Part 4 (1/2)

[Sidenote: 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 Ancyraean inscription, and by the fact that Caligula made a pa.s.sage from the Palatine Palace to this temple.

The substructions of this building have been cleared, and the length and breadth of the bas.e.m.e.nt 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 Graeco-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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FORUM ROMANUM]

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 bas.e.m.e.nt 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 tabernae 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.

[Sidenote: 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.

[Sidenote: Temple of Vesta.]

A little farther to the south the bas.e.m.e.nt 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]

[Sidenote: Chapel of Julius Caesar.]

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

”Like the twin brethren whom in their abode Julius, the G.o.d, beholds from his high shrine,”

seem to prove that the heroon was in front of that temple. The body of Caesar 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 bas.e.m.e.nt. 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.

[Sidenote: Temple of Antoninus and Faustina.]

To the north-east of the heroon of Julius Caesar, 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 ma.s.sive grandeur of the grey old ruin which embraces it, was built in 1602 by the guild of the Roman apothecaries.[44]

[Sidenote: Extent of the Forum.]

[Sidenote: Seven brick pedestals.]

[Sidenote: Column of Phocas.]

We now pa.s.s along the ancient stone pavement towards the Capitol, and observe how small the s.p.a.ce 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 s.p.a.ce runs a row of seven large ma.s.ses 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.

[Sidenote: 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 'Silvae' 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 Caesar 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 princ.i.p.al 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]

[Sidenote: 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.