Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/831

 EOMA. temple was approached by the Cuvus Publicius, which ascent lay at the northern extremity of the Aventine, near the Porta Trigemina; bvit its situa- tion cannot be accurately inferred from this circum- stance. The Clivus Publicius, made, or rather perhaps widened and paved, by the aediles L. and M. Publicii Malleoli, was the main road leading up the hill. (Festus, p. 238 ; Varr. L. L. v. § 158 ; Front, ^gr. 5.) Canina places the temple near the church of S. Sabina, where there are traces of some ancient building (^Indicazione, p. 536). This is one of the temples mentioned as having been rebuilt by Augustus {Mon. Ancyr. tab. iv.) From the document last quoted it would appear that there was a Temfle of Jupiter on the Aventine ; and its existence is also testified by the Fasti Ami- ternini {Id. Aug. fee . lovi . dianae . voRTvamo. IN . AVENTiNO.) ; but we do not find it mentioned in any author. The passage just quoted likewise points probably to a sacellum or Ara of Vortumuus, which the Fasti Capranici mention as being in the Loretum Majus. The Temple of Minerva, also mentioned in the Mon. Ancyranum as having been repaired by Augustus, is better known, and seems to have been in existence at all events as early as the Second Punic War, since on account of some verses which Livius Andronicus had written to be sung in celebration of the better success of the war, this temple was appointed as a place in which scribes, as it appears poets were then called, and actors should meet to offer gifts in honour of Livius. (Festus, p. 333.) From an imperfect inscription (Gruter, xxxis. 5) it would appear that the temple was near the Armilustrium, and indeed it is named in conjunction with it in the Notitia. There was a part of the Aventine called " Saxum," or " Saxum Sacrum " (Cic. Doni. 53), on which Remus was related to have stood when he took the auguries, which must therefore be considered as identical with, or rather perhaps as the highest and most conspicuous part of, the place called Remuria, and consequently on the very summit of the hill. Hence Ovid {Fast. v. 148, seq.): — " interea Diva canenda Bona est. Est moles nativa, loco res nomina fecit, Appellant Saxum; pars bona mentis ea est. On this spot was erected a Temple of the Bona Dea, as Ovid proceeds to say " leniter acclivi jugo." From the expression jugum, we may conclude that it lay about the middle of the hill ; but Hadrian removed it (" Aedem Bonae Deae transtulit," Spart. Hadr. 19), and placed it under the hill; whence it sub- sequently obtained the name of Templum Bonae Deae Subsaxoneae, and now stood in the 12 th Region, or Piscina Publica, where it is mentioned in the Notitia, probably under the SE. side of the Aventine. For a legend of Hercules, connected with the rites of the Bona Dea, see Propertius (v. 9) and Macrobius {Sat. i. 12). Besides these we find a Temple of Luna and one of Libertas mentioned on the Aventine. The former of these is not to be confounded with the temple of Diana, as Bunsen has done {Beschr. iii. p. 412), since we find it mentioned as a substantive temple in several authors. (Liv. xl. 2 ; Aur. Vict. Vir. III. 65 ; Fast. Praen. Prid. Kal. Apr. " Lunae in Ave . . . ;" whilst in the Capran., Amitern.. and Antiat. we find, under Id. Aug., "Dianae in Aven- tino.") It probably stood on the side next the circus. The Temple of Libertas was founded by ROMA. 811 T. Sempronins Graccnus, the father of the conqueror of Beneventum ; the latter caused a picture repre- senting his victory to be placed in the temple. (Liv. xxiv. 16.) Some difficulty has been occasioned by the manner in which the restoration of this temple by Augustus is mentioned in the Monumentum Ancyranum, namely, " Aedes Minei-vae et Junonis Reginae et Jovis Libertatis in Aventino (feci) " (tab. iv. 1. 6). In the Greek translation of this record, discovered in the temple at Ancyra, and communicated by Hamilton {Researches in Asia Min. ii. n. 102), the words " Jovis Libertatis " are rendered Aibs 'EAevOepiov, whence Franz assumed that the Latin text was corrupt, and that we ought to read " Jovis Liberatoris." (Gerhard's A rchdolog. Zeitung, no. ii. p. 25.) But there is no mention of any such temple at Rome, though Jupiter was cer- tainly worshipped there under the title of Liberator (see the section on the Circus Maximus) ; whilst the existence of a temple of Libertas on the Aven- tine is attested not only by the passage just cited from Livy, but also by Paulus Diaconus. (" Liber- tatis templum in Aventino fuerat constructum," p. 121.) Hence it seems most probable that the Greek translation is erroneous, and that the reading " Jovis Libertatis " is really correct, the copula being omitted, as is sometimes the case ; for ex- ample, in the instance " Honoris Virtutis," for Honoris et Virtutis, &c. And thus, in like man- ner, we find a temple of Jupiter Libertas indi- cated in inscriptions belonging to municipal towns of Italy (v. Orell. Inscr. no. 1249, 1282; cf. Becker, Handb. Nachtrage, p. 721 ; Zumpt, in Mon. Ancyr. Commentar. p. 69). Another ques- tion concerning this Templum Libertatis, namely, whether there was an Atrium Libertatis con- nected with it, has occasioned much discussion. The Atrium Libertatis mentioned hy Cicero {ad Att. iv. 16), the situation of which we have examined in a preceding section, could not possibly have been on the Aventine; yet the existence of a second one adjoining the temple of Libertas on that hill has been sometimes assumed, chiefly from Martial (xii. 3). The question turns on the point whether the words " Domus alta Remi," in that epigram, neces- sarily mean the Aventine ; for our own part we think they do not. The question, however, is some- what long; and they who would examine it more minutely may refer to Becker {Handb. p. 458, seq.; Urlichs, Rom. Topogr.'p. 31, seq.; Becker, Antwort, p. 25, seq.; Canina, Indicazione, p. 536, seq.; Ur- lichs, Antwort, p. 5, seq.) As the Basis Capiitolina names among the Vici of the 13th Region, a Vicus Fidii and a Vicus FoR- TUNAE Dubiae, we may perhaps assume that there were temples to those deities on or near the Aven- tine ; but nothing further is known respecting them. The Notitia mentions on the Aventine, " Thermae SuRiANAE ET Decianae." The formerof these baths seem to have been built by Trajan, and dedicated in the name of his friend Licinius Sura, to whom he was partly indebted for the empire. (" Hie ob hono- rem Surae, cujus studio imperium arripuerat, lavacra condidit," Aur. Vict. Epit. 13; cf. Dion Cass. Lxviii. 15; Spart. Adri. 2, seq.) The dwelling of Sura was on that side of the Aventine which faced the Circus Maximus, and probably, as we have said, near the temple of Diana: — " Quique videt propius Magni certamina Circi Laudat Aventinae vicinus Sura Dianae." (Mart. vi. 64. 12.)