Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/838

 .818 ROMA. 6t4p(i>ffe, Ixi. 18). Nardini, who is followed by Canina (lndicado7ie, p. 83), is of opinion that the cliuich of S. Stefano Rotondo was part of the macelluni, perhaps a slausjhter-house with a dome, and surrounded with porticoes. MACELLUM. The Castra Peregrina recorded in the Notitia are not mentioned by any author except Ammianus Marcellinus, who relates that Chnodomar, when conquered by Julian, was conducted to and died in this camp on the Caelian (xvi. 12, extr.) The name, however, occurs in inscriptions, and sometimes in connection with a temple of Jupiter Redux, as in that found in the cliurch of S. Maria in Domnica (Gruter, xxii. 3; Orelh 1256). These inscriptions also mention a Princeps Peregrinorum, the nature of whose office we are unacquainted with; but it seems probable that he was the commander of the foreign troops stationed in this camp. Near the same church were found several little marble ships, apparently votive offerings, and one which stood a long while before it gave to the church and to the surrounding place the name of della Navicella. An IsiUM, or temple of Isis, is mentioned by Treb. Pollio {XXX. Tijrun.2b) on the Caelian, but it occurs nowhere else. It was probably one of the many temples erected to this goddess by Caracalla (Lampr. Carac. 9.) The spring called the Aqua Mercurii recorded by Ovid near the Porta Capena (Fasti, V. 673) was rediscovered by M. Fea in 1828, in the vigna of the Padri Camaldolesi di S. Gregorio. On the Caelian was also the Campus Martialis in which the Equiria were held in March, in case the Campus Martius was overflowed (Ovid, Fast. V. 673; Paul. Diac. p. 161). Its situation rests chiefly on conjecture ; but it was probably near the Lateran; where the neighbouring church of S. Gregorio, now S. Maria Jmperatrice, was called in the middle ages " in Campo Martio " (Canina, Indicasione, p. 84.) In the Imperial times the Caelian was the resi- dence of many distinguished Romans ; and it is here that JIavtiul places the " limina potentiorum " (xii. 8). We have already had occasion to allude to the House of Ci^vudius Centumalus on this hill, which was of such an extraordinary height that the augurs commanded him to lower it ; but this was dur- ing the Republic. Under the Empire we may mention the House of Mamurra, a Roman knight of For- miae, and praefectus fabrum of Caesar in his Gallic wars, the splendour of which is described by Pliny (xxxvi. 7), and lampooned by Catullus (xlii. 4). Here also was the House of Annius Verus, the grandfather of Marcus Aurelius, in which that em- peror was educated, situated near the house of the Laterani (Jul.Capit. M. An'.. 1 ) It appears to have been surrounded with gardens ; and according to the Italian writer Yacca {Meriwr. 18) the noble eques- ROMA. trian statue of Marcus Aurelius which now adorns the Capitol was discovered in a vineyard near the Scala Santa. On the same hill were the Aedes Victi- LiANAB where Commodus sought refuge from the uneasy thoughts which tormented him in the palace, but where he could not escape the snares of the assassin (Lampr. Comni. 16; Jul. Capitijl. Pert. 5). But the most remarkable of all these residences was the Palace of the L.terani, characterised by Juvenal (x. 18) as the " egregiae Lateranorum aedes," the residence of the consul Plautius Lateranus, whose participation in Piso's conspiracy against Nero cost him his life (Tac. Ann. XV. 49, 60). After this event the palace of the Laterani seems to have been confiscated, and to have become imperial property, since we find Septimius Severus presenting it to his friend Late- ranus, probably a descendant of the family to which it had once belonged (Aur. Vict. Epit. 20). Sub- sequently, however, it appears to have been in the possession of the emperor Constantine, who erected upon its site the celebrated basilica which still bears the name of the Lateran, and presented it to the bishop of Rome (Niceph. vii. 49). The identity of the spot is proved by several inscriptions found there, as well as by the discovery of chambers and baths in making the facade of the modern basilica (Venuti, Kama Ant. P. i. c. 8 ; Canina, Indic. p. 8.5). The DoMUS Philippi mentioned in the Notitia was probably the private house of the emperor of that name. Lastly, we may mention that on the Caelian was the House of Symmachus, tho strenuous defender of paganism in the reign of Va- lentinian (Symm. Ejnst. iii. 12, 88, vii. 18, 19). There are a few other objects on the Caelian mentioned in the Notitia, some of which, however, hardly admit of explanation Such is the Atriuim or Antrum Cyclopis, respecting which we cannot say whether it was a cavern, or an area surrounded with porticoes. Whatever it was it seems to have stood on the S. side of the hill, since the vicus Ab Cyclopis in the 1st Region, or Porta Capena, was pro- bably named after it ( Preller, Reg. p. 1 1 9.) The Caput Africae of the Notitia, which likewise appears in several inscriptions (Orell. 2685, 2934, 2935), is thought to have been a street in the neighbourhood of the Colosseum, since the Anonymus Einsiedlensis mentions it between the Meta Sudans and the church of 55. Qualtro Coronati; whence it is held to have corresponded with the modern street which bears the name of that church (Nibby, Mura di Roma, p. 173, note 140; Urlichs, Rom. Tojwgr. p. 101). Becker observes {Handb. p. 508), that the name does not appear in any earlier writer, and connects it with some building founded by Septimius Severus, in order to strike his countrymen, the Africans, who arrived at Rome by the Via Appia; though, as Urlichs observes, they must have gone rather out of their way " to be imposed upon." Varro mentions a Vicus Africus on the Esquiline, so named because the African hostages in the Punic War were said to have been detained there ("' f^xquilis vicus Africus, quod ibi obsides ex Africa hello Punico dicuntur custoditi," L. L. v. § 159). Hence it is very pro- bable, as Canina remarks (indicaz. p, 91), that the he.ad, or beginning, of this street stood at the spot indicated by the Anonymus, namely, near the Colosseum, whence it ran up in the direction of the Esquiline, although Becker {Handb. p. 560) denies that the Caput Africae had any connection with the Vicus Africus. The Arbor Sancta is inexplicable