Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/317

EXPLORATIONS IN ROME. ^OD been alread}^ found on three sides of the <irx or citadel of the Palatine called Roma Quadrata, and on both sides of the great fosse across the middle of the hill, the bottom of M'hich ^'as on the same level, or nearly so, as the Summa Via Sacra, on which the arch of Titns stands. This temple is the earliest in Rome, and can hardly be any other than the temple of Jupiter Feretrius, built by Romulus in the year 4 of Rome. There are also remains of a gi-and flight of steps reaching up to this temple from the western side, built of the same large blocks of tufa, and of the same early construction. This must be the Scala Caci, or steps of Cacus, mentioned as amongst the earliest con- structions in Rome, the situation agreeing exactly with the notice we have of it. This temple is recorded by Livy to have been built in capitolio, which has been understood to mean on the Capitoline Hill ; but the Hill of Saturn, at that time, was in possession of the Sabincs, the union of the two hills not having taken place until some years after that date. This discovery led me to investigate the history of the temple of Jupiter Capitulinus, and I have ai'rived at the conclusion that it must be the temple excavated by Bunsen some years since (in the garden of the Prussian Embassy), which is pre- cisely on the top of the Tarpeian rock, or that part of the Hill of Saturn that was used for a place of public execution. This temple is recorded to have been built in that situation by the two Tarquins, to commemorate the conquest of Gabii ; and it was a place of importance. The temple itself is small, as they usually were ; but it stood in a large space which was surrounded l)y a portico or arcade, of which we have the back wall only. The arches and decorations were })robably of wood Hiwdi bronze, according to the fashion of that period, and have long since disappeared. But the large space enclosed in the heart of the city and of the citadel indicates a place of importance. The building material both of the temple and of the wall of the porticus, is stone from the quarries of Gabii, and it is the earliest instance in Rome of the use of that stone. The next important discovery on the Palatine is the great reservoir for water for the house previously discovered, and which I believe to be the house of Hortensius, purchased by Augustus, ami inhabited by him for forty years, as we are tuld by Suetonius. This house was that of an ordinary VOL. ..ix. o o