Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/847

Rh ARCHEOLOGY.] ROME 819 Severus, to whose age belong the fragments of columns, cornice, and other architectural features now lying around the ruined podium. These, with the help of representations of the temple on coins of Domitian, 1 and an ancient relief in the Uffizi (see Lanciani, L' Atria di Vesta, 1884, pis. xix.-xxi.), are sufficient to make an accurate restoration (see Plate VII. and fig. 15). It consisted of a circular cella, surrounded by eighteen columns, with screens be- tween them ; the circular podium, about 10 feet high, still exists, 10 S O FIG. 15. Temple of Vesta, as rebuilt by Severus, con.jeeturally restored by Coimn. Lanciani from existing remains. mainly of concrete with some foundations of tufa blocks, which may belong to the original structure. In the time of Pliny (H.N., xxxiv. 7) the tholus or dome over the cella symbolizing the canopy of heaven (Ov., Fast., vi. 276) was covered with Syracusan bronze. Horace's mention (Od., i. 2, 13) of the destruction of the temple by a Tiber flood caused the mistaken notion that the similar round temple still existing near the exit of the Cloaca Maxima was the ^Edes Veste ; but the flood of 1877 showed that the waters of the river could still reach this point in the Forum. Its position near the temple of Castor is mentioned by Martial (i. 71-73). 2 The Regia (see fig. 16), or residence of the pontifex maximus, was on the Sacra Via, close by the temple of Vesta. It also was tradi- tionally founded by Numa, and used as his dwelling-house ; it was SB FIG. 16. Plan showing the remains of the temple of Vesta, the Regia, and the house of the vestals, as rebuilt by Hadrian ; excavated 1883-84. destroyed in 390 B.C. by the Gauls, and was again burnt in 210 B.C. (Liv., xxvi. 27), when the temple of Vesta narrowly escaped. Julius Cnesar, as pontifex maximus, resided here ; and when Augustus succeeded to this office in 12 B.C. he gave the Regia to the vestals, having built himself a large house on the Palatine. When the Atrium Veste or house of the vestals was rebuilt on an enlarged scale the Regia was pulled down and its site partly occupied by 1 The temple of Vesta is also shown on medals of Faustina senior, Lucilla, Crispina, and Julia Domna (see Froehner, Medallions de I'empire Romain, Paris, 1878, pp. 76, 96, 148, 159). It very closely resembles the so-called tomb of St Luke at Ephesus, a Roman work of about the same date. 2 SeeLipsius, "De Vesta," inGrsevius, Thes.Ant. Rom., v. ; Cancellieri, Lesette Cosefatali di Roma, 1812 ; Preuner, Hestia-Vesta, Tubingen, 1864 ; Jordan, Vesta uwl die Laren, Berlin, 1865 ; Maes, Vesta e Vestali, 1883. the new atrium. Ovid (Trist., iii. 1, 28) describes this end of the Forum thus " Hsec est a sacris quae via nomen habet, Hie locus est Vestse, qui Pallada servat et ignem, Hie fuit antiqui Regia parva Numse." The excavations of the last few years have laid bare remains of this very interesting building, and show that it was a large house later buildings whi tions ; this angle shows the original line of the Sacra Via, which in later times was diverted into a different direction. The existing remains are of several dates, first, walls of soft tufa, part possibly of the earliest building ; second, walls of hard tufa, of rather later date ; and lastly, concrete walls faced with brick, decorated with painted stucco, and columns of travertine, also stuccoed and painted, 4 with a large quantity of fine mosaic of that early sort which has very small tesserae put together with great accuracy. This last part probably belongs to the rebuilding by Domitius Calvinus in 35 B.C. (Dion Cass., xliii. 42). These valuable remains were preserved in spite of the erection of later buildings over them because the levels of the later floors were higher than those of the Regia, and thus covered and protected the mosaics and lower parts of the walls and columns (see fig. 16). Besides being a dwelling- house, the Regia contained a sacrarium, in which were preserved the sacred spears of Mars (Aul. Cell., iv. 6), and also the shrine of the Dea Ops Consiva, only entered by the vestals and the sacerdos publicus (Varro, L.L., vi. 21). The Atrium Vestse or house of the vestals, like the temple, was Atrium many times burnt and rebuilt ; the existing building, which was Vestse. excavated in 1883-84, is of the time of Hadrian, as is shown by the brick stamps. It consists of a large atrium or quadrangle with columns of cipollino. At one end is the tablinum, with three small rooms on each side of it, probably for the six vestals. A bathroom, bakehouse, servants' offices, and some rooms lined with rich marbles extend along the south-west side. This extensive building is set against the side of the Palatine, which is cut away to admit the lower story. Thus the level of the first upper floor is nearly the same as that of the Nova Via, on which it faces, about 23 feet above the ground floor. The upper floor is in part well preserved ; it contains a large suite of bath and other rooms, which were probably the sleeping apartments of the vestals. All the better rooms and the baths are lined with polished marbles, many of great beauty and rarity ; the floors are mostly mosaic of tesselated work. The paving of the tablinum was a beautiful specimen of inlay in porphyry and marble. In many places alterations and clumsy patchings of the 4th and 5th centuries are apparent. A number of statues of the chief vestal, or virgo vestalis maxima, with inscribed pedestals, were found in the atrium, mostly of the 3d century, though a few are earlier ; these are of especial interest as illustrating the sacerdotal dress of the vestals. 5 Nothing but the Nova Via separates the Atrium Vestse from the palace of Caligula (see Plin., Ep., vii. 19; Aul. Cell., i. 12), which extends over the site of the Lucus Vestse, " qui a Palatii radice in Novam Viam devexus est" (Cic., De Div., i. 45). A curious octagonal structure in the middle of the atrium (see fig. 16) looks very much like a border for flower-beds ; and it is possible that this miniature garden was made by the vestals when Caligula built over their ex- tensive grove on the slopes of the Palatine. By the main entrance from the Forum stood a small sedicula, a large pedestal at the angles of which were columns supporting an entablature. 6 It may have contained a statue of Vesta, there being none within the temple. It is of the time of Hadrian. The last of the vestals is mentioned by Zosimus (v. 38) as being alive in 394 ; but the Atrium continued to be partly inhabited for many centuries later. 7 In September 1884 a road was discovered leading up past the tablinum end of the Atrium from the Sacra Via to the Nova Via (see fig. 16). In about the 4th century this road appears to have been blocked up at the Nova Via end by a building which adjoined the Atrium Vestae. At the east corner of the Forum stood the arch of Q. Fabius Arch of Maximus, consul in 121 B.C., called Allobrogicus from his victory Fabius. 3 See a monograph by the present writer in Archseologia (read November 1884). 4 The columns were crimson, the travertine rain-water gutter bright blue, and the inner walls had simple designs in panels of leaf ornament and wreaths. 5 One of these, a noble figure of the time of Hadrian, is specially remarkable as being the only statue known on which the suffibuhim is represented, a sort of hood, only worn by the vestal at the moment of offering sacrifice (see Festus, ed. Mttller, p. 340 ; and Varro, L. L., vi. 21). Many points of great interest occur in the inscriptions on the pedestals. 6 The front and one side are now lying near ; the former is inscribed SENA- TVS. POPVLVSQVE. ROMANVS. PECVNIA. PVBLICA. FACIEN- DAM. CVRAVTT. 7 In the excavations of December 1883 a pot was found in the north corner containing 830 silver pennies of English kings of the 9th and 10th centuries, Alfred the Great, Eadward I., Athelstan, Eadmund I., and others. A list of these is given by De Rossi in Lanciani's work, L'Atrio ill Vesta (Rome, 1884). None are later than 946, and a bronze fibula inlaid with silver with the name of Pope Marinus II. (942-946) makes it seem probable that this hoard was con- cealed during his pontificate.