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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2012
During my stay in Rome in the early part of this year I found time to examine and make some plans of a part of the excavations of the Forum, which had not before, so far as I know, been subjected to any very careful study; though the site is one of the most interesting and important even in that interesting locality,—the ground which immediately surrounds the remains of the temple of Vesta, the central hearth of the Roman people, and the place of deposit of their most venerable and sacred treasures.
page 227 note a Archaeologia, vol. xlix. p. 391.
page 228 note a I take the Roman foot at 296 met. or 11·65 inches English.
page 229 note a On the north side of this wall (in the upper part, to the left) may be found some of those brick-shaped blocks of tufo which were employed as a framework to the opus reticulatum, before the use of bricks for this purpose.
page 230 note a The more recent wall is omitted in the plan. Its remains extend in a direction from north to south over the ruins of the marble building. This is seen in the accompanying illustration.
page 230 note b This pavement resembles in its material that on the east side of the temple of Faustina.
page 231 note a The heights of the five courses, from the pavement, are 34, 58·5, 56, 56·5, and about 56 centimetres, the last being broken at the top.
page 231 note b The length of the blocks cannot be given, owing to the small size of the fragment preserved.
page 231 note c On re-examination, Jan. 1887, I find traces of a thin coat of fine cement in one of the joints. On one of the loose marble blocks of like dimensions lying near, there is not only the sunk band along the bottom, but also a vertical band (or false joint) across the face of the block.
page 232 note a This piece of pavement, which is shown (but with the shading omitted) in this place (p. 229), has been lost in the excavation.
page 233 note a The material did not appear to me to resemble the tufo generally used in the public buildings of the time of Julius and Augustus; and the height of the blocks is not that which was usual at that time, about two Roman feet.
page 233 note b It may be conjectured that this fine tufo masonry belonged to the rebuilding of the Regia which took place, A.U. 544, B.C. 209, after the fire of the year before. (Liv. xxvii. 11.) See further on, p. 243.
page 233 note c See before, p. 229.
page 234 note a Επεὶ δὲ διεκόσμησε τὰς ἱεροσύνας, ἐδείματο πλησίον τοῦ τῆς ῾Εστίας ἱεροῦ τὴν καλομένην ῾Ρηγίαν, οὶόν τι βασίλειον οἴκημα καὶ πλεῖστον αὺτόθι ἱερουργῶν … οἰκίαν δ᾿ είΧεν ἑτέραν περὶ τὸν Κυρίνου λόΦον. Plutarch, Numa, 14.
page 234 note b Ovid, Trist. iii. 1. 29.
page 234 note c Ut vulgus opinatur. Sacra appellanda est [via] a Regia ad domum Regis sacrificuli. Festus, ed. Müll. 290.
Huius Sacrae Viae pars haec sola volgo nota est, quae est a foro eunti primore clivo. Varro, L. L.v. 47.
page 235 note a Ες τὴν ἀγορὰν αὖθις ἴθεσαν [ τὸ λέΧος τοῦ Καίσαρος] ἔνθα τὸ πάλαι ῾Ρωμαίοις ἐστὶ βασίλειον, καὶ … ὲξῆψαν ‥ ῎Ενθα βωμὸς πρῶτος ἐτέθη, νῦν δ᾿ ἐστί νεὼς αὐτοῦ Καίσαρος. Appian, Bell. Civ. ii. 149.
page 235 note b Τὸ δὲ δὴ [ τοῦ Χρυσίου] ἐς τὸ βασίλειον [ ἀνήλωσεν]. Κατακαυθὲν γὰρ αἠτὸ ἀνῳκοδόμησε καὶ καθιέρωσεν, ἄλλοις τέ τισι λαμπροῖς κοσμήσας καὶ εἰκόσιν ἃς παρὰ τοῦ Καίσαρος ὡς καὶ ὰποδώσων ᾐτήσατο. Dion. Cass. Xlviii. 42.
page 235 note c Now that we have discovered this important edifice built of solid marble, we are led to inquire, what other monuments were built in the same way. There is no reason to suppose that the great temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, dedicated by Catulus A.U. 685, had walls of marble. The first great temple built with Greek materials appears to have been that of Venus Genetrix, dedicated by Cæsar about A.U. 710, and it is not improbable that its walls were, after the Greek fashion, of solid marble. Ovid calls it factum de marmore templum (Ar. Am., i. 83); and Palladio speaks of the vast quantity of marble found in its ruins (Architettura, lib. iv. c. 31). The next great temple was that of Divus Julius. We have no sufficient evidence of its construction. This temple and the Regia were both dedicated A.U. 718. The next great temple was that of the Palatine Apollo, dedicated by Augustus A.u. 726. Ovid's description of its glittering exterior, intonsi Candida templa dei, leaves its construction uncertain; but Prof. H. Jordan has called attention to the fact, that Servius attests its being built de solido marmore. (Serv. ad Aen. viii. 720.) The later temples of Augustus, if we may judge by that of Mars Ultor, had their walls cased only with marble. One antique building of uncertain date, the round temple near the river commonly called the temple of Vesta, has its cell-wall of solid marble.
page 236 note a Piale, Terme Traiane, p. 20; Lanciani, Atrio di Vesta (1884), p. 46.
page 236 note b Plin. Ep. iv. 11.
page 236 note c Cic. pro domo sua, liii. 136. See Marquardt, Römische Staatsverwaltung, iii. 287.
page 237 note a In the illustration above, the shaded part represents some of the original blocks of marble.
page 237 note b Ea fragmenta, ruderibus ante templum Faustinae inter forum et Sacram viam (ut nunc in urbe mos est) egestis, casu inventa sunt, anno MDXLYII. In quibus quae ex tertia tabula supersunt fragmenta loco antiquo adhnc mota non fuerant; unde et ipsarum tabularum haec descriptio a peritissimis architectis formata fuit. Panvinius in praefat. ad Comm. in Fastos.
page 237 note c Si scopersero le piante e parte delle rovine scritte a terra, e parte in opera. Per questo restarono a spiantare fino alii fundamenti il rimanente. (Ligorio, MS. cited by Fea, Illustrazioni sui Fasti, Roma, 1820.) Ligorio gives the precise date of the discovery as follows: Scoperto il di xv. di Agosto del M.D. xlvi. e finito di spiantare infra giorni xxx. (Title to plan, Antichità, MS. vol. 15, p. 125.) See p. 246.
page 239 note a See the attempted restoration at p. 247.
page 240 note a Plin. Epist. iv. 11.
page 240 note b See before, p. 235.
page 240 note c Aul. Gell. iv.
page 240 note d Varro, L. L. vi. 3 (57).
page 240 note e Iul. Obseq. 19.
page 240 note f Tristia, iii. 1. 30.
page 240 note g Fasti, vi. 263.
page 240 note h Macrob. iii. 13, 11.
page 241 note a It is worth while upon this point to look back at the passage of Plutarch in which he describes the foundation of the Regia. (See note before, p. 234.) He says literally: “When Nurna arranged the priestly services, he built him, near the sacrum, of Vesta, the Regia, so called as a sort of royal mansion; and for the most part he passed his time there performing his religious duties; but he had another dwelling-house on the hill of Quirinus.” We cannot doubt that Plutarch had in his mind the Regia of his own day, when he pictures Numa's Regia rather as a place where he attended to the duties afterwards assigned to the Pontifex Maximus, than as a palace for habitation.
page 241 note b Habitavit primo in Subura modicis aedibus: post autem pontificatum maximum in Sacra via domo publica. Suet. Caes. 46.
page 241 note c Cic. de har. resp. iii. 4; pro domo sua, xxxix. 104.
page 241 note d Cic. ad Att. i. 12, 4; apud Caesarem, ib. i. 13, 3.
page 241 note e Plin. H. N. xix. 6. We may observe in passing, that the Regia was certainly on the edge of the Forum, and the passage of Pliny appears to indicate that Caesar's house was somewhat further up the Sacred Way.
page 242 note a Visum te aiunt in Regia, nee reprehendo. … Caesar mihi ignoscit per literas quod non venerim. Epist. ad Att. x. 3.
page 242 note b There is a passage of Servius, in which the Regia is described as the actual residence of the Pontifex, and the former residence of the Rex Sacrificulus. Such a statement cannot have much authority. Domus enim in qua pontifex habitat Regia dicitur, quod in ea rex sacrificulus habitare consuesset. Serv. ad Aen. viii. 363.
page 242 note c Dion. Cass. liv. 27.
page 242 note d Plutarch. Quaest. Rom. 97; Plin. H. N. xxxiv. 18; Plin. Ep. iv. 11.
page 242 note e Regia quae adhuc ita appellatur. Solin. i. 21. The letters EGIA, as Professor Jordan has observed, found on a fragment of the Capitoline plan, show its existence in the time of Septimius Severus.
page 242 note f Jordan, Topographie, i. 2, 426.
page 243 note a Beyond the house with the travertine columns are the remains, at the like lower level, of another large house, which in Mr. Middleton's plan are also marked Regia.
page 243 note b The existence of this footway is shown by the passage in Martial, which describes the way from the Forum, up the Sacra Via, to the Palatine—
Quaeris iter ? dicam, vicinum Castora canae
Transibis Vestae, virgineamque domum. Martial, Ep. i. 71, 3.
The same way appears to be implied in Horace's ventum erat ad Vestae. Sat. I. vii. 35.
page 243 note c Liv. xxvi. 27.
page 243 note d The word atrium was used in the names of other public buildings of Rome, as Atrium Libertatis, Atrium Minervae, and is analogous to our English word hall in the combination, town-hall, guild-hall, and the like. It also occurs in the names of private houses in the case of the atria duo, Moenium et Titium. (Liv. xxxix. 44). Atrium regium seems therefore to be merely equivalent to regia or domus regia.
page 244 note a Fasti, vi. 263.
page 244 note b Et nisi in augusto loco consilium senatus habere non poterat. Unde templum Vestae non fuit augurio consecratum, ne illuc conveniret senatus, ubi erant Virgines. Nam haec fuerat regia Numae Pompilii. Ad atrium autem Vestae conveniebat, quod a templo remotum fuerat. (Serv. ad Aen. vii. 153). The words, Nam haec fuerat regia Numae Pompilii, would be more intelligible if they came at the end.
page 244 note c Virgo Vestalis simul est capta atque in atrium Vestae deducta et pontificibus tradita, eo statim tempore … e patris potestate exit. Aul. Gell. i. 12.
page 245 note a Angit me Fanniae valetudo. Contraxit hanc dum assidet Iuliae virgini, sponte primuni, est enim affinis, deinde etiam ex auctoritate pontificran. Nam virgines cum vi morbi atrio Vestae coguntur excedere, matronarum curae custodiaeque mandantur. Plin. Ep. vii. 19.
page 245 note b See the illustration on p. 237.
page 246 note a See p. 231.
page 247 note a In the above restoration of the Regia, all the principal architectural details (except the door) are derived from the marbles of the Fasti, or from the fragments existing in the Forum.
page 248 note a These pieces are now placed between the temples of Castor and Vesta.
page 248 note b Annali, xxv. 227.
page 249 note a Some ludi seculares were in fact recorded on these walls.
page 249 note b Ordunque dopo tanto errore, mosso a pietà il generoso Cardinale Farnese con sua impensa li fece collocare in capitolio, ma confusamente, se bene v'erano le colonne rotonde da poterle restaurare e metterle, senza rimpiastrarle come l'hanno rimpiastrate et tolte dalla sua prima et propria qualitate. Ligorio, Antichità, MS. vol. xv. p. 125.
page 250 note a I have not had an opportunity, since my return to England, of looking at Ligorio's book of memoranda, preserved in the Bodleian Library; but a friend, who has looked at it for me, informs me that there appears to be nothing in it relating to the ruin which forms the subject of this paper.