Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/795

 ROMA. •' Jiinus autem hie platea dicitur, ubi mercatores et fiieiieratores sortis causa convenire solebant." In fact it was the Eoman Cliange. The asrent from the forum to the summit of the Capitoline hill, where the Sacra Via terminated, was, we know, called Clivus Capitolinus. It only remains to notice Becker's dictum (jde, ISfuris, p. 23) that the name of this street should always be written Sacra Via, and not in reversed order Via Sacra. To the exceptions which he noted there himself, he adds some more in the Haudhuch (p. 219, note), and another from Seneca (^Controv. xxvii. p. 299, Bip.) in his Addenda; and Urlichs (^Rom. Topoijr. p. 8) increases the list. On the whole, it would seem that though Sacra Via is the more usual expression, the other cannot be regarded as unclassical. Yicus Jugarius — Of the name of the street which ran along the south side of the forum we are utterly ignorant; but from it issued two streets, which were among the most busy, and best known, in Rome, These were the Vicus Jugarius and Vicus Tuscus. We have before had occasion to mention that the former ran close under the Capitoline hill, from the forum to the Porta Carmentalis. It was thought to derive its name from an altar which stood in it to Juno Juga, the presiding deity of wedlock. (Paul. Diac. p. 104, Miill.) It does not appear to have contained any other sacred places in ancient times ; but Au- gustus dedicated in it altars to Ceres and Ops Augusta. {Fast. Amit. IV. Id. Aug.) At the top of the street, where it entered the forum, was the fountain called Lacus Servilius, which obtained a sad notoriety during the proscriptions of Sulla, as it was here that the heads of the murdered senators were exposed. (Cic. Rose. Am. 32; Senec. Prov. 3.) M. Agrippa adorned it with the effigy of a hydra (Festus, p. 290, Rllill.). Between the Vicus Ju- garius and Capitoline hill, and close to the foot of the latter, lay the Aequimaehum (Liv. xxxviii. 28), said to have derived its name from occupying the site of the house of the demagogue, Sp. Maelius, which had been razed (Varr. L.L. v. 157, MUll.; Liv. iv. 16). It served as a market-place, espe- cially for the sale of lambs, which were in great request for sacrifices, and probably corresponded with the modern Via del Monte Tarpeo. (Cic. Div. ii. 17.) Vicus Tuscus. — In the imperial times the Vicus Jugarius was bounded at its eastern extremity by the Basilica Julia; and on the further side of this build- ing, again, lay the Vicus Tuscus. According to some authorities tins street was founded in b. c. 507, being assigned to such of the Etruscans in the van- quished host of Aruns as had fled to Rome, and felt a desire to settle there (Liv. ii. 15; Dionys. v. 36); but we have before related, on the authority of Varro and Tacitus, that it was founded in the reign of Romulus. These conflicting statements may, per- haps, be reconciled, by considering the later .settle- ment as a kind of second or subsidiary one. How- ever this may be, it is with the topographical facts that we are here more particularly concerned, about which Dionysius communicates some interesting jiarticulars. He describes the ground assigned to the Tuscans as a sort of hollow or gorge situated between the Palatine and Capitoline hills ; and in length nearly 4 stadia, or half a Itoman mile, from the forum to the Circus Maximus (v. 36). We must presume that this measurement included all the windings of the street; and even then it would ROMA. 775 seem rather exaggerated, as the whole NW. side of the Palatine hill does not exceed about 2 stadia. We must conclude that it was continued thruugh the Velabrum to the circus. Its length as Canina observes (^For. Rom. pt. i. p. 67) is a proof that the forum must have extended from NW. to SE., and not from NE. to SW. ; as in the latter case, the space for the street, already too short, would have been considerably curtailed. This street, probably from the habits of its primitive colonists, became the abode of fishmongers, fruiterers, bird-fanciers, silk- mercers, and perfumers, and enjoyed but an indiflerent reputation (" Tusci turba impia vici," Hor. S. ii. 3. 29.) It was here, however, that the best silks in Rome were to be procured (" Nee nisi prima velitde Tusco serica vico," JIart. xi. 27. 11). In fact, it seems to have been the great shopping street of Rome ; and the Roman gentlemen, whose ladies, perhaps, some- times induced them to spend more than what was agreeable there, vented their ill humour by abusing the tradesmen. According to the scholiast on the passage of Horace just cited, the street was also called Vicus Turarius. This appellation was doubtless derived irom the frarkincense and per- fumes sold in it, whence the alluaon in Horace (^Ep. i. 1. 267):— " Ne capsa porrectus aperta Deferar in vicum vendentem tus et odores, Et piper, et quicquid chartis amicitur ineptis." Being the road from the forum to the circus and Aventine, it was much used for festal processions. Thus it was the route of the Pompa Circensis, which proceeded from the Capitol over the forum, and by the Vicus Tuscus and Velabrum to the circus. (Dionys. vii. 72.) We have seen that the procession of the virgins passed through it from the temple of Apollo outside the Porta Carmentalis to that of Juno Regina on the Aventine. Yet not- withstanding these important and sacred uses, it is one of the charges brought by Cicero against Verres that he had caused it to be paved so villanously that he himself would not have ventured to ride over it. {Verr. i. 59.) We see from this passage that a statue of Vertumnus, the national Etruscan deity, stood at the end of the street next the forum. Becker {Handb. p. 308) places him at the other ex- tremity near the Velabrum. But all the evidence runs the other way; and the lines of Propeitius (iv, 2. 5), who puts the following words into the god's mouth, are alone sufficient to decide the matter {Class. Mus. vok iv. p. 444); — " Nee me tura juvant, nee templo laetor eburno Romanum satis est posse videre forum." Comitium. — Having thusdescribed thestreets which either encircled the forum or afforded outlets from it, we will now proceed to treat of the foium itself, and the objects situated upon and around it, and endea- vour to present the reader with a picture of it as it existed under the Kings, during the R'epublic, and under the Empire. But here, as in the case of the Capitol, we are arrested in the outset by a difficult investigation. Wo know that a part of the forum, called the comitium, was distinguished from llio rest by being apjiropriated to more honourable uses; but what ]iart of the forum it was has been the subject of much dispute. Some, like Canina, have considered it to be a space numing parallel with the forum along its whole southern extent ; whilst others, like Bunsen and Becker, have thought that it formed 3 iJ 4