Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/839

 ROMA. The Lddus SIatutinus et Galltcus (or Dacicus), the Spoliarium, Saniauium, and Armamenta- rium, were evidently gladiatorial schools with their appurtenances, situated apparently on the northern side of the Caelian, not far from the amphitheatre. Officers attached to these institutions are frequently mentioned in inscriptions. The Spoliarium and Ar- mamentarium speak for themselves. The Saniarium is a word that does not occur elsewhere, and is thought by Preller to denote a hospital (a sanie) where tlie wounded gladiators were received. For a further account of these institutions see Preller, Regionen, pp. 120 — 122. Lastly, the Mica Aurea appears from an epigram of Martial's to Bave been a banqueting room of Domitian's (ii. 59): — " Mica vocor; quid sim cernis; coenatio parva. Ex me Caesareum prospicis, ecce, tholum." It is also mentioned, along with the Meta Sudans, as built by Domitian in the Chronica Regia Colo- iiiensis, in Eccard's Corpus Historicmn (vol. i. p. 745.) X. The District to the S. of the Caelian. To the S. of the Caelian lies a somewhat hilly district, bounded on the W. by the Aventine, and comprehending the 1st and 12th Regions of Au- gustus, or those called Porta Capena and Piscina Publica. The latter of these is decidedly the least important district of Rome, but the former presents several objects of considerable interest. Qf the Porta Capena itself we have already treated. In its immediate vicinity stood the double Temple of HoNos AND Virtus, vowed by Marcellus in his Gallic wars, but not erected till after his conquest of Syracuse. It was the first intention of Marcellus that both the deities should be under the same roof; and, indeed, the temple seems to have been a mere restitution of an ancient one dedicated to Honos by Q. Fabius Verrucosus many years before. (Cic. N. D. ii. 23.) But when Marcellus was about to dedicate it, and to introduce the statue of another deity within the sanctuary, the pontifices interposed, and forbade him to do so, on the ground that the procuralio, or expiation of any prodigy occurring in a temple so constructed, would be difficult to perform. (Liv. xxvii. 25.) Hence, Marcellus was constrained to add another temple of Virtus, and to erect two images of the deities " separatis aedibus;" but though the work was pressed on in haste, he did not live to dedicate them. (Liv. I. c. ; Val. JIax. i. 1. § 8.) Nevertheless, we frequently find the temple mentioned in the singular number, as if it had formed only one building (" ad aedem Honoris atque Virtutis,'' Cic. Verr. iv. 54 ; cf. Ascon. ad Cic. in Pis. 1 9 ; also the Nolitia and Curiosmn.') Hence, perhaps, the most natural conclusion is that it con- sisted of two celiac under the same roof, like the temple of Venus and Rome, a form which agrees with the description of Symmachus : " Majores nostri — aedcs Honori ac Virtuti gemella facie junctim locarunt." (^Epist. i. 21.) The temple was adorned with the spoils of Grecian art brought by Marcellus from Syracuse ; an instance noted and condemned by Livy as the first of that kind of spoliation, which he observes was subsequently inflicted upiin the Roman temples themselves, and especially upon this very temple of Marcellus; for, in Livy's time, few of those ornaments remained, which had pre- viously rendered it an object of attraction to all strangers who visited Rome (xxv. 40, cf. xxxiv. 4). ROMA. 819 They probably disappeared during the Civil Wars, in which the Roman temples seem to have suffered both from neglect and spoliation; for in the time of Cicero the Syracusan spoils still existed in the temple (m Verr. iv. 54). It appears to have been burnt in the fire of Nero, since it is mentioned as having been restored by Vespasian. (Plin. xxxv. 37.) According to Aurelius Victor ( Vir. Til. 32) the annual procession of the Roman knights to the temple of Castor started from this temple of Hunos and Virtus, whereas Dionysius (xi. 13) names the temple of Mars as the starting-place. Becker (IIa?idb. p. 311) regards the discrepancy between these accounts as tending to prove the correctness of his assumption that the temples must have lain close together. That one of the accounts is er- roneous is a more probable conclusion, and it is a certain one that it is fallacious to draw any topo- graphical deductions from such very shadowy pre- mises. The true site of the Temple of Mars has been ascertained as satisfactorily as that of any of the monuments which do not actually speak for themselves ; such, we mean, as the Colosseum, Trajan's column, the Pantheon, and others of the like description. There can be no doubt that the temple of Mars, instead of being close to the Porta Capena, or at S. Sisto, as Becker places it (^Ilandb. p. 513), lay on the Via Appia, at the distance of about 1^ miles from that gate. The proofs are overwhelming. In the first place an inscription, still preserved in the Vatican, recording the level- ling of the Clivus Martis, was found in the Vigna Nari, outside of the Porta Appia (the modern S. Sebastiano). Secondly, another inscription, in the Palazzo Barberini, recorded by Fabretti (Inso: p. 724, no. 443), Marini (^Fratr. Arv. p. 8), and others, testifies that Salvia Marcellina gave a piece of ground to the Collegium of Aesculapius and Hygia for a small temple, close to the temple of Mars, between the first and second milestone on the Via Appia, on the left-hand side in going from the city. Thirdly, both the Notitia and Curiosum place the Aedes Martis at the extremity of the first Regio, close to the Flumen Almonis. The Almo flows outside the Porta Appia, near the Vigna Nari :— " Est locus ante urbem, qua primum nascitur ingens Afjpia, quaque Italo gemitus Almone Cybebe Ponit, et Idaeos jam non reminiscitur amncs." (Stat. S/fo. v. 1.222.) A brook now flows between the Porta S. Sebas- tiano and the church of JJomiiie quo vadis, which, with great probability, has been identified with the Almo. (Cluver, Ital. Ant. p. 718; Westphal,' Rom. Campagna, p. 17.) Fourthly, the same locality is indicated by several documents of the middle ages. Thus, in the Ads of the Martyrs: " Tunc B. Ste- phanus ductus a inilitibus foras muros Appiac porfao ad T. JIartis " CAct of S. Stephanus and S. Julius). " Diacones duxerunt in clivum Martis ante templum et ibidem decollatus est" (Act ofS. Sij-t7t.^). And the Mirabilia (in MoiUfaucon, Viar. Ital. p. 283) : " Haec sunt loca quae inveniuiitur in passionibus sanctorum foris portam Appiam, ubi beatiis Syxtus decollatus fuit, et ubi Dominus apparuit Pctro, Domine quo vadis? Vox templum Martis, intus portam, areas Syllae." Now, the passages in the classics which relate to the subject do not run counter to these indications, but, on the contrary, 3o 2