Old Rome Part 14

Some excavations have been lately made in the Vigna Guidi, a vineyard on the south-east side of the Court of these Thermae. The ruins of a large house have been found which had been demolished and covered with earth, to make room for the Thermae. Nothing is known of the history of this house, but various conjectures have been hazarded, taken from the catalogues of the Regionaries.

The vast Necropolis of Rome stretched along both sides of the Appian Road from the Porta Capena nearly as far as the Alban Hills.

[Sidenote: Tomb of the Cornelian Scipios.]

Conspicuous among these burial-places is the tomb which remained in possession of the great family of the Cornelian Scipios for nearly four centuries.[118] The entrance to this is near the gate of one of the vineyards, on the north-east side of the Appian Road, about two hundred and fifty yards from the Porta S. Sebastiano. The tomb itself consists of a number of pa.s.sages roughly hewn in the tufa stone, as the catacombs are, without any apparent plan of arrangement. Unfortunately, the original state of the catacomb has been so altered by the substructions which have been found necessary to support the roof that it can hardly be recognised at the present day, and the sarcophagi and inscriptions have been removed, and placed for greater security in the Vatican Museum. Those now seen in situ are modern copies. Anciently there were two entrances, one from the Via Appia, and the other from the road which here unites the Via Appia and Via Latina. The present entrance has been cut for the convenience of access from the Appian Road.

[Sidenote: Columbaria.]

The catacomb of the Scipios differs from most of the other burial places which surround it, on account of the retention by the gens Cornelia of the old Latin custom of burying in coffins, instead of burning the corpse of the deceased. Most of the burying places on the Monte d'Oro are arranged in the manner called a columbarium by the Romans, from the resemblance of the niches in it to the holes in a pigeon-house.[119] Four of these columbaria have been excavated in the Vigna Codini, near the Porta S.

Sebastiano, and are now to be seen in almost perfect preservation. They consist of a square pit roofed over, and entered by a staircase. The roof is supported by a ma.s.sive square central column, and the whole of the sides of the pit and of the central column are pierced with semicircular niches, containing earthenware jars filled with ashes. In one of the columbaria in the Vigna Codini there is room for 900 jars. Most of the names which are inscribed above each niche upon a marble tablet are those of imperial freedmen, or servants of great families or public officers, and other persons of the middle cla.s.s of life, and are therefore of little historical interest. The ashes of some few of a somewhat higher grade, are placed in small marble sarcophagi or urns, but no persons of distinguished rank appear to have been buried in this way. There are, however, few places in Rome where the ordinary manners and customs of the ancient Romans are more vividly placed before the eye than here, and the very insignificance of some of the details exhibited is somewhat striking.

In one corner we find the ashes of a lady's maid attached to one of the imperial princesses; in another, those of the royal barber; and in another, a favourite lapdog has been admitted to take his place among his mistress's other faithful servants.

[Sidenote: Arch of Drusus.]

Not far from these columbaria, and close to the Porta S. Sebastiano, the Via Appia is spanned by a half ruinous archway, of which little but the core remains, the marble casing having long been torn off. It was probably originally ornamented with eight columns, two only of which now remain standing on the side next the modern gateway. These have shafts of Numidian marble (giallo antico), and composite capitals with Corinthian bases.

Upon the top of this arch is a brick ruin apparently belonging to the Middle Ages, as the style of building is similar to that called opera saracenica by the Italians. It was probably a part of a fortified tower, placed upon the arch, resembling that which formerly surmounted the Arch of t.i.tus.

On each side of the arch are some remains of the branch aqueduct, which brought water from the Aqua Marcia to the Baths of Caracalla, and it is natural to conclude that this arch carried the aqueduct over the Via Appia, and was built by Caracalla for that purpose. The costly nature of the materials used has, however, induced most topographers to reject this explanation, and to a.s.sume that the arch is one of the three mentioned by the Not.i.tia in the first region, as built in honour respectively of Drusus, Trajan, and Verus. The composite capitals seem to point to the earliest date of these three, and as the building bears a resemblance to a representation of the Arch of Drusus, which has been discovered upon a coin,[120] the arch has been thought identical with that erected to Drusus, the father of Claudius, mentioned by Suetonius.

[Sidenote: Sessorium and Amphitheatrum Castrense.]

Two ruins standing near the Basilica of S. Croce in Gerusalemme may be reckoned as belonging to the district of the Caelian Hill They are called by the topographers the Sessorium and the Amphitheatrum Castrense. The first of these consists of a ruin built of brick, containing a large semicircular apse with round-headed windows, from which two walls project.

No excavations having been made in order to ascertain the further extent of the buildings, any opinion formed as to their purpose must necessarily be highly uncertain. The most probable conjecture which has been made is that they are the ruins of a tribunal called the Sessorium. Such a court of justice is mentioned by the Scholiast on Horace as situated on the Esquiline near the place where criminals and paupers were buried. Further notices of the same name as applied to an edifice in the neighbourhood of the Basilica of S. Croce are to be found in Anastasius's Life of S.

Silvester, and in a fragmentary history of certain pa.s.sages in the Life of Theodoric, printed at the end of the work of Ammia.n.u.s Marcellinus.

Theodoric is there said to have ordered a criminal to be beheaded in palatio quod appellatur Sessorium, using the same phrase which Anastasius also employs.

The authors of the Beschreibung Roms supposed that this ruin was the Nymphaeum Alexandri of the Not.i.tia, but this has been disproved by Becker, who shows that the Nymphaeum was near the Villa Altieri.

The opinion that it was the Temple of Spes Vetus, which Frontinus places near the commencement of the branch aqueduct of Nero, is more likely to be correct, but the shape of the building, so far as it is at present known, does not agree with such a supposition. The ruins are commonly known by the name of the Temple of Venus and Cupid, a name which was given to them from the discovery of a statue near them representing a female figure. But it is a fatal objection to this that the name of the Roman matron (Sall.u.s.tia) whose statue was supposed to be that of Venus, has been discovered to be engraved upon the pedestal. The statue may be seen in the Museo Pio Clementino.

[Sidenote: Amphitheatrum Castrense.]

On the other side of the Basilica, and forming a part of the Aurelian wall, is a portion of an amphitheatre. The interior, now used as a garden, may be seen by entering the door on the right hand of the basilica. The larger axis of the amphitheatre was apparently about one hundred and ten yards, and the shorter eighty-five or thereabouts. It is entirely constructed of brick, even to the Corinthian capitals which ornament the exterior, and the workmans.h.i.+p shows it to belong to the best age of Roman architectural art. The second tier of arches has almost entirely disappeared, and of the lowest tier only those are left which are built into the city wall. But to suppose, as Becker does, that it was not an amphitheatre, but the vivarium, where the wild beasts used in the games were kept, seems out of the question. The only difficulty is to determine what the special history and purpose of the building, manifestly an amphitheatre, placed so far from the populous parts of the city, was. The Not.i.tia here comes to our aid, for it records the existence of an amphitheatrum castrense in the fifth region; and there can be little doubt that we have here the remains of the amphitheatre built for the entertainment of the praetorian troops quartered in a fortified camp beyond the Porta S. Lorenzo. Aurelian made use of the outer side of the building as a part of his walls, and it is most probable that when Constantine pulled down the inner portion of the praetorian camp, he also destroyed the greater part of this amphitheatre.

[Sidenote: House of the Laterani.]

In consequence of the sinking of part of the wall which supports the apse of the Basilica of St. John Lateran, excavations became necessary in the year 1876 which disclosed the foundations of some ancient buildings between the baptistery and the Via della Ferratella, and of some others under the apse itself. These were carefully examined, and it became evident that they belonged to the extended ruins of a large villa, probably that called the House of the Laterani, which was occupied and enlarged by the emperors of the second and third centuries, and finally given by Constantine to the Bishop of Rome. The House of Verus, also mentioned by Julius Capitolinus, was probably on this site.

[Sidenote: Claudian Aqueduct.]

Not far from the Sessorium, and springing out of the angle of the wall close to the Porta Maggiore, a series of lofty arches begins which extends throughout the whole length of the Caelian Hill. This is a branch aqueduct of the Aqua Claudia, built by Nero to supply the Caelian and Aventine Hills at a higher level than the Aqua Marcia and Aqua Julia, on which they had previously depended for their supply. It pa.s.sed over the road leading from the Porta Maggiore to the Basilica of S. Croce, and thence ran along the higher ground through the vineyards of the Scala Santa, whence it skirted the Via di S. Stefano, and, at the Arch of Dolabella, was divided into three branches, one of which crossed the valley to the Palatine, the second ran towards the edge of the hill over the Coliseum, and a third towards the Porta Capena.

[Sidenote: Arch of Dolabella.]

The arch of Dolabella stands a little to the north-west of the Piazza della Navicella, and spans the road leading down from thence into the valley between the Caelian and Palatine, formerly called the Clivus Scauri.

The archway consists of a single arch of travertine, without any ornamentation, but carrying an inscription to the effect that Publius Cornelius Dolabella, when consul, and Caius Julius Sila.n.u.s, when Flamen Martialis, erected the arch by order of the Senate. The consuls.h.i.+p of this Dolabella falls in the reign of Augustus A.D. 10, and therefore the arch can originally have had no connection with the Neronian aqueduct. It is possible, however, as Becker and Reber suggest, that the arch may have been originally built to carry the Aqua Marcia and Julia, which, as we know from Frontinus, supplied the Caelian before the building of the Neronian branch of the Aqua Claudia.[121] On one side the Arch of Dolabella is still completely hidden by the brickwork of the Neronian arches, and the other side was probably covered in a similar manner until after 1670, as we find no mention of this arch in Donatus, who could not have omitted to notice it in his description of the Neronian aqueduct had it been visible in his time.

[Sidenote: Navicella.]

The marble representation of a s.h.i.+p, which stands now in the Piazza della Navicella and gives its name to the place, was probably a votive offering to Jupiter Redux, and there may be some connection between these and the Castra Peregrinorum, as having perhaps been the place where the troops employed on foreign service were quartered. An inscription seems to allude to this connection between the Temple of Jupiter Redux and the camp.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Arch of Dolabella.]

[Sidenote: Houses on the Caelian.]

In the time of the empire many palaces of the richer cla.s.ses stood upon the Caelian. Among them we have distinct mention of the houses of Claudius Centumalus, which was visible from the Arx, of Mamurra, and of Annius Verus, in which Marcus Aurelius was born. Tetricus also, the unsuccessful rival of Aurelian, built a magnificent residence on the Caelian, in which, on his readmission to the emperor's favour, he entertained Aurelian.

[Sidenote: Palace of Commodus.]

It seems probable, as Bunsen has conjectured, that the Vectilian Palace in which Commodus lived, occupied the part of the Caelian next to the Coliseum. The ruins there consist of arches of travertine, forming a rectangular s.p.a.ce upon the northern end of the hill. They are ma.s.sively constructed, so as to bear a great superinc.u.mbent weight, and would be in every way suitable for the terraces of a large imperial villa such as Commodus may have built, when, as Lampridius tells us, he removed from the Palatine, where he found himself unable to sleep, to the house of Vectilius on the Caelian. He was afterwards murdered there. The position may have pleased him from its immediate vicinity to the Coliseum, where he was so fond of superintending the exhibitions, and displaying his own skill in killing wild animals. The story that he had an underground pa.s.sage made from his villa to the Coliseum is also a strong confirmation of the conjecture of Bunsen, and some additional probability is given to it by the course of the branch aqueduct which leads from the Arch of Dolabella in the direction of this garden, and would certainly be required to supply the luxuries of a large Roman palace.

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER VIII.

MONUMENTAL ANTIQUITIES IN THE MUSEUMS, PIAZZAS AND OTHER PLACES.

Besides the ruins which are still standing in Rome and the Campagna, many historical monuments may be seen in the Roman museums, and in some of the gardens and piazzas. The princ.i.p.al among these are as follows:

[Sidenote: Egyptian antiquities.]

1. Numerous Egyptian antiquities were found near the Churches of S. Maria sopra Minerva and that of S. Stefano in Cacco, on the site of the ancient Temples of Isis and Serapis. Of these the most remarkable are the two obelisks, one of which now stands in front of the Pantheon, and the other in the Piazza della Minerva. The statue of Isis, now in the Hall of the Dying Gladiator at the Capitoline Museum, the Egyptian lions on the steps of the Capitol, and the famous statue of the Nile now in the Braccio Nuovo of the Vatican, were also found here.

[Sidenote: Bas-reliefs from Arch of M. Aurelius.]

2. At the corner where the Strada della Vite crosses the Corso is a tablet recording the improvements made by Alexander VII. in the Corso at that point, whence he removed the ruins of an ancient triumphal arch which impeded the thoroughfare. A view of this is given by Donati, who calls it the Arcus Domitiani. But Nardini and all topographers since his time are agreed that the arch which stood here till 1662, must have been erected at a later time in honour of M. Aurelius. When it was pulled down, for public convenience as the inscription tells us, there were still four columns of verde antico standing, two of which are now used to adorn the princ.i.p.al altar in the Church of S. Agnese in Piazza Navona, and two are in the Corsini Chapel of the Lateran Basilica. The keystone of the arch is preserved in the Collegio della Sapienza; on each side of the arch there were two reliefs, now placed in the Capitoline Palace of the Conservators on the landing places at the top of the stairs. One of these represents M.

Aurelius standing on a suggestus to deliver an harangue, and the other the apotheosis of the younger Faustina, his wife, who is being carried up to heaven by a genius, while the emperor is seated below, and at his feet the genius of Halala, a town at the foot of Mount Taurus where Faustina died.

These two reliefs were removed into the Palace of the Conservators in order that they might be placed near four other reliefs, which had been found in the sixteenth century in the Church of S. Martina on the Capitol.

A fifth, also found in the same church, is now in the Palazzo Torlonia in the Piazza di Venezia. The earlier history of the removal of these last five reliefs is not known, but it seems certain, from their style and subjects, that they belonged to the Arch of M. Aurelius. The four which are now in the Conservators' Palace represent Marcus Aurelius on horseback with his army, a group of barbarians kneeling before him, the G.o.ddess Roma, receiving the emperor who comes on foot to the gates, and presenting him with the globe, the symbol of empire, the triumphal procession of M.

Aurelius in a quadriga crowned by Victory, and his thanksgiving sacrifice on the Capitol. The fifth relief, which is now in the Palazzo Torlonia, represents either M. Aurelius, or his brother Lucius Verus in conference with some barbarians who kneel as suppliants before him. Even supposing that the last mentioned five reliefs do not belong to this arch, yet the two first which are known to have stood upon it are quite sufficient to prove that it was the arch of M. Aurelius. The similarity between the representation of the apotheosis of the younger Faustina and that of Antoninus Pius and the elder Faustina is too evident to be overlooked and the whole style of sculpture and architecture points to the Antonine Age.

3. With the bas-reliefs from the Arch of M. Aurelius must be compared that on the pedestal of the column of Antoninus Pius now placed in the Giardino della Pigna at the Vatican. On one side of this is an inscription recording its dedication to Antoninus Pius, and on the other sides are reliefs, the princ.i.p.al of which represents the apotheosis of Antoninus and Faustina, while the others represent groups of cavalry and infantry.[122]

One fragment of the column now placed upon the pedestal has a Greek inscription upon it showing that the stone of which the column was formed was originally cut in the ninth year of Trajan, and after lying for a long time in the imperial stoneyard was subsequently used for this column. In the same place, the Giardino della Pigna, is to be seen the gigantic bronze fir-cone which may have formed the summit of Hadrian's Mausoleum, now the Castle of S. Angelo, and also the bronze peac.o.c.ks which ornamented the same building.[123] The colossal head of Hadrian from his mausoleum is now in the Museo Pio Clementino.

4. The inscription cut upon the pedestal of the urn of Agrippina, the mother of Caligula, may still be seen in the courtyard of the Palazzo dei Conservatori on the Capitol, and also the cippi recording the burials of some of the imperial family. The pedestal was hollowed out and used as a measure for corn in the Middle Ages, and hence it was called Rugitella di grano.

Other colossal fragments are also kept in this courtyard, and on the staircase are the fragments of the inscription on the Duilian column found near the arch of Septimius Severus, and a bas-relief of Curtius leaping into the gulf, found in the Forum Romanum near the Church of S. Maria Liberatrice. The bas-reliefs mentioned above, No. 2, are also there.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Pedestal of Antonine Column.]

5. The fragments of the ancient register of Consuls from A.U.C. 272 to the end of Augustus' reign, which were found in the Forum Romanum, near the Temple of Castor, are arranged on the wall of the fourth room in the Halls of the Conservators on the Capitol. These are printed and discussed in the Berlin 'Corpus Inscriptionum,' Vol. I.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Cone from the top of Hadrian's Mausoleum.]