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ALBA LONGA (Ancient city) ROME
Alba Longa (Alba: Albani), a very ancient city of Latium, situated
on the eastern side of the lake, to which it gave the name of Lacus Albanus, and
on the northern declivity of the mountain, also known as Mons Albanus. All ancient
writers agree in representing it as at one time the most powerful city in Latium,
and the head of a league or confederacy of the Latin cities, over which it exercised
a kind of supremacy or Hegemony; of many of these it was itself the parent, among
others of Rome itself. But it was destroyed at such an early period, and its history
is mixed up with so much that is fabulous and poetical, that it is almost impossible
to separate from thence the really historical elements.
According to the legendary history universally adopted by Greek and
Roman writers, Alba was founded by Ascanius, the son of Aeneas, who removed thither
the seat of government from Lavinium thirty years after the building of the latter
city (Liv. i. 3; Dion. Hal. i. 66; Strab. p. 229); and the earliest form of the
same tradition appears to have assigned a period of 300 years from its foundation
to that of Rome, or 400 years for its total duration till its destruction by Tullus
Hostilius. (Liv. i. 29; Justin. xliii. 1; Virg. Aen. i. 272; Niebuhr, vol. i.
p. 205.) The former interval was afterwards extended to 360 years in order to
square with the date assigned by Greek chronologers to the Trojan war, and the
space of time thus assumed was portioned out among the pretended kings of Alba.
There can be no doubt that the series of these kings is a clumsy forgery of a
late period; but it may probably be admitted as historical that a Silvian house
or gens was the reigning family at Alba. (Niebuhr) From this house the Romans
derived the origin of their own founder Romulus; but Rome itself was not a colony
of Alba in the strict sense of the term; nor do we find any evidence of those
mutual relations which might be expected to subsist between a metropolis or parent
city and its offspring. In fact, no mention of Alba occurs in Roman history from
the foundation of Rome till the reign of Tullus Hostilius, when the war broke
out which terminated in the defeat and submission of Alba, and its total destruction
a few years afterwards as. a punishment for the treachery of its general Metius
Fufetius. The details of this war are obviously poetical, but the destruction
of Alba may probably be received as an historical event, though there is much
reason to suppose that it was the work of the combined forces of the Latins, and
that Rome had comparatively little share in its acomplishment. (Liv. i. 29; Dion.
Hal. iii. 31; Strab. v. p. 231; Niebuhr, vol. i. p. 350, 351.) The city was never
rebuilt; its temples alone had been spared, and these appear to have been still
existing in the time of Augustus. The name, however, was retained not only by
the mountain and lake, but the valley immediately subjacent was called the Vallis
Albana, and as late as B.C. 339 we find a body of Roman troops described as encamping
sub jugo Albae Longae (Liv. vii. 39), by which we must certainly understand the
ridge on which the city stood, not the mountain above it. The whole surrounding
territory was termed the ager Albanus, whence the name of Albanum was given to
the town which in later ages grew up on the opposite side of the lake. Roman tradition
derived from Alba the origin of several of the most illustrious patrician families--the
Julii, Tullii, Servilii, Quintii, &c.--these were represented as migrating thither
after the fall of their native city. (Liv. i. 30; Tac. Ann. xi. 24.) Another tradition
appears to have described the expelled inhabitants as settling at Bovillae, whence
we find the people of that town assuming in inscriptions the title of Albani Longani
Bovillenses. (Orell. no. 119, 2252.)
But, few as are the historical events related of Alba, all authorities
concur in representing it as having been at one time the centre of the league
composed of the thirty Latin cities, and as exercising over these the same kind
of supremacy to which Rome afterwards succeeded. It was even generally admitted
that all these cities were, in fact, colonies from Alba (Liv. i. 52; Dion. Hal.
iii. 34), though many of them, as Ardea, Laurentum, Lavinium, Praeneste, Tusculum,
&c., were, according to other received traditions, more ancient than Alba itself.
There can be no doubt that this view was altogether erroneous; nor can any dependence
be placed upon the lists of the supposed Alban colonies preserved by Diodorus
(Lib. vii. ap. Euseb. Arm. p. 185), and by the author of the Origo Gentis Romanae
(c. 17), but it is possible that Virgil may have had some better authority for
ascribing to Alba the foundation of the eight cities enumerated by him, viz. Nomentum,
Gabii, Fidenae, Collatia, Pometia, Castrum Inui, Bola, and Cora. (Aen. vi. 773.)
A statement of a very different character has been preserved to us by Pliny, where
he enumerates the populi Albenses who were accustomed to share with the other
Latins in the sacrifices on the Alban Mount (iii. 5, 9). His list, after excluding
the Albani themselves, contains just thirty names; but of these only six or seven
are found among the cities that composed the Latin league in B.C. 493: six or
seven others are known to us from other sources, as among the smaller towns of
Latium1 , while all the others are wholly unknown. It is evident that we have
here a catalogue derived from a much earlier state of things, when Alba was the
head of a minor league, composed principally of places of secondary rank, which
were probably either colonies or dependencies of her own, a relation which was
afterwards erroneously transferred to that subsisting between Alba and the Latin
league. (Niebuhr, vol. i. pp. 202, 203, vol. ii. pp. 18--22; who, however, probably
goes too far in regarding these populi Albenses as mere demes or townships in
the territory of Alba.) From the expressions of Pliny it would seem clear that
this minor confederacy co-existed with a larger one including all the Latin cities;
for there can be no doubt that the common sacrifices on the Alban Mount were typical
of such a bond of union among the states that partook of them; and the fact that
the sanctuary on the Mons Albanus was the scene of these sacred rites affords
strong confirmation of the fact that Alba was really the chief city of the whole
Latin confederacy. Perhaps a still stronger proof is found in the circumstance
that the Lucus Ferentinae, immediately without the walls of Alba itself, was the
scene of their political assemblies.
If any historical meaning or value could be attached to the Trojan
legend, we should be led to connect the origin of Alba with that of Lavinium,
and to ascribe them both to a Pelasgian source. But there are certainly strong
reasons for the contrary view adopted by Niebuhr, according to which Alba and
Lavinium were essentially distinct, and even opposed to one another; the latter
being the head of the Pelasgian branch of the Latin race, while the former was
founded by the Sacrani or Casci, and became the centre and representative of the
Oscan element in the population of Latium. Its name--which was connected, according
to the Trojan legend, with the white sow discovered by Aeneas on his landing (Virg.
Aen. iii. 390, viii. 45; Serv. ad loc.; Varr. de L. L. v. 144; Propert. iv. 1.
35)--was probably, in reality, derived from its lofty or Alpine situation.
The site of Alba Longa, though described with much accuracy by ancient
writers, had been in modern times lost sight of, until it was rediscovered by
Sir W. Gell. Both Livy and Dionysius distinctly describe it as occupying a long
and narrow ridge between the mountain and the lake; from which circumstance it
derived its distinctive epithet of Longa. (Liv. i. 3; Dion. Hal. i. 66; Varr.)
Precisely such a ridge runs out from the foot of the central mountain--the Mons
Albanus, now Monte Cavo--parting from it by the convent of Palazzolo, and extending
along the eastern shore of the lake to its north-eastern extremity, nearly opposite
the village of Marino. The side of this ridge towards the lake is completely precipitous,
and has the appearance of having been artificially scarped or hewn away in its
upper part; at its northern extremity remain many blocks and fragments of massive
masonry, which must have formed part of the ancient walls: at the opposite end,
nearest to Palazzolo, is a commanding knoll forming the termination of the ridge
in that direction, which probably was the site of the Arx, or citadel. The declivity
towards the E. and NE. is less abrupt than towards the lake, but still very steep,
so that the city must have been confined, as described by ancient authors, to
the narrow summit of the ridge, and have extended more than a mile in length.
No other ruins than the fragments of the walls now remain; but an ancient road
may be distinctly traced from the knoll, now called Mte. Cuccu, along the margin
of the lake to the northern extremity of the city, where one of its gates must
have been situated. In the deep valley or ravine between the site of Alba and
Marino, is a fountain with a copious supply of water, which was undoubtedly the
Aqua Ferentina, where the confederate Latins used to hold their national assemblies;
a custom which evidently originated while Alba was the head of the league, but
continued long after its destruction. (Gell, Topogr. of Rome, p. 90; Nibby, Dintorni
di Roma, vol. i. p. 61--65; Niebuhr, vol. i. p. 199.) The territory of Alba, which
still retained the name of ager Albanus, was fertile and well cultivated, and
celebrated in particular for the excellence of its wine, which was considered
inferior only to the Falernian. (Dion. Hal. i. 66; Plin. H. N. xxiii. 1. s. 20;
Hor. Carm. iv. 11. 2, Sat. ii. 8. 16.) It produced also a kind of volcanic stone,
now called Peperino, which greatly excelled the common tufo of Rome as a building
material, and was extensively used as such under the name of lapis Albanus. The
ancient quarries may be still seen in the valley between Alba and Marino. (Vitruv.
ii. 7; Plin. H. N. xxxvi. 22. s. 48; Suet. Aug. 72; Nibby, Roma Antica, vol. i.
p. 240.)
Previous to the time of Sir W. Gell, the site of Alba Longa was generally
supposed to be occupied by the convent of Palazzolo, a situation which does not
at all correspond with the description of the site found in ancient authors, and
is too confined a space to have ever afforded room for an ancient city. Niebuhr
is certainly in error where he speaks of the modern village of Rocca di Papa as
having been the arx of Alba Longa (vol. i. p. 200), that spot being far too distant
to have ever had any immediate connection with the ancient city.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ARDEA (Ancient city) ITALY
Ardea (Ardea: Eth., Ardeates, Ardeas, atis), a very ancient city of
Latium, still called Ardea, situated on a small river about 4 miles from the seacoast,
and 24 miles S. of Rome. Pliny and Mela reckon it among the maritime cities of
Latium: Strabo and Ptolemy more correctly place it inland, but the former greatly
overstates its distance from the sea at 70 stadia. (Plin. iii. 5. s. 9; Mela,
ii. 4; Strab. v. p. 232; Ptol. iii. 1. § 61.) All ancient writers agree in representing
it as a city of great tiquity, and in very early times one of the most wealthy
and powerful in this part of Italy. Its foundation was ascribed by some writers
to a son of Ulysses and Circe (Xenag. ap. Dion. Hal. i. 72; Steph. B. v. Ardea);
but the more common tradition, followed by Virgil as well as by Pliny and Solinus,
represented it as founded by Danae, the mother of Perseus. Both accounts may be
considered as pointing to a Pelasgic origin; and Niebuhr regards it as the capital
or chief city of the Pelasgian portion of the Latin nation, and considers the
name of its king Turnus as connected with that of the Tyrrhenians. (Virg. Aen.
vii. 410; Plin. I. c.; Solin. 2. § 5; Niebuhr, vol. i. p. 44, vol. ii. p. 21.)
It appears in the legendary history of Aeneas as the capital of the Rutuli, a
people who had disappeared or become absorbed into the Latin nation before the
commencement of the historical period; but their king Turnus is represented as
dependent on Latinus, though holding a separate sovereignty. The tradition mentioned
by Livy (xxi. 7), that the Ardeans had united with the Zacynthians in the foundation
of Saguntum in Spain, also points to the early power and prosperity ascribed to
the city. In the historical period Ardea had become a purely Latin city, and its
name appears among the thirty which constituted the Latin League. (Dion. Hal.
v. 61.) According to the received history of Rome, it was besieged by Tarquinius
Superbus, and it was during this longprotracted siege that the events occurred
which led to the expulsion of this monarch. (Liv. i. 57-60; Dion. Hal. iv. 64.)
But though we are told that, in consequence of that revolution, a truce for 15
years was concluded, and Ardea was not taken, yet it appears immediately afterwards
in the first treaty with Carthage, as one of the cities then subject to Rome.
(Pol. iii. 22.) It is equally remarkable that though the Roman historians speak
in high terms of the wealth and prosperity it then enjoyed (Liv. i. 57), it seems
to have from this time sunk into comparative insignificance, and never appears
in history as taking a prominent part among the cities of Latiumn. The next mention
we find of it is on occasion of a dispute with Aricia for possession of the vacant
territory of Corioli, which was referred by the consent of the two cities to the
arbitration of the Romans, who iniquitously pronounced the disputed lands to belong
to themselves. (Liv. iii. 71, 72.) Notwithstanding this injury, the Ardeates were
induced to renew their friendship and alliance with Rome: and, shortly after,
their city being agitated by internal dissensions between the nobles and plebeians,
the former called in the assistance of the Romans, with whose aid they overcame
the popular party and their Volscian allies. But these troubles and the expulsion
of a large number of the defeated party had reduced Ardea to a low condition,
and it was content to receive a Roman colony for its protection against the Volscians,
B.C. 442. (Liv. iv. 7, 9, 11; Diod. xii. 34.) In the legendary history of Camillus
Ardea plays an important part: it afforded him an asylum in his exile; and the
Ardeates are represented as contributing greatly to the very apocryphal victories
by which the Romans are said to have avenged themselves on the Gauls. (Liv. v.
44, 48; Plut. Camill. 23, 24.)
From this time Ardea disappears from history as an independent city;
and no mention of it is found on occasion of the great final struggle of the Latins
against Rome in B.C. 340. It appears to have gradually lapsed into the condition
of an ordinary Colonia Latina, and was one of the twelve which in B.C. 209 declared
themselves unable to bear any longer their share of the burthens cast on them
by the Second Punic War. (Liv. xxvii. 9.) We may hence presume that it was then
already in a declining state; though on account of the strength of its position,
we find it selected in B.C. 186 as the place of confinement of Minius Cerrinius,
one of the chief persons implicated in the Bacchanalian mysteries. (Liv. xxxix.
19.) It afterwards suffered severely, in common with the other cities of this
part of Latium, P from the ravages of the Samnites during the civil wars between
Marius and Sulla: and Strabo speaks of it in his time as a poor decayed place.
Virgil also tells us that there remained of Ardea only a great name, but its fortune
was past away. (Strab. v. p. 232; Virg. Aen. vii. 413; Sil. Ital. i. 291.) The
unhealthiness of its situation and neighbourhood, noticed by Strabo and various
other writers (Strab. p. 231; Seneca, Ep. 105; Martial, iv. 60), doubtless contributed
to its decay: and Juvenal tells us that in his time the tame elephants belonging
to the emperor were kept in the territory of Ardea (xii. 105); a proof that it
must have been then, as at the present day, in great part uncultivated. We find
mention of a redistribution of its ager by Hadrian (Lib. Colon. p. 231), which
would indicate an attempt at its revival, - but the effort seems to have been
unsuccessful: no further mention of it occurs in history, and the absence of almost
all inscriptions of imperial date confirms the fact that it had sunk into insignificance.
It probably, however, never ceased to exist, as it retained its name unaltered,
and a castellum Ardeae is mentioned early in the middle ages, - probably, like
the modern town, occupying the ancient citadel. (Nibby, vol. i. p. 231.)
The modern village of Ardea (a poor place with only 176 inhabitants,
and a great castellated mansion belonging to the Dukes of Caearini) occupies the
level surface of a hill at the confluence of two narrow valleys: this, which evidently
constituted the ancient Arx or citadel, is joined by a narrow neck to a much broader
and more extensive plateau, on which stood the ancient city. No vestiges of this
exist (though the site is still called by the peasants Civita Vecchia); but on
the NE., where it is again joined to the table-land beyond, by a narrow isthmus,
is a vast mound or Agger, extending across from valley to valley, and traversed
by a gateway in its centre; while about half a mile further is another similar
mound of equal dimensions. These ramparts were probably the only regular fortifications
of the city itself; the precipitous banks of tufo rock towards the valleys on
each side needing no additional defence. The citadel was fortified on the side
towards the city by a double fosse or ditch, hewn in the rock, as well as by massive
walls, large portions of which are still preserved, as well as of those which
crowned the crest of the cliffs towards the valleys. They are built of irregular
square blocks of tufo: but some portions appear to have been rebuilt in later
times. (Gell, Top. of Rome, pp. 97-100; Nibby, Dintorni di Roma, vol. i. pp. 233-240.)
There exist no other remains of any importance: nor can the sites be traced of
the ancient temples, which continued to be objects of veneration to the Romans
when Ardea had already fallen into decay. Among these Pliny particularly mentions
a temple of Juno, which was adorned with ancient paintings of great merit; for
the execution of which the painter (a Greek artist) was rewarded with the freedom
of the city. 1 In another passage he speaks of paintings in temples at Ardea (probably
different from the above), which were believed to be more ancient than the foundation
of Rome. (Plin. xxxv. 3. s. 6, 10. s. 37.) Besides these temples in the city itself,
Strabo tells us that there was in the neighbourhood a temple of Venus (Aphrodision),
where the Latins annually assembled for a great festival This is evidently the
spot mentioned by Pliny and Mela in a manner that would have led us to suppose
it a town of the name of Aphrodisium; its exact site is unknown, but it appears
to have been between Ardea and Antium, and not far from the sea-coast. (Strab.
v. p. 232; Plin. iii. 5, 9; Mela, ii. 4.)
The Via Ardeatina which led direct from Rome to Ardea, is mentioned
in the Curiosum Urbis (p. 28, ed. Preller) among the roads which issued from the
gates of Rome, as well as by Festus (v. Retricibus, p. 282, M.; Inser. ap. Grutesr,
p. 1139. 12). It quitted the Via Appia at a short distance from Rome, and passed
by the farms now called Tor Narancia, Cicchignola, and Tog di Nona (so called
from its position at the ninth mile from Rome) to the Solfarata, 15 R. miles from
the city: a spot where there is a pool of cold sulphureous water, partly surrounded
by a rocky ridge. There is no doubt that this is the source mentioned by Vitruvius
(Fons in Ardeatino, viii. 3) as analogous to the Aquae Albulae; and it is highly
probable that it is the site also of the Oracle of Faunus, so picturesquely described
by Virgil (Aen. vii. 81). This has been transferred by many writers to the source
of the Albula, but the locality in question agrees much better with the description
in Virgil, though it has lost much of its gloomy character, since the wood has
been cleared away; and there is no reason why Albunea may not have had a shrine
here as well as at Tibur. (See Gell. l. c. p. 102; Nibby, vol. ii. p. 102.) From
the Solfarata to Ardea the ancient road coincides with the modern one: at the
church of Sta Procula, 4 1/2 miles from Ardea, it crosses the Rio Torto, probably
the ancient Numicius. No ancient name is preserved for the stream which flows
by Ardea itself, now called the Fosso della Incastro. The actual distance from
Rome to Ardea by this road is nearly 24 miles; it is erroneously stated by Strabo
at 160 stadia (20 R. miles), while Eutropius (i. 8) calls it only 18 miles.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
FERENTINO (Town) LAZIO
Ferentinum (Pherentinon: Eth. Ferentinas, atis, but sometimes also Ferentinus,
Sil. Ital. viii. 393; Jul. Obseq. 87: Ferentino), a city of the Hernicans; but
included, with the other towns of that people, in Latium, in the more extended
and later sense of that term. It was situated on the Via Latina, between Anagnia
and Frusino, and was distant 8 miles from the former (or, more strictly speaking,
from the Compitum Anagninum), and 7 from the latter town (Strab. v.; Itin. Ant.).
According to Livy, it would seem to have been at one period a Volscian city; for
he describes the Volscians as taking refuge there when they were defeated by the
Roman consul L. Furius in B.C. 413; but they soon after abandoned the town, which
was given over, together with its territory, to the Hernicans (Liv. iv. 51). We
subsequently find the Volscians complaining of this as a direct spoliation (Id.
56); but from the position of Ferentinum, it seems most probable that it was originally
a Hernican city, and had been wrested from them by the Volscians in the first
instance. It continned after this to be one of the chief cities of the Hernicans,
and took a prominent part in the war of that people against Rome in B.C. 361,
but was taken by assault by the Roman consuls (Liv. vii. 9). In the last revolt
of the Hernici, on the contrary, Ferentinum was one of the three cities that refused
to join in the defection from Rome, and which were rewarded for their fidelity
by being allowed to retain their own laws, which they preferred to the rights
of Roman citizenship (Id. ix. 43). At what period they afterwards obtained the
civitas is uncertain: in B.C. 195 they are mentioned as possessing only the Latin
franchise (Id. xxxiv. 42); and an inscription still preserved, which cannot be
earlier than the second century B.C., records their possession of their own censors,
a magistracy which is not found in the Roman municipia (Zumpt, Comment. Epigr.).
It is therefore probable that they did not obtain the Roman franchise till after
the Social War; and the contrary cannot be inferred from the title of Municipium
given to them by Gellius in citing an oration of C. Gracchus, in which that orator
relates an instance of flagrant oppression exercised by a Roman praetor upon two
magistrates of Ferentinum (Gell. x. 3). At a later period Ferentinum, in common
with most of the neighbouring towns, received a colony (Lib. Colon.); but the
new settlers seem to have kept themselves distinct from the former inhabitants,
as we find in inscriptions the Ferentinates Novani (Orell. Inscr. 1011). In B.C.
211 the territory of Ferentinum was traversed and ravaged by Hannibal (Liv. xxvi.
9); but with this exception we hear little of it in history, though it appears
from extant remains and inscriptions to have been a considerable town. Horace.
however, alludes to it as a quiet and remote country place; a character it may
well have retained, notwithstanding the proximity of the Via Latina, though some
commentators suppose the Ferentinum noticed in the passage in question to be the
Tuscan town of the name (Hor. Ep. i. 17. 8; Schol. Cruq. ad loc.). It was distant
48 miles from Rome, on a hill rising immediately on the left of the Via Latina,
which passed close to its southern side, but did not enter the town.
The existing remains of antiquity at Ferentino are of considerable
interest. They comprise large portions of the ancient walls, constructed in the
Cyclopean style, of large irregular and polygonal blocks of limestone, but less
massive and striking than those of Alatri and Seyni. They are also in many places
patched or surmounted with Roman masonry; and one of the gates, looking towards
Frosinone, has the walls composing its sides of Cyclopean work, while the arch
above it is evidently Roman, as well as the upper part of the wall. A kind of
citadel on the highest point of the hill crowned by the modern cathedral, is remarkable
as being supported on three sides by massive walls or substructions which present
a marked approach to the polygonal structure, but which, as an inscription still
remaining on them informs us, were built from the ground by two magistrates of
Ferentinum at a period certainly not earlier than B.C. 150 (Bunsen, in the Ann.
d. Inst. Arch. vol. vi.; Bunbury, in Class. Museum, vol. ii.). Numerous other
portions of Roman buildings are still extant at Ferentino, as well as inscriptions,
one of which, recording the munificence of a certain A. Quinctilius Priscus to
his fellow citizens, is cut in the living rock on an architectural monument facing
the line of the Via Latina towards Frosinone, and forms a picturesque and striking
object. The inscription (which is given by Westphal) [p. 896] records the names
of three farms or fundi in the territory of Ferentinum, two of which, called Rojanum
and Ceponianum, still retain the appellations of Roana and Cipollara.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited Jan 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
MINTURNO (Town) LAZIO
Minturnae (Mintournai, Ptol.; Mintourne, Strab.: Eth. Mintournesios,
Plut.; Minturnensis), a city of Latium, in the more extended sense of that term;
but originally a city of the Ausonians, situated on the right bank of the Liris
(Garigliano), about 3 miles from the sea. It was on the line of the Appian Way,
which here crossed the Liris. (Strab. v. p. 233.) The name of Minturnae is first
mentioned in history during the great Latin War, B.C. 340--338, when it afforded
a refuge to the Latin forces after their defeat in Campania. (Liv. viii. 10.)
It was not, however, at that time a Latin city, but belonged to the Ausonians,
who appear to have been then in alliance with the Latins and Campanians. For,
in B.C. 315, Livy tells us that there were three cities of the Ausonians, Ausona,
Minturnae, and Vescia, which had declared themselves hostile to Rome after the
battle of Lautulae, but were again betrayed into the hands of the Romans by some
of the young nobles in each, and the inhabitants unsparingly put to the sword.
(Liv. ix. 25.) Not many years later, in B.C. 296, a Roman colony was established
at Minturnae, at the same time with one at Sinuessa, a little further down the
coast: they were both of them of the class called Coloniae Maritimae, with the
rights of Roman citizens (Liv. x. 21; Vell. Pat. i. 14); and were obviously designed
to maintain and secure the communications of the Romans with Campania. During
the Second Punic War both Minturnae and Sinuessa were among the colonies which
endeavoured, but without success, to establish their exemption from the obligation
to furnish military levies (Liv. xxvii. 38); and again, during the war with Antiochus
(B.C. 191), they attempted, with equal ill success, to procure a similar exemption
from providing recruits and supplies for the naval service. (Id. xxxvi. 3.) Minturnae
was situated on the borders of an extensive marsh, which rendered the city unhealthy,
but its situation on the Appian Way must have contributed to maintain its prosperity;
and it seems to have been already under the Republic, what it certainly became
under the Empire, a flourishing and populous town. In B.C. 88 Minturnae was the
scene of a celebrated adventure of C. Marius, who, while flying from Rome by sea,
to escape from the hands of Sulla, was compelled to put into the mouth of the
Liris. He at first endeavoured to conceal himself in the marshes near the sea-coast;
but being discovered and dragged from thence, he was cast into prison by order
of the magistrates of Minturnae, who sent a slave to put him to death. But the
man is said to have been so struck with the majestic appearance of the aged general
that he was unable to execute his task; and hereupon the magistrates determined
to send Marius away, and put him on board a ship which conveyed him to Africa.
(Plut. Mar. 36--39; Appian, B.C. i. 61, 62; Vell. Pat. ii. 19; Val. Max. i. 5.
§ 5. ii. 10. § 6; Liv. Epit. lxxvil.; Juv. x. 276; Cic. pro Planc. 10 pro Sext.
22.)
We hear little more of Minturnae under the Republic, though from its
position on the Appian Way it is repeatedly noticed incidentally by Cicero (ad
Att. v. 1, 3, vii. 13, xvi. 10.) It still retained in his time the title of a
colony; but received a material accession from a fresh body of colonists established
there by Augustus; and again at a later period under Caligula. (Lib. Colon. p.
235; Hygin. de Limit. p. 178; Zumpt, de Colon. p. 355.) We find it in consequence
distinguished both by Pliny and Ptolemy by the title of a colony, as well as in
inscriptions (Plin. iii. 5. s. 9; Ptol. iii. 1. § 63; Orell. Inscr. 3762; Mommsen,
I. R. N. 4058-4061); and notwithstanding its unhealthy situation, which is alluded
to by Ovid, who calls it Minturnae graves (Met. xv. 716), it appears to have continued
throughout the Roman Empire to have been a flourishing and important town. Its
prosperity is attested by numerous inscriptions, as well as by the ruins still
existing on the site. These comprise the extensive remains of an amphi-theatre,
of an aqueduct which served to bring water from the neighbouring hills, and the
substructions of a temple, as well as portions of the ancient walls and towers.
(Romanelli, vol. iii. p. 430; Eustace, Classical Tour, vol. ii. p. 318.) All these
remains are on the right bank of the Liris, but according to Pliny the city extended
itself on both sides of the river; and it is certain that its territory comprised
a considerable extent on both banks of the Liris. (Hygin. de Limit. p. 178.) The
period of its destruction is unknown: we find it still mentioned in Proepius (B.
G. iii. 26) as a city, and apparently a place of some strength; but at the commencement
of the middle ages all trace of it is lost, and it was probably destroyed either
by the Lombards or Saracens. The inhabitants seem to have withdrawn to the site
of the modern Trajetto, a village on a hill about 1 1/2 mile distant, the name
of which is obviously derived from the passage of the Liris (Ad Trajectum), though
wholly inapplicable to its present more elevated position.
Between Minturnae and the sea-coast, at the mouth of the Liris, was the
celebrated grove of Marica, with a temple or shrine of the goddess of that name,
which seems to have enjoyed a great reputation for sanctity. (Plut. Mar. 39; Strab.
v. p. 233.) She appears to have been properly a local divinity; at least we do
not meet with her worship under that name any where else in Italy; though many
writers called her the mother of Latinus, and others, perhaps on that very account,
identified her with Circe. (Virg. Aen. vii. 47; Serv. ad loc.; Lactant. Inst.
Div. i. 21.) We may probably conclude that she was connected with the old Latin
religion; and this will explain the veneration with which her grove and temple
were regarded, not only by the inhabitants of Minturnae, but by the Romans themselves.
Frequent allusions to them are found in the Latin poets, but always in close connection
with Minturnae and the Liris. (Hor. Carm. iii. 17. 7; Lucan ii.424; Martial, xiii.
83; Claudian, Prob. et Ol. Cons. 259).
Strabo calls Minturnae about 80 stadia from Formiae, and the same distance
from Sinuessa; the Itineraries give the distance in each case as 9 miles. (Strab.
v. p. 233; Itin. Ant. pp. 108, 121.) After crossing the Liris a branch read quitted
the Appian Way on the left, and led by Suessa to Teanum, where it joined the Via
Latina.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
PALESTRINA (Town) LAZIO
Praeneste (Prainestos, Strab. Appian; Praineste, Dion Cass.: Eth. Prainestinos,
or Prainestenos, Praenestinus: Palestrina), one of the most ancient, as well as
in early times one of the most powerful and important, of the cities of Latium.
It was situated on a projecting point or spur of the Apennines, directly opposite
to the Alban Hills, and nearly due E. of Rome, from which it was distant 23 miles
(Strab. v.). Various mythical tales were current in ancient times as to its founder
and origin. Of these, that adopted by Virgil ascribed its foundation to Caeculus,
a reputed son of Vulcan (Virg. Aen. vii. 678); and this, we learn from Solinus,
was the tradition preserved by the Praenestines themselves (Solin. 2.9). Another
tradition, obviously of Greek origin, derived its name and foundation from Praenestus,
a son of Latinus, the offspring of Ulysses and Circe (Steph. B. s. v.; Solin.
l. c.). Strabo also calls it a Greek city, and tells us that it was previously
called Polustephanos (Strab. v.). Another form of the same name name is given
by Pliny (iii. 5. s. 9), who tells us its original name was Stephane. And finally,
as if to complete the series of contradictions, its name is found in the lists
of the reputed colonies of Alba, the foundation of which is ascribed to Latinus
Silvius (Vict. Orig. Gent. Rom. 17; Diod. vii. ap. Euseb. Arm.). But there seems
no doubt that the earlier traditions were those which assigned it a more ancient
and independent origin. The first mention of its name in history is in the list
of the cities of the Latin League, as given by Dionysius, and there can be no
doubt of its having formed an important member of that confederacy (Dionys, v.
61). But as early as B.C. 499, according to Livy, it quitted the cause of the
confederates and joined the Romans, an event which that historian places just
before the battle of Regillus (Liv. ii. 19). Whether its separation from the rest
of the Latins was permanent or not, we have no information; but on the next occasion
when the name of Praeneste occurs, it was still in alliance with Rome, and suffered
in consequence from the ravages of the Aequians and Volscians, B.C. 462 (Liv.
iii. 8). The capture of Rome by the Gauls seems, however, to have introduced a
change in the relations of the two cities. Shortly after that event (B.C. 383)
the Praenestines are mentioned as making hostile incursions into the territories
of the Gabians and Labicans: the Romans at first treated this breach of faith
with neglect, apparently from unwillingness to provoke so powerful an enemy; but
the next year, the Praenestines having sent an army to the support of the revolted
colonists of Velitrae, war was formally declared against them. The Praenestines
now joined their former enemies the Volscians, and, in conjunction with them,
took by storm the Roman colony of Satricum (Liv. vi. 21, 22). The next year the
Volscians were defeated in a great battle by Camillus, but no mention is made
of the Praenestines as taking part in it. The following season, however (B.C.
380), they levied a large army, and taking advantage of the domestic dissensions
at Rome, which impeded the levying of troops, they advanced to the very gates
of the city. From thence they withdrew to the banks of the Allia, where they were
attacked and defeated by T. Quintius Cincinnatus, who had been named in all haste
dictator. So complete was their rout that they not only fled in confusion to the
very gates of Praeneste, but [p. 664] Cincinnatus, following up his advantage,
reduced eight towns which were subject to Praeneste by force of arms, and compelled
the city itself to submission (Liv. vi. 26-29). There can be little doubt that
the statement of Livy which represents this as an unqualified surrender (deditio)
is one of the exaggerations so common in the early Roman history, but the inscription
noticed by him, which was placed by Cincinnatus under the statue of Jupiter Imperator,
certainly seems to have claimed the capture of Praeneste itself as well as its
dependent towns. (Fest. s. v. Trientem.)
Yet the very next year the Praenestines were again in arms, and stimulated
the other Latin cities against Rome (Liv. vi. 30). With this exception we hear
no more of them for some time; but a notice which occurs in Diodorus that they
concluded a truce with Rome in B.C. 351, shows that they were still acting an
independent part, and kept aloof from the other Latins (Diod. xvi. 45). It is,
however, certain that they took a prominent part in the great Latin War of B.C.
340. In the second year of that war they sent forces to the assistance of the
Pedani, and, though defeated by the consul Aemilius, they continued the contest
the next year together with the Tiburtines; and it was the final defeat of their
combined forces by Camillus at Pedum (B.C. 338) that eventually terminated the
struggle (Liv. viii. 12-14). In the peace which ensued, the Praenestines, as well
as their neighbours of Tibur, were punished by the loss of a part of their territory,
but in other respects their position remained unchanged: they did not, like the
other cities of Latium, receive the Roman franchise, but continued to subsist
as a nominally independent state, in alliance with the powerful republic. They
furnished like the other socii their quota of troops on their own separate account,
and the Praenestine auxiliaries are mentioned in several instances as forming
a separate body. Even in the time of Polybius it was one of the places which retained
the Jus Exilii, and could afford shelter to persons banished from Rome (Pol. vi.
14).
On the arrival of Pyrrhus in Italy the fidelity of the Praenestines
seems to have been suspected, and the Romans compelled them to deliver hostages
(Zonar. viii. 3). Shortly afterwards Praeneste was the point from whence that
monarch turned back on his advance to Rome. There is no probability that he took
the town. Eutropius says merely that he advanced to Praeneste; and the expression
of Florus that he looked down upon Rome from the citadel of Praeneste is probably
only a rhetorical flourish of that inaccurate writer (Flor. ii. 18; Eutrop. ii.
12). In the Second Punic War a body of Praenestine troops distinguished themselves
by their gallant defence of Casilinum against Hannibal, and though ultimately
compelled to surrender, they were rewarded for their valour and fidelity by the
Roman senate, while the highest honours were paid them in their native city (Liv.
xxiii. 19, 20) It is remarkable that they refused to accept the offer of the Roman
franchise; and the Praenestines in general retained their independent position
till the period of the Social War, when they received the Roman franchise together
with the other allies. (Appian, B.C. i. 65)
In the civil wars of Marius and Sulla, Praeneste bore an important
part. It was occupied by Cinna when he was driven from Rome in B.C. 87 (Appian,
B.C. i. 65) and appears to have continued in the hands of the Marian party till
B.C. 82, when it afforded a shelter to the younger Marius with the remains of
his army, after his defeat by Sulla at Sacriportus. The natural strength of the
city had been greatly increased by new fortifications, so that Sulla abandoned
all idea of reducing it by force of arms, and was content to draw lines of circumvallation
round it, and trust to the slower process of a blockade, the command of which
he entrusted to Lucretius Ofella, while he himself carried on operations in the
field against the other leaders of the Marian party. Repeated attempts were made
by these generals to relieve Praeneste, but without effect; and at length, after
the great battle at the Colline Gate and the defeat of the Samnite general Pontius
Telesinus, the inhabitants opened their gates to Ofella. Marius, despairing of
safety, after a vain attempt to escape by a subterranean passage, put an end to
his own life (Appian, B.C. i. 87-94; Put. Mar. 46, Sull. 28, 29, 32; Vell. Pat.
ii. 26, 27; Liv. Epit. lxxxvii., lxxxviii.). The city itself was severely punished
; all the citizens without distinction were put to the sword, and the town given
up to plunder; its fortifications were dismantled, and a military colony settled
by Sulla in possession of its territory (Appian, l. c.; Lucan ii.194; Strab. v.;
Flor. iii. 21). The town seems to have been at this time transferred from the
hill to the plain beneath, and the temple of Fortune with its appurtenances so
extended and enlarged as to occupy a great part of the site of the ancient city.
But the citadel still remained, and the natural strength of the position
rendered Praeneste always a place of importance as a stronghold. Hence, we find
it mentioned as one of the points which Catiline was desirous to occupy, but which
had been studiously guarded by Cicero (Cic. in Cat. i. 3); and at a later period
L. Antonius retired thither in B.C. 41, on the first outbreak of his dispute with
Octavian, and from thence endeavoured to dictate terms to his rival at Rome. Fulvia,
the wife of M. Antonius took refuge there at the same time (Appian, B.C. v. 21,
23, 29). From this time we hear but little of Praeneste in history; it is probable
from the terms in which it is spoken of both by Strabo and Appian, that it never
recovered the blow inflicted on its prosperity by Sulla (Strab. l. c.; Appian,
B.C. i. 94); but the new colony established at that time rose again into a flourishing
and considerable town. Its proximity to Rome and its elevated and healthy situation
made it a favourite resort of the Romans during the summer, and the poets of the
first century of the Empire abound in allusions to it as a cool and pleasant place
of suburban retirement (Juv. iii. 190, xiv. 88; Martial, x. 30. 7; Stat. Silv.
iv. 2. 15; Plin. Ep. v. 6.45; Flor. i. 11). Among others it was much frequented
by Augustus himself, and was a favourite place of retirement of Horace (Suet.
Aug. 72; Hor. Carm. iii. 4. 23, Ep. i. 2. 1). Tiberius also recovered there from
a dangerous attack of illness (Gell. N. A. xvi. 13); and Hadrian built a villa
there, which, though not comparable to his celebrated villa at Tibur, was apparently
on an extensive scale. It was there that the emperor M. Aurelius was residing
when he lost his son Annius Verus, a child of seven years old. (Jul. Capit. M.
Ant. 21)
Praeneste appears to have always retained its colonial rank and condition.
Cicero mentions it by the title of a Colonia (Cic. in Cat. i. 3); and though neither
Pliny nor the Liber Coloniarum give it that appellation, its colonial dignity
under the Empire is abundantly attested by numerous inscriptions (Zumpt, de Colon.;
Lib. Colon. p. 236; Orell. Inscr. 1831, 3051, &c.). A. Gellius indeed has a story
that the Praenestines applied to Tiberius as a favour to be changed from a colony
into a Municipium; but if their request was really granted, as he asserts, the
change could have lasted for but a short time. (Gell. N. A. xvi. 13; Zumpt, l.
c.)
We find scarcely any mention of Praeneste towards the decline of the
Western Empire, nor does its name figure in the Gothic wars which followed: but
it appears again under the Lombard kings, and bears a conspicuous part in the
middle ages. At this period it was commonly known as the Civitas Praenestina,
and it is this form of the name -which is already found in an inscription of A.D.
408 (Orell. Inscr. 105)- that has been gradually corrupted into its modern appellation
of Palestrina.
The modern city is built almost entirely upon the site and gigantic
substructions of the temple of Fortune, which, after its restoration and enlargement
by Sulla, occupied the whole of the lower slope of the hill, the summit of which
was crowned by the ancient citadel. This hill, which is of very considerable elevation
(being not less than 2400 feet above the sea, and more than 1200 above its immediate
base), projects like a great buttress or bastion from the angle of the Apennines
towards the Alban Hills, so that it looks down upon and seems to command the whole
of the Campagna around Rome. It is this position, combined with the great strength
of the citadel arising from the elevation and steepness of the hill on which it
stands, that rendered Praeneste a position of such importance. The site of the
ancient citadel, on the summit of the hill, is now occupied by a castle of the
middle ages called Castel S. Pietro: but a considerable part of the ancient walls
still remains, constructed in a very massive style of polygonal blocks of limestone;
and two irregular lines of wall of similar construction descend from thence to
the lower town, which they evidently served to connect with the citadel above.
The lower, or modern town, rises in a somewhat pyramidal manner on successive
terraces, supported by walls or facings of polygonal masonry, nearly resembling
that of the walls of the city. There can be no doubt that these successive stages
or terraces at one time belonged to the temple of Fortune; but it is probable
that they are of much older date than the time of Sulla, and previously formed
part of the ancient city, the streets of which may have occupied these lines of
terraces in the same manner as those of the modern town do at the present day.
There are in all five successive terraces, the highest of which was crowned by
the temple of Fortune properly so called,--a circular building with a vaulted
roof, the ruins of which remained till the end of the 13th century, when they
were destroyed by Pope Boniface VIII. Below this was a hemicycle, or semicircular
building, with a portico, the plan of which may be still traced; and on one of
the inferior terraces there still remains a mosaic, celebrated as one of the most
perfect and interesting in existence. Various attempts have been made to restore
the plan and elevation of the temple, an edifice wholly unlike any other of its
kind; but they are all to a great extent conjectural. A detailed account of the
exiting remains, and of all that can be traced of the plan and arrangement, will
be found in Nibby.
The celebrity of the shrine or sanctuary of Fortune at Praeneste is
attested by many ancient writers (Ovid, Fast. vi. 61; Sil. Ital viii. 366 Lucan
ii.194; Strab. v.), and there is no doubt that it derived its origin from an early
period. Cicero, who speaks of the temple in his time as one of great antiquity
as well as splendour gives us a legend derived from the records of the Praenestines
concerning its foundation, and the institution of the oracle known as the Sortes
Praenestinae, which was closely associated with the worship of Fortune (Cic. de
Div. ii. 4. 1). So celebrated was this mode of divination that not only Romans
of distinction, but even foreign potentates, are mentioned as consulting them
(Val. Max. i. 3.1; Liv. xlv. 44; Propert. iii. 24. 3); and though Cicero treats
them with contempt, as in his day obtaining credit only with the vulgar, we are
told by Suetonius that Tiberius was deterred by religious scruples from interfering
with them, and Domitian consulted them every year. Alexander Severus also appears,
on one occasion at least, to have done the same (Suet. Tib. 63, Domit. 15; Lamprid.
Alex. Sev.: 4). Numerous inscriptions also prove that they continued to be frequently
consulted till a late period of the Empire, and it was not till after the establishment
of Christianity that the custom fell altogether into disuse. The Praenestine goddess
seems to have been specially known by the name of Fortuna Primigenia, and her
worship was closely associated with that of the infant Jupiter (Cic. de Div. l.
c.; Inscr. ut sup.). Another title under which Jupiter mas specially worshipped
at Praeneste was that of Jupiter Imperator, and the statue of the deity at Rome
which bore that appellation was considered to have been brought from Praeneste
(Liv. vi. 29).
The other ancient remains which have been discovered at Palestrina
belong to the later city or the colony of Sulla, and are situated in the plain
at some distance from the foot of the hill. Among these are the extensive ruins
of the villa or palace of the emperors, which appears to have been built by Hadrian
about A.D. 134. They resemble much in their general style those of his villa at
Tivoli, but are much inferior in preservation as well as in extent. Near them
is an old church still called Sta Maria della Villa.
It was not far from this spot that were discovered in 1773 the fragments
of a Roman calendar, supposed to be the same which was arranged by the grammarian
Verrius Flaccus, and set up by him in the forum of Praeneste (Suet. Gramm. 17).
They are commonly called the Fasti Praenestini, and have been repeatedly published,
first by Foggini (fol. Romae, 1779), with an elaborate commentary; and again as
an appendix to the edition of Suetonius by Wolf; also in Orelli . Not-withstanding
this evidence, it is improbable that the forum of Praeneste was so far from the
foot of the hill, and its site is more probably indicated by the discovery of
a number of pedestals with honorary inscriptions, at a spot near the SW. angle
of the modern city. These inscriptions range over a period from the reign of Tiberius
to the fifth century, thus tending to prove the continued importance of Praeneste
throughout the period of the Roman Empire. Other inscriptions mention the existence
of a theatre and an amphitheatre, a portico and curia, and a spoliarium; but no
remains of any of these edifices can be traced. (Gruter, Inscr.; Orelli, Inscr.
2532; Bormann, note 434.)
The celebrated grammarian Verrius Flaccus, already mentioned, was
probably a native of Praeneste, as was also the well-known author Aelianus, who,
though he wrote in Greek, was a Roman citizen by birth. (Suid. s. v. Ailianos).
The family of the Anicii also, so illustrious under the Empire, seems to have
derived its origin from Praeneste, as a Q. Anicius is mentioned by Pliny as a
magistrate of that city as early as B.C. 304 (Plin. xxxiii. 1. s. 6). It is probable
also that in Livy (xxiii. 19) we should read M. Anicius for Manicius. It is remarkable
that the Praenestines appear to have had certain dialectic peculiarities which
distinguished them from the other Latins; these are more than once alluded to
by Plautus, as well as by later grammarians. (Plaut. Trinum. iii. 1. 8, Truc.
iii. 2. 23; Quintil. Inst. i. 5. 56; Fest. s. v. Nephrendis, Id. s. v. Tongere.)
The territory of Praeneste was noted for the excellence of its nuts,
which are noticed by Cato (R. R. 8, 143; Plin. xvii. 13. s. 21; Naevius, ap. Macrob.
Sat. iii. 18). Hence the Praenestines themselves seem to have been nicknamed Nuculae;
though another explanation of the term is given by Festus, who derives it from
the walnuts (nuces) with which the Praenestine garrison of Casilinum is said to
have been fed (Cic. de Or. ii. 6. 2; Fest. s.v. Nuculae). Pliny also mentions
the roses of Praeneste as among the most celebrated in Italy; and its wine is
noticed by Athenaeus, though it was apparently not one of the choicest kinds.
(Plin. xxi. 4. s. 10; Athen. i. p. 26, f.)
It is evident from the narrative of Livy (vi. 29) that Praeneste in
the days of its independence, like Tibur, had a considerable territory, with at
least eight smaller towns as its dependencies; but the names of none of these
are preserved to us, and we are wholly unable to fix the limits of its territory.
The name of Via Praenestina was given to the road which, proceeding
from Rome through Gabii direct to Praeneste, from thence rejoined the Via Latina
at the station near Anagnia. It will be considered in detail in the article Via
Praenestina.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited Jan 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Via Paenestina (he Prainestine hodos, Strab.), was the name of one of the highroads
that issued from the Porta Esquilina at Rome, and led (as its name implies) direct
to Praeneste. The period of its construction is unknown; but it is evident that
there must have been from a very early period a highway, or line of communication
from Rome to Praeneste, long before there was a regular paved road, such as the
Via Praenestina ultimately became. The first part of it indeed, as far as the
city of Gabii, 13 miles from Rome, was originally known as the VIA GABINA, a name
which is used by Livy in the history of the early ages of the Republic (Liv. ii.
11), but would seem to have afterwards fallen into disuse, so that both Strabo
and the Itineraries give the name of Via Praenestina to the whole line (Strab.
v.; Itin. Ant.). In the latter period of the Republic, indeed, Gabii had fallen
very much into decay, while Praeneste was still an important and flourishing town,
which will sufficiently account for the one appellation having become
merged in the other. A continuation of the same road, which was also included
under the name of the Via Praenestina, was carried from the foot of the hill at
Praeneste, through the subjacent plain, till it fell into the Via Latina, just
below Anagnia.
The stations on it mentioned in the Antonine Itinerary are:
From Rome to Gabii xii. M. P.
Praeneste
xi.
Sub Anagnia
xxiv.
The Tabula gives the same distances as far as Praeneste, which are very nearly correct. Strabo reckons it 100 stadia (12 1/2 miles) from Rome to Gabii, and the same distance thence to Praeneste. The continuation from Praeneste to Sub Anagnia is given only in the Antonine Itinerary, but the distance is overstated; it does not really exceed 18 miles.
The Via Praenestina issued from the Porta Esquilina at Rome, together
with the Via Labicana (Strab. v.): it passed through the Porta Praenestina in
the later circuit of the walls, now called Porta Maggiore; and separated from
the Via Labicana immediately afterwards, striking off in a nearly direct line
towards Gabii. About 3 miles from Rome it passed the imperial villa of the Gordians,
the magnificence of which is extolled by Julius Capitolinus (Gordian. 32), and
is still in some degree attested by the imposing and picturesque ruins at a spot
called Torre dei Schiavi (Nibby, Dintorni). Nine miles from Rome the road is carried
over the valley of a small stream by a viaduct of the most massive construction,
still known as the Ponte di Nona: and 3 miles farther it passes the still existing
ruins of the city of Gabii. Thence to Praeneste the line of the road was not so
direct: this part of the Campagna being intersected by deep gullies and ravines,
which necessitated some deviations from the straight line. The road is however
clearly marked, and in many places retains its ancient pavement of basaltic lava.
It is carried nearly straight as far as a point about 5 miles beyond Gabii, where
it passes through a deep cutting in the tufo rock, which has given to the spot
the name of Cavamonte: shortly afterwards it turns abruptly to the right, leaving
the village of Gallicano (the probable site of Pedum) on the left, and thence
follows the line of a long narrow ridge between two ravines, till it approaches
the city of Praeneste. The highroad doubtless passed only through the lower part
of that city. Portions of the ancient pavement may be seen shortly after quitting
the southern gate (Porta del Sole), and show that the old road followed the same
direction as the modern one, which leads through Cavi and Paliano, to an inn on
the highroad below Anagni, apparently on the very same site as the station Sub
Anagnia (or Compitum Anagninum, as it is called in another route) of the Itinerary.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited Jan 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
FIDENAE (Ancient city) LAZIO
Fidenae, sometimes Fidena (Castel Giubileo), an ancient town in the land of the Sabines, five miles northeast of Rome, situated on a steep hill between the Tiber and the Anio. It is said to have been conquered and colonized by Romulus; but it was probably colonized by the Etruscan Veii, with which city it is found in close alliance. It frequently revolted, and was as frequently taken by the Romans. Its last revolt was in B.C. 438, and in the following year it was destroyed by the Romans, but was afterwards rebuilt.
MINTURNO (Town) LAZIO
Minturnae, an important town in Latium, on the frontiers of Campania, situated
on the Via Appia, and on both banks of the Liris, and near the mouth of this river.
It was an ancient town of the Ausones or Aurunci, but surrendered to the Romans
of its own accord, and received a Roman colony B.C. 296. In its neighbourhood
was a grove sacred to the nymph Marica, and also extensive marshes (Paludes Minturnenses),
formed by the overflowing of the river Liris, in which Marius was taken prisoner.
Here are now the remains of an aqueduct and the ruins of an amphitheatre, at the
modern Trajetta.
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(Rhome). Rome. Rome lies on the river Tiber, about fourteen
miles, in a straight line, from the sea. Its latitude (41j 53' N.) is the same
as that of Chicago; its longitude (12j 29' E.) corresponds very nearly with
that of Venice and of Leipzig. Its site forms a part of the gently rolling volcanic
plain which lies between the sea and the Sabine and Alban Mountains, extending
from Cape Linaro, on the north, as far south as Astura and the Pontine Marshes.
The earlier city was confined to the left bank of the river, which here pursues
a very winding course and, dividing, surrounds a small, flat island; but before
the end of the Republic a considerable suburb had sprung up on the right bank,
which became the fourteenth Regio in the division of the city under Augustus.
The oft-mentioned hills of Rome are low, and now, with some
exceptions, of gentle slope. In ancient times they were more steep; for the
intervening depressions (and to a less extent the lower parts of the hills themselves)
have been covered, to the depth of nine, twelve, and in places even thirty feet,
by the accumulation of debris. They are partly spurs, or irregular projections,
from the line of bluffs which marks the descent from the general altitude of
the Campagna into the valley of the Tiber, partly isolated masses nearer the
river-bed. To the former class belong the Quirinal and Viminal hills, whose
highest elevation above the surface of the Tiber (this being reckoned at 21.98
feet above sea-level) is about 158 feet; the Esquiline, with its two spurs Cispius
(151 feet) and Oppius (161 feet); and the Caelian (141 feet), which is separated
from both the Esquiline and the Aventine by valleys. The hills standing by themselves
are the Capitoline (the two summits 141 feet, the depression between them 98
feet above the Tiber), which was originally connected with the Quirinal by a
ridge; the Palatine (141 feet); and the Aventine (128 feet). To the north of
the Quirinal, but not counted as one of the Seven Hills, was the Collis Hortorum,
now the Pincio (164 feet). The small elevation southwest of the Aventine (Mons
Testaceus, now Monte Testaccio, 115 feet) is entirely artificial, being composed
chiefly of fragments of pottery. Along the right bank stretched the high ridge
of the Ianiculum (253 feet), with its continuation, Mons Vaticanus.
Between the Quirinal and the Tiber was the level Campus Martius,
at first a training-field outside the walls, in later times built upon and included
within the city limits. The cattle-mart (Forum Boarium) lay between the Palatine
and the Tiber, the Circus Maximus between the Palatine and the Aventine. On
the low ground north of the Palatine, stretching towards the Capitoline, was
the Forum (often called Forum Romanum, or Forum Magnum, to distinguish it from
the imperial forums), the spot in which the life of Rome centred; as it became
too small for the congestion of business, relief was sought by building a series
of extensions (Fora Caesarum) on the north side. The Colosseum (Amphitheatrum
Flavium), the greatest monument of Roman architecture, stands in the depression
between the Palatine, Esquiline, and Caelian Hills.
In its development as a city Rome passed through several stages,
some of which are clearly defined. Numerous indications point to the Palatine
Hill as the seat of earliest settlement. At a remote period it was fortified
by a strong wall of well-squared tufa blocks, laid without mortar; fragments
of this wall have been discovered on the south and west sides. At least three
gates gave access to the hill-top thus enclosed: the Porta Mugonia (vetus porta
Palatii, cf. fig. 7) on the north side, the River-gate (Porta Romanula) on the
west side, and a third, of which the name is uncertain, on the south side. To
the latest times the Romans regarded the Palatine with especial reverence, and
there cherished certain memorials associated with their oldest legends, such
as the Hut of Romulus (Casa Romuli), which, though no doubt built of wood, and
straw-thatched, was kept in repair, and was still standing in the fourth century
A.D.
How long the Palatine city sufficed for the needs of the
population cannot even be conjectured. After a time the limits seem to have
been extended so as to include the Cispius, the Oppius, and the depression between
them (Fagutal), together with the valley lying between these and the Palatine
(Subura), as well as the small spur which the Palatine throws out towards the
northeast (Velia), and a portion of its slope on the northwest side (Cermalus).
To the city thus formed of seven parts (the original Palatine city being counted
as one) the name Septimontium appears to have been given; but evidence regarding
it is both meagre and unsatisfactory. More is known about the boundaries of
Rome in the next stage of development, when enlarged by the addition of the
Quirinal, Viminal, and Caelian Hills. It was now divided into four wards (regiones;
cf. Varro, L. L. v. 45), the first (Regio Suburana) comprising the Caelian Hill
and the Subura; the second (Esquilina), the Cispius, Oppius, and Fagutal; the
third (Collina), the Quirinal and Viminal Hills; the fourth (Palatina) included
the Palatine, Cermalus, and Velia. The Capitoline Hill was made a part of the
city, but not set off as a separate ward; it was retained as a common sanctuary
and fortress. Of the fortifications, by which this city of the four wards must
have been protected, no trace has yet been found.
The bounds of Rome in the period with which the name of Servius
Tullius is connected can be made out, for a large portion of the circuit, with
exactness; for they were unchanged during the whole time of the Republic, and
were marked by a line of imposing fortifications (agger Servii Tullii), remains
of which have been discovered at many points. The Aventine Hill was now included
within the limits, which were extended also further to the east on the Quirinal,
Viminal, and Esquiline Hills. The wall of Servius was pierced by a number of
gates, of which those most frequently mentioned are the Porta Carmentalis, at
the foot of the Capitoline; the Porta Collina and Porta Esquilina, on the east
side; and especially the Porta Capena, which opened into the Appian Way. The
area bounded by the wall was about two square miles.
By the time of Augustus, Rome had extended beyond the Servian
wall on every side. In B.C. 8 he divided the whole city, including the parts
beyond the Servian limits, into fourteen wards (indicated on the Plan by Roman
numerals). In each ward was afterwards placed a watch-house (excubitorium) for
the vigiles, of whom there were seven cohorts (=about 7000 men), so distributed
that each cohort looked after two wards; the duties of the vigiles were those
of our policemen and firemen combined. The wards were subdivided into precincts
(vici; the vicus as a subdivision is much older than the time of Augustus),
each comprising a group, or block, of buildings; over the precincts were the
precinct-masters (magistri vicorum), whose duties included not only the general
oversight of other matters, but especially provision for the worship of the
Lares Compitales, to which the worship of the Genius of Augustus was added.
This larger Rome was finally fortified by a massive wall,
commenced by Aurelian in A.D. 271, but not finished till the reign of Probus
(A.D. 276-282). The Aurelian wall, as it is generally called , was about 54
feet high on the outside, faced with brick, and strengthened (at any rate after
the first restoration) by 381 square towers. It was repaired by Arcadius and
Honorius in A.D. 403, afterwards by other rulers, and by several Popes; the
greater part is still standing. It was constructed in great haste, as is shown
by the large use of materials taken from other structures, and by the fact that
walls previously erected for different purposes, whose aggregate length amounted
to about one sixth of the entire circuit, were incorporated in it as they stood.
There were originally fourteen gates, vaulted, and flanked with round towers,
besides the posterns, or small passages used for purposes of traffic in time
of peace; the number was raised to fifteen by the enlargement of the Porta Pinciana
from a postern to a gate of full size, probably by Honorius. The whole length
of the wall was 11.7 miles (18837.50 m.); the area enclosed by it was 5.019
square miles, less than one-eighth the area of New York City.
The religious boundary of Rome, the Pomerium, was not moved
forward at the same time with the civil and military limits. The Pomerium of
the city in the period when it comprised four wards and the Capitoline remained
unchanged till the time of Sulla , who caused an extension to be made, but for
some reason did not include the Aventine; this was outside the Pomerium till
the reign of Claudius. Only he who had extended the territorial limits of Rome
was entitled to the distinction of enlarging the Pomerium. After Sulla, at least
Claudius, Nero, Vespasian, and Titus availed themselves of the privilege; and
the line of Aurelian's wall for considerable distances seems to have coincided
with a Pomerium previously fixed, perhaps also with an earlier limit of taxation
for provisions brought into the city.
The population of Rome in the different periods cannot be
estimated, even approximately; but, to judge from the area within the Aurelian
wall, it can hardly at any time have exceeded 1,800,000.
The Tiber within the Aurelian wall was spanned by several
bridges. The earliest was the Pons Sublicius, which was constructed of wood
so that it could be cut down easily on the approach of an enemy; it was kept
in repair, on religious grounds, even after bridges of stone stood above and
below it. Next came the bridges connecting the island with the two banks, Pons
Fabricius and Pons Cestius, both originally of wood, but renewed in stone in
the first century B.C. The first stone bridge was the Pons Aemilius, also called
Lapideus, dating from B.C. 142. The others were Pons Agrippae (reign of Augustus),
Pons Aurelius (probably dating from the reign of Caracalla), and Pons Probi
(reign of Probus). Frequently reckoned with these are two bridges outside the
walls--the famous Mulvian Bridge (Pons Mulvius or Milvius, B.C. 109), two miles
north on the Via Flaminia; and the Pons Aelius by the Campus Martius, built
by Hadrian. Nero's bridge (Pons Neronis) was broken down, perhaps as early as
the time of Hadrian.
Along the Tiber were wharfs. The river-bed was skilfully
adjusted--far more skilfully than under the system adopted some years ago and
put into effect at enormous expense by the Italian engineers--to the great variation
in the volume of water carried down, which at flood-height has been known to
measure fourteen times the amount flowing when the river is at its ordinary
level. The channel was graded at three elevations, so as to make three stages.
Thus at the Pons Aelius the bottom division, for low water, was 218.2 feet wide;
the middle division, for ordinary height, 319.9 feet wide; while to the upper
division, designed to carry off the water in time of flood, a width of 442.9
feet was given. A complicated system of drains led into the Tiber through several
large main sewers. Of the latter the Cloaca Maxima is justly celebrated as one
of the best examples of early hydraulic construction. According to tradition
it was built in the time of the Tarquins. Starting in the Subura, it followed
a very irregular course, which was perhaps determined by the channel of a primitive
brook. It passed beneath the Forum at the lowest point, under the east end of
the Basilica Iulia, and emptied into the Tiber by the Forum Boarium. The channel
of the Cloaca Maxima was paved with polygonal blocks of lava, and vaulted with
large voussoirs of a hard kind of tufa (lapis Gabinus) laid without mortar;
to give greater solidity at the mouth, the vaulting there for some distance
was composed of voussoirs of peperino (lapis Albanus) arranged in three rings.
The dimensions of the channel vary; where it is largest, at the opening into
the Tiber, it is 14.75 feet wide and 18.96 feet high, measured from the pavement
to the middle of the vault.
The architecture of Rome in the early days was unpretentious.
Even the temples, built after Etruscan patterns, were low and of common materials
covered with stucco. The streets were narrow and crooked; as a large amount
of wood was used in construction, it is not surprising that between the years
B.C. 215 and 50 seven terrible conflagrations swept over the parts of the city
along the Tiber and about the Forum; inundations of the river also at times
caused great destruction. Not till near the end of the Republic did ambitious
citizens direct their energies towards the erection of fine public buildings,
such as Pompey's theatre; some, in the same period, as Lucullus and Aemilius
Scaurus, lavished money upon palatial residences, which they ornamented with
costly marbles. Cicero, patriot that he was, found Rome inferior to Capua not
only in general appearance, but particularly in the matter of streets, and he
speaks contemptuously of the building materials--in latere aut in caemento,
ex quibus urbs effecta est. He himself had a house on the north slope of the
Palatine which cost him 3,500,000 sesterces (about $144,000); the house of Aemilius
Scaurus is said to have been sold to the infamous Clodius for the enormous sum
of nearly 15,000,000 sesterces (about $615,000).
Iulius Caesar formed large plans for the beautifying of Rome,
but in the midst of their accomplishment his life was cut short. Augustus completed
the edifices which his adoptive father had left unfinished, and inaugurated
a new epoch in the extent to which he carried not only the erection of buildings,
but also the restoration of earlier structures (the temples restored by him
numbered eighty-two) and the use of fine materials, especially marble and travertine
(lapis Tiburtinus); his saying that he "found the city of brick and left it
of marble" was no idle boast. His example was followed by other emperors, among
whom the greatest builders were Vespasian, Titus, Trajan, and Hadrian; of lower
rank than these as regards the architectural style, though not the size, of
their buildings (chiefly Thermae), were Caracalla, Diocletian, and Constantine.
Roman architecture was at its best in the period from Augustus to Hadrian.
The contributions of the Romans to the progress of the arts
were greater in the field of architecture than in any other. From the time of
Sulla they freely adopted the architectural forms of the Greeks; but with these
they combined the extensive use of the round arch, and gradually worked out
a system which enabled them to erect immense structures, such as lay within
the range of neither the Greek nor the Etruscan architecture. Lacking the Greek
sensitiveness to perfect proportion, 1 they relied, for effect, more upon massiveness
than upon symmetry, and indulged in greater richness of decoration than Greek
taste would have allowed. Under the Empire they ransacked the known world for
the choicest marbles, as well as for the hard stones, the granites, and porphyries;
these they turned to account in every conceivable way, larger masses being used
for columns and other architectural members, thin slabs for incrustation, and
small fragments for mosaics. Surfaces finished in stucco were decorated in brilliant
colours, frequently with complicated designs, sometimes with paintings of high
merit; bas-reliefs also were painted. In their adaptation of the Greek orders
of architecture the Romans made changes affecting alike the shaft, capital,
and architrave. Borrowing also from the Greeks the plan of the oblong temple
and that of the hill-side theatre, they altered both; at the same time, contrary
to Greek practice, they raised their temples upon high foundations, and gave
to their theatres a full elevation on the exterior. But apart from these, they
so developed several architectural types as to make them distinctively Roman;
such were the circus, the amphitheatre, the basilica, baths, the triumphal arch,
the commemorative column, the round tomb, and the aqueduct, so far as this was
constructed above ground on the principle of the arcade. The Roman roads also,
though in the modern view belonging rather to the domain of engineering than
to that of architecture, were equally characteristic; and certain of their bridges,
as that at Alcantara in Spain, command universal admiration. No other city has
been able to boast of so great a number and variety of beautiful or impressive
structures as Rome in the first half of the fourth century A.D. According to
a Catalogue dating from that period, the city contained 2 circuses, 2 amphitheatres,
3 theatres, 10 basilicas, 11 thermae, 36 arches of marble, 2 commemorative columns,
6 obelisks (imported from Egypt), 423 temples, 1790 domus--that is, extensive
private residences, or palaces, of the wealthy--besides which there were reckoned
46,602 tenements (insulae); the open places were adorned with 2 colossi (probably
those of Nero and Augustus), 22 "great horses" (presumably counting not merely
the large equestrian statues, as that of Marcus Aurelius, now in the square
of the Capitol, but also groups of which horses formed a part, as those of the
Dioscuri on the Capitoline and the Quirinal), to which are added 80 gilded and
77 ivory statues of the gods, no mention being made of the countless lesser
statues on every side.
The number of obelisks in Rome is known to have been about
twice that given in the Catalogue. Of the 19 aqueducts by which, according to
the Catalogue, the city was supplied with water, part were branches. The principal
aqueducts were: Aqua Appia, built in B.C. 312; Anio Vetus, for the Esquiline
Hill, B.C. 272; Aqua Marcia (B.C. 144) and Aqua Tepula (B.C. 125), extending
to the Capitoline; three constructed in the reign of Augustus: Aqua Iulia (B.C.
33), in the line of the Marcia and Tepula; Aqua Virgo (B.C. 19), for the Campus
Martius; and Aqua Alsietina (B.C. 2), for his naumachia on the right bank of
the Tiber; Anio Novus, built by Caligula; Aqua Claudia, by Claudius; Aqua Traiana,
by Trajan, the last on the right bank; Aqua Severiana and Aqua Alexandrina,
constructed to supply baths, the former by Septimius, the latter by Alexander,
Severus. According to Lanciani's calculations, the amount of water brought in
daily by the aqueducts in the time of Nerva (before the last three named in
the list were built) was about 23,839,793 cu. ft. (cu. m. 675,092; see his I
Comentarii di Frontino, p. 362). Three of the aqueducts have been repaired and
are in use--the Aqua Marcia, Aqua Virgo, and Aqua Traiana.
The names and dates of the more noteworthy buildings will
now be given in connection with a rapid survey of the City according to its
main divisions, commencing with the Capitoline Hill.
On the northern summit of the Capitoline was the Stronghold
(Arx) of the earlier city.
Within its walls were the Auguraculum, an open place where
auspices were taken; the Temple of Iuno Moneta, with which the Mint was connected;
and a Temple of Concord, built in B.C. 217; but their location is uncertain.
On the southern summit was the most magnificent of all Roman temples, that of
Iupiter Optimus Maximus, called the Capitolium. It stood in an area, on a high
platform, and was nearly square, being Etruscan in plan and style; the sum of
the four sides measured perhaps 760 feet. The front part was a triple colonnade;
behind this were the three large cellae, the middle one for Iupiter, the other
two for Minerva and Iuno. The original edifice is ascribed to the Tarquins,
but it was not dedicated till the first year of the Republic, B.C. 509. It became
a repository of the richest booty and votive offerings. In B.C. 83 it was burned
to the ground; it was rebuilt, with richer adornment, the second temple being
dedicated in B.C. 69. Again filled with treasures, it fell a prey to flames
in A.D. 69. It was rebuilt a third time on the same plan, but as a Corinthian
hexastyle, only to be burned again in A.D. 80. It was restored with great splendour,
the fourth temple being dedicated by Domitian in A.D. 82. It was not again destroyed
by fire, but remained to be dismantled by plunderers.
The Capitol was reached from the Forum by a graded road (Clivus
Capitolinus, paved in B.C. 174), from which a branch led to the Arx. Of the
open places, shrines, and private buildings on the Capitoline outside the Capitol
and the Arx very little is known. The Tarpeian Rock was on the southeast side.
On the slope of the Capitoline overlooking the Forum was the Tabularium, a depository
for archives, erected in B.C. 78.
The northeast and southwest sides of the Forum in early times
were lined with small shops (tabernae), which eventually were removed to make
room for public buildings. The very ancient shrine of Ianus stood somewhere
near the middle of the northwest side; the round Temple of Vesta at the southeast
corner. The Palace of the Vestals (Atrium Vestae), southeast of the temple,
was greatly changed by enlargements and restorations; near it was the official
residence of the Pontifex Maximus (Regia). In the vaults of the Temple of Saturn
(dedicated B.C. 497) the public treasure was kept; the eight Ionic columns remaining
belong to a later restoration. The three beautiful Corinthian columns still
standing on the foundation of the Temple of Castor (dedicated B.C. 484) date
from a restoration in B.C. 6. The Temple of Concord was likewise of early date
(dedicated B.C. 366); but the existing plan and fragments date from a remodelling
of the edifice in B.C. 7. Under the Empire temples were erected in honour of
Iulius Caesar (Templum Divi Iulii, marking the spot where his body was burned,
dedicated B.C. 29); of Vespasian (three Corinthian columns remain); of Faustina,
wife of Antoninus Pius, dedicated to him also after his death in A.D. 161 (now
the Church of S. Lorenzo in Miranda); and of Romulus, the small son of Maxentius,
who died in A.D. 309; this last building, of circular form (now incorporated
in the Church of SS. Cosmas and Damian), lies just beyond the Temple of Faustina,
northeast of the Forum. In A.D. 367 a series of twelve chapels, containing gilded
statues of the Olympian divinities, was erected in the southwest corner (Porticus
Deorum Consentium).
The oldest of the basilicas was the Basilica Porcia, built
by the elder Cato in B.C. 184; this and the Basilica Opimia (B.C. 121) were
removed, as the ground was needed for the extensions of the Forum. The Basilica
Fulvia et Aemilia, built in B.C. 179, north of the shops, was extended afterwards
to the edge of the Forum; as this side has not been excavated, its foundations
cannot be traced. The Basilica Sempronia (B.C. 170) was erected on the site
of the house of Scipio Africanus Maior, and was itself replaced by the magnificent
Basilica Iulia, which was begun by Iulius Caesar in B.C. 54 and completed by
Augustus.
The open space of the Forum was paved with large blocks of
stone. Along the south side passed the Holy Way (Via Sacra), the course of which
varied somewhat in different periods. Across this, at the point where it entered
the Forum (north of the Regia), was the Arch of the Fabii (Fornix Fabianus),
erected in B.C. 121; south of the Temple of Iulius Caesar was the Arch of Augustus
(B.C. 19), and at the upper end of the Basilica Iulia, the Arch of Tiberius
(A.D. 16)--all these commemorating famous victories. The Arch of Septimius Severus
(A.D. 203) is in a good state of preservation, though the six horses and the
chariot which stood upon it, with Victory placing a crown upon the head of Severus,
have long since disappeared. Several columns surmounted by statues stood in
the Forum; the latest of them, the tasteless Column of Phocas (A.D. 608), is
still in place, without the image.
Near the northwest corner of the Forum was the only prison
in Rome (carcer), comprising a large upper and smaller lower dungeon, the latter
of very ancient construction. East of the prison was the open space of the Comitium.
Here were the ancient Senate-house (Curia Hostilia) and the Speakers' Platform,
called Rostra, because ornamented with the beaks of the ships taken from the
Antiates in B.C. 338. Both were removed by Caesar, who commenced the erection
of a new Senate-house (Curia Iulia, finished by Augustus) and the rebuilding
of the Rostra at the upper end of the Forum; when the Rostra began to be used
in the new location is a matter of doubt. The Platform in its final form was
about 78 feet long, 33 feet wide, and 10 feet high; the top was adorned with
statues. A second Speakers' Platform (Rostra Iulia) was erected in front of
the Temple of Iulius Caesar, forming part of the facade, and was ornamented
with the beaks of ships taken at the battle of Actium. Near the southwest corner
of the Rostra was the Golden Milestone (Milliarium Aureum), erected by Augustus,
from which distances were calculated on the Roman roads; at the northwest corner
Constantine set up the Umbilicus Romae, in the form of a cone, as the ideal
centre of the city and the Roman world. There is much uncertainty in regard
to the plan and location of several other structures about the Forum, as the
Secretarium Senatus and Graecostasis. Somewhere near the middle of the open
space was the Lacus Curtius, which appears to have become a dry puteal by the
time of Augustus; near the Temple of Castor was the Lacus Iuturnae, which was
still known in the Middle Ages.
The first extension of the Forum, made by Iulius Caesar (Forum
Caesaris or Forum Iulium, see Map of Rome), was east of the Arx; in the centre
was a Temple of Venus Genetrix, in front of which stood a bronze statue of Caesar's
war-horse. On the east side of this Augustus built a second extension (Forum
Augusti), in which was the splendid Temple of Mars Ultor (dedicated B.C. 2),
adorned with costly works of art. Nearer the Forum Romanum Vespasian laid off
a similar area, and erected in it the magnificent Temple of Peace (Templum Pacis).
This was connected with the forums of Caesar and Augustus by the Forum of Nerva
, which was planned and almost finished by his predecessor Domitian; the boundary-wall
was richly ornamented with Corinthian columns and reliefs, and in it was a prostyle
hexastyle Temple of Minerva, also of the Corinthian order. The last and finest
of the imperial forums was that of Trajan, who cut away the ridge between the
Capitoline and Quirinal to make room for it. It was entered from the Forum of
Augustus, through a high triumphal arch. From this the visitor passed into an
area with colonnades on either side, which opened out into two semicircular
extensions; at the upper end of the latter was the great Basilica Ulpia. Beyond
the Basilica was a small area in which rose the immense column of Trajan (without
the base 97 feet,=100 Roman feet, high), adorned with reliefs celebrating his
campaigns against Decebalus. On either side of this were two buildings in which
a large library was stored (Bibliotheca Ulpia); just beyond them Hadrian erected
a temple in honour of Trajan and Plotina.
The greater part of the Palatine Hill in the Republican period
was given up to the residences of wealthy citizens. There were, however, several
Restoration of Hadrian's Mausoleum. temples the location of which, even now
that a considerable portion of the hill has been excavated, has not been determined
with exactness. Somewhere on the northern side was the very ancient Temple of
Victory; farther down towards the Via Sacra lay the Temple of Iupiter Stator.
Of later date were the Temple of the Magna Mater (dedicated B.C. 191), and the
Temple of Iupiter Victor, which seems to have been changed into a temple of
the Sun by Elagabalus. But these temples were eclipsed in splendour by the Temple
of Apollo, dedicated B.C. 28; the site of this, and of the library connected
with it, has not yet been cleared.
Augustus, who was born on the Palatine, made it a place of
imperial residence. His palace, enlarged by the additions of his successors
(Domus Augustana), became the nucleus of a complex of palatial edifices to the
magnificence of which the world has elsewhere afforded no parallel. (The arrangement
in general, so far as the excavations have gone, may be made out from the Plan.)
Tiberius seems to have had a separate palace before his father's death.Caligula
added to this; and, utilizing the roofs of intermediate buildings, he made a
bridge from the Palatine to the Capitoline. Nero, after the nine-days fire in
July, A.D. 64, extended his Golden House (Domus Aurea) over the Velia and even
to the Esquiline; together with the Palace on the Palatine it must have covered
about a square mile, but the parts beyond the Palatine were removed by the following
emperors. The Stadium was probably built by Hadrian. Septimius Severus extended
the palace beyond the Stadium; at the southeast corner, overlooking the Via
Appia, he erected the Septizonium, a beautiful marble balcony in at least three
stories. On the slope of the Palatine at the middle of the south side was the
Paedagogium, a school for the pages of the imperial household.
North of the Palatine ran the Via Sacra, connecting at the
east end with a street that skirted the southeast side and led into the Via
Appia near the Porta Capena. Across the Via Sacra at the highest point of the
Velia was the Arch of Titus, commemorating his victories over the Jews in A.D.
70 (dedicated in A.D. 81 by Domitian). Near this was the magnificent Temple
of Venus and Rome, built by Hadrian, with two great apsidal niches facing in
opposite directions (partly incorporated in the church of S. Francesca Romana).
Further towards the Forum was the Basilica of Constantine, the main part of
which was erected by Maxentius before B.C. 312; its remains are among the most
impressive in Rome. At the end of the Via Sacra the triumphal Arch of Constantine
is still standing, not far from the Colosseum.
The Colosseum (probably so named from the colossus of Nero,
more than 100 feet high, which stood near it) was commenced by Vespasian, and
dedicated by Titus in A.D. 80, but it seems not to have been entirely finished
till later. It is in the form of an ellipse, the circuit of which measures nearly
one-third of a mile (1728 feet), the major axis 615 feet, the minor axis 510
feet; the area is about 5.7 acres. The four stories furnished seats for 87,000
spectators. More ample still was the Circus Maximus, which was first provided
with a permanent structure by Caesar; his building was in three stories, the
first of stone, the other two of wood, and was about 2130 feet long, seating
150,000 spectators. This Circus was several times burned, rebuilt, and enlarged;
before A.D. 79 it accommodated 250,000 spectators, and at the beginning of the
fourth century its capacity is said to have reached the incredible number of
485,000.
The other great buildings in the eastern part of Rome were
the Thermae of Titus ( III.), erected in A.D. 80 on a part of the site of the
Golden House. The Thermae of Caracalla (Thermae Antoninianae, Reg. XII.) could
accommodate at one time 1600 bathers, and were of unparalleled magnificence.
The quadrangular enclosure measures more than a fifth of a mile (1081 feet)
on each side, and the ruins now have something of the appearance of a great
fortress. On the Quirinal (Reg. VI.) were the immense Thermae of Diocletian
(dedicated in A.D. 305), part of the remains of which have been turned to use
in modern edifices, and the Thermae of Constantine, which, though restored as
late as A.D. 443, have left few traces.
The public edifices in the Campus Martius were numerous and
important. Here was the Theatre of Pompey (erected B.C. 55); with this was connected
the Porticus Pompei, together with the Exedra, in which stood the statue of
Pompey mentioned in the narratives of the death of Caesar. Nearer the Capitoline
and the Tiber were the Theatre of Marcellus, of which an imposing section of
exterior wall is still to be seen, and the Theatre of Balbus, both dedicated
in B.C. 11; among other buildings erected during the reign of Augustus were
the Porticus of Octavia and Porticus of Philippus, both named after relatives
of the emperor, the Thermae of Agrippa, and the original Pantheon. The Pantheon
in its present form, dating from the reign of Hadrian (though the inscription
of Agrippa is still on the front of the Portico), is not only in a better state
of preservation than any other Roman edifice, but ranks high among remarkable
buildings. Its plan has the form of a circle 140 feet in diameter on the inside,
with a rectangular portico sustained by sixteen Corinthian columns of granite
39 feet high. Over the round structure, which is of brick, is a massive dome
140 feet at its highest point above the paved floor; the building is lighted
by an aperture, 30 feet in diameter, at the centre of the dome. Near the Tiber,
in the northern part of the Campus Martius, was the huge Mausoleum of Augustus,
the chambers of which were used as burial-places for members of the imperial
family down to Nerva. To his reign also belonged the completion of the new Saepta,
commenced by Iulius Caesar; this, originally an open space marked off to facilitate
voting by centuries, was now surrounded by marble porticos, and provided with
elaborate barriers of division. The Stadium, built by the emperor Domitian for
Greek games, had seats for 30,000 spectators; the Circus of Flaminius (B.C.
221) was probably still larger. In the Campus Martius were many temples, early
and late, as those of Hope (Templum Spei), of Neptune (eleven columns remain),
and of the Egyptian Isis. The Column of Marcus Aurelius, similar to that of
Trajan, is well preserved; the triumphal arches across the Via Lata have disappeared.
The famous Temple of Aesculapius, founded in B.C. 291, was
on the island in the Tiber. On the right bank of the river was a Circus, built
for the most part by Caligula, but named after Nero. East of this Hadrian erected
his massive Mausoleum (now Castello di S. Angelo), in the form of a drum of
masonry, 240 feet in diameter, resting on a square base measuring 341 feet on
the sides; the whole structure was about 165 feet high, and on the top was a
gilded statue of the emperor. Near by he built a Circus.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ALBA LONGA (Ancient city) ROME
PALESTRINA (Town) LAZIO
PALESTRINA (Town) LAZIO
ALBA LONGA (Ancient city) ROME
Alba Longa. The most eminent city of the Latin league is now believed to have
been situated here, 24 km SE of Rome. Remains have been found of villas datable
to the Late Republican and the Imperial periods, including the villa of Domitian,
whose peregrinations along the lake are referred to by Pliny the Younger (Pan.
81.82). Domitian's villa contained its own theater, and also a grotto along the
coast of Lake Albano where a number of fragmentary sculptures in high relief were
found in 1841. There were identifiable as a gigantic recumbent Polyphemos, a ram,
a Scylla, etc., reminiscent of the sculptures found at Sperlonga. The grotto itself
resembles the one at Sperlonga in that it consists of several sections: a large
circular one in the middle, and several smaller ones along the sides. The Polyphemos
is in the same late Hellenistic style as the similar statue from Sperlonga; and
though its surface is considerably worn, the variegated modeling also seems to
point to Greek workmanship, contemporary with the Pergamine Altar.
The grotto here and at Sperlonga suggest that there were in Greece--perhaps
on Rhodes or at Pergamon--grottos adorned with sculptures representing the adventures
of Odysseus and other Homeric heroes, which were later taken by the Romans to
Italy and placed in similar settings. Such grottos with several divisions may
be found along the indented coast of many Greek lands, and one of them has been
immortalized in Homer's description of Odysseus' encounter with Polyphemos (Od.
9.190ff).
G.M.A. Richter, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
FERENTINO (Town) LAZIO
Ferentinum (Ferentino) Latium, Italy. A Hernican hill town on the Via Latina (modern
Casilina) about 75 km SE of Rome. It was taken by the Romans in 361 B.C., remained
faithful to Rome in the Hernican revolt, and defied Hannibal in the second Punic
war, for which he laid it waste (Livy 7.9.1; 9.42.11; 26.9.11). It is famous for
its fortifications and its monumental acropolis.
The walls are of local limestone, large polygonal blocks approaching
rectangles with much coursing, the two surviving gates, Porta Stupa and Porta
Sanguinaria, capped with arches of regularly cut voussoirs. The walls, much rebuilt
in mediaeval times, can be followed around a winding circuit that avoids acute
angles and sites the gates with some sophistication, but is towerless.
The acropolis had its own fortifications, which come tangent to the
city walls at the N corner and probably joined them there, but the NE side cannot
be traced. The most important front is the SW, overlooking the town, where a bold
rectangular outwork juts forward at the S corner. At its base this is of roughly
trapezoidal blocks of limestone in rough coursing set in a deep footing trench
cut into the stone of the hill. There is some effect of bossing and a marked batter,
and this work is carried as coigning part way up the superstructure, which is
of travertine cut in long thin blocks laid in regular courses of unequal height.
The superstructure houses a system of concrete vaults, an interior substructure
of well-developed plan and ingenious fenestration that carried at the level of
the top of the acropolis a rectangular building raised a meter above a surrounding
terrace, perhaps a temple. It is known only that it faced NE, away from the town,
and had walls of, or faced with, travertine, files of Ionic or Corinthian columns
on a raised pliath down either side of a central nave, and curious small windows
evenly spaced just above the plinth. The approach and pronaos, if there was one,
are completely lost. Some have thought the whole might have been roofed with a
vault. A number of advanced building techniques were employed: concrete vaulting,
relieving arches over lintels, a segmental arch where there was not room for a
full semicircle. The whole structure is adorned with four building inscriptions
of the censors A. Hirtius and M. Lollius (CIL X, 5837-40). The date is much debated,
but the architectural sophistication inclines the majority to the early 1st c.
B.C. The whole complex is of a build with the rest of the acropolis fortifications,
though variations in masonry appear in other stretches.
Just NE of the supposed boundary of the acropolis is a well-preserved
market building of Republican date, a vaulted hall along one side of which open
five vaulted shops, an important predecessor of the basilica of the Mercati di
Traiano in Rome. There are poor remains of a theater, and at nearby Terme Pompeo
are cold sulphur baths that were used in antiquity.
F erentinum has yielded a great many inscriptions, some of which are
housed in the Raccolta d'Arte Coinunale, but the most famous is the will of Aulus
Quintilius of the time of Trajan, carved in the rock outside Porta Maggiore, in
which he left income from lands to the community (CIL x, 5853).
L. Richardson, jr, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Jan 2006 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
MINTURNO (Town) LAZIO
On the right (and left) bank of the Liris river separating Latium
from Campania, 2 km from the sea. Minturnae was originally an Ausonian town (7
c. B.C.) of which no archaeological traces have been found, but it was presumably
on or near the Roman site. Roman sources first mention it in 340 B.C. (Livy 8.10).
In 313 it was captured by Rome with great slaughter. Two years later the Via Appia
was laid through the (unoccupied?) present site, and in 295 a Roman colony was
settled on the right bank astride the Appia in a rectangular castrum (ca. 3 ha)
with a polygonal limestone wall of which some bedding remains. The castrum itself
is essentially unexplored, but the area seems too small to accommodate an intramural
forum; possibly its earliest forum (63 x 50 m) lay slightly W of the castrum and
opened S onto the Appia.
Before 207 B.C., perhaps in connection with the Hannibalic wars, the
city had been greatly extended W and S by a new ashlar tufa wall with square and
pentagonal towers 14.7 m apart, and a W gate.
Meanwhile, after the presumed fire of 191 the forum was rebuilt with
a double colonnade on E, N and W. In the W half a freestanding three-cella temple,
presumably the Capitolium, now faced S onto the Appia. This forum and a considerable
additional area were again destroyed by fire later than 65 B.C. but before ca.
45; an important expiatory bidental was consecrated in the forum; the Capitolium,
now in limestone, and the colonnade were rebuilt by a presumed colonization of
Julius Caesar's veterans, perhaps as early as the First Triumvirate though possibly
not for some years; and a new single-cella Temple B in tufa, with a large colonnaded
temenos, was built E of the forum astride the foundations of the old castrum wall.
Later a small temple was placed E of Temple B and another was installed at the
S end of the W temenos colonnade with consequent suppression of the pomerial streets.
Augustus again colonized veterans, and he or Tiberius added the most
conspicuous present monuments of Minturnae, the aqueduct which entered the city
at the W gate bringing water from the Monti Aurunci 11 km away, and a theater
for about 4600 persons. The theater was located in an open area immediately N
of the forum, of which the outside of the N wall now served as the scaena, and
the cavea extended out across the Hannibalic (?) ashlar N city wall, of which
traces are found under the theater arches.
At the same time or perhaps as late as A.D. 30 Temple A, perhaps dedicated
to Rome and Augustus and embellished with a statue of Tiberius or Augustus, was
placed in the E half of the forum, likewise fronting S onto the Appia; the revetment
of its podium included a unique series of 29 reused dedicatory inscriptions (altars?),
mostly datable between 90 and 64 B.C., listing freed and slave magistri and magistrae
of several local cults.
At some point the Republican forum was outgrown and a larger imperial
forum was installed opposite it across the Via Appia. This area is unexcavated
except for a long E colonnade and the so-called L Street leading to the vaulted
substructures of an otherwise unidentified Temple L of the late 1st c. A.D., and
except for a small area in the center which yielded a deposit of wasters of a
Campanian potter of ca. 200 B.C., and except for extensive baths and shops near
the NW corner, fronting on the Via Appia, and some shops on the rear (S) side
across L Street from Temple L. These last groups and some other details result
from post-WW II excavations. During Hadrian's reign alterations modernized and
embellished the scaena of the theater and well-houses were installed at the S
ends of the E and W colonnades of the Republican forum, which was now wholly closed
to traffic by walls and a propylon.
In 1966-67 and 1971 underwater excavations and land explorations showed
wooden pilings and concrete rubble remains of Cicero's pons Tirenus (or Teretinus?)
carrying the Appia over the Liris directly from the castrum, and another road
(to Arpinum?) turning N from the castrum by a long causeway on the right bank
toward another Roman bridge and cemetery. A variety of concrete blocks, amphorae,
etc. was found upstream from the modern bridge; downstream an area 250 m long
off the right bank was characterized by a ledge of concretion containing some
marble sculpture of no outstanding interest, terracottas including votive offerings,
common pottery and sigillata, sufficient keys and bolts to suggest a locksmith's
shop nearby, an astounding amount of lead, hooks, and weights connected with fishing,
and 2229 coins (270 B.C-ca. A.D. 450, with heaviest representation between 27
B.C. and A.D. 192). All this is evidence of a busy quay during several centuries.
About 1 km downstream the sanctuary of den Marica dates back to Ausonian
times. A tufa temple in Italic, not Greek, tradition was built ca. 500 B.C.; ex
votos, however, become common only ca. 350 B.C., with a hiatus between ca. 200
and 100 B.C--fluctuations attributed to varying prosperity. Toward the end of
the 1st c. A.D. the temple was rebuilt and perhaps dedicated to Isis; it was apparently
abandoned after Marcus Aurelius.
Marius escaped to, and from, Minturnae. Cicero often passed through
it. It is mentioned frequently in ancient sources, though rarely after Tacitus,
with final mentions by Procopius regarding A.D. 548 and by Gregory I regarding
the Langobard destruction in 590. From the 8th c. on it served as a quarry for
Traetto nearby, and later for Cassino.
Major unexcavated and/or unpublished monuments include the imperial
forum, walls, and gates (see Richmond's discussion), the amphitheater, Temple
B, ca. 200 m of reticulate docks and shipways on the Liris, the theater (except
for Aurigemma's description and plans), the aqueduct (except for Butler's description
and photographs), and the left-bank dependencies of the city.
Sculptures are now at Zagreb, Philadelphia, and a small museum on
the site; other objects are in the Naples Museum.
H. Comfort, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
PALESTRINA (Town) LAZIO
Praeneste (Palestrina) Italy.
An ancient Latin town on the inland highway from Etruria to Poseidonia, ca. 36 km E of Rome, set on the steep slope of Monte Ginestro, an outcrop of the Apennines commanding the entrance to the Hernican valley. It possessed wealth early, as the finds from the necropolis S of the city at La Columbella show. Here just after the middle of the 19th c. were found a number of fossa tombs with extraordinarily rich furniture. The most famous of these are the Bernardini and Barberini tombs of the orientalizing period (third quarter of the 7th c. B.C.), the material from which is now in the Museo della Villa Giulia. But there were also other important finds, including the famous Praenestine gold fibula inscribed along its catch-plate in archaic Latin, showing that in the second half of the 7th c. this was Praeneste's tongue. The wealth of the Bernardini tomb shows a completely Etruscanized taste. The finds included personal jewelry, among it a large pectoral fibula of gold (0.17 x 0.06 m) covered with 131 tiny figures in the round of lions, horses, chimaeras, and harpies, all decorated with granulation; other large pins of different design, including a gold serpentine fibula and silver comb fibulas; a dagger with a sheath of silver and a hilt decorated with gold, silver, and amber. There was also table ware, including a gold bowl with embossed animals in single file in Egyptian style, other bowls more elaborately decorated in silver, a small silver cauldron decorated with similar embossing mounted with six silver snakes rising from rosettes, a gold skyphos of great beauty mounted with tiny sphinxes decorated with granulation, a great bronze cauldron mounted with six gryphon protomes, together with a decorated base for this, and numerous bronze vessels and mounts, some of which show lively wit and imagination. Other luxuries include glass and carved ivories. The Barberini tomb was equally rich and contained a similar pectoral fibula in gold and a similar great bronze cauldron; it also produced a bronze throne and a great bronze tray mounted on wheels, as well as numerous very fine carved ivories, including a cup supported by four caryatids, and a charming wooden box in the form of a fawn. The use of some of the ivories may remain in doubt, but not the wealth to which they attest. A silver situla from the Castellani tomb is another unusual piece of treasure.
Sp oradic finds of fine terracotta temple revetments show the continuance
of wealth and artistry in the 6th and early 5th c., but we have no buildings to
associate with these, and there is then a gap that lasts from the early 5th c.
to ca. mid 4th. Sometime in the 4th c. the city walls must have been constructed,
fortifications in great polygonal blocks of the local limestone fitted together
with varying degrees of precision but usually with some attempt to make the main
beds nearly level, while there is virtually no coursing. These present differences
of style in different stretches, and some try to distinguish different periods
of construction. The walls are long (ca. 4.8 km), with rectangular towerlike bastions
at irregular intervals. That they are built without knowledge of the arch suggests
an early date, but the fact that they include the arx above the town (Castel S.
Pietro) and the town itself in a single system that must climb the steep cliff
face boldly suggests a late date. A mid 4th c. date best accommodates their peculiarities
and is consistent with the reappearance of wealth in Praenestine burials, but
the walls still need thorough investigation. Along the S front they are replaced
by later walls of tufa.
From Livy (2.19.2) we know that Praeneste, one of the original members
of the Latin League, went over just before the battle of Lake Regillus in 499
B.C. to alliance with Rome. But after the invasion of the Gauls it revolted from
Rome and was at war with Rome down to the final dissolution of the Latin League
in 338 B.C. Thereafter it kept its independence and rights of asylum and coinage
and was governed by four magistrates, two praetors, and two aediles, responsible
to its senate. It furnished Rome with a military contingent, when needed, the
cohors praenestina, commanded by one of the praetors (Livy 23.19.17-18).
In excavations in the Columbella necropolis that began in the 18th
c. and continued into the early 20th c. a great number of burials of the 4th c.
and early Hellenistic period came to light. These were usually in sarcophagi of
peperino or tufa, their places marked by cippi consisting of a block of limestone
inscribed with the name of the deceased surmounted by either a rather crude portrait
bust or a smooth, sharply pointed egg-shape usually poised on a base of acanthus
leaves; the latter is characteristic of Praeneste. In the graves were found a
great many bronze cistae, decorated boxes containing toilet articles and feminine
adornments, and at first it was thought Praeneste was a center of the manufacture
of these. But the handsomest of them, the Ficoroni cista in the Museo della Villa
Giulia, bears an inscription stating that it was made at Rome. In general the
cistae, when they are inscribed, are inscribed in Latin, while the mirrors they
may contain are inscribed in Etruscan. The decoration of the cistae consists of
engraving (or embossing with a point in dotted patterns, an early technique) and
the addition of cast mounts and chains. The main scene on the body tends to be
mythological, framed by formal borders; the mounts are usually without narrative
content. Thus on the Ficoroni cista the main scene is the aftermath of the boxing
match between Pollux and Amykos from the Argonaut story, some 19 figures. It is
framed at the base with an engraved band of confronted sphinxes and palmettes
and at the crown with a double interlace of lilies and palmettes, standing and
hanging. The cover is decorated in two rings: the outer, a hunt; the inner, lions
and gryphons. The handle of the cover is a youthful Dionysos standing between
two young ithyphallic satyrs. The feet are lions' paws set on frogs with relief
attachment plaques showing groups of three figures, one of whom is Hercules. The
older cistae (mid 4th c.) tend to be oval, broader than deep, and with a handle
of a single figure in an acrobatic arch. There are also some in which the bronze
wall was worked a jour over a wooden lining (such a lining was probably always
present). Among other objects in these burials one may note bronze implements
(strigils, tweezers) and alabastra of glass paste.
The great glory of Praeneste was the Temple of Fortuna Primigenia,
a sanctuary that grew up around the sortes praenestinae, a collection of slips
of oak marked with words in an archaic alphabet kept in an olive wood box. When
someone wished to consult the sortes, a young boy (sortilegus) drew one or more
of these at random from their box in a ceremony we understand only poorly. The
sortes were held in awe and honor, and the inscriptions of grateful devotees chart
the cult's enormous success. It is uncertain whether the goddess' name comes from
her being the eldest child of Jupiter, as some inscriptions have it, or from her
having nursed Jupiter (Cic. Div. 2.41.85). The coins found in the excavation of
the sanctuary show that it still flourished into the 4th c. A.D. The chief festival
fell on April 10-11.
The sanctuary consists of two complexes, commonly known as upper and
lower. The axis of the two is unified, but there is no direct connection between
them, and they seem to express rather different architectural ideas, points that
have led some to presume that the lower sanctuary was rather simply the forum
of Praeneste. The lower sanctuary consists of three principal members, the “grotto
of the sortes,” to W, a large rectangular edifice in the middle, and an apsidal
building to E. Walls of tufa before the grotto of the sortes and under the cathedral
of Palestrina show that this area has been extensively rebuilt. The grotto is
in part natural, in part artificial, an ample nymphaeum paved with a splendid
colored mosaic of fish and other marine subjects; from what can be made out of
the plan of the whole, this should have been the focus of a large hall balancing
the apsidal building. To E of it a rectangular building enclosing a Corinthian
colonnade is best completed as a basilica, despite some uncertainty; a basement
story on the S with a Doric colonnade carried the S aisle down to the level of
the street outside. To the E of this and communicating with it is the apsidal
hall, its apse, like the grotto, cut into the rock and rusticated, also presumably
a nymphaeum; it was originally paved with the famous Barberini mosaic of Nilotic
subjects, now in the museum. The hall preceding it is ringed with a deep podium
trimmed with a diminutive Doric frieze along the crown, above which rise engaged
columns alternating with great windows that must have given this hall a very grand
effect. It has been supposed that the podium was for statuary or ex-voto offerings,
but certainty is impossible here. In the basement of this hall, accessible only
from the exterior, is a vaulted chamber identified by an inscription of the aediles
as an aerarium.
The upper sanctuary consists of a sequence of steep, shallow terraces
rising to a great colonnaded square, above which stood the temple proper, the
apex of the design. The first terraces are two of fine polygonal masonry separated
by one of opus quadratum, possibly a survival from an earlier period. The upper
polygonal terrace, relatively high, is cut at its ends by broad stairways that
lead up to the base of a double ramp that sweeps across the whole complex. Throughout
this part of the sanctuary the visitor is presented with a series of surprises,
the height of the terraces preventing his forming any notion of what awaits him
at the successive levels. To increase this effect the Doric colonnades along the
great ramps turn to the hill and present a blank wall to the view to the S. At
the top of the ramps a generous terrace spreads to either side. This is lined
with a fine Corinthian colonnade with a high attic, in effect a second story,
and develops into a hemicycle halfway along each arm. That to the E framed a tholos,
that to the W an altar. The tholos is not centered on its hemicycle, and it covered
a dry well that has been supposed to be the place where the sortes were believed
to have been found.
From this level a monumental stair follows the main axis, rising through
a terrace of vaults with a facade of arches alternating with rectangular doors,
all framed by an engaged order, architecture similar to that of the tabularium
in Rome, to emerge in a great ceremonial square surrounded on three sides by porticos
in which the columns support vaulted and coffered roofing. At the back of this,
lifted a story above it, a hemicyclical stair of broad shallow steps rose to a
final hemicyclical colonnade that screened the tholos of the temple proper at
the same time it made a grandiose entrance to it.
The whole building is generally consistent in fabric and style, with
walls faced with fine opus incertum of the local limestone and carved members
of travertine and peperino. On the basis of a building inscription that mentions
the senate of Praeneste, the excavators wished to date the upper sanctuary toward
the middle of the 2d c. B.C. and the lower to the time of the Sullan colony. This
has been strongly opposed, especially by architectural historians, who see a difference
between the two parts of little more than a decade at most and incline to ascribe
the whole temple to the time of Sulla's colony. For Praeneste, after many decades
of prosperity as an independent municipium, refused to take sides in the social
war with the Italian towns against Rome, but in the Marian war it had the misfortune
to give shelter to the younger Marius and his army after their defeat by Sulla.
There he stood siege for many months, but after the battle of the Colline Gate
the Praenestines surrendered, and Marius killed himself. The sack of Praeneste
was extraordinarily savage (App. BCiv. 1.94), and it is generally supposed that
this gave the opportunity for replanning and rebuilding the temple of the goddess
to whom Sulla was so devoted. And at this time the city became a colony.
Besides the buildings noted, one should mention extensive works of
terracing in opus quadratum along the S front of the city that replaced the old
city walls, an impressive series of vaulted rooms in opus incertum in continuance
of the line of these (Gli Arconi), and a large imperial cistern of brick-faced
concrete. All these works follow the orientation of the buildings of the sanctuaries
higher up, but it is not clear what the purpose of all of these may have been,
or even whether they formed part of the sanctuary. But it seems not unlikely that
by the Sullan period the forum of Praeneste and all its appurtenances had been
moved to the foot of the hill. Inscriptions mention numerous public buildings,
including baths, an amphitheater, and a ludus gladiatorius, but these have not
yet been located. There are remains of numerous villas in the neighborhood, the
most impressive being the Hadrianic ruins near the cemetery (Villa Adriana) from
which in 1793 Gavin Hamilton extracted the Braschi Antinous now in the Vatican
(Sala Rotonda).
The Palazzo Barberini built on the hemicycle at the top of the temple
of Fortuna has been converted to use as a museum, and an excellent collection
of material from the site is displayed there.
L. Richardson, jr, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Jan 2006 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains 21 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
ROME (Ancient city) ITALY
The key to Rome's early importance and predominance is its geographic
position on the Tiber, the largest river of central Italy. At a distance of ca.
20 km from its mouth, an island in the Tiber provides the easiest place to cross
the river between Rome and the sea; and there is no other crossing place for many
miles upstream. The left bank opposite the island became the natural halting place
for the general overhand traffic from N to S of the Italian peninsula as well
as for the salt trade route which came from the salt marshes N of the mouth of
the Tiber. The river was crossed at the island by bridges or by ferry, and the
salt route continued over the Vicus Iugarius, the Argiletum and the Via Salaria
towards the mountainous regions of the Sabines, whereas the traffic from the N
of Italy into Latium and Campania took its way through the valley of the Forum
along the Sacra Via towards the Alban hills. The earliest traces of settlements
within the boundaries of later Rome have been found in the immediate vicinity
of the Tiber island S of the Vicus Iugarius. Excavations in the Area Sacra of
S. Omobono, begun in 1937, point to pre-urban settlements from ca. 1500-1400 B.C.
Early religious traditions like the festival of the Septimontium, which included
the Palatium, Cermalus, Velia, Fagutal, Caelius (with Succusa), Oppius, and Cispius,
show that the development of Rome as an organized township was based on the hills
as natural strongholds. Owing to this geographic position there was uninterrupted
habitation on the site of Rome from the second millennium B.C. on. In the Iron
Age, an archaic city emerged on the left bank of the river enclosing the four
regions: Suburana (Caelius), Esquilina, Collina (Quirinal and Viminal), and Palatina.
The Capitoline, always regarded as the citadel of the united city, was not included
in one of the regions. The archaeological evidence of Iron Age tombs and hut foundations
is, however, not limited to the Palatine, Quirinal, Esquiline, and Velia; it also
appears to a large extent in the valley of the later Forum Romanum although the
legend describes this as a marsh made habitable only by the draining by the Cloaca
Maxima, attributed to the engineering skill of the Etruscans. The fact that a
hut settlement was found at the lowest point of the valley at the Equus Domitiani
5 m below the first Imperial pavement of the Forum is ample evidence that the
open brook coming from the valley between Quirinal and Viminal, crossing the valleys
of the Forum and the Velabrum and emptying into the Tiber, provided sufficient
drainage to make the valley habitable and to keep the old road open for traffic.
The spring-fed brooks that drained the valleys provided at the same time fresh
water for the early dwellers. Through the Campus Martius flowed the Petronia Amnis,
the only watercourse whose ancient name is known to us; it came from a spring,
Fons Cati, on the slope of the Quirinal. The brook that drained the valley of
the Circus Maximus (Vallis Murcia) between the Palatine and Aventine originated
from two branches, one coming from the Oppius, crossing the site of the Colosseum
and continuing between Palatine and Caelian; at the SE corner of the Palatine
it joined another watercourse coming out of the valley S of the Caelian. After
crossing the circus valley and the Forum Boarium it flowed into the Tiber ca.
100 m below the mouth of the Cloaca Maxima. It was not the marshy ground that
made settling in the valleys difficult--there is no evidence that the settlements
on the hillsides were populated more densely or earlier than those in the valleys--but
the violent inundations of the Tiber which plagued the city until the beginning
of the 20th c. The winter floods, many of them recorded by ancient writers, must
often have destroyed the hut settlements in the valleys. Usually the flood exhausted
itself in three to five days, and the inhabitants could easily repair the damage
to their huts without giving up the place of habitation.
E. Nash, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains 76 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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