Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/817

 EOMA. 121, Blanch; " In ecclesia vero beatnrum Cosmae et Damiani in tribus Fatis," Sec. Id. V.IIadr. ib. p. 254.) Hence perhaps the name of temjiluin fatale applied to the temple of Janus. The last object which we shall have to describe on the forum is the Column of Phocas. Whilst the glorious monuments of Julius and Augustus, the founders of the empire, have vanished, this pillar, erected in the year 608 by Smaragdus, exarch of Kavenna, to one of the meanest and most liateful of their successors, still rears its head to testify the low abyss to which Rome had fallen. It appears from the inscription, which will be found in Canina (Fo7-o Bom. p. 213) and Bunsen (^Beschr.vol. iii. p. 271), that a gilt statue of Phocas stood upon the summit. The name of Phocas has been erased from this co- lumn, probably by Heraclius ; but the date suffi- ciently shows that it must have been dedicated to Liin. Previously to the (hscovery of this inscription, which happened in 1813, it was thought that the column belonged to some building ; and indeed it was probably taken from one, as the workmanship is much superior to what could have been executed in the time of Phocas. Byron alludes to it as the " nameless column with a buried base." In the ex- cavations made in 1816, at the expense of the duchess of Devonshire, the pedestal was discovered to be placed on a raised basis with steps of very in- ferior workmanship. (Murray's Handbook of Rome, p. 62.) It niay be remarked that this column proves the forum to have been in its ancient state, and unencumbered with rubbish, at the commence- ment of the 7th century. Between this pillar and the steps of the Basilica Julia are three large bases intended for statues. V. The Imperial Foea. Forum Julium. — As Rome increased in size, its small forum was no longer capable of accommodating the multitudes that resorted to it on mercantile or legal business ; and we have seen that attempts were early made to afl'ord increased accommodation by erecting various basilicae around it. Under the Empire, when Rome had attained to enormous great- ness, even these did not suffice, and several new fora were constructed by various emperors; as the Forum Caesaris or Julium, the Forum Augusti, the Forum Nervae or Transitorium, and lastly the Forum Tra- jani. The political business, however, was still con- fined to the ancient forum, and the principal use of the new fora was as courts of justice. Probably another design of them was that they should be splendid monuments of their founders. In most cases they did not so much assume the aspect of a forum as that of a temple within an enclosed space, or Ttfjiivos, — the forum of Trajan being the only one that possessed a basilica. From tiiis characteristic of them, even the magnificent temjjle of Peace, erected by Vespasian without any design of its being appropriated to the purposes of a forum, obtained in after times the names of Forum Vespasiani and Foium Pacis. The first foundation of this kind was that of Caesar, enilosing a Temple of Venus Genitiux, which he had vowed before the breaking out of the Civil War. After the battle of Pharsalus the whole plan of it was arranged. It was dedicated after his triumj)!! in li.c. 45, before it was finished, and indeed so hastily that it was necessary to substitute a plaster model for the statue of Venus, which afterwards occupied the cella of the temple. (I'lin. xxxv. EOSIA. 79" 45.) Caesar did not live to see it completed, and it was finished by Augustus, as we learn from tho Momimentum Ancyranum. We are told by Appian {B. C ii. 102) that the temple was surrounded with an open space, or Tf/xfi/os, and that it was nut destined for traffic but for the transaction of legal business. As it stood in the very heart of the city Caesar was compelled to lay out immense sums in purchasing the area for it, which alone is .said to have cost him " super h. s. millies," or about 900,000/. sterling. (Suet. Cues. 26 ; Plin. xxxvi. 24.) Yet it was smaller than the ancient forum, which now, in contradistinction to that of Caesar, obtained the name of Forum ilagnum. (Dion Cass, xliii. 22.) No vestige of the Forum Julium has survived to modem times, and very various opinions have been entertained with regard to its exact site; although most topographers have agreed in placing it behind the N. side of the Foram Romanum, but on sites varying along its whole extent. Nardini was the first who pointed to its correct situation behind the church of Sta Martinq,, but it was reserved for Canina to adduce the proof. We must here revert to a letter of Cicero's (ad Att. iv. 16), which we had occasion to quote when speaking of the restoration of the Basilica Aemilia under the forum of the Republic. It has an im- portant passage with regard to the situation of the Forum Julium, but unfortunately so obscurely worded as to have proved quite a crux to the interpreters. It appears to have been M'ritten in b. c. 54, and runs as follows : " Paullus in medio foro basilicam jam paene texuit iisdem antiquis columnis; illam autem quam locavit facit magnificentissimam. Quid quaeris ? nihil gratius illo monumento, nihil glo- riosius. Itaque Caesaris amici (me dico et Oppium, dirumparis licet) in monumentum illud, quod tu tollere laudibus solebas, ut forum laxaremus et usque ad atrium Libertatis explicaremus, contem- psimus sexcenties H. s. Cum privatis non poterat transigi minore pecunia. Efficiemus rem glorio- sissimam : nam in Campo Martio septa tributis comitiis marmorea sumus et tecta facturi eaque cingemus excelsa porticu," &c. Of these words Becker has given two diflerent interpretations. He first imagined (Handb. p. 302, seq.) that Cicero was speaking only of two buildings : the Basilica Aemilia, which Paullus was restoring, and a new basilica, which the same person was building with Caesar's money, and which was aftei-wards named the Basilica Julia. But before he had finished liis work he altered his mind, and at p. 460 jironounces his opinion that Cicero was speaking of no fewer than four different edifices : 1st, the Basilica Paulli (" Paullus — Columnis ') : 2nd, the Basilica Julia (''il- lam — gloriosius "); 3rd, the Forum Julium (" Itacjuo — pecunia"); 4th, the Septa Julia ("Efficiemus," &c.). With all these views, except the second, we are inclined to agree; but w; do not think it probable that Paullus would be constructing two basilicae at the same time; nor do we perceive how a new one only then in progress could have been a monument that Atticus had been accustomed to praise. The cliief beauty of the b.asilica of Paullus was derived from its colunnis (' Nonne inter magnifica dicamus basilicam Paulli columnis o Phrygibus mirabilem," Plin. xxxvi. 24. s. 1); and though it had undergone two or three subsequent restorations bcfurc the time of Pliny, we arc nevertheless inclined to think tiiat the colunms praised by him were tho very same