Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/862

 842 ROMA. neinus quod navali stagno circumposuit Autjustus," A nn. xiv. 1 5). There are several passages which show that the lake existed lonjj after the time of Augustus. Thus Statius {Silv. iv. 4. 5) : — " Continuo destras flavi pete Tybridis oras, Lydia qua penitus stagnum navale coercet Ripa, suburbanisque vadum praetesitur hortis." This passage likewise confirms the situation of the lake on the right, or Etruscan, bank (Lydia ripa) with the Nemus round it (ef. Suet. Tib. 72). It was used by Titus to exhibit a naumachia (Suet. Tit. 7 ; Dion Cass. I. c); and remains of it were visible even in the time of Alexander Severus (Id. Iv. 10). Although the passage in the Monumentum Ancyramim in which Augustus mentions this lake or basin is rather mutilated, we may make out that it was 1800 feet long by 1200 broad. The Notitia mentions five Naumachiae in the 14th Eegion, but the number is probably corrupt, and we should read two. (Prellcr, Regionen, p. 206.) We know at all events that Doinitian also made a basin for ship-fioj«.4.) Tiie stone of which it was constructed was subsequently employed to repair the Circus Maximus (lb. .5). That it was in a new situation appears from Dion Cassius (eV Kaiv^ tiw X'>'P'V> Ixvii. 8). It probably lay under the Vatican, since St. Peter's was designated in tlie middle ages as "apud Naumachiam." (Flav. Blond. Insiaur. R. i. 24: Anastas. V. Leo. III. p. 306, Blanch. ; Montf. Diar. Ilal. p. 291.) The naumachia ascribed to the em- peror Philip (Aur. Vict. Caes. 28) was perhaps only a restoration of this, or of that of Augustus. Among other objects in the district of the Jani- culum, we need only mention the Horti Getae and the Castka Lecticariouum. The former were probably founded by Septimius Severus. and inherited by his son Geta. We know at all events that R05IA Sevems founded some baths in this district (Spart. Sept. Sev. 19; cf. Becker, c!e Jhiris, p. 127) and the arch called Porta Septimiana; and it like- wise appears that he purchased some large gardens before his departure into Germany. (Spart. lb. c. 4.) The Lecticarii were either sedan-chairmen, or men employed to carry biers, and their caslra means nothing more than a station for them, just as we hear of the Castra Tabellariorum, Victimariorum, &c. (Preller, Regionen, p. 218.) The McNS or Coi-lis Vaticanus rises a little to the NW. of the Mons Janiculus, from which it is separated only by a narrow valley, now Valle d In- ferno The origin of the name of this district, at present the most famous in Rome, cannot be deter- mined. The most common derivation of it is from a story that the Romans gained possession of it from the Etruscans through an oracular response (" Vatum response expulsis Etruscis," Paul. Diac. p. 379.) We have already remarked that there is no ground for Niebuhr's assumption respecting the existence here of an Etruscan city called Vatica or Vaticum [see p. 724]. This district belonged still less than the Janiculum to the city, and was not even included in the walls of Aurelian. It was noted for its un- healthy air (Tac. //. ii. 93), its unfruitful soil (Cic. de Leg. Agr. ii. 35), and its execrable wine. (" Vaticana bibis, bibis venenum," Mart. vi. 92. 93; cf. X. 45.) In the Republican times the story so beautifully told by Livy (iii. 26) of the great dic- tator L. Quinctius Cincinnatus who was saluted dictator here whilst cultivating his farm of four acres, the Prata Quinctia, lends the only interest to the scene, whether it may belong to the romance of history or not. There were no buildings in this quarter before the time of the emperors, and almost the only one of any note in all antiquity was a sepulchre — the Mausoleum or Moles Hadrlvni, now the Castello di S. Angela. (Dion Cass. Ixix. 23; MOLE OF HADRIAN RESTORED. Spart. Hadr. 19.) Among the ancient notices of it the most important is that of Procopius. (J5. G. i. 22. p. 106. ed. Bonn.) A complete history of it is given by Bunsen (Beschr. vol. ii. p. 404, seq.), and descriptions will be found in all the guide-books. Hadrian's mausoleum was the tomb of the following emperors and their families, certainly till the time of Conimodus, and perhaps till that of Caracalla (v. Becker Handb. note 1430). It was built in the Horti Domitiae (Capitol. Ant. P. 5), if we are to understand the word collocavil in that passage of an actual entombment, and not of a lying-in-state