Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/842

 822 rOMA. TOMB OF METELLA CAECILIA. DoMUS CiLOXis. and Doius Cornificies. The Domus Parthonim and Cilonis seem to have been some of those palaces erected by Septimius Severus, and presented to his friends. (Aur. Vict. Epit. 20.) Cilon is probably the same person mentioned by Dion (Ixxvii. 4), Spartian (Carac. 3), and in the fJigest (i. 12. l,and 15. 4.) The Parthi seem to have been Parthian nobles, whom Severus brought with him to Rome, and of whose luxurious habits Tertullian has drawn a characteristic picture. {De Hah. Mul. 7.) The Privata Adkiani and the Domus Cornifi- cies (Cornificiae) mentioned in the Notitia, lay doubtless close together. The former must have been the private residence of Hadrian, where M. Antoninus dwelt after his adoption by that emperor. (Jul. Capit. 3f. Anton. .5.) M. Antoninus had a younger sister named Anna Cornificia, to whom the house bearing ber name doubtless belonged. (/6. c. 1 ; Prcller, Eegionen, p. 198.) XI. The Esquiline and its Neighbourhood. The Esquiline (^Esquiliae, or in a more ancient form Exqtiiliae) was originally covered with a thick wood, of which, in the time of Varro, the only re- mains were a few sacred groves of inconsiderable extent, the rest of the liill liaving been cleared and covered with buildings. (Varr. L. L. v. § 49, Miill.) Yet the derivation of the name of the hill from aesctdetwn seems to have been unknown to an- tiquity, and is a mere conjecture of Miiller's (ad foe); the ancient etymology being derived either from excuhiae regis, because Servius TuUius had fixed his abode there, or from excokre, because the hill was first cleared and settled by that king. (Varr. I. c; Ov. Fast. iii. 245.) We have already described the Esquiline as throwing out two tongues or projections, called respectively, in the more ancient times of lioine, Oppius and Cispius. Their relative situation is in- dicated in the following passage of Festus : " Op- pius autem appellatus est, ut ait Varro rerum humanarum L. viii., ab Opita Oppio Tusculano, qui cum praesidio Tusculanorum missus ad Romam tuenclam, dum Tullus Hostilius Veios oppugnaret, consederat in Carinis et ibi castra habuerat. Simi- liter Cispium a Laevio Cispio Anagnino, qui ejus- dem rei causa earn partem Esquiliarum, quae jacet ad vicum Patricium versus, in qua regione est aedis Mefitis, tuitus est " (p. 348, Jliill.). Hence we learn that the Cispius was that projection which adjoined the Vicus Patricius, and must con.se- quently have been the northern one, since the Vicus Patricius is known to have corresponded with the modern streets called Via Urhana and Via di S.Pu- demiana, which traverse the valley lying between tlie Viminal and the Esquiline. The following passage of Paulus Diaconus shows that the Vicus Patricius must have lain in a valley : " Patricius vicus Romae dictus eo, quod ibi patricii habitaverunt, jubente Servio Tullio, ut, si quid molirentur adversus ipsum, ex locis superioribus opprimerentur " (p. 221, Miill.); and its identity with the modern streets just mentioned appears from Anastasius ( Vita Pii /.) : " Hie ex ropatu beatae Prassedis dedicavit ecclesiam thermas Novati in vico Patricii in honorem sororis suae sanctae Potentianae" (p. 14). This church of S. Pudenziana still exists in the street of the same name. It is also mentioned by the Anonymous of Einsiedlen, in -whose time most of the streets still bore their ancient names, as being " in vico Pa- tricii." That the Cispius was the smaller and more northern tongue likewise appears from the sacred books of the Argives {ap. Varr. L. L. v. § 50), which, in proceeding northwards from the Caelian, first name the Oppius, which had four sacraria ur chapels, and then the Cispius, which, being the smaller hill, had only two, namely, the Lucus Poe- telius and the Aedes Junonis Lucinae. From the passage of Festus just quoted, it ap- pears that part of Mons Oppius bore the name of Carinae; and this appellation continued to exist when the names Oppius and Cispius had fallen out of use and been superseded by the general name of Esquiliae. Yet it is one of the contested points of Roman topography whether the Carinae formed part of the hill. The Italians still cling to the an- cient opinion that under that name was compre- hended the low ground from the Forum Transi- torium to the Colosseum. Becker (Ilandb. p. 522, seq.) partly adopted this view, but at the same time