PAGAN SHRINES AND TEMPLES.
Ancient temples as galleries of art.--The adornment of statues
with jewelry, etc.--Offerings and sacrifices by
individuals.--Stores of ex-votos found in the _favissæ_ or vaults
of temples.--Instances of these brought to light within recent
years.--Remarkable wealth of one at Veii.--The altars of ancient
Rome.--The _ara maxima Herculis_.--The _Roma Quadrata_.--The
altar of Aius Locutius.--That of Dis and Proserpina.--Its
connection with the Sæcular Games.--The discovery of the
inscription describing these, in 1890.--The _ara pacis
Augustæ_.--The _ara incendii Neroniani_.--Temples excavated in my
time.--That of Jupiter Capitolinus.--History of its ruins.--The
Capitol as a place for posting official announcements.--The
Temple of Isis and Serapis.--The number of sculptures discovered
on its site.--The Temple of Neptune.--Its remains in the Piazza
di Pietra.--The Temple of Augustus.--The _Sacellum Sanci_.
Ancient guide-books of Rome, published in the middle of the fourth
century,[34] mention four hundred and twenty-four temples, three
hundred and four shrines, eighty statues of gods, of precious metal,
sixty-four of ivory, and three thousand seven hundred and eighty-five
miscellaneous bronze statues. The number of marble statues is not
given. It has been said, however, that Rome had two populations of
equal size, one alive, and one of marble.
I have had the opportunity of witnessing or conducting the discovery
of several temples, altars, shrines, and bronze statues. The number of
marble statues and busts discovered in the last twenty-five years,
either in Rome or the Campagna, may be stated at one thousand.
Before beginning the description of these beautiful monuments, I must
allude to some details concerning the management and organization of
ancient places of worship, upon which recent discoveries have thrown a
considerable, and in some cases, unexpected light.
Roman temples, like the churches of the present day, were used not
only as places of worship, but as galleries of pictures, museums of
statuary, and "cabinets" of precious objects. In chapter v. of
"Ancient Rome," I have given the catalogue of the works of art
displayed in the temple of Apollo on the Palatine. The list includes:
The Apollo and Artemis driving a quadriga, by Lysias; fifty statues of
the Danaids; fifty of the sons of Egypt; the Herakles of Lysippos;
Augustus with the attributes of Apollo (a bronze statue fifty feet
high); the pediment of the temple, by Bupalos and Anthermos; statues
of Apollo, by Skopas; Leto, by Kephisodotos, son of Praxiteles;
Artemis, by Timotheos; and the nine Muses; also a chandelier, formerly
dedicated by Alexander the Great at Kyme; medallions of eminent men; a
collection of gold plate; another of gems and intaglios; ivory
carvings; specimens of palæography; and two libraries.
[Illustration: Entablature of the Temple of Concord.]
The Temple of Apollo was by no means the only sacred museum of ancient
Rome; there were scores of them, beginning with the Temple of
Concord, so emphatically praised by Pliny. This temple, built by
Camillus, at the foot of the Capitol, and restored by Tiberius and
Septimius Severus, was still standing at the time of Pope Hadrian I.
(772-795), when the inscription on its front was copied for the last
time by the _Einsiedlensis_. It was razed to the ground towards 1450.
"When I made my first visit to Rome," says Poggio Bracciolini, "I saw
the Temple of Concord almost intact (_ædem fere integram_), built of
white marble. Since then the Romans have demolished it, and turned the
structure into a lime-kiln." The platform of the temple and a few
fragments of its architectural decorations were discovered in 1817.
The reader may appreciate the grace of these decorations, from a
fragment of the entablature now in the portico of the Tabularium, and
one of the capitals of the cella, now in the Palazzo dei Conservatori.
The cella contained one central and ten side niches, in which eleven
masterpieces of Greek chisels were placed, namely, the Apollo and
Hera, by Baton; Leto nursing Apollo and Artemis, by Euphranor;
Asklepios and Hygieia, by Nikeratos; Ares and Hermes, by Piston; and
Zeus, Athena, and Demeter, by Sthennis. The name of the sculptor of
the Concordia in the apse is not known. Pliny speaks also of a picture
by Theodoros, representing Cassandra; of four elephants, cut in
obsidian, a miracle of skill and labor, and of a collection of
precious stones, among which was the sardonyx set in the legendary
ring of Polykrates of Samos. Most of these treasures had been offered
to the goddess by Augustus, moved by the liberality which Julius Cæsar
had shown towards his ancestral goddess, Venus Genetrix. We know from
Pliny, xxxv. 9, that Cæsar was the first to give due honor to
paintings, by exhibiting them in his Forum Julium. He gave about
$72,000 (eighty talents), for two works of Timomachos, representing
Medea and Ajax. At the base of the Temple of Venus Genetrix he placed
his own equestrian statue, the horse of which, modelled by Lysippos,
had once supported the figure of Alexander the Great. The statue of
Venus was the work of Arkesilaos, and her breast was covered with
strings of British pearls. Pliny (xxxvii. 5), after mentioning the
collection of gems made by Scaurus, and another made by Mithradates,
which Pompey the Great had offered to Jupiter Capitolinus, adds:
"These examples were surpassed by Cæsar the dictator, who offered to
Venus Genetrix six collections of cameos and intaglios."
A descriptive catalogue of these valuables and works of art was kept
in each temple, and sometimes engraved on marble. The inventories
included also the furniture and properties of the sacristy. In 1871
the following remarkable document was discovered in the Temple of
Diana Nemorensis. The inventory, engraved on a marble pillar three
feet high, is now preserved in the Orsini Castle at Nemi. It has been
published by Henzen in "Hermes," vol. vi. p. 8, and reads as follows,
in translation:--
Objects offered to [or belonging to] both temples [the temple of Isis
and that of Bubastis]:--Seventeen statues; one head of the Sun; four
silver images; one medallion; two bronze altars; one tripod (in the
shape of one at Delphi); a cup for libations; a patera; a diadem [for
the statue of the goddess] studded with gems; a sistrum of gilded
silver; a gilt cup; a patera ornamented with ears of corn; a necklace
studded with beryls; two bracelets with gems; seven necklaces with
gems; nine ear-rings with gems; two nauplia [rare shells from the
Propontis]; a crown with twenty-one topazes and eighty carbuncles; a
railing of brass supported by eight _hermulæ_; a linen costume
comprising a tunica, a pallium, a belt, and a stola, all trimmed with
silver; a like costume without trimming.
[Objects offered] to Bubastis:--A costume of purple silk; another of
turquoise color; a marble vase with pedestal; a water jug; a linen
costume with gold trimmings and a golden girdle; another of plain
white linen.
The objects described in this catalogue did not belong to the Temple
of Diana itself, one of the wealthiest in central Italy; but to two
small shrines, of Isis and Bubastis, built by a devotee within the
sacred enclosure, on the north side of the square.
The ancients displayed remarkably bad taste in loading the statues of
their gods with precious ornaments, and in spoiling the beauty of
their temples with hangings of every hue and description. A document
published by Muratori[35] speaks of a statue of Isis which was
dedicated by a lady named Fabia Fabiana as a memorial to her deceased
granddaughter Avita. The statue, cast in silver, weighed one hundred
and twelve and a half pounds, and was muffled in ornaments and jewelry
beyond conception. The goddess wore a diadem in which were set six
pearls, two emeralds, seven beryls, one carbuncle, one _hyacinthus_,
and two flint arrow-heads; also earrings with emeralds and pearls, a
necklace composed of thirty-six pearls and eighteen emeralds, two
clasps, two rings on the little finger, one on the third, one on the
middle finger; and many other gems on the shoes, ankles, and wrists.
Another inscription discovered at Constantine, Algeria, describes a
statue of Jupiter dedicated in the Capitol of that city. The devotees
had placed on his head an oak-wreath of silver, with thirty leaves and
fifteen acorns; they had loaded his right hand with a silver disk, a
Victory waving a palm-leaf, and a crown of forty leaves; and in the
other had fastened a silver rod and other emblems.
The hangings and tinsel not only disfigured the interior of temples,
but were a source of danger from their combustibility. When we hear of
fires destroying the Pantheon in A. D. 110, the Temple of Apollo in
363, that of Venus and Rome in 307, and that of Peace in 191, we may
assume that they were started and fed by the inflammable materials
with which the interiors were filled. There is no other explanation to
be given, inasmuch as the structures were fire-proof, with the
exception of the roof. As for the disfiguration of sacred buildings
with all sorts of hangings, it is enough to quote the words of Livy
(xl. 51). "In the year of Rome, 574, the censors M. Fulvius Nobilior
and M. Æmilius Lepidus restored the temple of Jupiter on the Capitol.
On this occasion they removed from the columns all the tablets,
medallions, and military flags _omnis generis_ which had been hung
against them."
The right of performing sacrifices was sometimes granted to
civilians, on payment of a fee. An inscription discovered among the
ruins of the Temple of Malakbelos, outside the Porta Portese, on the
site of the new railway station, relates how an importer of wine,
Quintus Octavius Daphnicus, having built at his own expense a
banqueting hall within the sacred enclosure, was rewarded with the
_immunitas sacrum faciendi_, that is, the right of performing
sacrifices without the assistance of priests. The performances were
regulated by tariffs, which specified a price for every item; and one
of these has actually survived to our day.[36]
D
PRO·SANGVINE (_nomen animalis_)
ET·CORIVM
SI·HOLOCAVSTVM·[Symbol: -X] X
PRO·SANGVINE·AGNI·ET·PELLE [Symbol: -X] IS
SI·HOLOCAVSTVM·[Symbol: -X]·II[Greek: S]
PRO·GALLO HOLOCAVSTO [Symbol: -X] I[Greek: S]
PRO·SANGVINE· A·XIII
PRO·CORONA· A·IIII
PRO·CALIDAM·IN·HOMINEM·A·II
D....
For the blood of ---- (perhaps a bull) ----
And for its hide ----
If the victim be entirely burnt xxv asses.
For the blood and skin of a lamb iv asses.
If the lamb be entirely burnt vi½ asses.
For a cock (entirely burnt) iii½ asses.
For blood alone xiii asses.
For a wreath iv asses.
For hot water (per head) ii asses.
The meaning of this tariff will be easily understood if we recall the
details of a Græco-Roman sacrifice, in regard to the apportionment of
the victim's flesh. The parts which were the perquisite of the priests
differ in different worships; sometimes we hear of legs and skin,
sometimes of tongue and shoulder. In the case of private sacrifices
the rest of the animal was taken home by the sacrificer, to be used
for a meal or sent as a present to friends. This was, of course,
impossible in the case of "holocausts," in which the victim was burnt
whole on the altar. In the Roman ritual, hides and skins were always
the property of the temple.[37] In the above tariff two prices are
charged: a smaller one for ordinary sacrifices, when only the
intestines were burnt, and the rest of the flesh was taken home by the
sacrificer; a larger one for "holocausts," which required a much
longer use of the altar, spit, gridiron, and other sacrificial
instruments. Four asses are charged for each crown or wreath of
flowers, half that amount for hot water.
The site of a sanctuary can be determined not only from its actual
ruins, but, in many cases, from the contents of its _favissæ_, or
vaults, which are sometimes collected in a group, sometimes spread
over a considerable space of ground. The origin of these deposits of
terra-cotta or bronze votive objects is as follows:--
Each leading sanctuary or place of pilgrimage was furnished with one
or more rooms for the exhibition and safe-keeping of ex-votos. The
walls of these rooms were studded with nails on which ex-voto heads
and figures were hung in rows by means of a hole on the back. There
were also horizontal spaces, little steps like those of a _lararium_,
or shelves, on which were placed those objects that could stand
upright. When both surfaces were filled, and no room was left for the
daily influx of votive offerings, the priests removed the rubbish of
the collection, that is, the terra-cottas, and buried them either in
the vaults (_favissæ_) of the temple, or in trenches dug for the
purpose within or near the sacred enclosure.
During these last years I have been present at the discovery of five
deposits of ex-votos, each marking the site of a place of pilgrimage.
The first was found in March, 1876, on the site of a temple of
Hercules, outside the Porta S. Lorenzo; the second in the spring of
1885, on the site of the Temple of Diana Nemorensis; the third in
1886, near the Island of Æsculapius (now of S. Bartolomeo); the fourth
in 1887, near the shrine of Minerva Medica; the last in 1889, on the
site of the Temple of Juno at Veii.
The existence of a temple of Hercules, outside the Porta S. Lorenzo,
within the enclosure of the modern cemetery, was first made known in
1862, in consequence of the discovery of an altar raised to him by
Marcus Minucius, the "master of the horse" or lieutenant-general of Q.
Fabius Maximus (217 B. C.). This altar is now exhibited in the
Capitoline Museum.[38] Fourteen years later, in 1876, the _favissæ_ of
the temple were found in the section of the cemetery called the
Pincio. There were about two hundred pieces of terra-cotta, vases of
Etruscan and Italo-Greek manufacture; several statuettes of bronze,
and pieces of _æs rude_, and _æs grave librale_, one of them from the
town of Luceria. This deposit seems to have been buried at the
beginning of the sixth century of Rome.
[Illustration: Nemi and the site of the Temple of Diana. _A_ Platform
of the Temple of Diana. _B_ Village of Nemi and Castle of the
Orsinis.]
[Illustration: Portrait Bust of Person cured at Nemi.]
The excavation of the temple of Diana Nemorensis was undertaken in
1885, by Sir John Savile Lumley, now Lord Savile of Rufford, the
English ambassador at Rome, with the kind consent of the Italian
government. It seems that this _Artemisium Nemorense_ was not only a
place of worship and devotion, but also a hydro-therapeutic
establishment. The waters employed for the cure were those which
spring from the lava rocks at Nemi, and which, until a few years ago,
fell in graceful cascades into the lake, at a place called "Le Mole."
They now supply the city of Albano, which has long suffered from
water-famine. I can vouch for their therapeutic efficiency from
personal experience; in fact I could honestly put up my votive
offering to the long-forgotten goddess, having recovered health and
strength by following the old cure. Diana, however, was chiefly
worshipped in this place as Diana Lucina. I need not enter into
particulars on this subject. The ex-votos collected in large quantity
by Lord Savile, representing young mothers nursing their first-born,
and other offerings of the same nature, testify to the skill of the
priests. Perhaps they practised other branches of surgery, because,
among the curiosities brought to light in 1885, are several figures
with large openings on the front, through which the intestines are
seen. Professor Tommasi-Crudeli, who has made a study of this class of
curiosities, says that they cannot be considered as real anatomical
models, because the work is too rough and primitive to enable us to
distinguish one intestine from the other. The number of objects
collected by Lord Savile may be estimated at three thousand.
[Illustration: The stern of the ship of the Island of the Tiber.]
Characteristic objects of a like nature--breasts cut open and showing
the anatomy--have been found in large numbers in and near the island
of the Tiber, where the Temple of Æsculapius stood, at the stern of
the marble ship. It seems that the street leading from the Campus
Martius to the Pons Fabricius, and across it to the temple, was lined
with shops and booths for the sale of ex-votos, as is the case now
with the approaches to the sanctuaries of Einsiedeln, Lourdes,
Mariahilf, and S. Jago. In the foundations of the new quays of the
Tiber, above and below the bridge, the ex-votos have been found in
regular strata along the line of the banks, whereas in the island
itself they have come to light in much smaller quantities. As the
votive objects deposited in this sanctuary, from the year 292 before
Christ to the fall of the Empire, may be counted not by thousands, but
by millions of specimens, I believe that the bed of the Tiber must
have been used as a _favissa_.
The name of Minerva Medica is familiar to students and visitors of old
Rome;[39] but the monument which bears it, a nymphæum of the gardens
of the Licinii, near the Porta Maggiore, has no connection whatever
with the goddess of wisdom. Minerva Medica was the name of a street on
the Esquiline, so called from a shrine which stood at the crossing, or
near the crossing, with the Via Merulana, not far from the church of
SS. Pietro e Marcellino. Its foundations and its deposit of ex-votos
were discovered in 1887. The shape and nature of the offerings bear
witness to numberless cases of recovery performed by the merciful
goddess, the Athena Hygieia or Paionia of the Greeks. There is a
fragment of a lamp inscribed with her name, which leaves no doubt as
to the identity of the deposit. There is also a votive head, not cast
from the mould, but modelled _a stecco_, which alludes to Minerva as a
restorer of hair. The scalp is covered with thick hair in front and on
the top, while the sides are bald, or showing only an incipient
growth. It is evident, therefore, that the woman whose portrait-head
we have found had lost her curls in the course of some malady, and
having regained them through the intercession of Minerva, as she
piously believed, offered her this curious token of gratitude. This,
at least, is Visconti's opinion. Another testimonial of Minerva's
efficiency in restoring hair has been found at Piacenza, a votive
tablet put up MINERVÆ MEMORI by a lady named Tullia Superiana,
RESTITUTIONE SIBI FACTA CAPILLORUM (for having restored her hair).
[Illustration: Fragment of a Lamp inscribed with the name of
Minerva.]
[Illustration: Votive Head.]
As regards the multitude of ex-votos, no other temple or deposit
discovered in my time can be compared with the _favissæ_ of the Temple
of Juno at Veii. In Roman traditions this temple was regarded as the
place where Camillus emerged from the _cuniculus_, or mine, on the day
of the capture of the city. The story runs that Camillus, having
carried his _cuniculus_ under the Temple of Juno within the citadel,
overheard the Etruscan _aruspex_ declare to the king of Veii that
victory would rest with him who completed the sacrifice. Upon this,
the Roman soldiers burst through the floor, seized the entrails of the
victims, and bore them to Camillus, who offered them to the goddess
with his own hand, while his followers were gaining possession of the
city. The account is certainly more or less fabricated; but, as Livy
remarks, "it is not worth while to prove or disprove these things." We
are content to know that within the citadel of Veii, the "Piazza d'
Armi" of the present day, there was a temple of great veneration and
antiquity, and that it was dedicated to Juno. Both points have been
proved and illustrated by modern discoveries.
[Illustration: The Cliffs under the Citadel of Veii (now called
Piazza d' Armi).]
The ex-votos of the Latin sanctuaries were, as I have just remarked,
buried in the _favissæ_; but at Veii, because of the danger and the
difficulty of excavating them within the citadel, and in solid rock,
the ex-votos were carted away and thrown from the edge of the cliff
into the valley below. The place selected was the north side of the
rocky ridge connecting the citadel with the city, which ridge towers
one hundred and ninety-eight feet above the cañon of the Cremera. The
mass of objects thrown over here in the course of centuries has
produced a slope which reaches nearly to the top of the cliff. The
reader will appreciate the importance of the deposit from the fact
that the mine has been exploited ever since the time of Alexander VII.
(1655-1667); and in the spring of 1889, when the most recent
excavations were made, by the late empress Theresa of Brazil, the mass
of terra-cottas brought to the surface was such that work had to be
given up after a few days, because there was no more space in the
farmhouse for the storage of the booty. Pietro Sante Bartoli left an
account of the excavations made on the same spot by cardinal Chigi,
during the pontificate of Alexander VII. Modern topographers do not
seem to be aware of this fact; it is not mentioned by Dennis, or Gell,
or Nibby, although it is the only evidence left of the discovery of
the famous sanctuary. "Not far from the Isola Farnese a hill [the
Piazza d' Armi], rises from the valley of the Cremera, on the plateau
of which cardinal Chigi has discovered a beautiful temple with fluted
columns of the Ionic order. The frieze is carved with trophies and
panoplies of various kinds; the reliefs of the pediment represent the
emperor Antoninus[?] sacrificing a ram and a sow, and although the
panels lie scattered around the temple, and the figures are broken,
apparently no important piece is missing. There is also an altar four
feet high, with figures of Etruscan type, which was removed to the
Palazzo Chigi [now Odescalchi]. The columns and marbles of the temple
were bought by cardinal Falconieri to build and ornament a chapel in
the church of S. Giovanni de' Fiorentini.... Not far from the temple a
stratum of ex-votos has been found, so rich that the whole of Rome is
now overrun with terra-cottas. Every part of the human body is
represented,--heads, hands, feet, fingers, eyes, noses, mouths,
tongues, entrails, lungs, symbols of fecundity, whole figures of men
and women, horses, oxen, sheep, pigs,--in such quantities as to make
several hundred cartloads. There were also bronze statuettes, sacred
utensils, and mirror-cases, which were all stolen or destroyed. I have
known of one workman breaking marvellous objects (_cose insigni_) into
small fragments to melt them into handles for knives."
When the farms of Isola Farnese and Vaccareccia, in which the remains
of Veii and of its extensive cemeteries are situated, were sold, a few
years ago, by the empress of Brazil to the marchese Ferraioli, the
parties concerned agreed that the right of excavating and the objects
discovered should belong to her, for a limited number of years, up to
1891, I believe. The first campaign, opened January 2, 1889, and
closed in June, must be considered as one of the most valuable
contributions to the study of Etruscan civilization which have been
supplied of late to students, either by chance or by design. Had the
empress been able to carry out her plans for two or three years more,
the whole city and necropolis would have been explored, surveyed, and
illustrated, in the most strictly scientific manner. Political events
and the death of this noble woman brought the enterprise to a close.
To come back, however, to the bed of votive objects in terra-cotta and
bronze, I was able to make a rough estimate of its dimensions, which
are two hundred and fifty feet in length, fifty feet in width, and
from three to four in depth; nearly forty-four thousand cubic feet.
The objects collected in two weeks number four thousand; the fragments
buried again as worthless, double that number. The heads of veiled
goddesses alone amount to four hundred and forty-seven, of which three
hundred and seventy are full-faced, the rest in profile. The vein
contains fifty-two varieties of types; to Bartoli's list, we must add
busts, masks, arms, breasts, wombs, spines, bowels, lungs, toes,
figures cut open across the breast and showing the anatomy, figures
approximately human, or male and female embryos ending like the trunk
of a tree with stumps corresponding to the feet, figures of
hermaphrodites, human torsos modelled purposely without heads, arms
without hands, legs without feet, hands holding apples or
jewel-caskets, figurines of mothers nursing twins, beautiful
life-sized statues of draped women, with movable hands and feet, rats,
wild boars, sucking pigs, cows, rams, apples and other fruits, and
"marbles."
* * * * *
The first structures dedicated to the gods in Rome were called _aræ_,
and had the shape of a cube of masonry, in the centre of a square
platform. They were modelled, in a measure, on the pattern of the
Pelasgic _hierones_, in which the territory of Tibur and Signia is
especially abundant. The _aræ_ best known in Roman history and
topography are six in number, namely, the _ara maxima Herculis_; the
_Roma quadrata_; the _ara Aii Locutii_; the _ara Ditis et
Proserpinæ_; the _ara pacis Augustæ_; and the _ara incendii
Neroniani_. The oldest of these were built of rough stones; those of
later periods took the characteristic shape of the altar of Verminus,
represented on page 52 of my "Ancient Rome," and of the altar raised
to Vedjovis by the members of the Julian family, at Bovillæ, their
birthplace, where it was found by the Colonnas in 1823. It is now in
the villa of that family on the Quirinal.[40] In imperial times the
conventional shape was preserved, with the addition of two _pulvini_,
or volutes, on the opposite edges of the cornice, as represented in
the illustration on page 35 of "Ancient Rome" (a marble altar found at
Ostia).
[Illustration: A Pelasgic hieron, or platform of altar, at Segni.]
[Illustration: Round Temple of Hercules in the Forum Boarium.]
THE ARA MAXIMA HERCULIS. This altar, the oldest in Rome, was raised in
memory of the visit of Hercules to our country. Tacitus and Pliny
attribute its construction to Evander the Arcadian, forgetting that in
prehistoric times the tract of land on which the altar stood, between
the Forum Boarium and the Circus Maximus, was submerged by the waters
of the Velabrum. It was at all events a very ancient structure, held
in great veneration. Its rough shape and appearance were never
changed, as shown by a precious--yet unpublished--sketch by
Baldassarre Peruzzi which I found among his autographs in Florence. A
round temple was built near the altar, in later times, of which we
know two particulars: first, that it had a mysterious power of
repulsion for dogs and flies;[41] second, that it contained, among
other works of art, a picture by the poet Pacuvius, next in antiquity
and value to the one painted by Fabius Pictor, in the Temple of
Health, in 303 B. C.[42] The Temple of Hercules, the Ara Maxima, and
the bronze statue of the hero-god were discovered, in a good state of
preservation, during the pontificate of Sixtus IV., between the apse
of S. Maria in Cosmedin (the Temple of Ceres), and the Circus Maximus.
We have a description of the discovery by Pomponio Leto, Albertini,
and Fra Giocondo da Verona; and excellent drawings by Baldassarre
Peruzzi.[43]
Except the bronze statue, and a few votive inscriptions, which were
removed to the Capitoline Museum, everything--temple, altar, and
platform--was levelled to the ground by the illustrious Vandals of the
Renaissance.
THE ROMA QUADRATA. According to the ancient ritual, the founder of a
city, after tracing the _sulcus primigenius_ or furrow which marked
its limits, buried the plough, the instruments of sacrifice, and other
votive offerings, in a round hole, excavated in the centre of the
marked space. The round hole was called _mundus_, and its location was
indicated by a heap of stones, which in course of time took the shape
of a square altar. The _mundus_ of ancient Rome was located in the
very heart of the Palatine, in front of the Temple of Apollo, and the
altar upon it was named the _Roma Quadrata_. This name has been much
discussed, and it has even been applied to the Palatine city itself,
although it is an established fact that there is, strictly speaking,
no connection between the two. The controversy has been resumed lately
by Professor Luigi Pigorini in a paper still unpublished which was
read at the sitting of the German Institute, December 17, 1890; and by
Professor Otto Richter in his pamphlet _Die älteste Wohnstätte des
römischen Volks_, Berlin, 1891.
In view of the ignorance of ancient writers on this subject, and the
almost absurd definitions they give of the word, we had come to the
conclusion that the altar had been removed or concealed by Augustus,
when he built the Temple of Apollo and the Portico of the Danaids, in
28 B. C. A remarkable inscription discovered September 20, 1890 (to
which I shall refer at length later), by mentioning the Roma Quadrata
as existing A. D. 204, shows that our opinion was wrong, and that the
old altar, the most venerable monument of Roman history, had survived
the vicissitudes of time, and the transformation of the Palatine from
the cradle of the city into the palace of the Cæsars.
In December, 1869, when the nuns of the Visitation were laying the
foundations of a new wing of their convent on the area of the Temple
of Apollo,[44] I saw a line of square pilasters at the depth of
forty-one feet below the pavement of the Portico of the Danaids, and
in the centre of the line a heap of stones, either of tufa or
peperino, roughly squared. It is more than probable that, in 1869, I
did not think of the Roma Quadrata, and of its connection with those
remains, so deeply buried in the heart of the hill; but I am sure that
a careful investigation of that sacred spot would lead to very
important results.
THE ARA OF AIUS LOCUTIUS. In 1820, while excavations were proceeding
near the western corner of the Palatine (at the spot marked No. 7, on
the plan, page 106, of "Ancient Rome"), an altar was discovered, of
archaic type, inscribed with the following dedication: "Sacred to a
Divinity, whether male or female. Caius Sextius Calvinus, son of
Caius, praetor, has restored this altar by decree of the Senate."
Nibby and Mommsen believe Calvinus to be the magistrate mentioned
twice by Cicero as a candidate against Glaucias in the contest for the
praetorship of 125 B. C. They also identify the altar as (a
restoration of) the one raised behind the Temple of Vesta, in the
"lower New Street," in memory of the mysterious voice announcing the
invasion of the Gauls, in the stillness of the night, and warning the
citizens to strengthen the walls of their city. The voice was
attributed to a local Genius, whom the people named Aius Loquens or
Locutius. As a rule, the priests refrained from mentioning in public
prayers the name and sex of new and slightly known divinities,
especially of local Genii, to which they objected for two reasons:
first, because there was danger of vitiating the ceremony by a false
invocation; secondly, because it was prudent not to reveal the true
name of these tutelary gods to the enemy of the commonwealth, lest in
case of war or siege he could force them to abandon the defence of
that special place, by mysterious and violent rites. The formula _si
deus si dea_, "whether god or goddess," is a consequence of this
superstition; its use is not uncommon on ancient altars; Servius
describes a shield dedicated on the Capitol to the Genius of Rome,
with the inscription: GENIO URBIS ROMÆ SIVE MAS SIVE FEMINA, "to the
tutelary Genius of the city of Rome, whether masculine or feminine."
The Palatine altar, of which I give an illustration, cannot fail to
impress the student, on account of its connection with one of the
leading events in history, the capture and burning of Rome by the
Gauls, 390 B. C.
[Illustration: Ara of Aius Locutius on the Palatine.]
THE ARA DITIS ET PROSERPINÆ. On the 20th of September, 1890, the
workmen employed in the construction of the main sewer on the left
bank of the Tiber, between the Ponte S. Angelo and the church of S.
Giovanni dei Fiorentini, found a mediæval wall, built of materials
collected at random from the neighboring ruins. Among them were
fragments of one or more inscriptions which described the celebrations
of the _Ludi Sæculares_ under the Empire. By the end of the day,
seventeen pieces had been recovered, seven of which belonged to the
records of the games celebrated under Augustus, in the year 17 B. C.,
the others to those celebrated under Septimius Severus and Caracalla,
in the year 204 A. D. Later researches led to the discovery of
ninety-six other fragments, making a total of one hundred and
thirteen, of which eight are of the time of Augustus, two of the time
of Domitian, and the rest date from Severus.
[Illustration: Pillar commemorating the _Ludi Sæculares_.]
The fragments of the year 17 B. C., fitted together, make a block
three metres high, containing one hundred and sixty-eight minutely
inscribed lines. This monument, now exhibited in the Baths of
Diocletian, was in the form of a square pillar enclosed by a
projecting frame, with base and capital of the Tuscan order, and it
measured, when entire, four metres in height. I believe that there is
no inscription among the thirty thousand collected in volume vi. of
the "Corpus" which makes a more profound impression on the mind, or
appeals more to the imagination than this official report of a state
ceremony which took place over nineteen hundred years ago, and was
attended by the most illustrious men of the age.
The origin of the sæcular games seems to be this: In the early days of
Rome the northwest section of the Campus Martius, bordering on the
Tiber, was conspicuous for traces of volcanic activity. There was a
pool here called Tarentum or Terentum, fed by hot sulphur springs, the
efficiency of which is attested by the cure of Volesus, the Sabine,
and his family, described by Valerius Maximus. Heavy vapors hung over
the springs, and tongues of flame were seen issuing from the cracks of
the earth. The locality became known by the name of the fiery field
(_campus ignifer_), and its relationship with the infernal realms was
soon an established fact in folk-lore. An altar to the infernal gods
was erected on the borders of the pool, and games were held
periodically in honor of Dis and Proserpina, the victims being a black
bull and a black cow. Tradition attributed this arrangement of time
and ceremony to Volesus himself, who, grateful for the recovery of his
three children, offered sacrifices to Dis and Proserpina, spread
_lectisternia_, or reclining couches, for the gods, with tables and
viands before them, and celebrated games for three nights, one for
each child which had been restored to health. In the republican epoch
they were called _Ludi Tarentini_, from the name of the pool, and were
celebrated for the purpose of averting from the state the recurrence
of some great calamity by which it had been afflicted. These
calamities being contingencies which no man could foresee, it is
evident that the celebration of the _Ludi Tarentini_ was in no way
connected with definite cycles of time, such as the _sæculum_.
Not long after Augustus had assumed the supreme power, the
_Quindecemviri sacris faciundis_ (a college of priests to whom the
direction of these games had been intrusted from time immemorial)
announced that it was the will of the gods that the _Ludi Sæculares_
should be performed, and misrepresenting and distorting events and
dates, tried to prove that the festival had been held regularly at
intervals of 110 years, which was supposed to be the length of a
_sæculum_. The games of which the Quindecemviri made this assertion
were the Tarentini, instituted for quite a different purpose, but
their suggestion was too pleasing to Augustus and the people to be
despised. Setting aside all disputes about chronology and tradition,
the celebration was appointed for the summer of the year 17 B. C.
[Illustration: Plan and section of the Altar of Dis and Proserpina.]
What was the exact location of the sulphur springs, the Tarentum, and
the altar of the infernal gods? I have reason to regard the discovery
of the Altar of Dis and Proserpina as the most satisfactory I have
made, especially because I made it, if I may so express myself, when
away from Rome on a long leave of absence. It took place in the winter
of 1886-87, during my visit to America. At that time the work of
opening and draining the Corso Vittorio Emanuele had just reached a
place which was considered _terra incognita_ by the topographers, and
indicated by a blank spot in the archæological maps of the city. I
mean the district between the Vallicella (la Chiesa Nuova, the Palazzo
Cesarini, etc.) and the banks of the Tiber near S. Giovanni dei
Fiorentini. The reports spoke vaguely about the discovery of five or
six parallel walls, built of blocks of peperino, of marble steps in
the centre of this singular monument, of gates with marble posts and
architraves, leading to the spaces between the six parallel walls, and
finally, of a column with foliage carved upon its surface. On my
return to Rome, in the spring of 1887, every trace of the monument had
disappeared under the embankment of the Corso Vittorio Emanuele. I
questioned foremen and workmen, I consulted the notebooks of the
contractors, every day I visited the excavations which were still in
progress, on each side of the Corso, for building the Cavalletti and
Bassi palaces, and lastly, I examined the "column with foliage carved
upon its surface," which in the mean time had been removed to the
courtyard of the Palazzo dei Conservatori on the Capitol. This marble
fragment, the only one saved from the excavations, gave me the clue to
the mystery. It was not a column, it was a _pulvinus_, or volute, of a
colossal marble altar, worthy of being compared, in size and
perfection of work, with the Altar of Peace discovered under the
Palazzo Fiano, with that of the Antonines discovered under the Monte
Citorio, and with other such monumental structures. There was then no
hesitation in determining the nature of the discoveries made in the
Corso Vittorio Emanuele; an altar had been found there, and this altar
must have been the one sacred to Dis and Proserpina, as no other is
mentioned in history in the northwest section of the Campus Martius.
The drawings which illustrate my account of the discovery[45] prove
that the altar rose from a platform twelve feet square, approached on
all sides by three or four marble steps, that platform and altar were
enclosed by three lines of wall at an interval of thirty-six feet from
one another, and that on the east side of the square ran a _euripus_,
or channel, eleven feet wide, and four feet deep, lined with stone
blocks, the incline of which towards the Tiber is about 1:100. This
last detail proves that when the rough altar of Volesus Sabinus was
succeeded by the later noble structure, the pool was drained, and its
feeding springs were led into the _euripus_, so that the patients
seeking a cure for their ailments could bathe in or drink the
miracle-working waters with greater ease. No attention whatever was
paid to the discovery at the time it took place. Instead of reaching
the ancient level, the excavation for the main sewer of the Corso
Vittorio Emanuele was stopped at the wrong place, within three feet of
the pavement; consequently whatever fragments of the altar, of
inscriptions, or of works of art, were lying on the marble floor will
lie there forever, as the building of the palaces on either side of
the Corso, and the construction of the Corso itself, with its costly
sewers, sidewalks, etc., have made further research impossible, at
least with our present means.
Concerning the celebration which took place around this altar in the
year 17 B. C., we already possessed ample information from such
materials as the oracle of the Sibyl, referred to by Zosimus, the
_Carmen Sæculare_ of Horace, and the legends and designs on the medals
struck for the occasion; but the official report, discovered September
20, 1890, produces an altogether different impression; it enables us
actually to take part in the pageant, to follow with rapture Horace as
he leads a chorus of fifty-four young men and girls of patrician
birth, singing the hymn which he composed for the occasion.[46]
There is such a tone of simplicity and common-sense, such a display of
method and mutual respect between Augustus, the Senate, and the
Quindecemviri, in the official transactions which preceded, attended
and followed the celebration, in the resolutions passed by the several
bodies, in the proclamations addressed to the people, and in the
arrangements for the festivities, which a mass of a million or more
spectators was expected to attend, that a lesson in civic dignity
could be learned from this report by modern governments and
corporations.
The official report begins, or rather began (the first lines are
missing), with the request presented by the Quindecemviri to the
Senate to take their proposal into consideration, and grant the
necessary funds, followed by a decree of the Senate accepting the
proposal and inviting Augustus to take the direction of the
festivities. The request was addressed to the Senate on February 17,
by Marcus Agrippa, president of the Quindecemviri, standing before the
seat of the consuls. What a scene to witness! We can picture to
ourselves the two consuls, Gaius Furnius and Junius Silanus, clad in
their official robes, listening to the speech of the great statesman,
who is supported by twenty colleagues, all ex-consuls, and chosen
among the noblest, richest, and most gallant patricians of the age.
The Senate agrees that the preparations for the festival, the building
of the temporary stages, hippodromes, tribunes, and scaffoldings shall
be executed by the contractors (_redemptores_), and that the treasury
officials shall provide the funds.
Lines 1-23 contain a letter from Augustus to the Quindecemviri
detailing the programme of the ceremonies, the number and quality of
persons who shall take part in it, the dates and hours, and the number
and character of the victims. Two clauses of the imperial manifesto
are especially noteworthy. First, that during the three days, June
1-3, the courthouses shall be closed, and justice shall not be
administered. Second, that ladies who are wearing mourning shall lay
aside that sign of grief for this occasion. The date of the manifesto
is March 24.
Upon the receipt of this document the Quindecemviri meet and pass
several resolutions: that the rules regarding the ceremonies shall be
made known to the public by advertisement (_albo propositæ_); that the
mornings of May 26, 27, and 28, shall be set apart for the
_distributio suffimentorum_, in which the Quindecemviri were wont to
distribute among the citizens torches, sulphur and bitumen, for
purification; and the mornings of May 29, 30, and 31, for the _frugum
acceptio_, or distribution of wheat, barley, and beans. To avoid
overcrowding, four centres of distribution are named, and each of them
is placed under the supervision of four members of the college, making
a total of sixteen delegates. The places indicated in the programme
are the platform of the Capitolium, the area in front of the Temple of
Jupiter Tonans, the Portico of the Danaids on the Palatine, and the
Temple of Diana on the Aventine.
On May 23 the Senate meets in the Septa Julia--the ruins of which
still exist, under the Palazzo Doria and the church of S. Maria in Via
Lata--and passes two resolutions. Horace's hymn, vv. 17-20, alludes to
the first: "O Goddess, whether you choose the title of Lucina or of
Genitalis, multiply our offspring, and prosper the decree of the
Senate in relation to the giving of women in wedlock, and the
matrimonial laws." Among the penalties imposed on men and women who
remained single between the ages of twenty and fifty years, was the
prohibition against attending public festivities and ceremonies of
state. The Senate, considering the extraordinary case of the _Ludi
Sæculares_, which none among the living had seen or would ever see
again, removes this prohibition. The second resolution provides for
the erection of two commemorative pillars, one of bronze, the other of
marble, upon which the official report of the celebration shall be
engraved. The bronze pillar is probably lost forever, but the marble
one is that recovered on the banks of the Tiber, September 20, 1890,
the inscription on which I am endeavoring to explain.
The celebration in the strict sense of the word began at the second
hour of the night of May 31. Sacrifices were offered to the Fates, on
altars erected between the Tarentum and the banks of the Tiber, where
S. Giovanni dei Fiorentini now stands; and the other ceremonies were
performed on a wooden stage which was illuminated by lights and fires.
This temporary theatre was not provided with seats, and the report
calls it "a stage without a theatre." In the performances of the next
day and in those of June 2 and 3, which took place on the Capitol and
the Palatine, the following order was observed in the ceremonial
pageant; first came Augustus as Emperor and Pontifex Maximus, next the
Consuls, the Senate, the Quindecemviri and other colleges of priests,
then followed the Vestal Virgins, and a group of one hundred and ten
matrons (as many as there were years in the _sæculum_) selected from
among the most exemplary _matres familiæ_ above twenty-five years of
age.
Twenty-seven boys and twenty-seven girls of patrician descent whose
parents were both living (_patrimi et matrimi_) were enlisted on June
3, to sing the hymn composed expressly by Horace. "Carmen composuit Q.
Horatius Flaccus," so the report says (line 149). The first stanzas of
the beautiful canticle were sung when the procession was marching from
the Temple of Apollo to that of Jupiter Capitolinus, the middle
portion on the Capitol, and the last on the way back to the Palatine.
The accompaniments were played by the orchestra and the trumpeters of
the official choir (_tibicines et fidicines qui sacris publicis præsto
sunt_). The wealth of magnificence and beauty which the Romans beheld
on the morning of June 3, 17 B. C., we can see as in a dream, but it
baffles description. Imagine the group of fifty-four young patricians
clad in snow-white tunics, crowned with flowers, and waving branches
of laurel, led by Horace down the Vicus Apollinis (the street which
led from the Summa Sacra Via to the house of Augustus on the
Palatine), and the Sacra Via, singing the praises of the immortal
gods:--
"Quibus septem placuere colles!"
During those days and nights Augustus gave evidence of a truly
remarkable strength of mind and body, never missing a ceremony, and
himself performing the sacrifices. Agrippa showed less power of
endurance than his friend and master. He appeared only in the daytime,
helping the emperor in addressing supplications to the gods, and in
immolating the victims.
ARA PACIS AUGUSTAE. Among the honors voted to Augustus by the Senate
in the year 13 B. C., on the occasion of his triumphal return from the
campaigns of Germany and Gaul, was the erection of a votive altar in
the Curia itself. Augustus refused it, but consented that an altar
should be raised in the Campus Martius and dedicated to Peace. Judging
from the fragments which have come down to us, this _ara_ was one of
the most exquisite artistic productions of the golden age of Augustus.
It stood in the centre of a triple square enclosure, on the west side
of the Via Flaminia, the site of the present Palazzo Fiano. Twice its
remains have been brought to light; once in 1554, when they were drawn
by Giovanni Colonna,[47] and again in 1859, when the present duke of
Fiano was rebuilding the southern wing of the palace on the Via in
Lucina. Of the panels and basreliefs found in 1554, some were removed
to the Villa Medici and inserted in the front of the casino, on the
garden side; others were transferred to Florence; those of 1859 have
been placed in the vestibule of the Palazzo Fiano. They are well worth
a visit.
[Illustration: The family of Augustus. Relief from the Ara Pacis, in
the Gallery of the Uffizi, Florence.]
ARA INCENDII NERONIANI. In the month of July, A. D. 65, half Rome was
destroyed by the fire of Nero. The citizens, overwhelmed by the
greatness of the calamity, and ignorant of its true cause, made a vow
for the annual celebration of expiatory sacrifices, on altars
expressly constructed for the purpose in each of the fourteen regions
of the metropolis. The vow was, however, forgotten until Domitian
claimed its fulfilment some twenty or twenty-five years later. One of
these altars, which adjoined Domitian's paternal house on the
Quirinal, has just been found near the church of S. Andrea del
Noviziato, in the foundations of the new "Ministero della Casa
Reale."
The altar, six metres long by three wide, built of travertine with a
coating of marble, stands in the middle of a paved area of
considerable size. The area is lined with stone cippi, placed at an
interval of two and a half metres from one another. The following
inscription has been found engraved on two of them: "This sacred area,
marked with stone cippi, and enclosed with a hedge, as well as the
altar which stands in the middle of it, was dedicated by the emperor
Domitian in consequence of an unfulfilled vow made by the citizens at
the time of the fire of Nero. The dedication is made subject to the
following rules: that no one shall be allowed to loiter, trade, build,
or plant trees or shrubs within the line of terminal stones; that on
August 23 of each year, the day of the Volkanalia, the magistrate
presiding over this sixth region shall sacrifice on this altar a red
calf and a pig; that he shall address to the gods the following prayer
(text missing)." The inscription has been read twice: once towards the
end of the fifteenth century, when the cippus containing it was
removed to S. Peter's and made use of in the new building, and again
in 1644, when Pope Barberini was laying the foundations of S. Andrea
al Quirinale, one of the most graceful and pleasing churches of modern
Rome.
* * * * *
Let us now turn our attention to more imposing structures. The first
temple in the excavation of which I took part was that of Jupiter
Optimus Maximus on the Capitoline Hill.[48] Its discovery was due more
to an intuition of the truth, than to actual recognition of existing
remains. On November 7, 1875, while digging for the foundation of the
new Rotunda in the garden which divides the Conservatori palace from
that of the Caffarellis,--the residence of the German ambassador,--our
workmen came upon a piece of a colossal fluted column of Pentelic
marble, lying on a platform of squared stones, which were laid without
mortar, in a decidedly archaic style. Were we in the presence of the
remains of the famous Capitolium, or of one of the smaller temples
within the Arx? To give this query a satisfactory answer, we must
remember that the Capitoline Hill had two summits, one containing the
citadel, or Arx, the other the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, the
Capitolium. Ancient writers never use the two names promiscuously, or
apply them indifferently to either summit or to the whole hill. The
name of the hill is the _Capitoline_; not the _Capitol_, which means
exclusively the portion occupied by the great temple. Suffice it to
quote Livy's evidence (vi. 20), _ne quis in Arce aut Capitolio
habitaret_, and also the passage of Aulus Gellius (v. 12) in which the
shrine of Vedjovis is placed between the Arx and the Capitolium.
For many generations topographers tried to discover which summit was
occupied by the citadel, and which by the temple. The Italian school,
save a few exceptions, had always identified the site of the
Aracoeli with that of the temple, the Caffarelli palace with that of
the citadel. The Germans upheld the opposite theory. In these
circumstances it is not surprising that the discovery made November
7, 1875, should have excited us; because we saw at once our chance of
settling the dispute, not theoretically, but with the evidence of
facts.
The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, designed by Tarquinius Priscus,
built by Tarquinius Superbus, and dedicated in 509 B. C. by the consul
M. Horatius Pulvillus, stood on a high platform 207½ feet long, by
192½ feet broad. The front of the edifice, ornamented with three
rows of columns, faced the south. The style of the architecture was
purely Etruscan, and the intercolumniations were so wide as to require
architraves of timber. The cella was divided into three sections, the
middle one of which was sacred to Jupiter, that on the right to
Minerva, that on the left to Juno Regina; the top of the pediment was
ornamented with a terra-cotta quadriga. Of the same material was the
statue of the god, with the face painted red, and the body dressed in
a _tunica palmata_ and a _toga picta_, the work of an Etruscan artist,
Turianus of Fregenæ.
In 386 B. C. it was found necessary to enlarge the platform in the
centre of which the temple stood; and as the hill was sloping, even
precipitous, on three sides, it was necessary to raise huge foundation
walls from the plain below to the level of the platform, a work
described by Pliny (xxxvi. 15, 24) as prodigious, and by Livy (vi. 4)
as one of the wonders of Rome.
On July 6, 83 B. C., four hundred and twenty-six years after its
dedication by Horatius Pulvillus, an unknown malefactor, taking
advantage of the abundance of timber used in the structure, set fire
to it, and utterly destroyed the sanctuary which for four centuries
had presided over the fates of the Roman Commonwealth. The incendiary,
less fortunate than Erostratos, remained unknown, the suspicions cast
at the time against Papirius Carbo, Scipio, Norbanus and Sulla
having proved groundless. He probably belonged to the faction of
Marius, because we know that Marius himself laid hands on the
half-charred ruins of the temple, and pillaged several thousand pounds
of gold.
[Illustration: _R. Lanciani del._
THE WESTERN SUMMIT OF THE CAPITOLINE HILL]
Sulla the dictator undertook the reconstruction of the Capitolium, for
which purpose he caused some columns of the temple of the Olympian
Jupiter to be removed from Athens to Rome. Sulla's work was continued
by Lutatius Catulus, and finished by Julius Cæsar in 46 B. C. A second
restoration took place in the year 9 B. C. under Augustus, a third A.
D. 74 under Vespasian, and the last in the year 82, under Domitian. It
was therefore evident that, if the temple had not been literally
obliterated since that time, its remains would show the
characteristics of the age of Domitian, who is known to have made use
of Pentelic marble in his reconstruction. We should also find these
remains in the middle of a platform of the time of the kings,
surrounded by foundation walls of the time of the republic. The
accompanying plan shows how perfectly the remains discovered on the
southwestern summit of the Capitoline Hill corresponded to this
theory.
The platform, in the shape of a parallelogram, 183 feet broad and a
few feet longer, is built of roughly squared blocks of _capellaccio_,
exactly like certain portions of the Servian walls. Its area and
height were reduced by one third, when the Caffarellis built their
palace, in 1680. A sketch taken at that time by Fabretti and published
in his volume "De Columna Trajana" shows that fourteen tiers of stone
have disappeared. A portion of the same platform, discovered in 1865,
by Herr Schloezer, Prussian minister to Pius IX., is represented on
the next page.
The foundation walls, which Pliny and Livy enumerate among the wonders
of Rome, have been, and are still being, discovered on the three
sides of the hill which face the Piazza della Consolazione, the Piazza
Montanara, and the Via di Torre de' Specchi. They are built of blocks
of red tufa, with facing of travertine. The travertine facing is
covered with inscriptions set up in honor of the great divinity of
Rome by the kings and nations of the whole world. One cannot read
these historical documents[49] without acquiring a new sense of the
magnitude and power of the city.
[Illustration: View of the Platform of the Temple of Jupiter.]
These inscriptions are found mostly at the foot of the substructure,
on the side towards the Piazza della Consolazione. The latest, found
in the foundations of the Palazzo Moroni, contain messages of
friendship and gratitude from kings Mithradates Philopator and
Mithradates Philadelphos, of Pontus, from Ariobarzanes Philoromæus of
Cappadocia and Athenais his queen, from the province of Lycia, from
some townships of the province of Caria, etc.
As for the remains of the temple itself, the colossal column
discovered November 7, 1875, in the Conservatori garden, is not the
only one saved from the wreck. Flaminio Vacca, the sculptor and
amateur-archæologist of the sixteenth century, says: "Upon the
Tarpeian Rock, behind the Palazzo de' Conservatori, several pillars of
Pentelic marble (_marmo statuale_) were lately found. Their capitals
are so enormous that out of one of them I have carved the lion now in
the Villa Medici. The others were used by Vincenzo de Rossi to carve
the prophets and other statues which adorn the chapel of cardinal Cesi
in the church of S. Maria della Pace. I believe the columns belonged
to the Temple of Jupiter. No fragments of the entablature were found:
but as the building was so close to the edge of the Tarpeian Rock, I
suspect they must have fallen into the plain."
The correctness of this surmise is shown not only by the discovery of
the dedicatory inscriptions, in the Piazza della Consolazione, just
alluded to, but also from what took place in 1780, when the duca Lante
della Rovere was excavating the foundations of a house, No. 13, Via
Montanera. The discoveries are described by Montagnani as "marble
entablatures of enormous size and beautiful workmanship, with festoons
and _bucranii_ in the frieze. No one took the trouble to sketch them;
they were destroyed on the spot. I have no doubt that they belonged to
the temple seen by Vacca on the Monte Tarpeo, one hundred and
eighty-six years ago."
All these indications, compared with the discovery of the platform,
the substructure, and the column of Pentelic marble in the
Conservatori garden, leave no doubt as to the real position of the
Temple of Jupiter. To that piece of marble we owe the opportunity and
the privilege of settling a dispute on Roman topography which had
lasted at least three centuries.
The temple, rebuilt by Domitian, stood uninjured till the middle of
the fifth century. In June, 455, the Vandals, under Genseric,
plundered the sanctuary, its statues were carried off to adorn the
African residence of the king, and half the roof was stripped of its
gilt bronze tiles. From that time the place was used as a stone-quarry
and lime-kiln to such an extent that only the solitary fragment of a
column remains on the spot to tell the long tale of destruction.
Another piece of Pentelic marble was found January 24, 1889, near the
Tullianum (S. Pietro in Carcere). It belongs to the top of a column,
and has the same number of flutings,--twenty-four. This fragment seems
to have been sawn on the spot to the desired length, seven feet, and
then dragged down the hill towards some stone-cutter's shop. Why it
was thus abandoned, half way, in a hollow or pit dug expressly for it,
there is nothing to show.
The Temple of Jupiter is represented in ancient monuments of the class
called pictorial reliefs. I have selected for my illustration one of
the panels from the triumphal arch of Marcus Aurelius, near S.
Martina, because it contains a good sketch of the reliefs of the
pediment, with Jupiter seated between Juno and Minerva. The temple
itself is most carelessly drawn, the number of columns being reduced
by one half, that is, from eight to four.[50]
[Illustration: PANEL FROM THE ARCH OF MARCUS AURELIUS]
There is one interesting feature of the Capitolium, which is not well
known among those who do not make a profession of archæology. It was
used as a place for advertising State acts, deeds, and documents, in
order that the public might take notice of them and be informed of
what was going on in the administrative, military, and political
departments. This fact is known from a clause appended to imperial
letters-patent by which veterans were honorably discharged from the
army or navy, and privileges bestowed on them in recognition of their
services. These deeds, known as _diplomata honestæ missionis_, were
engraved on bronze tablets shaped like the cover of a book, the
original of which was hung somewhere in the Capitolium, and a copy
taken by the veteran to his home. The originals are all gone, having
fallen the prey of the plunderers of bronze in Rome, but copies are
found in great numbers in every province of the Roman empire from
which men were drafted.[51] These copies end with the clause:--
"Transcribed (and compared or verified) from the original bronze
tablet which is hung in Rome, in the Capitolium"--and here follows the
designation of a special place of the Capitolium, such as,--
"On the right side of the shrine of the _Fides populi romani_"
(December 11, A. D. 52).
"On the left side of the _ædes Thensarum_" (July 2, A. D. 60).
"On the pedestal of the statue of Quintus Marcius Rex, behind the
temple of Jupiter" (June 15, 64).
"On the pedestal of the _ara gentis Iuliæ_, on the right side,
opposite the statue of Bacchus" (March 7, 71).
"On the vestibule, on the left wall, between the two archways" (May
21, 74).
"On the pedestal of the statue of Jupiter Africus" (December 2, 76).
"On the base of the column, on the inner side, near the statue of
Jupiter Africus" (September 5, 85).
"On the tribunal by the trophies of Germanicus, which are near the
shrine of the _Fides_" (May 15, 86).
Comparing these indications of localities with the dates of the
diplomas,--there are sixty-three in all,--it appears that they were
not hung at random, but in regular order from monument to monument,
until every available space was covered. In the year 93 there was not
an inch left, and the Capitol is mentioned no more as a place for
exhibiting or advertising the acts of Government. From that year they
were hung "_in muro post templum divi ad Minervam_," that is, behind
the modern church of S. Maria Liberatrice.
THE TEMPLE OF ISIS AND SERAPIS. In the spring of 1883, in surveying
the tract of ground between the Collegio Romano and the Baths of
Agrippa, formerly occupied by the Temple of Isis and Serapis, and in
collecting archæological information concerning it, I was struck by
the fact that, every time excavations were made on either side of the
Via di S. Ignazio for building or restoring the houses which line it,
remarkable specimens of Egyptian art had been brought to light. The
annals of discoveries begin with 1374, when the obelisk now in the
Piazza della Rotonda was found, under the apse of the church of S.
Maria sopra Minerva, together with the one now in the Villa Mattei von
Hoffman. In 1435, Eugenius IV. discovered the two lions of Nektaneb I.
which are now in the Vatican, and the two of black basalt now in the
Capitoline Museum. In 1440 the reclining figure of a river-god was
found and buried again. The Tiber of the Louvre and the Nile of the
Braccio Nuovo seem to have come to light during the pontificate of Leo
X.; at all events it was he who caused them to be removed to the
Vatican. In 1556 Giovanni Battista de Fabi found, and sold to cardinal
Farnese, the reclining statue of Oceanus now in Naples. In 1719 the
Isiac altar now in the Capitol was found under the Biblioteca
Casanatense. In 1858 Pietro Tranquilli, in restoring his house,--the
nearest to the apse of la Minerva,--came across the following-named
objects: a sphinx of green granite, the head of which is a portrait of
Queen Haths'epu, the oldest sister of Thothmes III., who was famous
for her expedition to the Red Sea, recently described by
Dümmichen;[52] a sphinx of red granite, believed to be a Roman
replica; a group of the cow Hathor, the living symbol of Isis, nursing
the young Pharaoh Horemheb; the portrait statue of the grand dignitary
Uahábra, a good specimen of Saïtic art; a column of the temple,
covered with high reliefs, which represented a procession of
bald-headed priests holding canopi in their hands; a capital, carved
with papyrus leaves and lotus flowers; and a fragment of an Egyptian
basrelief in red granite, with traces of polychromy.
In 1859 Augusto Silvestrelli, the owner of the next house, on the same
side of the Via di S. Ignazio, found five capitals of the same style
and size, which, I believe, are now in the Museo Etrusco Gregoriano.
Inasmuch as no excavation had ever been made under the pavement of the
street itself, which is public property, and as there was no reason
why that strip of public property should not contain as many works of
art as the houses about it, I asked the municipal authorities to try
the experiment, and my proposal was accepted at once.
The work began on Monday, June 11, 1883. It was difficult, because we
had to dig to a depth of twenty feet between houses of very doubtful
solidity. First to appear, at the end of the third day, was a
magnificent sphinx of black basalt, the portrait of King Amasis. It is
a masterpiece of the Saïtic school, perfected even in the smallest
details, and still more impressive for its historical connection with
the conquest of Egypt by Cambyses.
[Illustration: The Sphinx of Amasis.]
The cartouches bearing the king's name appear to have been purposely
erased, though not so completely as to render the name illegible. The
nose, likewise, and the _uræus_, the symbol of royalty, were hammered
away at the same time. The explanation of these facts is given by
Herodotos. When Cambyses conquered Saïs, Amasis had just been buried.
The conqueror caused the body to be dragged out of the royal tomb,
then flogged and otherwise insulted, and finally burnt, the maximum of
profanation, from an Egyptian point of view. His name was erased from
the monuments which bore it, as a natural consequence of the _memoriæ
damnatio_. This sphinx is the surviving testimonial of the eventful
catastrophe. When, six or seven centuries later, a Roman governor of
Egypt, or a Roman merchant from the same province, singled out this
work of art, to be shipped to Rome as a votive offering for the Temple
of Isis, ignorant of the historical value of its mutilations, he had
the nose and the _uræus_ carefully restored. Now both are gone again,
and there is no danger of a second restoration. I may remark, as a
curious coincidence, that, as the name of Amasis is erased from the
sphinx, so that of Hophries, his predecessor, is erased from the
obelisk discovered in the same temple, and now in the Piazza della
Minerva. In these two monuments of the Roman Iseum we possess a
synopsis of Egyptian history between 595 and 526 B. C.
[Illustration: Obelisk of Rameses the Great.]
The second work, discovered June 17, was an obelisk which was
wonderfully well preserved to the very top of the pinnacle, and
covered with hieroglyphics. It was quarried at Assuan, from a richly
colored vein of red granite, and was brought to Rome, probably under
Domitian, together with the obelisk now in the Piazza del Pantheon.
The two monoliths are almost identical in size and workmanship, and
are inscribed with the same cartouches of Rameses the Great. The one
which I discovered was set up, in 1887, to the memory of our brave
soldiers who fell at the battle of Dogali. The site selected for the
monument, the square between the railway station and the Baths of
Diocletian, is too large for such a comparatively small shaft.
Two days later, on the 19th, we discovered two _kynokephaloi_ or
_kerkopithekoi_, five feet high, carved in black porphyry. The
monsters are sitting on their hind legs, with the paws of the forearms
resting on the knees. Their bases contain finely-cut hieroglyphics,
with the cartouche of King Necthor-heb, of the thirtieth Sebennitic
dynasty. One of these _kynokephaloi_, and also the obelisk, were
certainly seen in 1719 by the masons who built the foundations of the
Biblioteca Casanatense. For some reason unknown to us, they kept their
discovery a secret. Many other works of art were discovered before the
close of the excavations, in the last days of June. Among them were a
crocodile in red granite, the pedestal of a candelabrum, triangular in
shape, with sphinxes at the corners; a column of the temple, with
reliefs representing an Isiac procession; and a portion of a capital.
From an architectural point of view, the most curious discovery was
that the temple itself, with its colonnades and double cella, had been
brought over, piece by piece, from the banks of the Nile to those of
the Tiber. It is not an imitation; it is a purely original Egyptian
structure, shaded first by the palm-trees of Saïs, and later by the
pines of the Campus Martius.
The earliest trustworthy account we have of its existence is given by
Flavius Josephus. He relates how Tiberius, after the assault of Mundus
against Paulina,[53] condemned the priests to crucifixion, burned the
shrine, and threw the statue of the goddess into the Tiber. Nero
restored the sanctuary; it was, however, destroyed again in the great
conflagration, A. D. 80. Domitian was the second restorer; Hadrian,
Commodus, Caracalla, and Alexander Severus improved and beautified the
group, from time to time. At the beginning of the fourth century of
our era it contained the _propylaia_, or pyramidal towers with a
gateway, at each end of the _dromos_; one near the present church of
S. Stefano del Cacco, one near the church of S. Macuto. They were
flanked by one or more pairs of obelisks, of which six have been
recovered up to the present time, namely, one now in the Piazza della
Rotonda, a second in the Piazza della Minerva, a third in the Villa
Mattei, a fourth in the Piazza della Stazione, a fifth in the
Sphæristerion at Urbino, and fragments of a sixth in the Albani
collection.
From the propylaia, a _dromos_, or sacred avenue, led to the double
temple. To the dromos belong the two lions in the Museo Etrusco
Gregoriano, the two lions in the Capitoline Museum, the sphinx of
Queen Hathsèpu in the Barracco collection, the sphinx of Amasis and
the Tranquilli sphinx in the Capitol, the cow Hathor and the statue of
Uahábra in the Museo Archeologico in Florence, the _kynokephaloi_ of
Necthor-heb, the _kynokephalos_ which gave the popular name of _Cacco_
(ape) to the church of S. Stefano, the statue formerly in the Ludovisi
Gallery, the Nile of the Braccio Nuovo, the Tiber of the Louvre, the
Oceanus at Naples, the River-God buried in 1440, the Isiac altars of
the Capitol and of the Louvre, the tripod, the crocodile and sundry
other fragments which were found in 1883. Of the temple itself we
possess two columns covered with mystic bas-reliefs, seven
capitals,--one in the Capitol, the others in the Vatican,--and two
blocks of granite from the walls of the cella, one in the Barberini
gardens, one in the Palazzo Galitzin.
The last historical mention we possess of this admirable Egyptian
museum of ancient Rome was found by Delille in the "Cod. Parisin."
8064, in which the attempt by Nicomachus Flavianus to revive the pagan
religion in 394 A. D. is minutely described.[54] The reaction caused
by this final outburst of fanaticism must have been fatal to the
temple. The masterpieces of the dromos were upset, and otherwise
damaged, the faces of the _kynokephaloi_ and the noses and paws of the
sphinxes were knocked off, and statues of Pharaohs, gods, priests,
dignitaries, and Pastophoroi were hurled from their pedestals, and
broken to pieces. When this wholesale destruction took place, the
pavement of the temple was still clear of the rubbish and loose soil.
The sphinx of Amasis, found June 14, was lying on its left side on the
bare pavement; the two apes had fallen on their backs. No attempt,
however, was made to overthrow the obelisks, at least the one which I
discovered. When the monolith fell, in the eighth or ninth century,
the floor of the Iseum was already covered with a bed of rubbish five
feet thick. To this fact we owe the wonderful preservation of the
obelisk, the soft, muddy condition of the soil having eased the weight
of the fall.
Students have wondered at the existence, in our time, of such a mine
of antiquities in this quarter of the Campus Martius, where it appears
as if, in spite of the feverish search for ancient marbles, this spot
had escaped the attention of the excavators of the past four or five
centuries. It did not escape their attention. The whole area of the
Iseum, save a few recesses, has been explored since the Middle Ages,
but the search was made to secure marble, which could be burnt into
lime, or turned into new shapes. Of what use would porphyry, or
granite, or basalt be for such purposes? These materials are useless
for the lime-kiln, and too hard to be worked anew, and accordingly
they were left alone. In the excavations of 1883 I found the best
evidence that such was the case. The obelisk is of granite; its
pedestal of white marble. The obelisk escaped destruction, but the
pedestal was split, and made ready for the lime-kiln.
THE TEMPLE OF NEPTUNE. The discoveries made in 1878 in the Piazza di
Pietra, on the site of the Temple of Neptune, rank next in importance
to those just described. In repairing a drain which runs through the
Via de' Bergamaschi to the Piazza di Pietra, the foundations of an
early mediæval church, dedicated to S. Stephen (Santo Stefano del
Trullo) were unearthed, together with historical inscriptions, pieces
of columns of _giallo antico_, and other architectural fragments. On a
closer examination of the discoveries, I was able to ascertain that
the whole church had been built with spoils from the triumphal arch of
Claudius in the Piazza di Sciarra, and from the Temple of Neptune in
the Piazza di Pietra. To enable the reader to appreciate the value of
the discovery, I must begin with a short description of the temple
itself.
Dio Cassius (liii. 27) states that, in 26 B. C., Marcus Agrippa built
the Portico of the Argonauts, with a temple in the middle of it,
called the Poseidonion ([Greek: POSEIDÔNION]), in token of his
gratitude to the god of the seas for the naval victories he had gained
over the foes of the commonwealth; but the beautiful ruins still
existing in the Piazza di Pietra do not belong to Agrippa's work, nor
to the golden age of Roman art. They belong to the restoration of the
temple which was made by Hadrian after the great fire of A. D. 80, by
which the Neptunium, or Poseidonion, was nearly destroyed. The
characteristic feature of the temple was a set of thirty-six
bas-reliefs representing the thirty-six provinces of the Roman Empire
at the beginning of the Christian era. These reliefs were set into the
basement of the temple, so as to form the pedestals of the thirty-six
columns of the peristyle, while the intercolumniations, or spaces
between the pedestals, were occupied by another set of bas-reliefs
representing the military uniforms, flags and weapons which were
peculiar to each of the provinces. The fifteen provinces and fourteen
trophies belonging to the colonnade of the Piazza di Pietra, that is,
to the north side of the temple, have all been accounted for. Four
provinces were found during the pontificate of Paul III. (1534-50),
two during that of Innocent X. (1644-55), two during that of Alexander
VII. (1655-1667), three in our excavations of 1878, and four either
are still in the ground or have perished in a lime-kiln. Here again we
have an instance of the shameful dispersion of the spoils of ancient
Rome. We have this wing of the temple still standing in all its glory,
in the Piazza di Pietra; we have eleven pedestals out of fifteen, and
as many panels for the intercolumniations; the others are _probably_
within our reach, and we have beautiful pieces of the entablature with
its rich carvings. The temple, entablature, and nearly all the
trophies and provinces are public property; nothing would be easier
than to restore each piece to its proper place, and make this wing of
the Neptunium one of the most perfect relics of ancient Rome. Alas!
three provinces and two trophies have emigrated to Naples with the
rest of the Farnese marbles, one has been left behind in the portico
of the Farnese palace in Rome, five provinces and four trophies are in
the Palazzo dei Conservatori, two are in the Palazzo Odescalchi, one
is in the Palazzo Altieri, two pieces of the entablature are used as
a rustic seat in the Giardino delle Tre Pile on the Capitol, and
another has been used in the restoration of the Arch of Constantine.
[Illustration: One of the Provinces from the Temple of Neptune.]
THE TEMPLE OF AUGUSTUS. It is a remarkable fact that, at the beginning
of archæological research in the Renaissance, there was great
enthusiasm over a few strange monuments of little or no interest, the
existence of which would have been altogether unknown but for an
occasional mention in classical texts. As a rule, the cinquecento
topographers give a prominent place in their books to the _columna
Mænia_, the _columna Lactaria_, the _senaculum mulierum_, the _pila
Tiburtina_, the _pila Horatia_ and other equally unimportant works
which, for reasons unknown to us, had forcibly struck their fancy. The
fashion died out in course of time, but never entirely. Some of these
more or less fanciful structures still live in our books, and in the
imagination of the people. The place of honor, in this line, belongs
to Caligula's bridge, which is supposed to have crossed the valley of
the Forum at a prodigious height, so as to enable the young monarch to
walk on a level from his Palatine house to the Temple of Jupiter on
the Capitol. This bridge is not only mentioned in guide-books, and
pointed out to strangers on their first visit to the Forum, but is
also drawn and described in works of a higher standard,[55] in which
the bridge is represented from "remains concealed under a house, which
have been carefully examined and measured, as well as drawn by
architectural draughtsmen of much experience."
The bridge never existed. Caligula made use of the roofs of edifices
which were already there, spanning only the gaps of the streets with
temporary wooden passages. This is clearly stated by Suetonius in
chapters xxii. and xxxvii. and by Flavius Josephus, "Antiq. Jud." xix.
1, 11. From the palace at the northeast corner of the Palatine, he
crossed the roof of the _templum divi Augusti_, then the _fastigium
basilicæ Juliæ_, and lastly the Temple of Saturn close to the
Capitolium. The Street of Victory which divided the emperor's palace
from the Temple of Augustus, the Street of the Tuscans which divided
the temple from the basilica, and the Vicus Iugarius between the
basilica and the Temple of Saturn, were but a few feet wide and could
easily be crossed by means of a _passerelle_. We are told by Suetonius
and Josephus how Caligula used sometimes to interrupt his aerial
promenade midway, and throw handfuls of gold from the roof of the
basilica to the crowd assembled below. I have mentioned this bridge
because the words of Suetonius, _supra templum divi Augusti ponte
transmisso_, gave me the first clew towards the identification of the
splendid ruins which tower just behind the church of S. Maria
Liberatrice, between it and the rotunda of S. Teodoro.
The position of Caligula's palace at the northeast corner of the
Palatine being well known, as also the site of the Basilica Julia, it
is evident that the building which stands between the two must be the
Temple of Augustus. This conclusion is so simple that I wonder that no
one had mentioned it before my first announcement in 1881. The last
nameless remains adjoining the Forum have thus regained their place
and their identity in the topography of this classic quarter.
[Illustration: Plan of the Temple of Augustus.]
[Illustration: Remains of the Temple of Augustus, from a sketch by
Ligorio.]
The construction of a temple in honor of the deified founder of the
empire was begun by his widow Livia, and Tiberius, his adopted son,
and completed by Caligula. An inscription discovered in 1726, in the
Columbaria of Livia on the Appian Way, mentions a C. Julius Bathyllus,
sacristan or keeper of the temple. Pliny (xii. 19, 42) describes,
among the curiosities of the place, a root of a cinnamon-tree, of
extraordinary size, placed by Livia on a golden tray. The relic was
destroyed by fire in the reign of Titus. Domitian must have restored
the building, because the rear wall of the temple, the _murus post
templum divi Augusti ad Minervam_, is mentioned in contemporary
documents as the place on which state notices were posted. It has been
excavated but once, in June, 1549, when the Forum, the Sacra Via and
the Street of the Tuscans were ransacked to supply marbles and lime
for the building of S. Peter's. Two documents show the wonderful state
of preservation in which the temple was found. One is a sketch, taken
in 1549, by Pirro Ligorio, which, through the kindness of Professor T.
H. Middleton,[56] I reproduce from the original, in the Bodleian
Library; the other is a description of the discovery by Panvinius.[57]
The place was in such good condition that even the statue and altar
of Vortumnus, described by Livy, Asconius, Varro and others, were
found lying at the foot of the steps of the temple.
THE SACELLUM SANCI, or Shrine of Sancus on the Quirinal.[58] The
worship of _Semo Sancus Sanctus Dius Fidius_ was imported into Rome at
a very early period, by the Sabines who first colonized the Quirinal
Hill. He was considered the Genius of heavenly light, the son of
Jupiter _Diespiter_ or _Lucetius_, the avenger of dishonesty, the
upholder of truth and good faith, whose mission upon earth was to
secure the sanctity of agreements, of matrimony, and hospitality.
Hence his various names and his identification with the Roman
Hercules, who was likewise invoked as a guardian of the sanctity of
oaths (_me-Hercle_, _me-Dius Fidius_). There were two shrines of Semo
Sancus in ancient Rome, one built by the Sabines on the Quirinal, near
the modern church of S. Silvestro, from which the _Porta Sanqualis_ of
the Servian walls was named, the other built by the Romans on the
Island of the Tiber (S. Bartolomeo) near the Temple of Jupiter
Jurarius. Justin, the apologist and martyr, laboring under the
delusion that Semo Sancus and Simon the Magician were the same,
describes the altar on the island of S. Bartolomeo as sacred to the
latter.[59] He must have glanced hurriedly at the first three names of
the Sabine god,--SEMONI SANCO DEO,--and translated them [Greek: SIMÔNI
DEÔ SANKTÔ]. The altar on which these names were written, the very one
seen and described by S. Justin, was discovered on the same island, in
July, 1574, during the pontificate of Gregory XIII. The altar is
preserved in the Galleria Lapidaria of the Vatican Museum, in the
first compartment (_Dii_).
The shrine on the Quirinal is minutely described by classical writers.
It was hypæthral, that is, without a roof, so that the sky could be
seen by the worshippers of the "Genius of heavenly light." The oath
_me-Dius Fidius_ could not be taken except in the open air. The chapel
contained relics of the kingly period, the wool, distaff, spindle, and
slippers of Tanaquil, and brass _clypea_ or medallions, made of money
confiscated from Vitruvius Vaccus.
[Illustration: Statue of Semo Sancus.]
Its foundations were discovered in March, 1881, under what was
formerly the convent of S. Silvestro al Quirinale, now the
headquarters of the Royal Engineers. The monument is a parallelogram
in shape, thirty-five feet long by nineteen feet wide, with walls of
travertine, and decorations of white marble; and it is surrounded by
votive altars and pedestals of statues. I am not sure whether the
remarkable work of art which I shall describe presently was found in
this very place, but it is a strange coincidence that, during the
progress of the excavations at S. Silvestro, a statue of Semo Sancus
and a pedestal inscribed with his name should have appeared in the
antiquarian market of the city.
The statue, reproduced here from a heliogravure, is life-sized, and
represents a nude youth, of archaic type. His attitude may be compared
to that of some early representations of Apollo, but the expression of
the face and the modelling of some parts of the body are realistic
rather than conventional. Both hands are missing, so that it is
impossible to state what were the attributes of the god. Visconti
thinks they may have been the _avis Sanqualis_ or _ossifraga_, and the
club of Hercules. The inscription on the pedestal is very much like
that seen by S. Justin:--
SEMONI. SANCO. DEO. FIDIO. SACRUM. DECURIA. SACERDOT[UM] BIDENTALIUM.
According to Festus, _bidentalia_ were small shrines of second-rate
divinities, to whom _bidentes_, lambs two years old, were sacrificed.
For this reason the priests of Semo were called _sacerdotes
bidentales_. They were organized, like a lay corporation, in a
_decuria_ under the presidency of a _magister quinquennalis_. Their
residence, adjoining the chapel, was ample and commodious, with an
abundant supply of water. The lead pipe by which this was distributed
through the establishment was discovered at the same time and in the
same place with the bronze statues of athletes described in chapter
xi. of my "Ancient Rome."
The pipe has been removed to the Capitoline Museum, the statue and its
pedestal have been purchased by Pope Leo XIII. and placed in the
Galleria dei Candelabri, and the foundations of the shrine have been
destroyed.
FOOTNOTES:
[34] On the almanacs (_Notitia, Curiosum_), containing catalogues and
statistics of Roman buildings in the fourth century, see Mommsen:
_Chronograph von 354_, etc., in the _Abhandlungen der Sächsischen
Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften_, vols. ii. 549; iii. 269; viii.
694.--Preller: _Die Regionen der Stadt Rom_. Jena: Hochhausen,
1846.--Jordan: _Topographie der Stadt Rom_. Berlin: Weidmann, ii., pp.
1 & 178.--Richter: _Topographie der Stadt Rom_, 1889, p. 5; id.:
_Hermes_, xx., p. 91.--De Rossi: _Piante iconografiche e prospettiche
di Roma anteriori al sec. XVI_. Roma: Salviucci, 1879.--Guido: _Il
testo siriaco della descrizione di Roma_, etc., in the _Bullettino
Comunale_, 1884, p. 218; and 1891, p. 61.--Lanciani: _Ricerche sulle
XIV regioni urbane_; in the _Bullettino comunale_, 1890, p. 115.
[35] _Inscript._ 139, i.
[36] The fac-simile here presented is from the _Corpus Inscriptionum
Latinarum_, vi. 820.
[37] The sale of skins of victims sacrificed at Athens in the year 334
B. C., in state sacrifices only, brought a revenue of 5,500 drachmas.
[38] See Henzen, _Bullettino dell' Instituto_, 1863, p. 58.--Mommsen:
_Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, vol. i. no. 1503.
[39] See Cicero: _De Divinatione_, ii. 59, 123.--Preller: _Die
Regionen_, p. 133.--Nibby: _Roma Ant._, ii. p. 334.--Beckner:
_Topogr._, p. 539.--Cavedoni: _Bull. dell' Inst._ 1856, p.
102.--Visconti: _Bullettino Comunale_, 1887, p. 154, 156.--Middleton:
_The Remains of Ancient Rome_, ed. 1892, vol. ii. p. 233.
[40] Concerning this celebrated monument, see Tambroni and Poletti:
_Giornale arcadico_, vol. xviii., 1823, p. 371-400.--Gell: _Rome and
its Vicinity_, i. p. 219.--Klausen: _Æneas_, ii. p. 1083.--Canina:
_Via Appia_, i. p. 209-232.--Mommsen: _Corpus Inscriptionum
Latinarum_, vol. i. p. 207, no. 807.
[41] Pliny, _N. H._, x. 29, 41.
[42] A copy of this celebrated picture, dating from the second century
B. C., has been found in a tomb on the Esquiline. It was published in
facsimile and illustrated by Visconti in the _Bullettino Comunale_,
1889, p. 340, tav. xi.-xii.
[43] See the _Annali dell' Instituto_, 1854, p. 28.
[44] The convent and its garden occupy the sites of the house of
Augustus, the temples of Vesta and Apollo, the Greek and Latin
libraries, and the Portico of the Danaids, described in _Ancient
Rome_, ch. v., p. 109. The estate has been owned successively by the
Mattei, Spada, and Ronconi families, and by Charles Mills. Its finest
ornament is a portico built by the Matteis in the sixteenth century
from the designs of Raffaellino del Colle. This pupil of Raphael was
also the painter of the exquisite frescoes representing Venus and
Cupid, Jupiter and Antiope, Hermaphrodite and Salmace, and other
subjects engraved by Marcantonio and Agostino Veneziano. These
frescoes, greatly injured by age and neglect, were restored in 1824,
by Camuccini, at the expense of Mr. Charles Mills.
[45] See Lanciani: _L' itinerario di Einsiedlen_, in the _Monumenti
antichi pubblicati dalla Accademia dei Lincei._ 1891.
[46] This inscription is of such exceptional interest that it is
given, as edited by Mommsen, at the close of this volume.
[47] _Codex Vatic._ 7,721, f. 67.
[48] See Rycquius: _De Capitolio romano_. Leyden, 1669.--Bunsen:
_Beschreibung der Stadt Rom_, iii. A, p. 14.--Hirt: _Der
capitolinische Jupitertempel_, in the _Abhandlungen der Berliner
Akademie_, 1813.--Dureau de la Malle: _Mémoire sur la position de la
roche tarpeienne_, in the _Mémoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions_,
1819.--Niebuhr: _Römische Geschichte_, i. 5,588.--Mommsen: _Bullettino
dell' Instituto_, 1845, p. 119.--Lanciani: _Il tempio di Giove Ottimo
Massimo_, in the _Bullettino comunale_, 1875, p. 165, tav.
xvi.--Jordan: _Osservazioni sul_ _tempio di Giove Capitolino_. Lettera
al sig. cav. R. Lanciani, Roma, 1876.--Hülsen: _Osservazioni sull'
architettura del tempio di Giove Capitolino_, in the _Mittheilungen
des deutschen archäologischen Instituts, römische Abtheilung_, 1888,
p. 150.--Audollent: _Dessin inédit d'un fronton du temple de Jupiter
Capitolin_, in the _Mélanges de l'Ecole française_, 1889, Juin.
[49] See _Bullettino Comunale_, 1886, p. 403; 1887, p. 14, 124, 251;
1888, p. 138.--Mommsen: _Zeitschrift für Numismatik_, xv. p. 207-219.
[50] The same illustration has been selected by Middleton: _The
Remains of Ancient Rome_, vol. i. p. 363.--The reliefs of the pediment
are also well shown in a sketch by Pierre Jacques, dated 1576, and
published by Audollent in the _Mélanges_, 1889, planche ii.
[51] See Clemente Cardinati: _Diplomi imperiali di privilegi_.
Velletri, 1835.--Joseph Arneth: _Zwölf römische Militärdiplome_, Wien,
1843.--Mommsen: _Bullettino dell' Instituto_, 1845, p. 119; _Annali
dell' Instituto_, 1858, p. 198; _Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, vol.
iii. part ii. p. 843.--Léon Rénier: _Récueil des diplomes militaires_,
première livraison, Paris, 1876.
[52] _Die Flotte einer ägyptischen Königin aus dem siebzehnten
Jahrhundert._
[53] See Flavius Josephus, _Ant. Ind._, xviii. 4.
[54] See Morel: _Révue Archéologique_, 1868.--De Rossi: _Bullettino di
archeologia cristiana_, 1868.
[55] See Parker's _Forum Romanum_, London, 1876, plates xxiii. and
xxiv.
[56] It has since been published by Middleton himself in his _Remains
of Ancient Rome_, vol. i. p. 275, fig. 35, from a heliogravure of the
original.
[57] In the _Cod. Vat._, 3,439, f. 46.
[58] See Dressel: _Bullettino dell' Instituto_, 1881, p.
38.--Lanciani: _Bullettino Comunale_, 1881, p. 4.--Visconti: _Un
simulacro di Semo Sancus_, Roma, 1881.--Preller: _Römische
Mythologie_, p. 637.
[59] _Apolog._ 26.