Part 10 (1/2)
The two bridges uniting the island to either bank were probably, as has been said, first erected in or about the fifth century of the city, but the existing bridges, though ancient, must be considered as restorations of the older fabrics.
The bridge on the side towards the Campus Martius was built by L.
Fabricius in B.C. 62, as the inscription still extant on the bridge shows.
In accordance with this we find Dion Ca.s.sius giving it the name of Pons Fabricius, and a coin with the t.i.tle L. Fabricius gives on the other side a bridge with a snake, plainly pointing to the island of the Tiber.
Another inscription, also still remaining upon the bridge, states that it was examined and found in good repair by Q. Lepidus and M. Lollius, consuls in B.C. 21.
This bridge is the oldest now standing on the Tiber, and the masonry is of admirable solidity and workmans.h.i.+p. It was called, in the Middle Ages Pons Judaeus, from its proximity to the Jews' quarter of the city, and now bears the name Quattro Capi from the jani quadrifrontes which stand upon it.[84]
These jani were formerly the posts which supported the railings of the bridge, as may be seen by the holes bored in them for the ancient bronze bars.
The twin bridge on the right-hand side of the river, dates from the imperial era, and probably, like the Pons Fabricius, replaced a much older bridge of the same age as the Temple of aesculapius.
Two inscriptions are still legible on this bridge, from which we learn that it was finished in the year A.D. 370, and dedicated to the use of the Roman people in the name of the Emperor Gratia.n.u.s, by Valentinian, Valens and Gratia.n.u.s. These inscriptions must be understood as referring to the rebuilding of the bridge, though they are so worded as to claim the credit of its first erection. That there was an older bridge is clear, not only from the fact that the island was called inter duos pontes before the time of Gratian, but also from the name pons Cestius, which occurs in the Not.i.tia, and undoubtedly belongs to that bridge. It is not clear who Cestius was, but it is generally supposed that a praefectus urbi of that name in B.C. 46 is the person after whom the bridge was named, and this agrees with the statement of Dion Ca.s.sius about the building of the Fabrician bridge.
The church of S. Nicola in Carcere, which stands in the Via della Bocca della Verita close to the Piazza Montanara, contains the remains of two or perhaps of three temples.
[Sidenote: S. Nicola in Carcere.]
These ruins consist first of three fluted columns of travertine with Ionic capitals, which stand in the facade of the church of S. Nicola. Above them is a part of the ancient entablature, and in the room to the left of the portico of the church are two more columns built into the wall. In the nave of the church on the left hand are remains of the cella of the temple, to the p.r.o.naos of which the five columns belonged. The walls of the cella were, as has been discovered by excavations, constructed of travertine blocks. At the end of this left-hand wall of the cella, there stood before the last restoration of the church, the remains of a pilaster of the Doric order with an Attic base, and opposite to this pilaster another column. The position of the six columns shows that the temple was of the form called peripteros, i.e., surrounded by a continuous colonnade.
On the right-hand side aisle of the church are five other columns built into the wall, and a pilaster which evidently belonged to a second temple standing side by side with the first. These columns are not so high as those of the first temple described, and their style and the intervals between them are different. A portion of the entablature, which is of a simple character, still surmounts them. Two more columns of this temple are to be seen in the wall of the house which stands to the right of the church. It was surrounded with colonnades on three sides, but the back of the cella was ornamented with pilasters only.
On the left-hand side of the church are six more half-exposed columns, and some remains of an entablature which may have either belonged to a third and smaller temple standing by the side of the first, or may have been merely the portico of some other building.
The materials of which these buildings consist are chiefly travertine and peperino, and their difference of style shows them to have been erected at different times, probably during the Age of the Republic. It is commonly a.s.sumed, from their position near the theatre of Marcellus, that they are to be identified with the Temples of Spes and Juno Sospita. As the Temple of Pietas was removed to make room for the theatre, we cannot suppose that we have here any part of it, and the Temple of Ja.n.u.s would probably have a.s.sumed a different form.
It is recorded by Livy that M. Acilius Glabrio erected an equestrian statue near the Temple of Pietas. During some excavations made in 1808 by the architect Valadier, the pedestal of an equestrian statue was found in the small piazza opposite to the church of S. Nicola. It appears possible that when the Temple of Pietas was removed to make way for the theatre, this statue may have been preserved and set up here as near as possible to the original site.[85]
[Sidenote: Portico of Octavia.]
In the street called the Via di Pescaria, which runs north-westwards from the Theatre of Marcellus, stand four fluted Corinthian columns, two on each side of the street. These formed part of the princ.i.p.al entrance to a colonnade or portico, some of the other columns of which can be traced at intervals in the walls of the houses further on in the Via di Pescaria along which the line of the colonnade ran. The entrance or gateway faced towards the south-west, and over the arch looking into the little Piazza di Pescaria will be seen an inscription recording its restoration after a fire, by Septimius Severus and Caracalla (M. Aurelius Antoninus) in the year A.D. 203, the eleventh year of the tribunitian power of Severus. No traces can be found of the erasure of Geta's name, which Caracalla, as we have seen, caused to be effaced after his death from all the inscriptions containing it. There is no doubt, however, that it was originally placed here after the name of Caracalla, since Severus was careful to pay equal honour to both of his sons in all respects. The whole inscription may have been replaced by a new one, or the fourth line may have been completely effaced and altered. As it now stands the inscription has been restored as follows: IMP. CaeS. L. SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS. PIUS. PERTINAX. AUG. ARABIC.
ADIABENIC. PARTHIC. MAXIMUS. TRIB. POTEST. XI. IMP. XI. COS. III. P. P. ET IMP. CaeS. M. AURELIUS. ANTONINUS. PIUS. FELIX. AUG. TRIB. POTEST. VI. COS.
PROCOS. PORTIc.u.m. INCENDIO CONSUMPTAM RESt.i.tUERUNT.
The pediment and tympanum over the inscription are still preserved, but two of the columns below have been replaced by a high brickwork arch, probably of the fifth century, which now supports the inscription and pediment. Pa.s.sing round again into the street Via di Pescaria, we find ourselves in the interior of the gateway. It consisted of four columns placed on each side between two antae or projecting piers ornamented with pilasters, and was of larger dimensions than the colonnades to which it formed the entrance. The brickwork of the antae was originally faced with marble, and they supported arches which led into the colonnades along the line of the street. The bases of the columns are now buried in rubbish, but parts of the architecture, frieze, and cornice, which are of a simple description, may be still traced over the front. The inner side of the gateway, with the exception of the two columns and the pier which stand at the entrance of the Via di S. Angelo in Pescaria, has been removed to make room for the church of S. Michaele Archangelo.
If we enter the street just mentioned, the capital of a column may be seen on the right hand over the wall of the yard belonging to No. 12, and in the yard itself stand three others, with a portion of the architecture above them. Their position shows that they formed the corner of a temple.
There is ample proof that we have in the ruins just described, the entrance gateway of the Porticus Octaviae and the corner of the temple of Juno Regina. For Festus states that there were two Octavian porticoes, one built in honour of Octavia, the sister of Augustus, near the Theatre of Marcellus, and a second close to the Theatre of Pompeius, built by Q.
Octavius, the conqueror of Perses. The site upon which the former was built had been previously occupied by the Porticus Metelli, built by Q.
Metellus Macedonicus, propraetor in B.C. 146, and the Octavian portico was a complete restoration of this by Augustus.[86]
Pliny also mentions two statues of Apollo near the Porticus Octaviae, which probably stood in the Temple of Apollo, known to have been situated outside the Porta Carmentalis between the Forum Olitorium and the Circus Flaminius. But the princ.i.p.al evidence is derived from the plan of Rome, now on the staircase of the Capitoline Museum, where the whole design of this portico is laid down, and the temples which it enclosed are named. We learn from this plan that the portico was in form an oblong s.p.a.ce enclosed with colonnades, and that the ruins now remaining const.i.tuted the princ.i.p.al entrance to this court, and to the Temple of Juno Regina which it enclosed. The line of the Via di Pescaria corresponds to one of the shorter sides of the court, and in the centre of this side the gateway stood. In two points only the Capitoline map fails to correspond with the actually existing ruins. The antae of the gateway are not represented, and the corner column of the Temple of Juno is omitted. The former of these two omissions may be explained by supposing that the plan was probably made before the restoration of the portico by Severus.
The excavations carried on in 1861 by Pellegrini and Contigliozzi, established the following limits for the Portico of Octavia.
The southern corner of the rectangle was occupied by a quadrifrontal archway, and this was situated near No. 4 in the Via della Catena di Pescaria. From this the south-western side of the portico ran nearly along the line of the street till it reached the gateway to which the present ruins belong, near the oratory of S. Angelo. The western corner of the portico was also formed by a quadrifrontal archway.
The north-western side pa.s.sed through the church of S. Ambrogio a little below the high altar, and then skirted the Palazzo Righetti near the Piazza di S. Caterina de' Funari, where it joined the north-eastern and shorter side. In this side there was a pediment with pillars corresponding to the gateway at the opposite end, but not containing the real entrance, which stood near the angle of the Palazzo Caraletti in the Via de'