Part 5 (1/2)

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.

[Sidenote: 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 Not.i.tia and Curiosum and of Statius. The inscription, of which only the letters ESt.i.tUER 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 ESt.i.tUER 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.

[Sidenote: 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 pa.s.sages in Plutarch and in Dion Ca.s.sius, 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 G.o.ddess 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 G.o.ds. 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 G.o.ds, 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 princ.i.p.al 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 p.r.o.naos, 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 bas.e.m.e.nt is of considerable height in front, and some of the steps, Cicero's Gradus Concordiae[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 Roma.n.u.s, 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.

[Sidenote: 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 G.o.ds 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 G.o.ddess 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 aemilia.n.u.s and Pescennius Niger in Pontus and Syria. The taking of the town of Carrae 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 Artoba.n.u.s 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 s.p.a.ce 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 repet.i.tion of the t.i.tle Parthicus, points to the Parthian campaigns of Severus. In the fourth line the name of Geta and his t.i.tles 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.

[Sidenote: 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 Graecostasis, 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.

[Sidenote: 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 Caere.[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 Sall.u.s.t, 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 pa.s.sages were used for any purpose of transit, and they were more probably channels for draining off the water, which would otherwise have acc.u.mulated 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.