Page:EB1911 - Volume 23.djvu/629

Rh silver, ivory, bronze and marble, mostly the production of the best Greek artists, which adorned this magnificent group of buildings, must have made it the chief glory of this splendid city. This temple was begun by Augustus in 36, after his Sicilian victory over Sextus Pompeius, and dedicated on the 9th of October 28 A glowing account of the splendours of these buildings is given by Propertius (ii. 2, iii. 31). Inside the cella were statues of Apollo between Latona and Diana by Scopas, Cephisodotus and Timotheus respectively (Plin. H.N. xxxvi. 24, 25, 32); beneath the base of the group were preserved the Sibylline books. The pediment had sculpture by Bupalus and Archermus of Chios (Plin. H.N. xxxvi. 13), and on the apex was Apollo in a quadriga of gilt bronze. The double door was covered with ivory reliefs of the death of the Niobids and the defeat of the Gauls at Delphi. The Ancyran inscription records that Augustus melted down eighty silver statues of himself and with the money “offered golden gifts” to this temple, dedicating them both in his own name and in the names of the original donors of the statues. The Sibylline books were preserved under the statue of Apollo (Suet. Aug. 31); and within the cella were vases, tripods and statues of gold and silver, with a collection of engraved gems dedicated by Marcellus (see Plin. H.N. xxxvii. 11, xxxiv. 14). In the porticus was a large library, with separate departments for Latin and Greek literature, and a large hall where the senate occasionally met (Tac. Ann. ii. 37). Round the porticus, between the Numidian marble columns, were statues of the fifty Danaids, and opposite them their fifty bridegrooms on horseback (see Schol. on Pers. ii. 56). In the centre, before the steps of the temple, stood an altar surrounded by four oxen, the work of Myron (Prop. iii. 31, 5). In the centre of the Palatine stood the palace of Augustus, built in the years following 36, and renewed after a fire in 3. It contained a small temple of Vesta (C. I. L. i.2 p. 317), dedicated on the 28th of April 12, when Augustus was elected pontifex maximus. Augustus's building was completely transformed by later emperors, but the name domus Augustana was retained in official use. The Area Apollinis and its group of buildings suffered in the fire of Nero, and were restored by Domitian. The whole was finally destroyed in the great fire of 363 (Ammian. xxiii. 3, 3), but the Sibylline books were saved.