Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/826

 806 EOMA. as its successor, the domvs aurea, seems to have occupied as large an extent of ground, and to have reached from the Palatine to the gardens of Maecenas and the agger of Servius on the Esquiline. (Suet. Nero, 31 ; Tac. Ann. xv. 39.) The Auuea Domus was a specimen of insane extravagance. Its atrium or vestibule was placed on the Velia, on the spot where the temple of Venus and Eome after- wards stood, and in it rose the colossal Statue OF Nero, 120 feet high, the base of which is still visible at the NW. side of the Colosseum. We may gain an idea of the vastness of this residence by comparing the prose description of Suetonius with the poetical one of Martial, when we shall see that the latter has not abuf^ed the privilege of his calling. (Suet. Nero, 31 ; Mart, de Sped. 2). It was never perfectly finished, and Vespasian, as we have said, restored the ground to the public. We know but little of the arrangement of the buildings on the Palatine itself under Nero, except that the different parts appear to have retained their former names. Domitian added much to the palace, now again confined to this hill, and fitted it up in a style of extraordinaiy magnificence; but, though we fre- quently hear of single parts, such as baths, diaetae, a portico called Sicilia, a dining-room dignified with the appellation of Coenatio Jovis, &c., yet we are nowhere presented with a clear idea of it as a whole (cf. Plut. Poj)!. 15; Plin. xxxv. 5. s. 38; Capit. Pert. 11 ; Mart. viii. 36; Stat. Silv. iii. 4. 47, iv. 2. 18, &c.) The anxiety and terror of the tyrant are strikingly depicted in the anecdote told by Suetonius {Dom. 1 4), that he caused the walls of the portico in which he was accustomed to walk to be covered with the stone, or crystallised gypsum, called phengites, in order that he might be able to see what was going on behind his back. It is uncertain where the Adonaea, or gardens of Adonis, lay, in ■which Domitian received Apollonius of Tyana, and which are marked on a fragment of the Capitoline plan (Bellori, tab. xi.) Of the history of the palace little more is known. Several accounts mention the domus aurea as having been burnt down in the reign of Trajan (Oros. vii. 12; Hieron. an. 105, p. 447, Konc), and the palace which succeeded it appears to have been also destroyed by fire in the reign of Commodus (Dion Cass. Ixxii. 24; Herodian, i. 14.) At the southern extremity of the Palatine, Septi- mius Severus built the Septizonium, considerable remains of which existed tOl near the end of the THE SEPTIZOMIUM. EOMA. 16th century, when Pope Sixtus V. caused the pillars to be carried off to the Vatican. Representations of the ruins will be found in Du Pe'rac (tav. 13) and Gamucei (^Antichita di Roma, p. 83, Speculum Rom. Magnijicentiae, t. 45). The name of the building, which, however, is very variously written in the MSS. of different authors, is by some supposed to have been derived from its form, by others from the circumstance of seven roads meeting at this spot. It seems not improbable that a similar place existed before the time of Severus, since Suetonius mentions that Titus was born near the Septizonium (c. 2); though topographers, but without any adequate grounds, have assigned this to the 3rd Region. It has been inferred from the name that the building had seven rows of columns, one above another, but this notion seems to be without foundation, as the ruins never exhibited traces of more than three rows. The tomb of Severus must not be confounded with it, which, as we learn from Spartianus, was on the Via Appia, and built so as to resemble the Septizonium. The same author informs us (5ev. 24) that the design of Severus was to make the Septizonium an atrium of the palace, so that it should be the first object to strike the eyes of those coming from Africa, his native country. But the true nature and destination of the building remain enigmatical. We know of no other alterations in the palace except some slight ones under the emperors Elaga- balus and Alexander Severus. The former conse- crated there the Temple of Heliogablus (Lampr. Heliog. 3; Herodian, v. 5), and opened a public bath, also destined apparently as a place of licentiousness (Lampr. Ih. 8). Of the buildings of Alexander Severus we hear only of a diaeta, erected in honour of his mother Julia Mammaea, and commonly called " ad Mammam " (Id. Al. Sev. 26). These diaetae were small isolated buildings, commonly in parks, and somewhat resembled a modern Roman casino or pavilion (Plin. Ep. ii. 17, v. 6). It is also related of both these emperors that they caused the streets of the Palatine to be paved with porphyry and verde antico (Lampr. Eel. 24, Al. Sev. 25). The Palatium was probably inhabited by Maxentius during his short reign, after which we hear no more of it. That emperor is said to have founded baths there. {Catal. Imp. Vienn. t. ii. p. 248, Eonc.) The Victoria Germaniciana, the only object recorded in the Notitia between the Septizonium and the Lupercal, and which must therefore have stood on the side next the circus, was probably one of those numerous monuments erected either in honour of Germanicus, of which Tacitus speaks (^Ann. ii. 83), or else to Caracalla, who likewise bore the name of Germanicus (Preller, Regionen, p. 187). We have already treated generally of the Velia and Sacra Via, and of some of the principal objects con- nected with them, as well as of the Nova Via under the Palatine. The Nova Via was not a very important road, and we have little more to add respecting it. It seems to have begun at the Porta Mugionis, where, like the Sacra Via, at the same spot, it was called Summa Nova Via (Solin. i. 1). From this place it ran almost parallel with the Sacra Via, and between it and the hill, as far as its northern point, where it turued to the S., and still continued to run along the base of the Palatine as far at least as the Porta Romanula (near S. Giorgio in Velahro). Some, indeed, carry it on as far as the Circus JIaximus (Canina, Indie. Top. p. 331); a view which does not I