Parker, John Henry: The archaeology of Rome (1,text): I. The primitive fortifications (Oxford [u.a.], 1874)

26 Primitive Fortifications. [CHAP. I.

on a level to the gate called the Porta Romana or Romanula, which is
just over that end of the bridge of Caligula, of which two of the tall
brick piers remain in situ. Passing through that gate, the pavement
of the old road continues up to the corner of the hill under a part of
the palaces of the Csesars of the first century. The lower part of the
road has been altered, and raised from ten to twenty feet above the
old level. The tops of the arches of the arcade, or of shops (?) by
the side of it, are visible close to the ground near the round church
of S. Theodore (supposed to stand on the site of a temple of
Vesta). This road, coming from the south, evidently went origi-
nally to the Janus or Arcus Quadrifrons, which was the entrance into
the Forum Boarium to the west; the Forum Romanum was to the
east, and the Capitol to the north. The silversmiths’ quarter was
near the Forum Boarium, where stands the arch of Sept. Severus,
called of the silversmiths by the inscription. The Aqua Argentina,
rising in the Lupercal, or Wolf’s Cave, falls into the Cloaca Maxima,
near to the south side of this Jamis Quadrifrons. The modem
road is called the Via dei Fenili, and leads into the Via de’ Cerchi,
made on the side of the Circus Maximus, under the west side of
the Palatine, parallel to the old street which is now subterranean,
but which led in the same direction, to the Septizonium and the
Porta Capena. The cave called the Lupercal is nearly under the
angle of the present Via dei Fenili and the Via dei Cerchi, almost
in the Circus Maximus a.
This northern part of the hill only is supposed by some to have
been Roma Quadratab, the Arx or citadel of Romulus separated

a It is nearly under S. Anastasia, with
the springs of water, as described by
Dionysius, “ Aqua cernens quatuor scaros
sub eede.” This cedes must have been
the very early temple on the corner of
the hill, above S. Anastasia (excavated
in 1871). By some it is considered to
have been on the same site as those
that were rebuilt in the second century
on a higher level, now called by Signor
Rosa the Basilica Jervis. The structures
of the time of the Republic under that
platform, whatever their purpose was,
were originally built in the great foss
of Romulus (or Intermontium), in the
middle of the Palatine. The passage in
Tacitus is thus reconciled with that of
Solinus (c. i. p. 18): “ Dictaque est pri-
mum Roma quadrata, quod ad equili-
brium foret posita. Ea incipit a sylva
quae est in area Apollinis, et ad super-
cilium scalarum Caci habet terminum

ubi tugurium fuit Faustuli. Ibi Romu-
lus mansitavit, qui auspicato fundamenta
murorum jecit. ”
Dr. Fabio Gori (in his work entitled
Sugli Edificii Palatini. Studi topogra-
fico storici, Rome, 1867, 8vo.) claims to
be the first person to point out this
manner of reconciling two passages in
the classical authors which had long
been considered as inconsistent one
with the other, and inexplicable.
b Solinus, cap. I, says that Rome
first was called Square because it was
equipoised (quod ad (equilibrium foret
posita}, thus applying the epithet qua-
drata to the whole town; Salmasius
endeavoured to shew that the author of
the Polyhistor was mistaken. (Claudii
Salmasii Plinianae Exercitationes, &c.
p. 11, col. 1, B. Trajecti ad Rhenum,
1689, folio.)