Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/837

Rh ARCELEOLOGY.J ROME 811 mould ; upright timbers, about 6 by 7 inches thick and 10 to 14 feet long, were set in rows on each face of the future wall ; planks 9 to 10 inches wide were nailed to them, so as to form two sides of a sort of box, into which the semi-fluid mass of stones, lime, and pozzolana was poured. When this was set the timbers were re- moved and refixed on the top of the concrete wall ; then fresh concrete was poured in ; and this process was repeated till the wall was raised to the required height. Usually such cast -work was only used for foundations and cellar walls, the upper parts being faced with brick ; but in some cases the whole wall to the top was cast in this way and the brick facing omitted. In strength and durability no masonry, however hard the stone or large the blocks, could ever equal these walls of concrete when made with hard lava or travertine, for each wall was one perfectly coherent mass, and could only be destroyed by a laborious process like that of quarry- ing hard stone from its native bed. Owing to this method of forming the Roman buildings the progress of the work from day to day can often be traced by a change in the look of the concrete. About 3 feet high appears to have been the average amount of wall raised in a day. Marble linings were fixed very firmly to the walls with long clamps of metal, hooked at the end so as to hold in a hole made in the marble slab. Fig. 5 gives an example, of the time of Augustus, fixed against a stone wall. The quantity of rich marbles which, for at least three centuries, were being dug out in countless quarries in the East, by whole armies of workmen, and constantly poured into Rome is almost beyond calculation. 1 Scarcely a church is without columns and wall - linings stolen from ancient build- ings, and the more magnificent chapels, such as those of the Borghese, Corsini, and Cibo families, with the whole church of S. Maria della Vit- toria, owe their splen- D. AVERTING BLOCK. [O. 5. Example of marble lining, from the cella of the temple of Concord. A. Slabs of Phrygian marble. B. Plinth moulding of Numidian " giallp." C. Slab of cipollino (Carystian marble). D. Paving of porta santa. E and F. " nucleus " and " rudus " of concrete bedding. G, G. Iron clamps run with lead to flx marble lining. H. Bronze clamp. J. Cement backing. dour entirely to' their wall-linings of ancient marbles, porphyry, and alabaster. 1 The blocks were usually marked in the quarry with a number, and often with the names of the reigning emperor and the overseer of the quarry. These quarry-marks are often of great value as indications of the date of a building or statue. 2 Metropolitan building Acts, not unlike those of modern London, were enacted by several of the emperors. These fixed the materials to be used, the thickness of walls, the minimum width of streets, the maximum height allowed for houses, and the like. After the great fire in Nero's reign, 64 A.D., an Act was passed requiring external walls to be faced with fire -proof materials, such as peperino or burnt brick ; this Act was being prepared long before the fire, strong evidence as to this being a wilful act on Nero's part, as is asserted by Suetonius (Nero, 38). m:nt Enormous accumulations of statues and pictures enriched Rome M3 of during its period of greatest splendour. In the first place, the numerous statues of the republican and even of the regal period were religiously preserved at a time when, from their archaic char- acter, they must have been regarded rather as objects of sacred or archaeological interest than as works of art (Plin., H.N., xxxiv. 9-16, xxxv. 7). Secondly came the large Grseco-Roman class, mostly copies of earlier Greek works, executed in Rome by Greek artists. To this class belongs most of the finest existing sculpture preserved in the Vatican and other museums. Thirdly, countless statues and pictures were stolen from almost every important city in Greece, Magna Graecia, Sicily, and western Asia Minor. These robberies began early, and were carried on for many centuries. The importa- tions included works of art by all the chief artists from the 5th century downwards. Long lists are given by Pliny (H.N., xxxiii.- xxxvi. ), and pedestals even now exist with the names of Praxiteles, Timarchus, Polycletus, Bryaxis, and others (see Bull. Comm. Arch. 1 Yet for many centuries during the Middle Ages the richest sites of ancient Rome were riddled with lime-kilns, in which the greater part of the marble was destroyed ; see Raphael's letter to Leo X. on this subject published by Visconti (Rome, 1S34). 2 See Bruzza, in Ann. Inst., 1870, p. 106. Rom., ii. p. 1 76). These accumulated works of sculpture were of all materials gold and ivory (Suet, Tit., 2), of which seventy-four are mentioned in the catalogue of the Breviarium (see Preller, Regionen, p. 231), many hundreds or even thousands of silver 3 (Plin., H. N., xxxiii. 54), while those of gilt bronze and marble must have existed in almost untold numbers (Paus., viii. 46). Nor were the accumulated stores of Greek paintings much inferior in number ; not only were easel pictures by Zeuxis, Apelles, Timanthes, and other Greek artists taken, but even mural paintings were carefully cut off their walls and brought to Rome secured in wooden frames (Plin., H.N., xxxv. 49, and compare ibid., 45). The basalt (silex) roads were made of polygonal blocks of lava Roads, neatly fitted together and laid on a carefully prepared bed, similar to that used for mosaic paving (see MOSAIC and ROADS). Roads thus made were called "viae stratae." One portion only exists in Rome of early date, when the blocks were fitted together with the utmost accuracy viz., a piece of the Clivus Capitolinus in front of the temple of Saturn (see fig. 6, which also shows the massive travertine curb which bordered the road ; in some cases the curb was of lava). The other best J.H.M. SECTION. preserved vise stratae 5. . 3. 2. i. o. s. jornr. in Rome are those Fm 6 ._ Example of ^ly basa i t road by the temple leading up to the O f Saturn on the Clivus Capitolinus. A. Traver- Palatine from the tine paving. B. Polygonal basalt blocks. C. Con- Summa Sacra Via and c r ete Adding. D. Rain-water gutter. The curb that which follows ^own is taken from another part of the road. the curved line of shops in Trajan's forum. Many others exist, but have all been relaid in later times, with badly fitting joints. 4 The following is a list of the chief roads which radiated from Rome (see Plate VI.): (1) Via Appia and (2) Via Latina, both issued from the Servian Porta Capena, and both met at Beneventum ; (3) Via Labicana, from the P. Esquilina, passing Labicum, joined the Via Latina 30 miles from Rome ; (4) Via Gabina (later called Prsenestina), also issued from the P. Esquilina and joined the Via Latina, these two roads pass through the Claudian aqueduct gate (mod. Porta Maggiore) ; (5) Via Tiburtina, from the gate of that name to Tibur ; (6) Via Nomentana, from the P. Collina, passing Nomen- tum, joined the Via Salaria ; (7) Via Salaria, also from the P. Collina, joined the Via Flaminia at Ancona ; (8) Via Flaminia, its first half-mile or so after leaving the Servian Porta Ratumena was known as the Via Lata ; it afterwards passed out of the Aurelian P. Flaminia, and with many branches led to the chief towns of Northern Italy, and so into Cisalpine Gaul ; (9) Via Aurelia, issued from the trans-Tiberine P. Aurelia and passed through Pisa to Gaul ; (10) Via Portuensis, from the gate of that name, also on the right bank of the Tiber, to Portus Augusti near its mouth ; (11) Via Ostiensis, from the Servian P. Trigemina and the Aurelian P. Ostiensis to Ostia ; (12) Via Ardeatina, probably a branch from the Via Appia, led to Ardea. Remains of Prehistoric Rome. It is evident from recent discoveries that the site of Rome was Plate VI. populous at a very remote period. Flint implements and remains Archaic of the early Bronze Age have been found on the Aventine and in pottery, other places; 8 and in 1874, near the arch of Gallienus on the Esquiline, the important discovery was made of a necropolis 6 ap- parently of considerable extent, the tombs of which and their con- tents fictile vases and other objects were of Phoenician and Etruscan character, dating probably about the time of the tradi- tional founding of Rome. In February 1883 a number of very early cist tombs, formed by two slabs of stone set on edge with a third for the lid, were found during excavations on the Esquiline between the Piazza Vitt. Emmanuele and the Via di Napoleone 3 Eighty silver statues of Augustus, some equestrian and some in quadrigae, are mentioned in the Man. Ancyr. See p. 822 below. 4 See Nibby, Vie degli Antichi, in Nardini, vol. iv. 1820 ; also Livy, x. 23, xl. 51, xli. 27. ^ Under the Servian wall on the Esquiline has been found pottery of that very primitive sort which is ornamented only with rudely incised lines, zig- zags, hatchings, and dots, similar to that found under a stratum of peperino rock at Alba Longa. 6 See "Necrop. dell. Esquilino," in Ann. Inst., 1882, p. 5 sq., and Afon. Inst., xi., pi. xxxvii. ; also Bull. Comm. Arch., iii.