Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/854

Rh 826 ROME [TOPOGRAPHY AND wall of peperino, nearly 100 feet high, with travertine string-courses and cornice ; a large piece of this wall still exists, and is one of the most imposing relics of ancient Rome. Against it are remains of the temple of Mars, three columns of which, with their entablature and marble ceiling of the peristyle, are still standing ; it is Cor- inthian in style, very richly decorated, and built of fine Luna marble. The cella is of peperino, lined with marble ; and the lower part of the lofty circuit wall seems also to have been lined with marble on the inside of the forum. The large archway by the temple (Arco dei Pantani) is of travertine. Palladio (Arch., iv.) and other writers of the 16th century give plans of the temple and circuit wall, showing much more than now exists. The temple, whieh was octastyle, with nine columns and a pilaster on the sides, occupied the centre, and on each side the circuit wall formed two large semicircular apses, decorated with tiers of niches for statues. 1 The Foruin Pacis, built by Vespasian, was farther to the south- east ; the only existing piece, a massive and lofty wall of mixed tufa and peperino, with a travertine archway, is opposite the end of the basilica of Constautine. The arch opened into what was probably the Templum Sacra Urbis, which contained a plan of the city of Rome. The original plan was probably burnt with the whole group of buildings in this forum in 191, in the reign of Com- modus (Dion Cass., Ixxii. 24) ; but a new plan engraved on marble was made, and the building restored in concrete and brick by Severus. The north-east end wall, with the clamps for fixing the marble plan, still exists, as does also the other (restored) end wall with its arched windows towards the forum (see fig. 19) ; one BASILICA OF CONSTANTINE FIG. 19. Group of buildings by the Forum Pacis. 1. Existing wall of peperino and tufa, with travertine doorway. 2. Do. and porch destroyed by Urban VIII. 3. Brick-faced wall of time of Severus against which the marble plan was fixed. 4. Apse built by Felix IV., when he converted the Templum Sacrse Urbis into the church of SS. Cosmo e Damiano. 5. Temple of Romulus, built by Maxentius, made by Felix IV. into the porch of his church. hundred and sixty-seven fragments of this plan were found c. 1560 at the foot of the wall to which they were fixed, and are now pre- served in the Capitoline Museum ; drawings of the seventy-four pieces now lost are preserved in the Vatican 2 (Cod. Vat., 3439). The whole has been published in a valuable work by Professor Jordan, Forma Urbis Romse, Berlin, 1875-82. The fragments which relate to the Forum Magnum are given on Plate VII. The circular building at the end facing on the Sacra Via is an addition built by Maxentius in honour of his deified son Romulus ; like the other buildings of Maxentius, it was rededicated and inscribed with the name of his conqueror Constantine. 3 The original stone build- ing of Vespasian was probably an archive and record office ; the name Templum Sacrse Urbis is with much probability given to it by Jordan, partly on the authority of an inscription now in the Vatican (see Forma Urbis Eomie). The fine bronze doors at the entrance to the temple of Romulus are much earlier than the build- ing itself, as are also the porphyry columns and very rich entabla- ture which ornament this doorway. Pope Felix IV. (526-530) xxxvi. 24, xxxv. 36, xxxiv. 18, vii. 53, where many fine Greek works of art are mentioned as being in the forum of Augustus. 1 Those of Roman leaders and generals, from /Eneas and Romulus to Augustus. See Borsari, Foro tfAugwsto, &c. (Lincei), 1884. 2 An interesting description of this discovery is given by Vacca, writing in 1594 (printed in Nardini, Roma Ant., ed. Nibby, 1818-20, vol. iv.) ; since then a few other fragments have been found. The scale is roughly 1 to 300, but appears to be not quite uniform. Arch. Critt., 1867, p. 62 ; Tredelemburg, Ann. Inst., 1872, p. 66 ; and Lanciani, Bull. Comm. Arch. Bom., 1882. Ligorio (in a 16th-century MS. ; Cod. Vat., 3439) and Du Perac (Vestigj) show much more than now exists. made the double building into the church of SS. Cosmo e I )amiano, using the circular domed temple of Romulus as a porch. 4 T In- chief building of Vespasian's forum was the Templum Pacis, 5 dedi- cated in 75, one of the most magnificent in Rome, which contained a very large collection of works of art. The forum of Nerva (see fig. 18) occupied the narrow strip left Form between the fora of Augustus and Vespasian ; being little more x erV ; than a richly decorated street, it was called the Forum Transitoriuni or Foruin Palladium, from the temple to Minerva which it con- tained. It was begun by Domitian, and dedicated by Nerva in 97 (see Suet., Dom., 5 ; Mart., Ep., i. 2, 8). Like the other imperial fora, it was surrounded by a peperino wall, not only lined with marble but also decorated with rows of Corinthian columns sup- porting a rich entablature with sculptured frieze. Two columns and part of this wall still exist ; on the frieze are reliefs of weav- ing, fulling, and various arts which were under the protection of Minerva. A great part of the temple existed till the time of Paul V., who in 1606 destroyed it to use the columns elsewhere. 6 In the reign of Severus Alexander a series of colossal bronze statues, some equestrian, were set round this forum ; they represented all the previous emperors who had been deified, and by each was a bronze column inscribed with his "res gestfe" (Lamprid., Hint. Aug. : Sev. Alex., 28). The forum of Trajan with its adjacent buildings was the last and, Forum o: at least in size, the most magnificent of all ; it was in progress from Trajan. 100 to 117. A great spur of hill, which connected the Capitoline with the Quirinal, was cut away to make a level site for this enor- mous group of buildings. It consisted (see fig. 20) of a large dipteral son Fio. 20. Foruin of Trajan. peristyle, with curved projections, lined with shops on the side. That against the slope of the Quirinal, three stories high, still partly exists. The main entrance was through a triumphal arch (Dion Cass., Ixviii. 29), from which probably were taken most of the fine reliefs used by Constantine to decorate his arch. Aurei of Trajan show this' arch and other parts of his forum. 7 The opposite 4 "Hie (Felix) fecit basilicam' SS. Cosmfe et Damiani ... in Via Sacra, juxta Templum Urbis Romas" (Anastas. Bibl., Vita S. Felicis ir.taaipXtHm evidence in favour of Jordan's suggestion. 5 Statues by Phidias and Lysippus existed in the Forum Pacis as late as the 6th century (Procop., Bell. Goth., iv. 21). 6 Drawings of it are given in Du Perac and by Palladio (Arch., iv. 8). 7 See Aul. Cell., xiii. 25, 2 ; and Amm. Marc., xvi. 10.
 * For accounts of this interesting group of buildings, see De Rossi, Bull.