Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/818

 798 EOjVIA. •ftliich Atticus had so often admired. However this may be, we see through the obscurity of Cicero's letter the rough sketch of a magnificent design of Caesar's, which Iiad not yet been per- fectly matured. The whole space from the back of the Basilica Aemilia as far as the Septa Julia in the Campus JIartius was to be thrown open; and perhaps even the excavation of the extremity of the Quirinal, ultimately executed by Trajan, may have been comprised in the plan. Cicero is evidently half ashamed of this vast outlay in favour of Caesar, and seeks to excuse it with Atticus by leading him to infer that it will place his favourite monument in a better point of view. When Cicero wrote the plau was evidently in a crude and incipient state. The first pretence put forth was probably a mere extension of the Forum Romanum ; but when Caesar a few years later attained to supreme power the new foundation became the Forum Julium. In his position some caution was requisite in these af- fairs. Thus the curia of Faustus was pulled down under pretence of erecting on its site a temple of Felicitas — a compliment to the boasted good for- tune of Sulla, and his name of Felix. But instead of it rose the Curia Julia. The discrepancy in the sums mentioned by Cicero and Suetonius probably arose from the circumstance that as the work pro- ceeded it was found necessary to buy more houses. If this buying up of private houses was not for the Forum Julium, for what purpose could it possibly have been ? The Curia Julia stood on the site of the Curia Hostilia, the Basilica Julia on that of the Sempronia, and we know of no other buildings de- signed by Caesar about the forum. With regard to the situation of the Atrium Li- BERTATis, to which Cicero says the forum was to be extended, we are inclined to look for it, with Becker, on that projection of the Quirinal which was sub- sequently cut away in order to make room for the forum of Trajan. The words of Livy, " Censores extemplo in atrium Libertatis escenderunt " (xliii. 16), seem to point to a height. A fragment of the Capitoline plan, bearing the inscription liber- tatis, seems to be rightly referred by Canina to the Basilica Ulpia. (^Furo Rom. p. 185; cf. Becker, Antioort, tfc. p. 29.) Now, if our conjecture re- specting the site of the Atrium Libertatis is cor- rect, it would have been occupied by the forum of Trajan and its appurtenances ; and it therefore appears probable that the Atrium was comprehended in the Basilica Ulpia. Nor is this a mere unfounded guess, since it appears from some lines of Sidonius Apollinaris {Epig. 2), that in his time the Basilica Ulpia was the place where slaves received their manu- mission. And that the old Atrium Libertatis was de- voted to manumission and other business respecting slaves appears from several passages .of ancient authors. Thus Livy : "Postremo eo descensum est, ut ex quatuor urbanis tribubus unam palam in Atrio Libertatis sortirentur, in quam omnes, qui servitutem servissent, conjicerent " (xlv. 1,5). And Cicero: " Sed quaestiones urgent Milonem, quae sunt habitae nunc in Atrio Libertatis: Quibusnam de servis?" &c. {Mil. 22). Lastly, it may be mentioned that the following fragment of an inscription was found near the church of S. Martina, and therefore near this bpot : — SENATVS. POPVEVSQVE [rOALiUJVS] LIBERTATI. (Canina, Foro Rom. p. 391). The preceding letter of Cicero's points to the EO:IA. Forum Julium as closely adjoining the Basilica Ae- milia, and there are other circumstances that may be adduced in proof of the same site. Ovid {Fast. i. 258) alludes to the temple of Janus as lying be- tween two fora, and these must have been the Forum Romanum and the Forum Caesaris. Pliny's story (xvi. 86) of the lotus-tree on the Vulcanal, the roots of which penetrated to the forum of Caesar, whatever may be its absolute truth, must at all events have possessed sufficient probability to be not actually incredible; and there is no situation for Caesar's forum which tallies with that story better than that here assigned to it with relation to the site of the Vulcanal, as established in the preceding pages. Our Vulcanal need not have been distant more than about 30 yards from the Forum Julium; that of Becker lies at about five times that distance from it, and would render Pliny's account utterly improbable. Palladio mentions that in his time considerable remains of a temple were discovered behind the place where the statue of SJarforio then stood, near the church of S. Martina, which, from the cornice being adorned with sculptures of dolphins and tridents, he took to be one dedicated to Neptune. But as we have no accounts of a temple of Neptune in this neighbourhood, and as these emblems would also suit the sea-born goddess, it seems probable that the remains belonged to the temple of Venus Genitrix. This is still more strikingly confirmed by Palladiu's account of its style of architecture, which was pycnostyle, as we know that of Venus to have been. {Arckit. lib. iv. 31; comp. Vitruv. iii. 23.) We can hardly doubt, therefore, that the forum of Caesar lay on this spot, as is indicated by so many various circumstances. The only objection that has been urged against it is the following passage of Servius, which places the Argiletum, a district which undoubtedly adjoined the Forum Julium, in quite a diflerent part of the town: " Sunt geminae belli portae — Sacrarium hoc Numa Pompilius fecerat cir(M imum Argiletum juxta theatrum Marcelli, quod fuit in duobus brevissimis templis. Duobus autem propter Janum bifrontem. Postea captis Faliscis, civitate Tusciae, inventum est simulacrum Jani cum frontibus quatuor. Unde quod Numa in- stituerat translatum est ad fonim Transitorium et quatuor portarum unum templum est institutum " {ad Vii'fj. Aen. vii. 607). That the Argiletum adjoined the forum of Caesar is evident from the following epigram of Martial's (i. 117. 8): — " Q'aod quaeris propius petas licebit Argi nempe soles subire letum: Contra Caesaris est forum taberna Scriptis postibus hinc et inde totis Onmes ut cito perlegas poetas. Illinc me pete, ne roges Atrectum; Hoc nomen dominus gerit tabernae." Hence, if Servius is right, the forum of Caesar could not have been where we have placed it, but on the S. side of the Capitoline hill ; and this opinion has found some defenders (Mommsen, Annali deW Instit. vol. xvi. p. 311, seq.) We trust, however, that the situation of the small temple of Janus, the index belli pacisque, has been clearly established by what we have said in the former part of this article. Servius is evidently confounding this little temple with the larger one near the theatre of Marceilus; and indeed the whole passage is a heap of trash. For how can we connect such remote events as tiie