Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/860

 840 ROMA. sort of barracks as eurlv as the time of Galba. (Tac. H. i. 31 ; Plr.t. Galb. 25.) Several objects mentioned in this district are doubtful as to site, and even as to meaning, and are not important enough to demand investigation. It contained TmuMrHAL Akches of Claudius AND M. AuuELius. The latter subsisted in a tolerably perfect state near tiie Piazza Fiana in the Co7'4-o, till the year 1662, when pope Alexander VII. caused it to be pulled down. Its reliefs still adora the staircase of the Palazzo de' Comervatori. (Ca- nina, Jndicaz. p. 220.) AUCH OF AUKELIUS. We shall conclude this section with noticing a very humble but very useful object, the Forum SuAUiUM. Bacon was an article of great consump- tion at Rome. It was distributed, as well as bread, among the people, and its annual consumption in tiie time of Valentinian III. was estimated at 3.628,000 pounds. (Gibbon, Decline and Fall, vol. iv. p. 85, ed. Smith.) The custom of distribut- ing it had been introduced by Aurelian. (Vopi.sc. Aurel. 25.) A country in which hogs'-flesh is the cheapest meat betrays a low state of farming. The swine still abounds in Italy ; but in ancient times the Roman market was principally supplied from the forests of Lucania. The market was important enough to have its special tribune, and the " pig- men of the eternal city" ("Porcinarii Urbis aeternae") were considered such a useful body that peculiar privileges were granted to them. (^Cod. xi. tit. 16; Not. Dignit. Part. Occ. p. 16; Gruter, Inscj-. cclxxx. 4.) The market is alluded to in a sort of proverbial manner by Philostratus (ari.ua re koI KOiva cpvaiT &v, wairtp eV (Tva)v oryopa, Heroic. p. 283. 19, ed. Kayser.). It is supposed to have stood near the present church of S. Croce dei Lucckesi, which was substituted for that of S. Nicolb in Porcilibus. (Canina, Indie, p. 209 ; Preller, Regionen, p. 139.) XIV. The Tkanstiberine District. Although the district beyond the Tiber formed one of the 14 Regions of Augustus, and although part of it may perhaps have been enclosed with a "•all as early as the time of Ancus Marcius, and was certainly included in that of Aurelian, yet, while it was considered a part of Rome, it never belonged to the Urbs, properly so called. The distinction be- ROMA. ' tween Roma and Urhs was at least as old as the time of Augustus, and was thus laid down by Alfenus Vai'us : '' Ut Alfenus ait, Urbs est Roma, qua muro cingeretur; Roma est etiam, qua conti- nentia aediiicia e.s.sent." {Digest. 1. tit. 16. 1. 87.) This circumstance rather tends to strengthen Niebuhr's opiniiin that Ancus Marcius only built a citadel on the Janiculum, without any walls extending to the river. [See above. Part II. Sect. I. sub fin.] The district in question is naturally divided into three parts, the Mons Janiculus (or Janiculum), the Mons Vaticanus, — each with their respective plains towards the river, — and the Insula Tiberina. We shall begin with the last. We liave already mentioned the legend respecting the formation of the Insula Tiberina through the corn belonging to the Tarquins being thrown into the river. In the year b. c. 291 the island became sacred to Aesculapius. In consequence of a pestilence an embassy was despatched to Epidaurus to bring back to Rome the image of that deity ; but instead of the statue came a snake, into which it was perfectly known that the god himself had en- tered. As the vessel was passing the Tiberine island the snake swam ashore and hid itself there; in consequence of which a Temple of Aesculapius was built upon it, and the island ever afterwards bore the name of the god. (Liv. Epit. xi.: Ov. Met. XV. 739; Val. Max. i. 8. § 2; Dionys. v. 13; Suet. Clmid. 25.) Sick persons resorted to this temple for a cure; but it does not appear that there was any hospital near it, as was the case at Epi- daurus. There is no classical authority for the fact that the sides of the island were afterwards walled round in the shape of a ship, with the pruw against the current, typifying the vessel which brought the deity ; but it is said that vestiges of this substruction are still visible. (Canina, Indie. p. 574.) The island also contained a Temple of Jupiter and a Temple of Faunus, both dedi- cated in B. c. 193. (Liv. xxxiii. 42, xxxiv. 53.) The temple of Jupiter appears to have adjoined that of Aesculapius. (Ov. Fast. i. 293.) It has been concluded, from the following verses of Ovid, that the temple of Faunus must have stood on the upper part of the island {^Fast. il. 193): — " Idibus agrestis funiant altaria Fauni Hie, ubi discretas insula rumpit aquas ; " but tl'.is, though a probable, is not a necessary in- ference. Semo S. cus, or Deus Fidius, seems also to have had a sacellum here, as well as Tiberinus, as the river-god is called in the Indigitamenta, or religious books. (^Fast. Amit. VI. Id. Dec.) By a curious error the early Christian writers con- founded the former deity with Simon Magus, and thought that he was worshipped on the island. (Just. Mart. Ajiol. 2; Euseb. H. Feci. ii. 12.) After the building of the two bridges which connected the island on either bide with the shore, it seems to have obtained the name of " Intep. duos Pontes" (Plut. Publ. 8); and this part of the river was long famous for the dehcious pike caught in it; which owed their flavour apparently to the rich feeding afforded by the proximity of the banks. (Plut. Pop/. 8 ; Ma- crob. Sat. ii. 12.) In the Acta Martyrum the island is repeatedly styled Insida Lycaonia ; it is at present called Isola di S. Bartohmmeo, from the church and convent of that name. The Janiculum begins at that point opjjosite the Campus Martius where the Tiber reaches farthest