Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/844

 824 ROMA. transaction is clear and graphic, and the host guide to the topograpliy of the neighbourhoDd. The aged monarch had reached the top of the Vicus Cyprius ('' ad summum Cyprium vicum ") when he was overtaken and slain. His daughter followed in her carriage, and, having arrived at the same spot where stood a temple of Diana a little before the time when Livy wrote, she was just turning to the right in order to ascend the Clivus Urbuis, which led to the summit of the Esquiline, when the affrighted driver reined his horses, and pointed out to Tullia the bleeding corpse of her murdered father ; but the fiend-like Tullia bade him drive on, and arrived at home bespattered with the blood of her parent. From this unnatural deed the street which was the scene of it obtained the name of Vicus Sceleratus (i. 48). The question that has been sometimes raised whether Tullia was returning to her father's or to her husband's house, does not seem to be of much importance. Solinus, indeed (i. 25), represents Ser- vius Tullius as residing " supra clivum Urbium," and Tarquinius Superbus, also on the Esquiline, but, " Supra clivum Pullium ad Fagutalem lucum." The house of the latter therefore must have been upon the Oppius, on which the Lucus Fagutalis was situ- ated, and most probably upon the southern side of it ; but he may not have resided here till after he became king. On the other hand, as Tullia is represented as turning to the right in order to ascend tlie Clivus Urbius to the royal residence, it is plain that the Vicus Cyprius must have lain on the north side of one of the tongues of the Esquiline ; and as we are further informed by Dionysius, in a passage before quoted (iii. 22), that there was a lane which led down from the Carinae, or western extremity of the Oppius, to the Vicus Cyprius, the conclusion is forced upon us that the palace of Servius Tullius must have been situated upon the eastern part of the northern side of the Oppius, and that conse- quently the Vicus Cyprius must have corresponded with the modern Via di S. Lucia in Selci. The Summus Cyprius Vicus was evidently towards the head of the valley, the lower part of the street run- ning under the Carinae; and hence the Clivus Urbius and the residence of Semus may be placed somewhere near the church of S. Martino. Before the usurpation of Tarquin, he and his wife may have resided near his father-in-law, or even under the same roof; or, what is still more probable, Tullia, as Ovid represents her (" patrios initura Penates," Fast. vi. 602), was proceeding to take possession of her father's palace, since his deposition had been effected in the senate before his murder. Urlichs (^Rom. Topogr. p. 119) admits that the Vicus Cyprius answered to the Via di S. Lucia, yet holds that Servius resided on the Cispius; a view utterly ir- reconcilable with the fact that the Clivus Urbius and palace lay on the right of that street. The passages before adduced prove the direction of the Vicus Cyprius as clearly as any locality in Rome can be proved which depends for its determination solely on notices in the classics. Yet Becker shuts his eyes to this satisfactory evidence, and maintains that the Vicus Cyprius corresponded with the modern Via del Colossen (^Antwort, p. 78); although in that case also it would have been impossible for Tullia to have ascended the Esquiline by turning to the right. The only ground he assigns for this in- comprehensible view is an arbitrary estimate of the distances between the objects mentioned in Regio IV. of the Notitia, founded also on the assumption that ROMA. these objects are enumerated strictly in the order in which they actually followed one another. But we have already shown from Becker himself that this is by no means always the case, and it is evidently not so in the present instance ; since, after mentioning the Tigillium Sororium, which lay in or near the Subura, the order of the catalogue leaves that spot and proceeds onwards to the Colosseum, and then again at the end of the list reverts to the Subura. The chief objection to placing the Vicus Cyprius under this side of the Oppius is, as Mr. Bunbury observes (^Class. Mus. vol. v. p. 227), that it would thus seem to interfere with the Subura. But this objection is not urged either by Becker or Urlichs; and indeed the Subura, like the Velabrum, seems to have been a district rather than a street, so that we may conceive the Vicus Cyprius to have run tbrouch it. The position of the Tigii^lum Sororium is de- termined by what has been already said; namely, in a narrow street leading down from the Carinae to the Vicus Cyprius. It seems to have been a wooden beam erected across the street. As it is mentioned in the Notitia, this monument, connected with one of Rome's early legends, must have existed down to the 5th century; and indeed Livy (i. 26) informs us that it was constantly repaired at the public expense. We learn from Dionysius (iii. 22) and Festus (p. 297, Miill.) that on each side of it stood an altar; one to JuNO SoROKiA, the other to Janus CURIATIUS. Having had occasion to mention the Subura, it may be as well to describe that celebrated locality before proceeding further with the topography of the Esquiline. We have already seen from Vari-o that it was one of the most ancient districts in Rome ; and its importance may be inferred from its having given name to the 1st Servian Region. We have also alluded to a passage in the same author (Jj.L. v. § 48, Miill.) which shows it to have been originally a distinct village, called Succusa or Fagus Succusanus, lying under the Carinae. Varro adds, that the name still continued to be vrritten with a C instead of a B; a statement which is confirmed by the fact that in inscriptions the Tribus Suburana is always denoted by the abridged form trib. svc. (Cf. Festus, s. V. Suhura, p. 309, Miill. ; Quintil. Inst. Or. i. 7. § 29; Mommsen, Die Rom. Trihts, p. 79, seq.) Apiazza or place under the church of S. Pietro in Vincoli still bears the name of Suhura ; and the church of S. Agata over the Via de' Ser- penti, which skirts the eastern foot of the Quirinal hill, bore in the middle ages the name of " in Suburra " or " super Suburra." Hence it seems probable that the Subura occupied the whole of the valley formed by the extremities of the Quirinal, Viminal, and Esquiline, and must consequently have been, not a street but, a region of some extent; as indeed we find it called by Gregory the Great in the 6th century (" in regione urbis ilia quae Suhura dicitur," Dial. iii. c. .30). But that it extended west- ward as far as the Forum Transitorium, a supposi- tion which seems to rest solely on the order of the the names in the 4th Region of the Notitia, we can hardly conceive. We have shown that the district between the back of the imperial fora and the western extremity of the Esquiline may perhaps have formed part of the Carinae; but it can hardly have been called both Carinae and Subura. The latter seems to have properly begun at the point where the Qui- riualis approaches the extremity of the and Oppius j