Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/517

 ROMAN EXPLOllATIOX FUND. 5 su[iportecl l)j tufa ^all.s on each side of this fnsse. That at tiie northern corner of the Arx, Citadel, Keep, or Capitol, of the original city of Rome, on the Palatine Hill, there are the foinidations of towers to suj>i)ort a higher wall, just at the point where the huts of the llonians might have l)cen knocked down by stones thrown Ijy a catapult from the Hill of Saturn opposite. These towers were evidently begun only, and left nnfinished, having been used as foundations fur buildings of the time of the liepublic and early Empire. Within the space mentioned as Roma Quadrata are the foundations of a temple, and a great flight of steps leading ip to this from tiie western side of the hill has also been found. These are of the same construction as the walls ; and that construction is of as rude and early character as the other walls of the time of Ilomulus. These fortifications would have been perfectly useless when the Hill of Saturn aiul the Palatine were united in one city and enclosed by one wall. "We have also fuund the Lupkucal, a cave imder the north-west conier of the Palatine Hill, just in the situation where we ought to find it, according to the legendary historj- ; it is just above the level of the ordinary floods of the Tiber, on the edge of the Vallis Murci'i, then a swamp full of canes ten feet high. In this cave are the springs of the Aqua Argentina, a natural stream of water that speedily falls into the larger stream that runs through the Cloaca Maxima. Against this cave are remains of chambers of the time of Augustus, who says that "he made the Lupercal." This cave is also jnst at one corner of the Circus Maximus, which also agrees with history. The pi'escnt entrance to the Lupercal is down a well fifteen feet deep, at the corner of the Via de Fienili and the Via de Cerchi, and it is partly under the latter modern road. The present employment of it is as a mill-dam for a modern mill made on the bank of the Cloaca Maxima, to make use of the Aqua Argentina before it falls into that stream. In the cave are remains of an ancient open aqueduct to carry the water. 2. Of the second period, we have parts of the second wall of Piome, built to enclose the two hills, which is of rather later character than the earliest wall, but still of very early character. Of this second period (which extends over more than a century) we have remains of several bnildings of importance. Firstly, the great j)ublic building originally called the Capitolium, which included the J-Jrariinn, or Treasury, the I'dhulannhi, or liecord Office, the Seiiacuhon, or Senate-house, and the J/ii)iidpitim, in which were the offices and law courts of the I^Iunici- pality. The Corporation has always retained its hold on the two upper stories of this ancient building, now called the Jfitnicipio. We have also fonnd the principal subterranean chambera of the great prison of the kings of Home, built by King Ancus Martins, added to by Servius Tullius. This is allowcil by all to be the Inferior Carer in Laiitumiis, mentioned by Livy, although the Koman antiquaries dispute whether the small prison, called " the Prison of S. Peter," was part of the same gi'cat building, or another prison a hundred yards frcan it. This is of no great importance. The walls of both are chiefly of the time of King Ancus Martins; the upper part and the vaults of both have been rebuilt in the time of Tiberius. We have found a subtcn-aneau ])assage of early Etruscan character leading from one to the other, but this may have been used for other purpcises. One of these i>urposes appears to have been to drag along the bodies of pei-sons strangled iu