Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/828

 808 ROMA. Aedis Victoriae is said to be not at the foot of the Velia, but on the summit of the Palatine. But there is another argument brought forwards by Canina against the height in question being the VeHa. He observes that the area on which the tt'inple of Venus and Rome stands is divided from the Palatine by the Sacra Via, and hence could not have belonged to the Velia ; since the Sacra Via, and all the places on the opposite (northern) side of it, were comprehended in the 1st Regio of Servius, or the Suburana, whilst the Palatine, including the Velia, were contained in the 4th Regio {IiuUcaz. Topogr. p. 462, of Foro Rom. p. 61). Now if this were so. it would certainly be a fatal objection to Niebuhr's view ; but we do not think that any such thing can be inferred from Varro's words. In describing the 1st Region, in which a place called Ceroliensis was included, he says, " Ceroliensis a Carinarum junctu dictus Carinae, postea Cerolia, quod hinc oritur caput Sacrae Viae ab Streniae sa- cello," &c. (L.L.v. §47.) The passage is ob- scure, but we do not see how it can be inferred from it that the Sacra Via formed the boundary between the 1st and 4th Servian Regions. Varro seems rather to be explaining the origin of the name Cero- lia, which he connects with the Sacra Via, but in a manner which we cannot understand. The Sacra Via traversed the highest part of the ridge, and thus on Canina's own showing must have included some part of it in the 4th Region, making a division where no natural one is apparent, which is not at all probable. Besides, if this height was not called Velia, what other name can be found for it ? And it is not at all likely that an eminence of this sort, which is suflBciently marked, and lies in the very heart of the city, should have been without a name. Assuming the Velia, therefore, to have been that rising ground which lies between the valley of the forum on the one hand, and that of the Colosseum on the other, we shall proceed to describe its monuments. The Aedes Penaticm, before referred to as standing on the declivity of the ridge, or Sub Velia, and de- scribed by Dionysius (i. 68), seems to have been one of the most venerable antiquity. In it were preserved the images of the household gods said to have been brought from Troy, having upon them the inscription AENA2, which has given rise to so much controversy ; namely, whether it is a scribe's error for nENAS, that is DENASI = Penatibus, or whe- ther it should have been AI2 MArNI2 (Diis Mag- nis), &c. &c. (See Ambrosch, Stud. u. Aiuleut. p. 231, seq. ; Clausen, Aeneas u. die Penaten, ii. p. 624, n 1116; Hertzberg, de Diis Rom,. Pairiis, lib. ii. t.l8.) We shall here follow our usual rale, and give Dionysius credit for understanding what he was writing about, as there does not appear to be any grave objection to doing so ; and as he immediately adds, after citing the above epigraph, that it referred to the Penates (AENA2 einypa(pT}i' exo""''", StjAoG- aav Toi/5 UevaTas), we shall assume that this was really the temple of the Trojan household gods. The Italian writers regard it as the temple of Remus. We do not find any large buildings mentioned upon the Velia till the time of Nero, who, as we have seen, occupied it with the vestibule of his palace. A considerable part of it had perhaps been a market previously. Close to its NW. foot, immediately be- liind the Aedes Penatium just indicated, Vespasian, after his triumph over Jerusalem, built his celebrated Temple of Peace, to which we have already had occasion to allude, when describing the imperial fora. ROMA. (Joseph. B. J. vii. 5. § 7 ; Suet. Vesp. 9 ; Dion Cass. Ixvi. 1.5.) It stood in an enclosed space, much like the temple of Venus Genitrix in Caesar's forum, or that of Blars Ultor in the fomm of Augustus-, and hence, though not designed like them as a place for legal busi- ness, it was nevertheless sometimes called Forum Pacis. The temple was built with the greatest splendour, and adorned with precious works of art from Nero's palace, as well as with the costly spoils brought from the temple of Jerusalem, which made it one of the richest and most magnificent sanctuaries that the world ever beheld. (Joseph. I.e. ; Plin.xxxiv. 8. s. 84, xxxvi. 24; Herodian, i. 14.) Hence its attraction and notoriety gave a new name to the 4th Region, in which it stood, which was previously called " Sa- cra Via," but now obtained the name of " Templum Pacis." The exact site of this temple was long a subject of dispute, the older topographers maintain- ing that the remains of the three vast arches a little to the E. of the spot just described, and now universally allowed to belong to the basilica of Con- stantine, were remnants of it. Piranesi raised some doubts on the point, but Nibby was the first who assigned to these two monuments their true position {Foro Rom. p. 189, seq.) ; and his views have been further developed and confirmed by Canina. (/«- dicaz. Topogr. p. 131, seq.) As Becker has also adopted the same conclusion, it will not be necessary to state the grounds which led to it, as they would occupy considerable space ; and we shall therefore refer those readers who desire more information on the subject to the works just mentioned. Annexed to the temple was a library, in which the learned were accustomed to meet for the purposes of study and literary intercourse. (A. Gell. v. 21, xvi. 8.) The temple was burnt down a little before the death of Commodns. (Dion Cass. lii. 24; Herodian, i. 14; Galen, de Comp. Sled. i. 1.) It does not appear to have been restored, but the ruins still remained un- disturbed, and the spot is several times mentioned in later writers under the name of Forum Pacis, or Forum Vespasiani (Amm. Marc. xvi. 10 ; Procop B.G. iv. 21 ; Symm. Fp. x. 78; Catal. Imp Vieym. p. 243.) The three arches just alluded to as standing near the temple of Peace, and apparently at the commencement of a road branching off from the Sacra Via, belonged, as is almost universally admitted, to the Basilica CoNSTANTiNi, erected by Maxentius, and dedicated after his death in the name of Constantine. Their architecture has all the characteristics of a basilica, and could not possibly have been adapted to a tem- ple. (Canina, Indicaz. p. 124.) Tlie first notice which we find of this building is in Aurelius Victor (Caesar, 40, 26), who mentions it as having been erected by Maxentius; and this account is confirmed by an accident which happened in 1828, when on the falling in of a part of an arch a coin bearing the name of Maxentius was discovered in the ma- sonry. (Beschr. iii. 298.) In the Cat. Imp. Vienn. p. 243, it is mentioned as occupying the site of the horrea piperataria, or spice warehouses of Donii- tian (" horrea piperataria ubi mndo est Basilica Con- stantiniana et Forum Vespasiani "). These spice ware- houses must have been the same that are related by Dion Cassius (Isxii. 24) to have first caught the flames when the temple of Peace was burnt, A. d. 192, and are described as tos airoBrjKas -roiv t6 'ApaSioiv KoL rwv Klyvmloiv (popTuav ; whence, as the fire spread towards the Palatine, it may be presumed that they stood on the site of the basilica.