Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/794

 774 EOMA. whole extent of road was called Sacra Via only in sacerdotal language, between which and the common usage we have already had occasion to note a diversity when giving an account of the Servian gates. In common parlance only that portion of the road was called Sacra Via which formed the ascent of the Velia, from the forum to its summit (" Hujus Sacrae Viae pars haec sola vulgo nota quae est a foro eunti primore clivo," Varr, /. c). Hence by the poets it is sometimes called " Sacer Clivus: " " Inde sacro veneranda petes Palatia clivo." (Mart, i. 70. 5) ; and— « _^— quandoque trahet feroces Per sacrum clivum,imerita decorus Fronde, Sicambros." (Hor. Od. iv. 2. 34.) compared with — " Intactus aut Britannus ut descenderet Sacra catenatus via." (Id. Epod. vii. 7.) (Comp. Ambrosch, Studien und Andeut. p. 78, seq.) The origin of the vulgar opinion is explained by Featus in the following passage : " Itaque ne eatenus quidem, ut vulgus opinatur, sacra appellanda est, a regia ad domum regis sacrihculi ; sed etiam a regis donio ad sacellum Streniae, et rursus a regia usque in arcem " (p. 290, Miill.). Whence it appears that only the part which lay between the Regia, or house of the pontifex maximus, and that of the rex sacrificulus, was commonly regarded, and probably for that very reason, as " sacra." This passage, however, though it shows plainly enough that there must have been a space between these two resi- dences, has caused some embarrassment on account of a passage in Dion Cassius (liv. 27), in which he says that Augustus presented the bouse of the rex sacrificulus (tou ^aaiXeus tuv hpa>v) to the Vestals because it adjoined their residence (o/idroixos ^v) ; and as we know from Pliny (£p. vii. 19) that the vestals dwelt close to the temple, it seems impossible, if Dion is right, that there should have been a street lying between the two places men- tioned. But the matter is plain enough ; though Becker (tfe Muris, pp. 30—35, Handb. pp. 226— 237) wastes several pages in most far-fetched reasonings in order to arrive at a conclusion which already lies before us in a reading of the text of Dion for which there is actually MS. authority. Augustus was chosen pontifex maximus (cipxte- peiis), not rex sacrificulus, as Dion himself says in this passage. But the two ofiices were perfectly distinct (" Regem sacrificulum creant. Id sacer- dotium pontifici subjecere," Liv. ii. 2). Augustus would hardly make a present of a house which did not belong to him; and therefore in Dion we must read, with some MSS., tou fiaaiAeics twv lipiwv, for iepav. Dion thus, in order perhaps to convey a lively notion of the oiEce to his Greek readers, designating the Roman pontifex maximus as " king of the priests," instead of using the ordinary Greek term apxifpfv?. The matter theref ne lies thus. Varro says that in ordinary life only the clivus, or ascent from the forum to the Summa Sacra Via, obtained the name of Sacra Via. Festus repeats the same thing in a different manner; designating the space so called as lying between the Regia, nr house of the pontifex maximus. and that of the rex sacrificulus. Whence it follows that the latter must have been on the Summa Sacra Via. It can scarcely be doubted that before the time of Augustus ROMA. the Eegia was the residence of the pontifex maxi- mus. The building appears to have existed till a late period of the Empire. It is mentioned by the younger Pliny (£);. iv. 11) and by Plutarch (Q. R. 97, Horn. 18) as extant in their time, and also pro- bably by Herodian (i. 14) in his description of the burning of the temple of Peace under Commodus. After the expulsion of the kings, the rex sacrifi- culus, who succeeded to their sacerdotal preroga- tives, was probably presented with one of the royal residences, of which there were several in the neigh- bourhood of the Summa Sacra Via; that being the spot where Ancus Marcius, Tarquinius Prisons, and Tarquinius Superbus had dwelt. (Liv. i. 41; Solin. i. 23, 24 ; Plin. xxxiv. 13.) We cannot tell the exact direction in which the Sacra Via traversed the valley of the Colosseum and ascended to the arch of Titus, nor by what name this part of the road was commonly called in the language of the people ; but it probably kept along the base of the Velia. At its highest point, or Summa Sacra Via, and perhaps on the site afterwards occupied by the temple of Venus and Rome, there seems to have been anciently a market for the sale of fniit, and also probably of nick-nacks and toys. " Summa Sacra Via, ubi poma veneunt." (Varr. R. R. i. 2.) Hence Ovid (^A. A. ii. 265.) :— " Rui'e suburbano poteris tibi dicere missa Ilia, vel in Sacra sint licet emta Via." Whilst the nick-nacks are thus mentioned by Pro- pertius (iii. 17. 11.): — " Et modo pavonis caudae flabella superbae Et manibus dura frigus habere pila, Et cupit iratum talos me poscere ebumos Quaeque nitent Sacra vilia dona Via." The direction of the Sacra Via is indicated by Horace's description of his stroll : " Ibam forte Via Sacra," &c. (<S. i. 9.) He is going down it towards the forum, having probably come from the villa of Maecenas, on the Esquiline, when he is interrupted by the eternal bore whom he has pilloried. The direction of his walk is indicated by his unavailing excuse that he is going to visit a sick friend over the Tiber (v. 17) and by the arrival at the temple of Vesta (v. 35); the Sacra Via having been thus quitted and the forum left on the right. The two extremities of the street, as commonly known, are indicated in the following passage of Cicero: " Hoc tanieu miror, cur tu huic potissimum irascere, qui longissime a te ahfuit. Equideni, si quando ut fit, jactor in turba, non ilium accuse, qui est in Siimma ISacra Via, cum ego ad Fahium Fornicem im- pellor, sed eum qui in me ipsum incurrit atque incidit" (p. Plane. 7). The Fornix Fabius, as it will be seen hereafter, stood at the eastern extremity of the forum ; and Cicero has made the most of his illustration by taking the whole length of the street. Beyond this point, where it traversed the N. side of the forum, we are at a loss to tell what its vulgar appellation may have been; and if we venture to suggest that it may have been called " Janus," this is merely a conjecture from Horace (£pje/. i. 1. 54), where " haec Janus summus ab imo " seems to suit better with a street — just as we should say, " all Lombard street " — than with two Jani, as is com- monly interpreted, or than with a building containing several floors let out in counting houses. (Cf. Sat. ii. 3. 18.) This view is supported by the Scholia on the first of these p.assages, where it is said :