Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/816

 796 ROIIA. statue was discovered with an inscription purporting that it was erected by the sjuild of bakers to Anto- ninus Pius. In the time of Palladio the temple was a great deal more perfect than it is at present, and Lad an atrium in front, in the middle of which stood the bronze equestrian statue of M. Aurelius, which now adorns the Capitol. {Architettura, lib. iv. c. 9.) The inscription in Gruter (cclix. 6) probably be- longed to the pedestal of this statue. It was found in the Sacra Via in 1562. Some difficulty, however, arises with regard to this account, since from various other sources we learn that the statue stood for a long while before the church of St. John Lateran. From Palladio's account of the cortile, or court, it would appear that the building lay some distance back from the Sacra Via. In the reign of Commodus a destructive fire, which lasled several days, occasioned much damage in the neighbourhood of the foram, and destroyed among other things the temple of Vesta. (Herodian, i. 14.) According to Dion Cassins the same fire ex- tended to the Palatine and consumed almost all the records of the empire (Ixxii. 24). It was on the same occasion that the shop of Galen, which stood on the Sacra Via, was burnt down, and also the Palatine Library, as he himself assures us. {De Compos. Medicam. i. c. 1.) This damage seems to have been repaired by Septimius Severus, the munificent restorer of the Roman buildings, who with a rare generosity com- monly refrained from inscribing his own name upon them, and left their honours to the rightful founders (" Romae omnes aedes publicas, quae vitio temporum labebantur, instauravit; nusquam prope suo nomine inscripto, serv.atis tamen ubique titulis conditorum," Spart. Sever, c. ult.). Of the original monuments erected by that emperor the principal one was the Ar- cus Seveki or triumphal arch, which still exists in good preservation at the top of the Roman forum. The inscription informs us that it W!is dedicated to Seve- rus, as well as to his two sons, Caracalla and Geta, in his third consulate and the 11th year of his reign, consequently in A. d. 203. Between the temple of Concord and the arch, the church of SS. Sergio e Bacco was built in the middle ages, with its tower ARCH OF SEPXOIIUS SEVERUS. resting upon the arch. It appears from a medal of Caracalla that a chariot with six horses and jiersons within it stood on the summit of the arch, and other persons on horseback at the sides, supposed to be the emperor's sons. It was erected partly in front of the temple of Concord, so as in some degree to cjnceal the view of that building, and thus to dis- ROMA turb the whole arrangement of the edifices at this part of the foram. Originally it does not seem to have spanned any road, as the latest excavations show tluit it stood somewhat elevated above the level of the forum, and that the two side arches were approached by means of steps. (Canina, Foro Rom. p. 202.) The paved road that may be now seen under it must have been made at a later period. It would be quite a mistake to suppose that the Sacra Via passed under it. This road (here the Clivtis Capitolinus) began to ascend the hill in front of the temple of Saturn and under the arch of Tiberius. There seem to have been several other arches in the neighbourhood of the curia or senatus, and further on in the street which led into the Campus JMartius; but whether these belonged to the nume- rous ones before alluded to as erected by Domitian, or were the works of a later age, cannot be deter- mined, nor are they of such importance as to justify any extended research in this place. The hap- hazard names bestowed on them in the middle ages, as Arcus manus carneae, and perhaps also pank aurei, afford no clue by which to determine their meaning with any certainty. Aurelian erected a golden statue of the Genius of THE Roman People on the rostra; and that these were the ancient rostra may be inferred from this statue being mentioned as close to the senaius, or curia, in the Notitia. ("Aurelianus — Genium Populi Romani in Rostra posuit," Catal. Imp. Vlenn. t. ii. p. 246, ed. Rone. ; "continet, — Genium PopuliRomaui aureuni et Equum Constantini, Senatum, Atrium Jlinervae," &c. Not. Reg. viii.) The same inference may be deduced from a passage in Dion Cassius (slvii. 2), which describes some vultures settling on the temple of Concordia, as also on the sacellum of the Genius of the People; but as this passage relates to Augustus and Antony, it likewise proves that the sacellum must have been there long previously to the time of Am-elian, though when it was erected cannot be determined. The Equus Constantini, re- corded in the preceding passage of the Notitia, is also mentioned by the Anonymus Einsiedlensis near the arch of Severus, under the title of Cavallus Constan- tini. We shall here mention three other statues which stood in this neighbourhood, since they sei-ve to con- firm the topography of it as already described. Pliny mentions three Statues of the Sibyl as standing near the rostra. (" Equidem et Sibyllae juxta Ros- tra esse non miror, tres sint licet," xxxiv. 11.) That he meant the ancient rostra is evident from his going on to say that he considered these statues to be among the earliest erected in Rome. At a late period of the Empire these seem to have ob- tained the name of the Fates (JAoipai or Parcae). They are mentioned by Procopius, in a passage be- fore alluded to, as in the vicinity of the curia and temple of Janus (^x*' ^^ "^^^ viihv tV t?) ayop^ Trph Tov ^ovKivT-qpiov 6iyov vmpSdvTi ra rpia (puTa • oiiroj yap 'Punouoi ras Moipas veuon'iKacn fcaAeic, B. G. i. 25.) A whole street or district in this quarter seems to have been named after them, since both the modern church of 5. Adriano, at the eastern corner of the Via Bonella, and that of SS. Cosmo e Damiano, which stands a little beyond the temple of Faustina, and consequently out of the pro- per boundaries of the forum, are said to have been founded in it. (" Fecit ecclesiam beato Adriano martyri in tribus Fatis,' Auastas. V. Honar. i. p.