Читать книгу Rambles in Rome - S. Russell Forbes - Страница 47

Ovid ("Met." xv., "Let." ii. 2), describes it as "close to Castor and Pollux, having its aspect towards the Forum and the Capitol." "They [the Triumvirs] likewise built a tomb to Julius Cæsar in the middle of the Forum, with an asylum, that should be for ever inviolable" (Dion Cassius, "Aug."). Before the temple was built, "a column of Numidian marble, formed of one stone twenty feet high, was erected to Cæsar in the Forum, inscribed—TO THE FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY" (Suetonius, "Cæsar," lxxxv.). This gave place to the temple, which had four columns in front, as we learn from a relief and a coin. It was decorated with the statues of the Julian line. "About the time of the death of Nero, the Temple of Cæsar being struck with lightning, the heads of all the statues in it fell off at once; and Augustus's sceptre was dashed from his hand" (Suetonius, "Galba").

We must now call attention to the buildings between the Temple of Antoninus and the Church of S. Adriano on the line of the houses shortly to be pulled down; but till the excavations are made, we cannot be certain of the details. Next to the temple stood