Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/843

 ROMA. extended the district so as to embrace the western extremity of the Oppius ; whilst Urlichs, on the con- trary, confined the Carinae entirely to that hill. (^Beschr. vol. iii. part ii. p. 119, seq.) That the Italian view is, at all events, partly erroneous, can hardly admit of a question. Besides the pre- ceding passage of Festus, which clearly identifies tlie Carinae as part of the Oppius, there are other places in ancient writers which show that a portion at least of the district so called lay on a height. Thus Dionysius, speaking of the Tigillum Sororium, says that it was situated in the lane which led down from the Carinae to the Vicus Cyprius (eo-rt 5' dy Tw ffrffonr^ Tcji (pipovri diTo Kapivrjs koltco rots ewl Toc Kvwpiov ipxofJ-eyois crfvcoirov, iii. 22). Again Varro (L. L. v. § 48), in describing the Subura or valley at the foot of the Oppius, says that it lay " sub muro terreo Carinarum;" obviously in- dicating that the latter place was on a height. Becker, indeed, maintains that walls of earth or aggeres were used in fortification only where the ground was level. But a wall on a height was cer- tainly the usual mode of fortification in ancient Italy; and, as Jlr. Bunbury justly remarks (^Class. Mus. vol. V. p. 222), the peculiar appellation of " murus terreus " clearly distinguishes this wall from a common agyer. Nor, as the Subura lay be- hind the gorge between the Esquiline and Quirinal, is it easy to see how any murus terreus in the dis- trict of the Carinae could have been so situated as to overhang the Subura, except upon the hill. The following words of Varro (/. c.) are even perhaps still more conclusive. He identifies the Subura with the Pagus Succusanus, — the ancient name of Subura being Succusa, by an interchange of h and c, — and holds it was thus named " quod succurrit Carinis:" where, whatever we may think of his etymology, it is plain that he regarded the Carinae as a height. It may be added that the western part of the Oppius, where the church of S. Pietro ill VincoU now stands, bore the name of le Carre as late as the 16th century. (And. Fulvius, de Urh. Ant. p. 304; cf. Niebuhr, Eist. i. p. 390, seq.) It cannot therefore be doubted that the Carinae occupied the extremity of the Oppius; but how far that district extended eastwards cannot be said. It is a more difficult question to determine whether part of the valley lying at the western foot of the hill also bore the name of Carinae. Its solution is connected with another question respecting the site (if the Temple of Tellus We know that this temple — which was a considerable one, since assem- blies of the senate were sometimes held in it — lay in the Carinae, and that it was built on the site of the house of Sp. Cassius, which was confiscated and pulled down when that demagogue was con- victed of a design to make himself sovereign of Rome. (Liv. ii. 41 ; Val. ]Iax. vi. 3. § 1 ; Plin. xxxiv. 14.) That event took place b. c. 48.5 ; but the temple does not seem to have been built till r.c. 2C9. Its site is further determined by notices respecting the house of I'ompey, which subsequently came into the possession of M. Antony, the situation of which is known to have been in the Carinae, and at the same time close to the temple of Tellus: " Docuit (Le- naeus) in Carinis, ad Telluris aedem, in qua regione Ponipeiorum domus fuerat." (Suet. 111. Gramm. 1,5, ef. Id. Tib. 15; Veil. Pat. ii. 77; Aur. Vict. Vir. III. 84; Dion Cass, xlviii. 38.) And Servius says expressly, though in some respects unintelligibly, " Carinae sunt aedificia facta in Carinarum modum, ROMA. 823 quae erant circa templum Telluris " (atZ ^c«. viii 361). There is nothing in the preceding passages to exclude the possibility of the Templum Telluris having been on the summit of the hill ; since it is not necessary to assume with Urlichs that it stood on its very edge {Rom. Topogr. p. 117) ; in which case, as there was an area attached to the temple, its back front must have been turned towards the road leading up to it from the valley, and the area have lain before it on the summit of the hill - a dis- position which does not appear very probable. Yet there are some other circunjstances tending to the in- ference that the temple was situated in the valley. Dionysius mentions it as being, not in the Carinae, but on the road leading to the Carinae (Kaih. iriv iirl Kapivas (pepovaau oSSf, viii. 79.) A curious view, taken by Udichs {I. c.) of the construction of 4ttI in this passage is one of the reasons which led him to place the temple on the hill. He thinks that it must necessarily mean " up to : " but it might just as well be said that it means " down to," in a passage quoted a little while ago from the same author respecting the situation of the Carinae and the Vicus Cyprius. In both cases it simply means " to." It will be perceived that Dionysius is here at variance with the authorities before quoted respecting the site of the temple. If the appellation of Carinae extended over some part of the adjacent valley it is possible that Dionysius, as a foreignei', might have been unaware of that fact, and have attached the name only to the more striking part of the district which lay on the hill. And there is a passage in Varro, a veiy obscure one indeed, from which it might be inferred that part of the Ceroliensis, which seems to have been the name of the valley between the Caelian, the Esquiline, and the Velian ridge, had likewise borne the name of Carinae (" Ceroliensis a Carinarum junctu dictus Carinae, postea Cerolia, quod hinc oritur caput Sacrae Viae," L.L. v. § 47). These passages would seem to indicate that the tem- ple of Tellus lay in the valley between S. Maria (&' Monti and the Tor d^ Conti, where indeed we find traces of the name ; since the churches of S. Salva- tore and oi S. Panialeotie, the latter of which still exists near the Via del Colosseo, bore in the middle ages the epithet of " in Tellure." Passages are also adduced from the Acts of the Martyrs to show that the temple of Tellus stood opposite to that of Pallas in the Forum Transitorium. (" Clementianus prae- cepit ei caput amputari ante templum in Tellure, corpusque ejus projici ante Palladis aidem in locum supradictum," Act. S. Gordian.) Hence it seems not improbable that the district of the Carinae, in which the temple undoubtedly stood, may have ex- tended over a considerable part of the valley; but the passages relating to the subject are far from being decisive ; and the question is one of that kind in which much may be said on both sides. Two striking legends of early Roman history are connected with the Esquiline and its vicinity ; that of the murder of Servius Tullius by his inhuman daughter, and that of the Tigillum Sororium, or typical yoke, by passing under which Horatius ex- piated the murder of his sister. We have before re- lated th.at Servius Tullius resided on the Escjuiline, and that he was the first to clear that liill and make it habitable. It was on his return to his residence on it, after his t^'ection trom the curia by his son-in- law, Tarquinius Superbus, that he was nmrdered by the hirelings of that usurper. Livy's account of the 3g 4