marble, cover a great part of the top of the hill. These and other parts of the Palatine were supplied with water by an aqueduct built by Nero, in continuation of the Claudian aqueduct, some arches of which still exist on the slope of the Palatine (“Aqua Claudia” on Plan) (see Spart. Sept. Sev. 24). One of the main roads up to the Palatine passes under the arched substructures of Severus, and near this, at the foot of the hill, at the south angle, Septimius Severus built an outlying part of his palace, a building of great splendour called the Septizodium,[1] or House of the Seven Planets. Part of the Septizodium existed as late as the reign of Sixtus V. (1585-90), who destroyed it in order to use its marble decorations and columns in the new basilica of St Peter; drawings of it are given by Du Pérac, Vestigj di Roma (1575), pl. 13, and in other works of that century.[2]
The name Palatium seems to have originally denoted the southern height of the Palatine hill, while the summit overlooking the Velabrum Vella and Cermalus. was called Cermalus, and the saddle connecting the Palatine and the Esquiline on which the temple of Venus and Rome and the arch of Titus now stand bore the name Velia.[3] It is evident that this was once higher than it is now; a great part of it was cut away when the level platform for the temple of Venus and Rome was formed. The foundations of part of Nero's palace along the road between this temple and the Esquiline are exposed for about 20 to 30 ft. in height, showing a corresponding lowering of the level here, and the bare tufa rock, cut to a flat surface, is visible on the site of Hadrian's great temple; that the Velia was once much loftier is also indicated by the story of the removal of Valerius Publicola's dwelling.[4]
The arch of Titus, erected in memory of that emperor's subjugation of the Jews, but not completed until after his death, Arch of Titus. stands at the point where the Sacra Via crosses the Velia; it is possible that it once stood farther to the east and was removed to its present position when the temple of Venus and Rome was built. The well-known reliefs of the archway depict the Jewish triumph and the spoils of the Temple. In the middle ages the arch was converted into a fortress by the Frangipani; their additions were removed and the arch restored in its present shape in 1821.
On the Velia and the adjoining Summa Sacra Via were the temples
of the Lares and Penates which Augustus rebuilt.[5] The “Aedes
Sacra Via.
Temple of Jupiter Stator.
Temple of Victory.
Larum” is probably distindt from the “Sacellum Larum”
mentioned by Tacitus (Ann. xii. 24) as one of the points
in the line of the original pomerium. The temple of
Jupiter Stator, traditionally vowed by Romulus during his repulse
by the Sabines (Liv. i. 12), stood near the Porta Mugonia,
and therefore near the road leading up to the Palatine
Sacra Via.[6] To the south-east of the arch of Titus (see
Plan) are the remains of a concrete podium which may
have belonged to this temple in its latest form; and Comm. Boni
discovered (in 1907) some early tufa walling, close to the above-named
arch in which he recognized the foundations of the early
temple. Augustus rebuilt the temple of Victory, which
gave its name to the Clivus Victoriae; this temple stood
on the site of a prehistoric altar (Dionys. i. 32), and was
more than once rebuilt,—e.g. by L. Postumius, 294 B.C. (Liv. x. 33).
In 193 B.C. an aedicula to Victory was built near it by M. Porcius
Cato (Liv. xxxv. 9). Remains of the temple and a dedicatory
inscription were found in 1728[7] not far from the church of
S. Teodoro; the temple was of Parian marble, with Corinthian
columns of Numidian giallo antico. The Sacra Via started at the
Sacellum Streniae, an unknown point on the Esquiline, probably
in the valley of the Colosseum (Varro, L.L. v. 47), in the quarter
called Cerolia. Thence it probably (in later times) passed round
part of the Colosseum to the slope leading up to the arch of Titus
on the Velia; this piece of its course is lined on one side by remains
of private houses, and farther back, against the cliff of the Palatine,
are the substructures of the Area Apollinis. From the arch of
Titus or Summa Sacra Via the original line of the road has been
altered, probably when the temple of Venus and Rome was built
by Hadrian. Its later course passed at a sharp angle from the arch
of Titus to the front of Constantine's basilica, and on past the
temple of Faustina. It is uncertain whether the continuation of
this road to the arch of Severus was in later times called the Sacra
Via or whether it rejoined its old line along the Basilica Julia by
the cross-road in front of the Aedes Julii. Its original line past
the temple of Vesta was completely built over in the 3rd and 4th
centuries, and clumsily fitted pavements of marble and travertine
occupy the place of the old basalt blocks.[8] The course of the
Nova Via[9] (see Plan) along, the north-east slope of the Palatine[10]
was exposed in 1882-84. According to Varro (L.L. vi. 59) it was a
very old road. It led up from the Velabrum, probably winding
along the slope of the Palatine, round the north angle above the
church of S. Maria Antiqua. The rest of its course, gently ascending
towards the arch of Titus, is now exposed, as are also the stairs
which connected it with the Clivus Victoriae at the northern angle
of the Palatine; a continuation of these stairs led down to the
Forum.[11]
The extent of the once marshy Velabrum (Gr. Ϝέλος) is not known, though part of its site is indicated by the church of S. Giorgio in Velabro; Varro (L.L. vi. 24) says, “extra urbem antiquam fuit; non longe a porta Romanula.” It was a district full of shops (Plaut. Capt. 489; Hor. Sat. ii. 3, 30). The Vicus Tuscus on its course from the Forum to the Circus skirted the Velabrum (Dionys. v. 26), from which the goldsmiths' arch was an entrance into the Forum Boarium.
From the S.W. end of the Velabrum the Clivus Victoriae rose in a gradual ascent along the slope of the Palatine and ultimately wound round the northern angle.
Capitoline Hill[12]
The Capitoline hill, once called Mons Saturnius (Varro, L.L. v. 42), consists of two peaks, the Capitolium and the Arx,[13] with an intermediate valley (Asylum). The older name of the Capitolium was Mons Tarpeius (Varro, L.L. v. 41). Livy (i. 10) mentions the founding of a shrine to Jupiter Feretrius on the Capitolium by Romulus;[14] this summit was afterwards occupied Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. by the great triple temple dedicated to Jupiter, Juno and Minerva, a triad of deities worshipped under the names of Tinia, Thalna and Menerva in every Etruscan city. This great temple was (Liv. i. 38, 53) founded by Tarquin I., built by his son Tarquin II., and dedicated by M. Horatius Pulvillus, consul suffectus in 509 B.C.[15] It was built in the Etruscan style, of peperino stuccoed and painted (Vitr. iii. 3), with wooden architraves, wide intercolumniations and painted terra-cotta statues.[16] It was rebuilt many times; the original temple lasted till it was burnt in 83 B.C.; it was then refounded in marble by Sulla, with Corinthian columns stolen from the temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens (Plin. xxxvi. 4, 5), and was completed and dedicated by Q. Lutatius Catulus, whose name appeared on the front. Augustus, although he restored it at great expense (Mon. Anc. 4, 9), did not introduce his name by the side of that of Catulus. It was again burnt by the Vitellian rioters in A.D. 70, and rebuilt by Vespasian in 71.[17] Lastly, it was burnt in the three days' fire of Titus's reign[18] and rebuilt with columns of Pentelic marble by Domitian; the gilding alone of this last rebuilding is said to have cost 2½ millions sterling (Plut. Publ. 15). Extensive substructures of tufa have been exposed on the eastern peak; in 1875 a fragment of a fluted column was found, of such great size that it could only have belonged to the temple of Jupiter; and a few other architectural fragments have been discovered at different times. The western limit of the temple was determined in 1865, its eastern limit in 1875, and the S.E. angle in 1896.
- ↑ The form Septizonium is also found.
- ↑ See Huelsen, Das Septizonium des Septimius Severus (Berlin, 1886); Maass, Die Tagesgötter in Rom und den Provinzen (Berlin, 1902).
- ↑ “Huic (Palatio) Germalum et Velias conjunxerunt . . . Germalum a germanis Romulo et Remo, quod ad ficum Ruminalem ibi inventi” (Varro, L.L. v. 54).
- ↑ Liv. ii. 7; Cic. Rep. ii. 31; see also Ascon. Ad Cic. in Pis. 52.
- ↑ AEDEM . LARVM . IN . SVMMA . SACRA . VIA . AEDEM . DEVM . PENATIVM . IN . VELIA . . . FECI (Mon. Anc.).
- ↑ Dionys. ii. 50; see also Plut. Cic., 16; Ov. Fast. vi. 793, and Trist. iii. i. 131. Near this temple, and also near the Porta Mugonia, was the house of Tarquinius Priscus (Liv. i. 41; Solin. i. 24). Owing to the strength of its position this temple was more than once selected during troubled times as a safe meeting-place for the Senate; it was here, as being a “locus munitissimus,” that Cicero delivered his First Catiline Oration (see Cic. In Cat. i. 1).
- ↑ See Bianchini, Pal. dei Cesari (1738), p. 236, pl. viii.
- ↑ See Jordan, Topographie der Stadt Rom. i. 2. 274-91.
- ↑ See Solinus (i. 24) and Varro (ap. Gell. xvi. 17), who mention its two ends, summa and infima (cf. Liv. v. 32).
- ↑ See Not. d. Scavi (1882), p. 234. Original level laid bare, 1904.
- ↑ See marble plan on Plate VII. and cf. Ov. Fast. vi. 395.
- ↑ See Rodocanachi, Le Cagitole romain (1903; Eng. trans., 1906).
- ↑ The first-named was the southern, the second the northern summit.
- ↑ This is the earliest temple mentioned in Roman history. It was rebuilt by Augustus (Mon. Anc. 4, 5).
- ↑ See Plut. Publ. 14; C. I. L. i. p. 487; Liv. ii. 8. Dionys. v. 35 wrongly gives 507 B.C.
- ↑ Plin. xxxv. 157; see Tac. Hist. iii. 72; Val. Max. v. 10.
- ↑ Suet. Vit. 15, and Vesp. 8; cf. Tac. Hist. iv. 53, and Dio Cass. lxvi. 10.
- ↑ Suet. Dom. 5; Dio Cass. lxvi. 24.
