium, and of Jupiter

Capitolinus at Rome. The modes of construction found in the ruins are

referred by Nibby to four different epochs--the polyhedral stonework of

the primitive temple, which was incorporated in the buildings of the new;

the squared stonework of the time of the Punic wars; the structures

composed of smaller polygonal stones erected by Sylla; and the brickwork

of the imperial times. There were five principal terraces or platforms

rising one above the other. Nibby calls these the terrace of the cisterns,

the terrace of the halls, the central terrace, the terrace of the

recesses, and the terrace of the hemicycle. In front of the lowest terrace

was a large open space on which the boundary of the sacred precincts was

marked out by stone landmarks, some of which have been found on the spot.

This open area was on the right of the Contrada degli Arconi, which takes

its name from the arches still remaining. The sides of the area were

bordered by two immense reservoirs. One of these is still entirely

preserved, but the other is filled with rubbish. On the side of the open

area towards the hill were twenty-nine arches, five of which in the centre

projected, forming a kind of portico with fountains in niches, while the

other twenty-four completed the sides towards the reservoirs. The style of

these arches seems to indicate that they were built by Sylla as an

addition to the older temple precincts. One arch on the left hand, and all

the twelve on the right, still remain intact. They were probably used as

rooms for the slaves belonging to the temple.

[Sidenote: Reservoirs.]

The two reservoirs, as may be seen by the brickwork of which they consist,

were added after Sylla’s time. They served to collect and keep the water

which flowed from the fountains of the upper terraces, and to distribute

it to those parts of the city which lay below the temple. The western

reservoir, which can still be seen, is one of the most remarkable of such

edifices now extant. It is 320 feet in length and 100 in width, and is

divided internally into ten compartments, in the same manner as the Sette

Sale at Rome, each communicating with the next to it by three apertures,

and each lighted by two openings in the roof covered with circular

well-mouths of stone. The interior walls of this reservoir are covered

with the finest cement. On the exterior to the south, the walls are

decorated with niches, one of which, with a square head, was intended to

contain the inscription stating the names and titles of the builder of the

reservoir.[149] The brickwork, which is similar to that of the Prætorian

camp at Rome, and the fact that an inscription dated A.D. 18, when

Tiberius was consul-designate for the third time, has been found near,

seem to point to Tiberius as the builder. On the western side there are no

niches, but a doorway, with a stair leading down to the bottom of the

reservoir, and ornamented with two brick half-columns of the Doric order.

[Sidenote: Terrace of cisterns.]

From the area between the reservoirs just described, two staircases built

by Sylla ascended to the level of the first principal terrace 1275 feet in

breadth, containing two large basins for water, of rectangular shape, each

250 feet by 90 in size. They were intended for the purpose of the

ceremonial ablutions commanded by the religious rites of the temple. That

on the western side can still be seen in the Barberini garden, though it

is now filled with rubbish. The rim or edging of these basins was of white

mosaic.

[Sidenote: Terrace of halls.]

Above this terrace two flights of stairs conducted to the next principal

esplanade, which was of the same length as the first, but narrower. At the

back of this esplanade, against the side of the hill, stood two

magnificent halls, with an open area between them. The eastern hall is now

entirely destroyed, but that on the western side, now serving as the

kitchen of the modern seminario, is partly preserved. The front, which may

be seen near the cathedral in the Piazza Tonda, was decorated with four

Corinthian half-columns, the capitals of which still remain in their

original position. The interior had seven recesses on each side, separated

by half-columns and pilasters, and probably intended for statues. In front

of the side recesses ran a low wall or podium, ornamented with triglyphs

like a Doric frieze. These decorations are executed in a style which Nibby

considers equal to that of any of the ancient Doric buildings now extant.

At the end of the hall there was a large rectangular recess, with niches

for statues. In the easternmost of these recesses was found the celebrated

Prænestine mosaic, now in the Barberini Palace at Palestrina. The rest of

the floor was composed of white mosaic work. Between the fronts of the two

halls ran a row of columns, three of which still stand in their original

positions in the wall of one of the chapels near the cathedral, and at the

back of the area between them was a corridor with nine windows, some of

which may still be seen in the court of the seminario.

[Sidenote: Central terrace.]

Above the terrace of the halls rose the central grand terrace, supported

by a great wall of polygonal masonry, which at the point called the

Rifolta still stands at its full height. This terrace is now occupied by

the Contrada del Borgo. On the eastern side it reached to the wall of the

city, where the ancient gate, now closed, near the Porta Portella, stands.

Two lofty arches stood, one at each end of the back of this terrace,

containing fountains and statues.

It was upon this level, according to Nibby, that the original temple

stood, before the alterations made by Sylla.

[Sidenote: Terrace of Recesses.]

The whole of the two uppermost terraces were the work of the great

dictator. They were supported by walls of opus incertum, and the lower of

them contained two large semicircular recesses, for the accommodation of

the persons who came to consult the oracle. Hence it may be called the

terrace of the recesses. The eastern recess is still remaining under the

name of the Grotta Petrelli. It is supported in the interior by four

Corinthian columns, and the roof preserves the traces of decorative

designs in bronze. It is probable that the chamber in the centre, between

the two recesses, was the spot where, as Cicero narrates, the mysterious

Prænestine lots were originally discovered by Numerius Suffucius, and

where the statue of Fortuna, mentioned by him, stood. On each side of the

recesses were arched chambers, probably appropriated to the priests of the

temple and the interpreters of the lots.

[Sidenote: Terrace of Hemicycle.]

Above the terrace of the recesses, rose that of the Hemicycle. This was

divided into two parts, the lower consisting of a great rectangular

sacrificial court, with porticoes surrounding it, and the upper, of a

semicircular recess, somewhat similar to those which existed in the fora

of the emperors at Rome, having at the back of it a smaller raised terrace

on which stood the actual ædes, or shrine of the goddess Fortune. This

must have been the place where, according to the legend as told by Cicero,

the olive-tree which yielded honey grew, from which the casket was made

for the Prænestine lots.

Fragments of an inscription which are still visible on the frieze,

surmounting two arched chambers under the hemicycle, seem to show that

this part was rebuilt by the civic officials and the municipality, but at

what period is not discoverable. No traces are now left of this part of

the building except the ground-plan of the hemicycle, which may be

traced in front of the Barberini Palace, and a few columns belonging to

the portico of the great square court. These stand in the public prison,

and the house of the sacristan of S. Rosalia.[150]

[Illustration: Plan of Ostia & Porto]

The ancient town extended to a considerable distance beyond the precincts

of the temple. Outside the Porta S. Francesco of the modern town, at about

the distance of half a mile, are two huge reservoirs, similar to those

described as placed at the foot of the Temple of Fortune; and in the

Contrada degli Arconi is the cistern of an aqueduct. This, with other

ruins near it, belonged to that part of the town founded by Sylla, which

extended to a distance of a mile and a half from the lowest terrace of the

great temple.

The forum of the city lay between the western reservoir of the temple, and

the churches of S. Lucia and S. Madonna dell’ Aquila. This is inferred

from numerous inscriptions, and some commemorative pillars and altars

found there. The Prænestine Registers of Verrius Flaccus were found in the

Contrada delle Quadrelle, a mile and a half from this spot. They may,

however, as Nibby suggests, have been moved from the forum, where we

should naturally expect to find them.

(D) OSTIA AND PORTO.

[Sidenote: Ostia.]

Ostia is fifteen miles distant from the Porta di S. Paolo of Rome. The

site of the old town is plainly discernible by the hillocks of rubbish

with which it is covered, and the ruined brick walls which protrude here

and there.

On approaching from the modern village, which is half a mile nearer Rome

than the ruins of the old town, we pass between lines of tombs on each

side of the road, similar to those which have been excavated at Pompeii.

The tombs are very closely packed together, and of different sizes and

shapes. On the left-hand side, two sarcophagi remain, with the names of

Sex. Carminius Parthenopæus Eq., and T. Flavius Verus Eq., and a

terra-cotta inscription on the tomb of Flavia Cæcilia, priestess of Isis

at Ostia.[151]

At the end of this street of tombs, the gate of the city has been laid

bare, and its foundations can be easily traced together with those of a

guard-house on the left-hand side, having a rude tabula lusoria marked on

the pavement, where the soldiers whiled away their time at some game

resembling skittles.

The street which is then entered passes between the ruins of private

houses, without anything more remarkable about them than a few common

mosaic pavements and two fountains. The principal public buildings which

have been excavated, are, I. The house of the priests of Mithras, in which

a well-preserved altar still stands with the inscription:

C CAELIVS . HERMAEROS

ANTISTES . HVIVS . LOCI

FECIT

II. The Thermæ, consisting of a large court, and several smaller side

rooms for vapour-baths, with mosaic pavements of various designs. These

baths may possibly be the lavacrum Ostiense of Antoninus Pius. The stamps

on the bricks are said to be of the Antonine era.

III. A large rectangular brick edifice with three windows on each side. In

the interior are the remains of ornamental niches, Corinthian capitals,

and a marble cornice. The walls have rivets upon them, by which it appears

that they were covered with a marble casing, and the magnificent block of

African marble which serves as the threshold shows that the building was

of a costly description. Traces have been found of a front chamber with a

portico of grey granite columns. Whether this was a temple or not is

uncertain, but it has been supposed that the arrangements in the interior

would agree with such a supposition. The masonry may be assigned to the

age of Trajan or Hadrian. The name of Vulcan has been usually given to

this temple, which was at one end of the ancient forum. Many excavations

have been made here within the last ten years, and some valuable works of

art have been discovered, and numerous stores and shops of various kinds

have been uncovered.

IV. The ruins of a theatre supposed by Nibby to be that mentioned in the

Acta Martyrum, near which S. Quiriacus and S. Maximus, and S. Archelaus,

and a number of others were martyred. It is built partly of yellow and red

brickwork, and partly of opus reticulatum, and apparently belongs to the

restorations and additions made by Hadrian to the city.

V. The ruins of an extensive building, probably an emporium, on the bank

of the river near Torre Bovacciano. In this place a great number of works

of art were discovered by Fagan in 1797, showing the magnificent

decorations with which the building was ornamented; and several

inscriptions with the names of Severus and Caracalla found here are given

by Nibby.[152]

[Sidenote: Grove of the Arval College.]

Fiumicino at the present mouth of the Tiber, and Porto which stands at the

site of the ports formed by Claudius and Trajan, may be reached from Rome

by steamer down the river, or by carriage. The road which leads to

Fiumicino and Porto leaves the city walls at the Porta Portese, and at

about the fifth milestone reaches the celebrated grove of the Dea Dia,

where the worship of the great collegiate priesthood of the Fratres

Arvales was carried on. The railway to Civita Vecchia crosses the road at

this spot, to which the modern names of the Monte delle Piche and the

Vigna Ceccarelli are given. Discoveries of inscriptions had been made here

since the year 1570, but no formal collection of them was made until the

publication of Marini’s great work in 1785. No effective investigations

were, however, carried on until April 1868. The remains of a Christian

cemetery were then disinterred on the slope of the hill above the Vigna

Ceccarelli, where many of the marble tablets upon which the Arval Brothers

had inscribed their records were found to have been used in the graves in

lieu of coffins and as gravestones. One tomb was covered with a slab

containing the records of the year A.D. 155, and numerous fragments of

inscriptions were found scattered in all directions. The cemetery was

ascertained to have been adjacent to an oratory founded by Pope Damasus

(A.D. 1048), and a subterranean catacomb was found to have been formed,

which is mentioned in the Acta Martyrum as the Cemeterium Generosæ. The

inscriptions obtained from this spot refer chiefly to the year A.D. 90,

but some fragments belonging to the years 38, 87, and 59 were also found.

These inscriptions are of great interest both archæologically, as

containing authentic particulars about the worship of the Arval Brothers,

and the places at Rome or elsewhere in which it was held, and also

historically, since many of them give the titles of eminent persons, or

fix the dates of consuls and other ministers of state, and enable us

thereby to correct and compare the statements of Tacitus and Suetonius

with those of Dion Cassius. Many points of mythology are also illustrated

by the mention of the divinities whom the college worshipped in their

ritual.

An instance of the value of these inscriptions in determining the relative

accuracy of Dion and Suetonius is afforded by the inscription belonging to

the year A.D. 39, which gives us some historical facts about the reign of

Caius, a portion of Roman history rendered difficult and obscure by the

loss of the central books of the Annals of Tacitus. Suetonius states that

the title of Augusta was conferred on Antonia by Claudius, whereas Dion on

the contrary attributes the conference of this title to Caius. The

inscription decides the question in favour of the account of Dion Cassius.

Again, the date of the recognition of Caius by the Senate is fixed by the

same inscription as having occurred on the 18th of March, and not on the

16th as recorded by Tacitus and Suetonius, nor the 26th, as Dion Cassius

states. Many other interesting corrections or elucidations of the Latin

historians will be found in Henzen’s learned treatises, or in his articles

in the ‘Annali dell’ Instituto’ for 1867, and the ‘Hermes’ 1867. Besides

the grove of the Arval College, which was an extensive wood, four

buildings are mentioned in the Records--the Ædes Deæ Diæ, the Cesareum,

the Tetrastylon and the Circus.

With regard to the position of these, Pellegrini is of opinion that the

Circus was situated on the ridge of the hill on the western side of the

Vigna Ceccarelli, in which place some remains apparently belonging to a

circus have been found. Henzen leaves the site of the Circus

undetermined, thinking that there is not sufficient evidence. The

Tetrastylon and the Cesareum were supposed by Mommsen to have been names

of the same building, but Henzen thinks that they are mentioned as

separate places in the same inscription. The college feasts and meetings

were held in one or other of these, which must therefore have been large

enough to contain, besides the dining hall, an assembly-room, as the

Brothers are said to have met there and to have sat in rows of seats. The

Cesareum was a quadrangular building, as the form of the inscriptions

which were attached to its walls seems to show, since they could not have

been placed on a round surface. The temple of the Dea Dia stood upon a

hill, for the priests are described as ascending in order to perform the

sacrifices, and descending afterwards. Yet there are no vestiges of a

building upon the top of the hill. Henzen therefore concludes that the

ruins of the round building, upon which the modern Casa rustica in the

Ceccarelli vineyard is placed, must have belonged to this Ædes. It was not

decorated with columns but with Corinthian pilasters, and the inscriptions

were affixed to the interior until the year 81, when it became necessary

from want of space to place them on the pedestals of the columns.[153]

[Sidenote: Porto.]

Beyond the site of the Arval Chapel, the road passes by the relics of the

papal palace of La Magliana, and then along a causeway six miles in length

to Porto. The site of the ancient Portus Trajani on the right branch of

the Tiber is now occupied by the town of Porto, mainly consisting of the

cathedral, the Villa Pallavicini, and some farm buildings. The sea has

here continuously receded for many centuries, and the river deposits of

sand and marl have extended. Fiumicino at the present mouth of the river

is two miles distant from Porto, and its site was entirely covered by the

sea at the time when Claudius, and Trajan after him, constructed their new

ports. The large marshy tract to the north of Porto marks the site of the

port of Claudius. The hexagonal basin of Trajan lies between this marsh

and the town of Porto.

It is not at all clear when the right arm of the Tiber, or rather the

canal which now serves for communication between the sea and the Tiber

proper, assumed its present shape. Inundations and occasional repairs and

alterations have changed its course, and the constant retreat of the sea

must have lengthened it considerably.

Nibby’s opinion is that, besides the large harbour, Claudius constructed

an inner basin between the harbour and the old course of the river. Into

this basin he cut a canal from the bend of the river near modern Ostia,

and thus allowed the superfluous waters of the Tiber to escape through the

harbour, and at the same time gained a supply of water for his docks. The

inscription found in 1837, and now placed by the roadside near the Villa

Pallavicini, alludes to this canal. The words of this inscription seem to

show that the primary object of the canal was to supply the port with

water, and that the advantage of preventing inundations at Rome was only

secondary. Trajan probably enlarged and reconstructed the inner basin of

Claudius, and surrounded it with the massive quays and warehouses, the

ruins of which still remain. This inner basin is referred to by Juvenal.

At the same time the canal was probably enlarged, and it is to this

enlargement that Pliny alludes when he speaks of the canal formed by the

most provident of all emperors.[154]

[Sidenote: Ruins at Torre Paterno.]

Passing from Ostia along the sea coast through the woods of Castel Fusano

to Torre Paterno, we find the ruins of a large villa, which have been

supposed by some to belong to Pliny’s Laurentinum. But they are more

probably the relics of an imperial villa mentioned by Herodian as the

retreat to which Commodus withdrew, by the advice of his physicians, at

the time of the great plague in Rome, in the year 187. The neighbourhood

of Laurentum was recommended, says the historian, on account of its being

cooler than Rome, and also because it was shaded with large woods of

laurel and bay trees, the strong scent from which was supposed to

counteract the influence of the deadly malaria which was devastating the

capital.[155] The present ruins at Torre Paterno consist of brick walls

in two styles, one of which Nibby refers to the age of Nero, and the other

to the reign of Commodus or Severus. The central building, which contained

the grand suite of rooms, is the only part where work of the first

century, analogous to that of Nero’s buildings at Rome, is to be seen; the

rest, says Nibby, is composed of various courtyards in the style of the

Antonine era, which have been altered and partly concealed by later modern

edifices. On one side of the ruins are two large cisterns, supplied by an

aqueduct which comes from the Tenimento la Santola. The brickwork of this

is apparently contemporaneous with other works which we know to have

belonged to the age of Commodus or Severus as having very thin bricks and

a great quantity of mortar. Near these reservoirs is an enclosed space

which was probably a courtyard or garden of a rectangular shape. On the

north side it has some ruins in the mode of construction called opus

mixtum of the fourth century; and on the east is the principal part of the

villa built of large and thick triangular bricks, with thin layers of

mortar beautifully laid, and evidently of an early date. On the west there

is a large dining-hall looking towards the sea, like that described in

Pliny’s Laurentinum. Various other rooms and the foundations of a tower

can be traced on the sites occupied by the modern guardhouse and the

Chapel of S. Filippo.[156]

(E) TIBUR.

The Via Valeria or Tiburtina leading to Tivoli, the ancient Tibur, now

leaves Rome at the Porta S. Lorenzo. Traces of the polygonal pavement of

the old road can be seen at intervals along the modern road to Tivoli,

especially between the eighth and ninth milestones, and here and there

elsewhere. In the Basilica of S. Lorenzo, a mile from the gate, are many

ancient fragments of architecture. The Ponte Mammolo, by which the Anio is

crossed at three and a half miles from Rome, is modern and there are

scarcely any relics of the old bridge. Here and there on the road are the

naked cores of tombs, but nothing of any interest offers itself to an

archæologist until the Aquæ Albulæ are reached. Some few remains of an

ancient building, which may have belonged to the Thermæ here, have been

discovered. They are now built into the walls of a modern farmhouse. These

ruins may have belonged to the Thermæ of Agrippa, which Augustus

frequented.

The ancient quarries of travertine mentioned by Strabo, whence the stone

of the Coliseum came, lie on the right of the road beyond the Solfatara,

and the modern quarries on the left. The road then crosses the Anio over

an ancient bridge still called the Ponte Lucano, from Marcus Plautius

Lucanus, a Tiburtine magistrate, whose memory is preserved in an

inscription discovered upon the ancient fourteenth milestone on this road.

The bridge was originally composed of three travertine arches, of which

the one next to the left bank remains entire. The central arch has been

restored with masonry of the sixth century, similar to that in the Ponte

Nomentano and the Ponte Salario. The arch on the right bank was restored

in the fifteenth century, and the whole bridge was repaired again about

1836. This bridge was broken down by Totila when he was encamped at Tibur,

and Nibby thinks that he destroyed the middle arch, which was then

restored by Narses.

[Sidenote: Tomb of the Plautian family.]

Just on the other side of the bridge is the tomb of the gens Plautia, well

known from numerous paintings and photographs. It is very similar to that

of Cæcilia Metella on the Appian Road, and to the Mausoleum of Hadrian, in

its main features. A cylindrical tower of travertine, based on a square

foundation, and capped with a cone, was the original design, but a

mediæval tower built upon the top now disfigures it.

Two inscriptions placed in a projecting front with Ionic pilasters record

the names of M. Plautius Silvanus, consul with Augustus in the year B.C.

2, and his son Ti. Plautius Silvanus, prefect of the city in A.D. 73. A

third inscription, which is now destroyed, commemorated a P. Plautius

Pulcher. The longer inscription is given with notes in Wilmann’s Inscr.

Lat. No. 1145. The person whose memory it preserves was the pontifex who

officiated at the rebuilding of the Capitoline Temple in A.D. 70, as

recorded by Tacitus.

[Illustration: PLAN OF HADRIANEUM (_NEAR TIVOLI_)]

[Sidenote: Hadrian’s Villa.]

Beyond the Ponte Lucano to the right are the ruins of Hadrian’s great

Tiburtine Villa. They occupy the slopes of a hill of volcanic tufa, which

may be called an outlying part of Monte Affliano, extending for about

three miles in a direction from south-east to north-west. The various

levels afforded by the ground have been formed into terraces adapted to

the buildings they were intended to support by means of substructions,

which in some places are of vast solidity and gigantic height. “From these

terraces,” says Nibby, “the views are most varied and picturesque. On one

side the horizon is bounded by the pointed heights of the Montes

Corniculani, and by the ridges of the Peschiatore, the Ripoli, and the

Affliano, and on the other, the eye ranges over the gently undulating

expanse of the Ager Romanus, from which rise the towers of the Eternal

City; while beyond, the long streak of light reflected from the waters of

the Etruscan and Laurentine Sea seems to encircle the whole with a silvery

zone. The situation of the villa is open to the healthy breezes of the

west wind, but is sheltered by the mountains from the fury of the north

wind, the piercing chills of the north-east, and the unwholesome hot

summer blasts of the south.”

The high ground on which the villa stands rises between two valleys, which

may be called from their position the north and south valleys. They run

down into the plain through which the Anio cuts its bed. The northern

valley has been artificially altered, with the view of increasing its

picturesque appearance, by cutting the sides so as form perpendicular

cliffs of reddish stone. The tints of these rocks, the soft verdure of the

plants and trees which grow luxuriantly upon them, the bright colours of

the wild flowers scattered here and there, and the lovely hills which rise

as a screen behind them, give this valley such a character of soothing and

enchanting retirement and beauty, that it has been universally regarded as

the spot to which the name of the Vale of Tempe was given by the emperor.

The southern valley is less deep and bold, and from its monotonous and

severe aspect it may perhaps have been the spot where Hadrian placed his

imitation of the infernal regions.[157]

The brook which runs at the bottom of the northern valley (Fosso dell’

Acqua Ferrata) has received the name of the Peneius from antiquaries, and

that in the southern valley is called Fosso di Risicoli by the modern

inhabitants. These streams are now very scantily supplied with water, but

in ancient times, when the villa was watered by a constant flow from its

aqueducts, they must have been of considerable volume. The ruins, now

overgrown with clumps of cypress and other trees, extend for a space of

seven miles in circumference, and in the middle ages were known as Tivoli

Vecchio, from a vague and unfounded idea that the ancient city of Tibur

stood here. It has been remarked that the Coliseum is strikingly

characteristic of the Flavian emperors who planned and executed it, and

with equal truth it may be said that the Tiburtinum of Hadrian gives a

marvellous picture of the many-sided genius of the great man who was at

once the ruler of the whole known world and had travelled throughout his

vast domains from Britain to the Euphrates, organising and controlling

everywhere, and at the same time showing an appreciation of and value for

literature, philosophy, and the fine arts, which was generally foreign to

the Roman character. Hadrian constructed in his villa at Tibur a panorama

of all the sights which had struck him most in his world-wide travels, in

order that he might in this realm of enchantment, when no longer able to

travel, have the sights and thoughts in which he had taken such pleasure,

revived for his imagination to feed upon. Considering the size and

magnificence of the place, which almost resembles a town in its vast

extent, it is surprising that so few notices of it should be found among

the Roman historians and biographers. Dion Cassius, or rather his

epitomiser Xiphilinus, does not even mention it, and Spartianus and

Aurelius Victor pass it over without such special remark as we should

expect. As, however, a great part of the building consisted of the

familiar Thermæ, stadia, theatres and gymnasium, which were constructed in

every large Roman villa, they were perhaps not noticed, as matters of

course, and only the peculiarities of the villa were recorded. After

Hadrian’s return to Rome at the end of his last journey to the East in

A.D. 135, he resigned the care of the empire to Lucius Ælius Verus and

retired to this villa, which had probably been built during his absence,

and may have been begun in 125 when he returned to Rome from his first

journey, and finished during the last three years of his life from 135 to

138.

This opinion as to the date at which the villa was built is confirmed by

the stamps found on the bricks, which range from the year 123 to the year

A.D. 137, and that the ruins belong to Hadrian’s villa is sufficiently

attested by universal tradition, and by the number of statues of Antinous,

and other works of art found here unquestionably belonging to the reign of

Hadrian.

The ruins contain specimens of almost every kind of construction. The most

ancient part is a wall of opus incertum, composed of small polygonal

fragments of tufa, which stands near the Casino Fede. This wall is

probably a remnant of some older villa rustica or farmhouse which occupied

the site before Hadrian’s time, and may have belonged to the gens Ælia. It

apparently belongs to the first half of the first century B.C. The most

common mode of construction is opus reticulatum, with squares of tawny

coloured tufa cut in the valley adjoining and bonded at the corners with

blocks of the same rock, or with red bricks. In those parts of the

buildings, which require great durability from being exposed to the action

of water, brickwork is used throughout. The Greek theatre and parts of the

academy are built of small squared blocks of tufa, or in some cases of

irregular fragments of tufa resembling the later opera Saracenesca. These

are sometimes strengthened with bands of reticulated work. In most cases

the outer covering of the walls has been removed, especially where it

consisted of marble slabs. Some of the stucco ornaments are still very

beautiful and well preserved.

Each part of the buildings is complete in itself, but they do not seem to

have been arranged on any general plan, and now that the roads which

conducted from one part to another have disappeared, they present a

confused mass which requires some careful attention to unravel. I have

been obliged to confine myself to a very general and cursory account of

each main feature. To notice every detail would be far beyond the compass

of this book. In Ligorio’s plan 334 different parts of the villa are

marked and separately described, and he spent a year in his investigation

of the ruins.

Spartianus gives us the names of the Lyceum, the Academy, the Prytaneum,

the Canopus, the Pœcile, the Tempe and the Inferi as the parts of the

villa made by Hadrian in imitation of their foreign originals. To these

Ligorio has added the name Cynosarges found upon a brick stamp. The sites

of the Canopus, the Pœcile, the Academy, Tempe, and the Inferi may be said

to be ascertained with tolerable certainty, but those of the Lyceum and

Prytaneum have not been discovered.

The other names given by antiquarians to the different buildings are

generally founded upon some definite evidence drawn from their shape and

situation, and are probably upon the whole fairly applicable. They are the

Theatres, the Palæstra, the Nymphæum, the Library, the Imperial Palace,

the Hospitals, the Stadium, the Camp, and the Thermæ.

Proceeding from north to south, the ruins may be divided, for the

convenience of description, into ten grand groups--A, the Palæstra,

including the Greek and Latin Theatres and the Nymphæum; B, the Pœcile; C,

the Guards’ Barracks; D, the Library; E, the Imperial Palace; F, the

Stadium; G, the Thermæ; H, the Canopus; I, the Academy, including the

third theatre or Odeum; K, the Inferi. In giving these general divisions,

some attempt is made to represent the parts of the villa as they

were in Hadrian’s time. The ruins are in such different states of

preservation--some being entirely destroyed and the ground-plan barely

traceable, while others are almost entire--that their real relative

importance is completely obscured. The modern alleys and walks also create

much confusion, and render the recognition of the ancient arrangement much

more difficult.

The ancient grand entrance to the grounds was at the north-western end of

the ruins, on the road towards Tibur, about a quarter of a mile beyond

the Ponte Lucano. It seems to have consisted of two large pedestals of

white marble, between which the carriage-road passed, and which were

pierced with arched passages for the footways on each side. One of these

is still traceable in the Vigna Gentili, and has the remains of a

bas-relief upon it, while the other has been destroyed, and its

corresponding bas-relief placed in the Villa Albani at Rome. This gateway

has been imitated by the architect of the gateway at the old Villa

Borghese. It is erroneously called a tomb by Piranesi and Ligorio (see

Piranesi, Ant. Rom. tom. ii. tav. 39.)

The modern entrance to the ruins is at the gate of the Villa Braschi, and

leads, through an avenue of cypress-trees, in a direction at right angles

to the ancient road of approach. The avenue runs across a space which was

formerly a large quadrilateral court, 350 feet by 250 feet, surrounded

with porticoes, attached to the theatre which stands a little to the side

at the end of the avenue. The ancient road from the Ponte Lucano entered

this court at the northern angle. The porticoes have now nearly

disappeared, but part of them was remaining in Ligorio’s time. They served

the same purposes as the great colonnades behind the Theatres of Pompey

and Balbus at Rome. The theatre is an oval building, sunk in the slope of

the rising ground, the southern side containing the seats for spectators,

and the northern being occupied by the orchestra and scena, which has a

stage in the form of a long and narrow parallelogram. The plan corresponds

exactly to the description by Vitruvius of a Greek theatre, and has,

therefore, been called the Greek Theatre by the antiquaries. The Greeks

had the orchestra wider and the actual stage much narrower than the

Latins. Fragments of the travertine substructions of the scena still

remain.

At some distance from this theatre, towards the east, and on the other

side of the stream which runs along the Valley of Tempe, is the Latin

Theatre, so called because the stage is much broader than that of the

theatre just described. Externally it was surrounded with arched porticoes

decorated, like the Theatre of Marcellus at Rome, with half-columns,

There were probably two tiers of these arches, corresponding to the two

divisions of seats. At the sides of the scena there were rooms for the use

of the actors and for the machinery, and behind the scena are three rooms,

probably corresponding to the three doors in the wall behind the stage.

The spectators’ seats are turned towards the south, contrary to the rules

of Vitruvius.

Between the two theatres there is a natural rise in the ground, which has

been further heightened by the rubbish heaped upon the spot. The ruins

here occupy a space in the form of a trapezium, the largest side of which

lies towards the north-west, and the shortest towards the south-west. They

are now covered with modern buildings belonging to the Villa Braschi.

[Sidenote: Palæstra.]