Читать книгу Old Rome: A Handbook to the Ruins of the City and the Campagna - Burn Robert - Страница 8

Table of Contents

THE FORUM ROMANUM.

Temple of Castor.

At a short distance from the entrance to the Palatine we can enter the Forum near the ruins of an ancient temple, three columns of which are still standing. These three columns are among the most conspicuous and beautiful remains of ancient Rome. No doubt can now be felt that they belonged to the Temple of Castor and Pollux. The situation agrees with that which is pointed out by the Ancyræan inscription, and by the fact that Caligula made a passage from the Palatine Palace to this temple.

The substructions of this building have been cleared, and the length and breadth of the basement and of the steps forming the approach can now be clearly seen. The three columns belonged to the central part of the south-eastern side. They are of most elegant proportions, and their capitals, architrave and frieze are ornamented with decorative work of the very best period of Græco-Roman architecture. The designs on the entablature are most delicate and perfect, and well repay a minute examination. Besides the usual ornaments upon the cornice and corbels there is along the upper edge a row of beautiful lions’ heads, through which the rain-water ran off.

The temple had evidently eight columns in front, and eleven side columns, reckoning in the corner column. The approach was raised high above the forum level, and has three steps projecting beyond the line of the next building, the Basilica Julia. The lines of the front steps are preserved, and also those of the side towards the Capitol, while the other side has been destroyed. The pavement in front of this has been miserably altered and mended at a late date, probably after the fourth century.

Larger Image

The capitals when compared with the earlier Corinthian capitals of the Pantheon, show a longer and narrower type which is also found at the Temple of Vespasian and the peristyle of Nerva’s Forum, the Colonacce. The lower foundations of the basement are of old tufa rubble construction, and possibly belong to the date of the original foundations in B.C. 494 by the dictator Aulus Postumius, who vowed to build it at the battle of the Lake Regillus in the Latin war. It was afterwards dedicated by his son in B.C. 484. Two restorations are mentioned, the first executed by L. Metellus Dalmaticus, consul in B.C. 119, and the second by Drusus and Tiberius in A.D. 6. The temple was used for meetings of the senate, for harangues from its steps to the people in the forum, and for holding courts of law. A register of changes in the value of money was kept in the tabularium of the temple, and deposits were made here as in many other temples.[41] Standing as the old temple did near the veteres tabernæ of the forum, and the newer restorations of them near the Basilica Julia, it was convenient for business transactions. On the north-west side a street pavement leading to the Velabrum has been laid bare, which may be that of the Vicus Tuscus.

Puteal.

Descending from the Temple of Castor to the ancient pavement of the Forum Romanum, we find at the north-eastern corner of the ruin the remains of a puteal or well-house which has naturally been supposed to be the fountain of Juturna from its neighbourhood to the Temple of the Twin Brethren, who are said to have given their horses drink there after the battle of Regillus.

Temple of Vesta.

A little farther to the south the basement of a round building is to be seen, which may very probably have been the ancient Temple of Vesta. This was a round building, as we conclude from Ovid and Plutarch’s notices, and was intended by Numa, the first founder, to denote the spherical shape of the earth which Vesta personified, or the original family hearth.[42]

Chapel of Julius Cæsar.

In front of the Temple of Castor a large block of substructions has been cleared, which is with great probability assigned to the chapel built in honour of Julius Cæsar, and called the Heroon of Cæsar. Ovid’s lines, in one of his letters from Pontus—

“Like the twin brethren whom in their abode

Julius, the god, beholds from his high shrine,”

seem to prove that the heroon was in front of that temple. The body of Cæsar was burnt in front of the regia and Temple of Vesta, which were at this end of the Forum, and the heroon was placed on the spot where it was burnt. The remains of two small staircases were found at the sides of the heroon, and a wider staircase in front. The epithet “high,” given by Ovid to its position, seems to be in accordance with the raised basement. The semicircle of masonry on the north side has not been satisfactorily explained. It is usually supposed to have belonged to the Julian rostra, but its shape is not such as to support this idea.

Temple of Antoninus and Faustina.

To the north-east of the heroon of Julius Cæsar, we find the ancient pavement of the road which ran along the north-eastern side of the Forum, and to this road descend the steps of a temple with a conspicuous row of six cipollino columns, and with two columns and a pilaster besides the corner column on each side. These columns have Attic bases and Corinthian capitals of white marble. The inscription upon the plain architrave in front shows that the temple was first dedicated to Faustina alone, and that the first three words, including the emperor’s name, were added after his death. The Faustina here commemorated was probably the elder Faustina, wife of Antoninus Pius, as a representation at this temple is given on one of the medals struck in her honour.[43] She died in A.D. 141, and Antoninus Pius in 161. The frieze of the temple is ornamented at the sides with a bold and finely-executed relief representing griffins with upraised wings, between which are carved elaborately-designed candelabra and vases. A considerable part of the side walls of grey peperino blocks anciently faced with marble is still standing. A church was built here at a very early time, but the present building which forms a strange contrast in the meanness of its style and proportions to the massive grandeur of the grey old ruin which embraces it, was built in 1602 by the guild of the Roman apothecaries.[44]

Extent of the Forum.

Seven brick pedestals.

Column of Phocas.

We now pass along the ancient stone pavement towards the Capitol, and observe how small the space occupied by the ancient Forum Romanum was. The temple we have just left stood in the north-eastern corner, and the columns of the two temples opposite to us on the slope of the Capitol mark the other end of the Forum. The central pavement now laid bare is of travertine flags, while the roads are marked by basaltic blocks. On the side of the central space runs a row of seven large masses of brickwork, which seem to be the bases of pedestals which supported dedicatory columns, or statues similar to the one still standing at the end, which has become known to English travellers as “the nameless column with the buried base” of Byron. Since Byron’s time the base of this has been unburied, and bears the name of Smaragdus, proclaimed exarch of Italy for the eleventh time,[45] who erected it in honour of the Emperor Phocas. The date is given by the words INDICT. UND., which show that Smaragdus was in his eleventh year as exarch, and we know that he was exarch under Mauricius for five years, A.D. 583-588, and six years under Phocas, A.D. 602-608. His eleventh year would thus be in 608, and this was the fifth year of Phocas’ reign, so that the last words of the inscription confirm the explanation given of the previous words INDICT. UND.[46] “P. C.” in the inscription probably mean, as Clinton explains, post consulatum, which was the way of reckoning in the later years of the Eastern Empire.

Pedestal of equestrian statue.

In the centre of the Forum traces of the base of a large pedestal can be discerned, and this is supposed to have been the position of the equestrian statue of Domitian described at length by Statius, who says in the first poem of his ‘Silvæ’ that an equestrian statue of Domitian stood at the north-western end of the Forum, looking towards the other end. It was a triumphal statue erected in honour of Domitian’s campaigns against the Catti and Daci. The poet describes its position very accurately, mentioning the Heroon of Julius Cæsar which faced it, the Basilica Julia on the right, the Basilica Paulli on the left, and the temples of Concord and Vespasian behind. The Temple of Saturn is omitted for some unknown reason. Statius also alludes to some other principal objects in the Forum, the Temple of Vesta, the Temple of Castor, and the statue of Curtius. He concludes with prophesying that the statue will outlast the eternal city.[47] It seems, however, probable, as Mr. Nichols in his admirable book on the Forum has said, that the statue was removed after Domitian’s death, when his memory was execrated, or was dedicated to a succeeding emperor, and that the statement of Herodian about the dream of Severus, who imagined that he saw an equestrian statue in the Forum, a colossal representation of which remained there in the historian’s time, may refer to this pedestal.[48]

Trajan’s bas-reliefs.

Two of the most interesting monuments which have been brought to light by the recent excavations in Rome were discovered in 1872, near the base of the column of Phocas, where they have been re-erected. They consist of marble slabs, sculptured with bas-reliefs and forming low screens. Each screen is constructed of slabs of unequal size, and some of these have been unfortunately lost. Their original position has been restored as nearly as possible, and they stand parallel to each other in a line crossing the area of the Forum. On the inner sides of both of these sculptured screens, the sacrificial animals, the boar, sheep and bull, always offered up at the Suovetaurilia, are represented.

The other sides, which are turned outwards, represent scenes in the Forum, and are commemorative of some public benefaction of one of the emperors, probably Trajan or Hadrian. On one of them Italia is represented thanking the emperor for establishing some “alimenta publica,” public relief institutions, and for apportioning lands to encourage needy parents to rear their children. Such relief funds and lands intended to supply the defective population of Italy were first established by the Emperor Nerva, and afterwards by Trajan, Hadrian, and the Antonines, and are frequently commemorated on medals, and mentioned by the historians Dion Cassius and Aurelius Victor, and the authors of the Augustan history.[49] The emperor is represented in a sitting posture, and stretching out his hand towards a child presented by a woman in the character of Italia, who apparently holds another child ready for presentation. Behind the emperor’s seat is the fig-tree called Navia or Ruminalis, which is said to have grown near the rostra, and also the figure of Marsyas which stood in the same place. At the other end of this sculptured scene stands a speaker with a roll in his hand, addressing a crowd of citizens from a rostrum, which may perhaps represent the publication of the edict establishing alimenta.

The other bas-relief scene shows a rostrum at one end, from which a sitting figure is superintending the burning of large bundles of books, carried and placed in front of him in a heap. The outline of a figure applying a torch can be traced, and also of several attendants. At the opposite end to the sitting figure the fig-tree and Marsyas are placed as in the other relief.

The style of art in which the reliefs are executed cannot, in Professor Henzen’s opinion, belong to an earlier period than Trajan’s reign. The treatment corresponds to that on those reliefs taken from Trajan’s arch, and set up on Constantine’s arch. After Trajan’s time the style of bas-relief was so much altered that we cannot suppose them to have been sculptured later than the first year of Hadrian.

As Trajan gained great popularity in the early years of his reign by an abolition of the arrears of certain debts due to the imperial treasury, amounting to a large sum, and as he also established alimenta, these reliefs have been generally supposed to commemorate his public benefactions, in founding relief institutions and cancelling public debts.

The backgrounds of both the sculptures are occupied by representations of some public buildings, but it does not seem possible to identify these with any certainty. That they roughly represent some of the temples and Basilicas in the Forum in a sketch is all we can say. One of the temples shown in the relief which depicts the foundation of alimenta has only five columns in its portico, showing a want of accuracy in the drawing which throws great doubt upon its topographical value. The archæologists who have endeavoured to name the buildings have agreed in calling the Ionic and the Corinthian portico in the relief where the account books are being burnt those of the Temples of Saturn and Vespasian, with an arch of the tabularium between them, and the long row of arches the Basilica Julia, but they differ as to the buildings shown in the other relief, for while Mr. Nichols thinks that the Basilica Julia is here again represented with the Heroon of Julius Cæsar and the arch of Augustus, Signor Brizio is of opinion that we have here the north-western side of the Forum with the Basilica Æmilia.[50] The rostra are probably meant to represent temporary wooden constructions.

The most reasonable conjecture which has yet been made as to the purpose which these sculptured screens served is that they formed a pons or passage along which voters passed at a time of election from the Forum to the office where the votes were taken. A great part of the structures used at such times was probably temporary, and made of wood for the occasion. Another explanation suggested by Mr. Nichols is that they formed a passage leading to an altar and statue of the Emperor. It may be that the sculptures never reached their destined site, but were left here, as many of the marbles on the Tiber banks were, and gradually buried in rubbish.

Basilica Julia.

We now pass to the rows of restored bases of columns, which occupy the long space on the south-western side of the seven pedestals above mentioned. Here we find the ground plan of the great Basilica Julia marked out by a treble row of columns at each of the larger sides, and a double row at each end. One pier of the outer row towards the Forum has been restored by Rosa so as to show the original height.

The proof that these ruins belong to the Basilica Julia which was planned by Julius Cæsar, and begun by him but completed by Augustus, who dedicated it to his grandsons Caius and Lucius, is the statement in the monumentum Ancyranum, in which it is placed between the temples of Saturn and Castor.

A second proof is derived from two inscriptions found during the process of clearing the site, one of which records the repair of the Basilica Julia, and the erection in it of a statue by Gabinius Vettius Probianus, prefect of the city in A.D. 377, and the other the rebuilding of the Basilica Julia under Maximian after the fire which destroyed it in the time of Carinus and Numerian. This site is also assigned to the Basilica on the Capitoline plan which may be seen on the staircase of the Capitoline Museum. The outline given there, and marked by the name Basilica Julia, agrees in proportion, and in the rows of columns with the extant remains, and this shows that the present ruin is the same in its main points with that which stood in the time of Severus, when the Capitoline plan was made.[51] Seven steps lead up to the level of the floor from the Forum level.

A great deal of legal business was transacted here, as may be seen from the frequent mention of it in Pliny’s Epistles. There were four tribunals, of which Quintilian speaks, at which four trials could be carried on at the same time; but these tribunals were probably wooden and temporary erections, and there is no trace of any semicircular apses, such as those in the Basilica of Constantine. One of Caligula’s amusements, as we are told by Suetonius, was to stand upon the roof of this basilica, and throw money to the mob in the Forum to scramble for. Whether the basilica was covered over in the centre is not certain, but it probably was so, with two aisles open to the Forum. The row of arches standing at the north-west corner is partly a restoration of the basilica by Canina, and partly consists of some piers and a wall standing behind, which has not yet been satisfactorily identified with any ancient building. The most probable supposition is that they belonged to the Porticus Julia mentioned by Dion Cassius, and were parts of an earlier edifice, in front of which and upon which the basilica was placed by Augustus.

Cloaca.

Under the southern end of the floor of the Julian Basilica, an opening has been made in which the arch of the main cloaca of the Forum valley can be seen passing across the Forum towards the Subura. This is the drain of which Juvenal speaks, when he says that the fish taken from the Crypta Suburæ is the climax of indignity offered to the unhappy parasite Trebius at his patron’s table.[52] The course of the drain runs from here under the Via dei Fenili down to the Janus Quadrifrons in the Velabrum, where it meets other branches and passes down to the Tiber. Between the eastern end of the Basilica Julia and the temple of Castor ran the Vicus Tuscus, of which the paving-stones may still be traced. At the western end the Vicus Jugarius led towards the Velabrum, but this is buried under the present Via della Consolazione, and cannot be seen.

Arch of Tiberius.

The Arch of Tiberius, which stood at the corner of the Basilica Julia, where the Vicus Jugarius and the Clivus Capitolinus diverged, cannot be clearly traced, though some of its ruins have been thought to exist among those uncovered at the edge of and under the modern road. This arch has been with great probability supposed to be that alluded to by Tacitus in speaking of the recovery of the Roman standards lost by Varus, and retaken by Germanicus under the auspices of Tiberius.[53] The triumphal arch represented on the Arch of Constantine is also thought to be that of Tiberius placed here.

Temple of Saturn.

We now pass under the modern road to the foot of the Capitoline Hill, and proceed to examine the most prominent ruin at the western end of the Forum. This consists of eight columns, six of red granite forming a front, and two side columns of grey granite. The capitals of these and the decoration of the entablature, architrave and frieze surmounting them are of a late and debased Ionic order with volutes in the later style, and they have been pieced together in the last restoration of the temple with extraordinary negligence. Unequal spaces are left between the columns, and some are set upon plinths while others are without them. One of the side columns has been so badly re-erected that the stones are misplaced, and consequently the diameter of the upper portion is of the same size as that of the lower. The restored carving on the inner frieze is of the roughest description, and the barbarous negligence of the whole restoration shows that it cannot have been done earlier than the fourth or fifth century. A comparison of the ruins now remaining with the plan as given on the fragments of the Capitoline map, bearing the name SAT VRNI has been made by Jordan, who shows that the remains of a prominent and peculiar flight of steps in front of the six columns correspond to the rough sketch on the plan, and that this flight of steps facing north must be taken to be the front of the temple.[54] The pavement stones of the road which led from the forum past the front of the temple may still be traced curving round this projecting flight of steps. Little doubt now remains that the ruin of the eight columns, the name of which has been so much discussed, belonged to the Temple of Saturn.

Temple of Saturn. Temple of Antoninus and Faustina. Coliseum and Arch of Titus. Temple of Castor.

The inscription now upon the front was placed there at its latest restoration which, as we have seen, was in Christian times, and the name of the divinity is therefore omitted.

This temple was one of the most revered and ancient in the city, and its foundation is traced back in legendary myth to the Hellenic Kronos. The earliest date given for the dedication is B.C. 498. Many restorations must have taken place. An inscription recording one in the time of Augustus by Munatius Plancus has been found. This temple long retained the name of the Mint, from the fact that the state treasures were deposited under the care of the god Saturnus, as one of the most venerated of Roman deities.

Area of the Dii Consentes.

The ancient road leading up to the Capitol made a turn behind the Temple of Saturn, and a portico with semi-Corinthian or Composite columns has been restored from some columns and capitals found here in 1835. At the back of this portico were twelve recessed chambers occupied by chapels of the twelve deities called the Dii Consentes. Four of these still remain under the modern Via del Campidoglio. The walls are chiefly of brickwork, apparently of the second or third century, but the back wall against the ascent to the Capitol is of hard tufa. The interiors were faced with marble, of which traces are left. From the inscription found in 1835 upon the architecture it appears that Vettius Prætextatus, a prefect of the city in A.D. 367, restored the statues of the Dii Consentes, which had stood here from ancient times. Varro mentions gilded statues of the gods of the council as near the Forum, and also speaks of their temple. This portico and chambers cannot, however, have been a temple, but were evidently clerks’ offices connected with the state depositories near the Temple of Saturn. Cicero speaks of the clerks of the Capitoline ascent.[55] Vettius Prætextatus, who restored the building in 367, was notorious for his opposition to the Christian religion and for his zeal in supporting the ancient cultus. He held several offices, and was pro-consul of Achaia under Julian, and probably recommended himself to that emperor by his attachment to the old Roman religion.

Schola Xanthi.

Below the portico and its chambers stands another row of lower chambers, three of which are said by Marliani to have been found entire in the sixteenth century. Inscriptions found here give the name of Schola to the chambers, and hence they have been called Schola Xanthi, from the name of Xanthus, which occurs in the inscription as a restorer. They were undoubtedly clerks’ offices, similar to those behind the portico of the Dii Consentes above them.

Temple of Vespasian.

We now turn from the portico of the Dii Consentes to the three Corinthian columns which stand under the large building called the Tabularium. These three columns have now been proved to belong to the ruin of a temple dedicated to Vespasian by his son Domitian. This position of Vespasian’s temple agrees with the statements of the Notitia and Curiosum and of Statius. The inscription, of which only the letters ESTITUER now remain, was seen and the whole of it transcribed by a writer of the ninth century, whose MS. is preserved at Einsiedlen.[56] It recorded the restoration of this temple by Severus and Caracalla. The letters ESTITUER stand at the lower edge of the frieze, showing that there was another line above. This upper line was DIVO. VESP. AUG. S.P.Q.R., and referred to the original building of the temple, while the lower line recorded its restoration. The temple was approached by a flight of steps from the road between it and the Temple of Saturn, the uppermost of which were placed between the columns and have been partially restored. The three columns which now remain are the three corner columns of the portico. They have fluted shafts and Corinthian capitals. The letters of the inscription were of metal, and the holes of the rivets which fastened them are still visible. The architrave and cornice are ornamented very richly with the usual mouldings, and there are some most interesting reliefs upon the frieze representing sacrificial implements and the skulls of oxen. A horsetail for sprinkling, and a sacrificial knife with a vase, a patera, an axe, and a high priest’s mitre are plainly distinguishable. Another portion of the entablature was pieced together by Canina and is still kept in the rooms of the Tabularium. The walls of the cella were built of travertine faced with marble. Against the back wall stands a large pedestal which supported the statue of the deified Emperor.

Temple of Concord.

Next to the temple of Vespasian, we are told by Statius, stood the Temple of Concord. The site is also determined by passages in Plutarch and in Dion Cassius, and by the plan given in the Capitoline map. Excavations were carried out here in 1817, 1830, and 1835 which resulted in disclosing the foundations of the temple, and in finding some inscriptions which attest the dedication of this spot to the goddess Concord. The temple of Concord was founded according to Livy, Ovid, and Plutarch by Camillus in B.C. 367, on the memorable occasion when the senate after a long and anxious debate, wisely determined to make peace with the Commons by throwing open the office of Consul to the plebeian order.[57]

It was placed near the old meeting-place (Comitium) of the privileged families (gentes), as if constantly to remind them that the newly established concord of the community was under the special sanction of the gods. When the Temple of Camillus was first restored we do not learn. The earliest notice of a new Temple to Concord is the statement that the Consul Opimius was ordered by the senate on the death of C. Gracchus to build a new temple to Concord. The temple seems to have been a kind of Pantheon or museum, for it was filled with a great number of statues of various gods, and with curiosities. On the left-hand side of the remaining foundations of the cella are two large pedestals which probably supported two of the principal statues.

Tiberius rebuilt it after his German campaign in A.D. 6 and 7, and dedicated it in honour of himself and his brother. The form of the latest restoration, which seems to have been carried out after the building behind it, the so-called Tabularium, was built, as it is placed so close to that building and must have rendered the decorations on its walls invisible, can be traced by the present relics of foundation walls, and presents a singular deviation from the normal plan of a Roman temple. The pronaos, or front chamber, is narrower than the cella or shrine behind it, and forms a sort of porch to it. This is an instance of the form of temple called prostylos by Vitruvius, and consisting of a broad Tuscan cella with a narrow Greek portico.[58]

The cella has greater breadth than depth. The basement is of considerable height in front, and some of the steps, Cicero’s Gradus Concordiæ[59] can be traced, while the enormous threshold of African marble still remains. A coin of Tiberius shows us that the temple had a portico of six columns in the Corinthian style, and a group of three figures embracing, as a symbol of Concord, at the top. One of the bases of the columns is still preserved in the Capitoline Museum, and a portion of the frieze was restored by Canina, showing that the decorative work was of great beauty. The inscription is given in the Einsiedlen MS. of the ninth century, and the temple was still standing in the twelfth century, as we learn from the Ordo Romanus, a procession route book. The stones were probably carried away for building purposes in the thirteenth century. Between the ruins of the Temple of Concord and those of Vespasian’s Temple, the foundations of a little chapel of Faustina may be seen. The name has been given to it from an inscription discovered here.

Arch of Severus.

Close to the ruins of the Temple of Concord stands the triumphal arch of Septimius Severus, composed of three archways of Pentelic marble. The side archways are connected with the central archway by small openings in the intervening walls, and the arched interiors of all three are decorated by square coffers with rosette ornaments. On each side stand four columns of Proconnesian marble with Composite capitals, on the pedestals of which are bas-reliefs representing figures of barbarian captives clothed in breeches and wearing the chlamys and Phrygian cap, and conducted by Roman soldiers wearing the lacerna. The spandrils of the arches are ornamented with the usual figures of Victory and symbols of captivity, in the outlines of the river gods of the Euphrates and Tigris. Between each pair of outer and inner pillars there are large bas-relief sculptured scenes executed in a very confused and tasteless style. The four lower and narrow compartments show the goddess Roma receiving the homage of the East, which is personified by a woman wearing a tiara. Behind her, in a long train of carts and carriages, come the spoils of the various nations conquered by Severus. Above this narrow line of figures which runs round below the four compartments above the side arches, are four larger bas-reliefs representing the sieges and victories of Severus in Parthia, Adiabene, and Arabia. On the side towards the Forum is represented on the left hand the raising of the Parthian siege of Nisibis in northern Mesopotamia by Severus after he had crushed his rivals Æmilianus and Pescennius Niger in Pontus and Syria. The taking of the town of Carræ west of Nisibis, and the march of the Roman army thence against the Adiabenians are also here portrayed. The compartment, on the right hand, looking from the Forum, contains a bas-relief representation of the surrender of Abgarus, king of Osroene,[60] and the siege of the town of Hatra on the Tigris.

Arch of Severus.

On the other side towards the Capitol and so-called Tabularium, the second campaign of Severus in the East is portrayed. On the right hand the flight of the Parthians from Babylon, the entry of the Romans into that city and the second siege of Hatra are represented. On the left is the wresting of the towns of Seleucia and Ctesiphon from the Parthians, the flight of their king Artobanus and the surrender of the Arabians who had joined the Parthian side.[61]

The entablature which surmounts these arches is badly designed and executed, the projections over the columns being far too heavy. Upon the attica above the entablature there are the traces of nails on the corner pilasters which seem to have borne some military ensigns. The whole central space of the attica is occupied by a long inscription formerly inlaid, as appears from the rivets, with metal. Upon a coin of Severus giving a representation of the arch, a chariot with six horses is shown standing over the attica, and on the four corners were equestrian statues.

From the inscription it appears that the arch was built in the year A.D. 203. The repetition of the title Parthicus, points to the Parthian campaigns of Severus. In the fourth line the name of Geta and his titles have been erased, as in other ruins of the same date, and the words OPTIMIS FORTISSIMISQUE PRINCIPIBUS inserted in their place. In the middle ages the tower of a church called SS. Sergio e Bacco was built upon the top of this arch, but was removed in 1536 on the entry of Charles V. by command of Pope Paul III.

Ruins under the road across the end of the Forum.

Near the Arch of Severus, and also between the temple of Saturn and the corner of the Basilica Julia, the modern road runs over archways. Under the archways some substructions of large peperino stones and other forms of building have been disclosed. These may have belonged to pedestals upon which statues were placed, or in the case of those near the arch of Severus to the later Rostra and Græcostasis, and in the case of those near the corner of the Basilica Julia to the Arch of Tiberius. The round pedestal which stands near the Arch of Severus was possibly the pedestal of the Miliarium Aureum, as it is not strong enough to bear the weight of a heavy statue.[62]

A representation of the Rostra of the Empire which may have stood here is given in the relief on the face of the Arch of Constantine, which looks towards the Coliseum, where three arches are seen, corresponding to the Arch of Severus on the right, and one arch corresponding to that of Tiberius on the left. Constantine is shown in this bas-relief addressing the people from the rostra.

The Carcer.

Under the church of S. Giuseppe dei Falegnami, which stands near the Arch of Severus, are two chambers, which are always shown as the ancient prison of Rome, said to have been first built by the King Ancus Martius, and then rebuilt or enlarged by Servius Tullius. The upper of these two chambers is of an irregular shape, but the lower is constructed in a conical form by the gradual projection of the stones forming the sides. This mode of building an arch is of very early date, before the introduction of the principle of the round arch, and is found in the oldest tombs of Etruria, and in well-houses at Tusculum and Cære.[63]

There can be no doubt that this part of the building is of great antiquity. But the proofs that it ever formed a prison are not so clear. This has been inferred from the striking account of the imprisonment of Jugurtha by Sallust, who states that Jugurtha was placed in a cell with water at the bottom, and exclaimed, “Hercules, how cold your bath is!” Hence it has been thought that the prison must have had water in it, as this chamber has on the floor.

Another proof that this is the ancient prison, called in the middle ages the Mamertine prison, from a statue of Mars or Mamers, or from the Forum Martis near it, has been derived from the statements of many Roman authors, who place the prison on the slope of the Capitol, near the Forum, and speak of an inferior as well as a superior chamber. The prison was probably in this neighbourhood, but the shape of the conical vault is rather that of a well-house. Mommsen has therefore suggested that this was the original purpose of the lower chamber, and that it was used as a cistern for collecting the water from the surrounding slopes. The top of the ancient conical vault is truncated and closed, with the exception of a round hole, by slabs of stone fastened together with iron cramps.

A communication with the arched sewers which run down to the Forum, and also with an archway which reaches up the slope to some large chambers on the north-west under the Vicolo del Ghettarello, has been opened by Mr. Parker, and these longer vaulted chambers which are of great antiquity, have been taken to be extensions of the original regal prison. But there is no sufficient evidence to show that these arched passages were used for any purpose of transit, and they were more probably channels for draining off the water, which would otherwise have accumulated in the chambers or on the slopes.[64]

An inscription is fixed in the outer wall, recording a restoration of the building by the Consuls C. Vibius Rufinus and M. Cocceius Nerva, as ordered by a decree of the Senate. These two men were consules suffecti before A.D. 24, probably in A.D. 22, the ninth year of Tiberius. But the name of the building is not mentioned in this inscription, and it seems uncertain whether it has not been removed from elsewhere.

There was another and larger prison in this district, and this larger prison was called the Lautumiæ. Forty-three Ætolian prisoners are said by Livy to have been crucified in the Lautumiæ, which must therefore have been certainly much more extensive than the cell which is called the Carcer Mamertinus. Seneca also mentions the request of a prisoner, Julius Sabinus, that he might be removed from the Carcer to the Lautumiæ.[65] There seems, therefore, to be no distinct proof that the conical cell was ever anything more than a water tank, and the name of prison which has been attached to it is probably a mediæval legend invented to indicate a spot which might be venerated as the prison of St. Peter.